{"id":676,"date":"2020-03-20T19:09:45","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T19:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/?p=676"},"modified":"2020-04-02T17:32:10","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T17:32:10","slug":"tennessee-extension-offices-remain-operational-but-are-closed-to-public-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/tennessee-extension-offices-remain-operational-but-are-closed-to-public-access\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee Extension Offices Remain Operational, But Are Closed to Public Access"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Contact Your Local Office for Services<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>KNOXVILLE, Tenn. \u2013 Due to the novel coronavirus COVID-19, and the extraordinary circumstances it is causing across the state and nation, Tennessee Extension offices are temporarily closed to public access to&nbsp;help protect the health and safety of the employees and the communities they serve.<br><br>UT Extension operates offices in all 95 Tennessee counties. Fifty of those county offices are jointly staffed in cooperation with Tennessee State University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a letter to employees on March 19, UT Extension Dean Robert Burns and Tennessee State University Associate Dean of Extension Latif Lighari announced that Extension county offices statewide will close to public access beginning March 20. Additional facilities including regional offices, 4-H Centers, Lone Oaks Farm, the Center for Profitable Agriculture, and the Soil Plant and Pest Center will also be closed to public access. \u201cWhile public access to offices will be limited, all Extension offices will remain operational and continue to provide educational programming and support to our clients and county government,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The letter directs staff to&nbsp;follow social distancing guidelines,&nbsp;continue their work, and be available by phone or email during work hours. Clients seeking services should continue to contact their local offices by phone or email. Phone numbers and addresses can be found online at the <a href=\"https:\/\/utextension.tennessee.edu\/office-locations-departments-centers\/\">UT Extension website<\/a>. Numbers can also be found through local county government listings and websites.<br><br>\u201cTennessee Extension has a long history of stepping up to assist Tennesseans when challenges impact the communities we serve,\u201d Burns and Lighari wrote in the letter. The two express that Extension will continue to serve their clientele.<br><br>Several publications in response to the COVID-19 outbreak are available online at the UT Extension website:&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/utextension.tennessee.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">utextension.tennessee.edu<\/a>.&nbsp;Each of these publications is available free to read or download. Click on the \u201cpublications\u201d link in the menu bar and enter \u201ccoronavirus\u201d or relevant search term in the search bar. You may also review the list of new publications on the right toolbar of the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through its land-grant mission of research, teaching and extension, the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\">utia-dev.tennessee.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contact Your Local Office for Services<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[192,193],"articletype":[],"institute":[16],"topics":[],"entities":[13],"class_list":["post-676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","institute-news-release","entities-extension"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 04:24:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":685,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions\/685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676"},{"taxonomy":"articletype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articletype?post=676"},{"taxonomy":"institute","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institute?post=676"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=676"},{"taxonomy":"entities","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entities?post=676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}