The Transylvania Times -

Farmers and landscapers alike need to keep up with many different changes to pesticides and pest management tools. This requires them to attend classes each year to maintain state and federal mandated CEUs.

With COVID-19 restrictions in place, the N.C. Cooperative Extension, with offices in all 100 N.C. counties and EBCN (Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation), needed to look at alternative ways to offer these classes. While Zoom and other online venues are options, many of its clients have limited internet or technology skills, so these options were not available for everyone.

When the opportunities came available to use a classroom at the Transylvania County Board of Elections, Cliff Ruth, an area Extension agent and regional certification program coordinator, partnered with the Transylvania County Board of Elections and county to host certifications classes in the state-of-the-art classroom at the elections office.

By setting up to the classroom, with the maximum of nine seats in an 8 by 10 foot spacing and adding desk shields, the classroom met and exceeded all of the CDC and state-mandated guidelines. The desk shields were bought for polling places but were being stored at the Board of Elections office, so this was not an extra expense for the county.