COEUR d'ALENE - Some shuffled staff shifts, a bump in fees and reduced office hours.

Responding to budget cuts and prompts by Kootenai County officials to bring in more revenue, the University of Idaho Extension Office is making changes in baby steps.

"It's better than what it could've been," said Jim Wilson, area 4-H educator at the office, referring to previous fears of heartier cuts.

As the county slashed about $20,000 this fiscal year from the Extension Office's budget, the office will only be open from 8 a.m. to noon on Fridays, instead of the usual 8-5 schedule.

The Master Gardener's Plant Clinic will only be open from 9-3 on Mondays through March. The clinic will transition from three days a week to just Mondays and Thursdays next April.

A full-time secretary will have to give up about 25 percent of her hours, Wilson added, and the master gardener will be funded for 19 hours a week, instead of 25.

"There's been a number of slight reductions," said Wilson, adding that the university hasn't reduced any of its funding for programs and operation costs.

The Extension Office is also looking into the county commissioners' advice to bring in more revenue and become more self sustaining, Wilson added.

The 4-H program's enrollment fee is now $20 a year, instead of $16.

"It's still economical. We're just trying to make sure it's affordable with the current economics," he said. "It can be a challenge, especially if (families) have four or five kids. It's still a chunk of change."

Adding fees to other programs, like Forestry, Home Horticulture and Family and Consumer Science, is still up in the air, Wilson said.

Federal requirements have limitations on what kinds of programs can charge user fees, he explained.

And there are still more restrictions on how those fees can be spent.

"We'll have to evaluate and identify (changes) in a case-by-case scenario," Wilson said.

Even charging for the advice at the plant clinics would be tricky, he added.

"How do you deal with that with someone who calls in with a question, versus someone who walks in with a question?" Wilson said. "We're just trying to make sure we're being uniform."

The Extension Office, founded in 1917, relies on shared partnership funding by the county, state and federal governments.

Wilson is still hoping, he added, that more cuts won't be in store next fiscal year.

"We'll tough through this one," he said. "Hopefully we can do some things to strengthen funding partnerships down the road."