President Trump has appointed Rutland City Treasurer Wendy Wilton to lead Vermont’s office of the Farm Service Agency.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the presidential appointment on Friday - part of a slate of appointments for new rural development directors and state farm service heads.
According to the state FSA website, the Colchester-based agency has approximately 50 employees across the state that work to assist the roughly 7,000 farms in Vermont.
As FSA Director, Wilton will oversee federal agriculture programs that provide loans and land purchases, commodity price supports, disaster relief and conservation efforts.
Reached Sunday, Wilton says she is excited and pleased to serve the state in a new role but she didn’t want to comment further until the state FSA office had made its own announcement of the appointment.
Karl Strohmaier a dairy farmer in Pownal, who serves on the FSA’s Bennington and Rutland County Committee, says he’s pleased by the news. “I am glad they’re putting a woman in the position, and I’m glad they’re putting somebody in who has a financial background,” he said.
Strohmaier added: “I’m also very glad that they have someone from this part of the state to lead the FSA.”
Wilton says she' s not certain when she'll start the new job. She follows Robert Paquin, who was appointed Vermont's FSA Director by President Obama.
