Most people who drive by the Clinton County Extension Office have noticed some construction being done.

In addition to being used by the local agriculture industry and the Clinton County Extension Board, the facility also houses services that are offered through the parent entity, officially recognized as the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture Food and Environment Food and Extension Services.

Construction crews have been working for about a month clearing out, digging and pouring footers for what is going to be additional space for the extension office.

Junior Cecil, 4-H Agent, said the new part of the building is going to add some much needed room for storage and will give the office the ability to host meetings and other events.

“We don’t have any where to hold meetings,” Cecil said. “When I came to work here four years ago, the first meeting we had they said they wanted to save some money and build us a new building. I thought to myself that ‘we don’t need a bigger building.’”

Cecil said it didn’t take him long to realize that the extension office needs more room to grow.

“We will be able to do just about everything we need to do in this building,” Cecil said.

“Just banquet style chairs, pull out chairs, we should be able to hold 125 to 150 people,” Ag Agent Colby Guffey added.

Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences Christy Guffey further explained that the additional space will allow the Extension Service to be on-sight with programs and events that in the past, had to be taken to other locations.

She noted that the additional space would allow for events such as Christmas Village, 4-H Speech Night, Agriculture educational sessions and field days, 4-H Camp Orientation and Truth and Consequences to be held in the facility.

“Our current meeting space doesn’t allow us to have a lot of events in our building,” Guffey noted.

She added that the new addition will give the local Extension Service an additional 5,400 square feet of usable space.

The company in charge of building the new addition is Scott & Murphy INC out of Bowling Green, Kentucky.

“They said around eight or nine months I believe,” Cecil said referring to the time frame for completion. “We are going to have a basement so we will have storage and extra space there that we didn’t have before.”

In the new addition, Cecil said there will be a small soils lab, dedicated to getting soil samples, a meeting room that can be divided into two separate rooms, bathrooms and a teaching kitchen.

“The parking and the drive is going to go all the way around the building,” Cecil said. “From the road you can’t really tell, but once it starts going up it will look more massive. I’m excited about it. It’s a little growth for Clinton County.”

As far a renting out the space for meetings and events, Cecil was unsure what the board of directors have decided, but he said it’s possible.

“It’s definitely something the county should benefit from,” Cecil said. “That’s what extension is supposed to be … it’s supposed to help the community grow. That’s our goal.”

The expansion of the Extension Office has been a part of the local District Board’s long range plans for a number of years according to Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences Christy Guffey.

“As dollars were saved each year the board moved forward with the plan in phases,” Christy Guffey said. “Land was purchased a few years ago along with some renovations to the existing building. Board members reviewed plans for several other extension offices as they outlined what would best serve our community.”

Cost savings and University approval allowed conversations to kick start again within the last two years.