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Public hearings set for proposed consolidation of FSA officesOklahoma Francie Tolle, state executive director for USDA Farm Service Agency in Oklahoma, announced the schedule of public hearings regarding consolidation of FSA county offices proposed on January 9th by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Thomas A. Vilsack. "Oklahoma has two of the 131 FSA county offices proposed for consolidation," said Tolle. "I stress that these consolidations are proposed, and final decisions will not be made until after the public hearings." The announcement by Vilsack indicated that offices proposed for consolidation were selected because they had two or fewer employees and were located within 20 miles of another FSA office, or because they had no employees, wherever they were located. This action is being undertaken as a result of budget and staff reductions to FSA. This means that FSA cannot maintain every existing county office location and continue to provide producers the best possible customer service. FSA will conduct the public meetings in order to take comments on USDA's proposed office consolidation plan. The meeting schedules are as follows: --Mayes County: Jan. 30 at 1:30 p.m. at the Northeast Technology Center located at 6195 West HWY 20 in Pryor, Okla. --Pawnee County: Jan. 31 at 1:30 p.m. at the Pawnee County Fairgrounds located at 210 West Memorial in Pawnee, Okla. Producers can also send written comments to Francie Tolle, Oklahoma FSA State Office, 100 USDA Suite 102, Stillwater, OK 74074. All comments must be received no later than Feb. 10. All comments will be taken into full consideration prior to development or implementation of a final consolidation plan.
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