CCE's East Meadow Farm to Close on Biweekly Basis Due to Budget Cuts

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County (CCE) recently announced that East Meadow Farms will close on a biweekly basis due to budget cuts. The farm's first closure will be on June 11.

Officials from the non-profit said that there will also be mandatory unpaid furloughs for all employees and its Jericho office will close on a  biweekly basis as well. 

Additional closures will continue throughout the summer with deeper cuts expected in the fall, absent a line item allocation in the next annual Nassau County budget.

Executive Director Laura Hunsberger said that the measure will reduce public access to the many resources and services that have been offered by Extension to Nassau County residents for almost a century.

“It is with extremely heavy hearts that we are forced to implement additional cost-saving measures, which necessarily limit the low and no-cost public services we provide and meaningfully cut the incomes of a dedicated staff," she said.  "Unfortunately, the current financial reality is that CCE cannot continue to operate without a permanent county budget allocation."

Hunsberger said without an annual county budget allocation, CCE's one-hundredth year may be its last.

“The looming threat of closure is now palpable, and it would redound to the people of Nassau adversely if the wide array of public services provided faithfully by Extension since 1914 were simply to disappear,” she said.

East Meadow Farm will be closed on the following dates: June 11, 27; July 11, 23; Aug. 8, 27; Sept. 12, 26.