Larry Wendt resigns

Harlan native Larry Wendt, Jr. has resigned from his role as the Shelby County Director for the Shelby County Extension Office. His last day was Monday. He started the job in February 2022.

"He’s moved on to other opportunities and we wish him well in those future endeavors," said regional director Terry Torneten.

Torneten said the office will move forward with whatever the extension council decides the next title and whatever they want the job to be.

During Wendt's tenure, Torneten said the office took a chance to step back, evaluate and do program planning with Larry.

"I think a lot of those plans will move forward," Torneten said. "It’s just going to take some time now for the council to decide what they need staffing wise and what they want to do with the plans we have in place."

Torneten said the Extension Office has an overarching plan with Iowa State.

"The main themes are feeding people, keeping them healthy, helping communities prosper and thrive and making sure we hand the world off with the next generation a little better than we found it through our 4-H program."

Torneten said how they do that in every county looks different. Every county has a little different set up.

Wendt's job was to do programs like leaders training, taking care of 4-H programmatic things like workshops, lining up things for the county fair, making sure the office needs were met.

­"The council will make decisions in the future of what that will look like," Torneten said. "It’s a multi-faceted organization. The county staff are the movers of a lot of the pieces that help connect the people with the resources at Iowa State."

Torneten said the office has leader training, pesticide applicator training and other projects.

"Here for the next few weeks there are plenty of wheels in motion so there are plenty of things to do," he said. "The extension council will continue to do its work as it needs to make sure everything is operating. Stakeholders in the county and region can get a hold of us any time and we will be available."