BY TRACY LEE TATE
Times Editor
The Union County Agricultural Education Complex has shown itself to be an asset to the entire community, offering meeting space to a fundraiser for St. Jude’s, Project Grad, a Florida Crown Workshop on helping seniors deal with COVID, a REDI meeting, Union County Livestock Association meetings and events, 4-H activities and a gathering spot for the Union County Beekeepers to hold their monthly meetings.
Soon, the complex will have even more to offer, as a newly approved Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) in the amount of $750,000 has been awarded to the county with the purpose of doubling the size of the facility. This grant has no required matching funds, so the expansion will cost the county nothing.
The original idea for the facility came from a conversation between County Commissioner Jimmy Tallman and then UF-IFAS Extension Agent Basil Bactawar. Both saw the need for a better home for the Union County 4-H and other extension-related uses. At the time, the extension office was located on Northwest First Street in Lake Butler in a circa-1940’s building that was once a hospital. (The Union County Commission Office and Union County Building Department are still located in the aging building.)
After much conversation, Tallman asked Bactawar to explore what might be available in grant funding for creating a new agricultural center for county residents, with a focus on youth activities and education. Bactawar found a grant that would fit the bill but told Tallman that he thought that asking for $80,000 would be acceptable (based on similar previously awarded grants). Tallman disagreed and said the county needed more. The application, dated Sept. 17, 2014, asked FDACS for the sum of $480,000, after the commission had approved the application after it validated the need for the project with public hearings.
The county was notified of the grants approval on May 19, 2016, but only in the amount of $200,000 for the 2016-17 fiscal year, but FDACS supplied an additional grant of $280,000 the following year to make up the total. Once assured the funds were coming (in July 2016) the commissioners started the process of taking bids on the design and engineering for the project and then published a request for bids for the various aspects of the complex.
Part of the preparation work the commission implemented was the creation of a community committee to establish what the needs of the county were in the complex. Tallman, Colin Coody and several other community members worked to establish what was needed and how to get the best value for the funds. Somewhere during their sessions, committee members discovered that $480,000 was not really that much money but were determined to make it work.
“We all wanted a better place for the kids, more than anything and never lost site of the primary goal,” Tallman said.
The community came alive in support of the project. Community members volunteered to help in any way possible, logging hundreds of hours on the project. County employees and equipment were utilized for the needed land clearing, dirt work and tree removal. In the end, Robbie Worrell ended up doing the site prep at a reduced rate that saved the county money. Union Lasteel, of Lake Butler won the bidding for the building, but their bid reflected less than their usual pricing for the construction. Avery Roberts helped the county in finding the funding for the agricultural accoutrements for the facility (feeders, watering stations, etc.) and Bart Andrews also pitched in and helped out a great deal. Union County Building Inspector Wilson Whidden volunteered his own time to lend his building experience to the project.
The grant mandated project completion date was June 30, 2017, but the county asked for and received a revised maximum construction completion date June 30, 2018, a deadline that was extended at the commission’s request to Dec. 31, 2018. This extension was necessary due to difficulties in getting bids for the interior and external finish work on the project. This second deadline was met without problem.
Around the time the complex was complete, a group of local farmers and cattle ranchers got together to form the Union County Livestock Association and then decided that the county should have its own fair (at least in the area of 4-H and FFA livestock and related competitions). The idea was to make it easier and more affordable for families with youngsters raising and showing animals to get to and from competition without having to drive to the Bradford County Fairgrounds, transporting their animals and then making the trip daily for animal care and fair activities. County residents supported the idea and the Union County Agricultural Fair became a reality. Using the arena area of the complex, which was originally conceived as being a place young people could come and practice their showring skills, the event was a success from the first year.
After that first event, in 2019, UCLA members decided that there was not sufficient space for holding animals before and after their appearances in the ring and getting them ready for show prior to the event…so they built what was needed. Two projects were undertaken by UCLA to correct the deficiency, financed by community members and UCLA members themselves, and the work was all done on a volunteer basis. A number of different people quoted a total figure of that UCLA and the community spent on the two projects, all of varying amounts, but the most common figure agreed upon was about $70,000.
When the building was complete, the UF-IFAS Extension Office moved in and brought the 4-H with them. The new building provided a large meeting room, complete with a kitchen, that made it ideal for presentations and meetings. The beekeepers buzzed in right behind the kids. The county commission officially named the complex as the Union County Agricultural Education Center.
“This project was so necessary for the county,” Tallman said. “We wanted the kids to have the opportunity to show the animals they work so hard to raise for longer than 15 minutes a year. With teaching and practice shows they have multiple opportunities of shine and build confidence. Doing the animal projects teach them so much. They learn responsibility, record keeping and agricultural finances. People outside the activity think these kids are in it for the money they sell their animal for at the end of the project, but that is not the case. Most of the kids spend their own money on supplies and feed for their animal, although most parents do help. The kids are the ones that have to care for and clean up after their animal and they are the ones that get run over, stepped on and kicked in the process. Some manage to break even on the sale, but in the case of an animal that dies they are out everything they have put into it. It helps kids grow up to be better community members.”
Now, the county has decided that the complex needs to be bigger to meet all the communities needs. The county has been granted $750,000 by FDACS to double the size of the facility. This will provide more show space, more display space for fair exhibits of arts and crafts, more kitchen space and, most importantly, more education space.
The contract between the county and FDACS has been signed and commissioners are waiting for the notice of commencement for the project from the state. Then comes the planning, (with the county hoping to update the plans used for the original complex and create a mirror image of the first section). There will be meetings, public comments and suggestions, calls for bids and all the rest of the lawful administration of the grant funds. And with all this activity there will, no doubt, be some delays and obstacles to completion but the volunteers are already gathering and are ready to assist in any way possible.
“The community support for this projects, and the excitement already building for this second phase, is truly amazing,” Tallman said. “And the focus for everyone is on the young people and what benefits we can provide them.”
