Warren County’s longtime go-to guy on a variety of farm, garden and most any other questions will retire at the end of the month.

Monday, Warren County supervisors approved a request from the Mississippi State University Extension Service to hire a replacement for Terry Rector, county extension director. Rector is also a popular weekly columnist for The Vicksburg Post and a frequent speaker on plant- and animal-related topics.

County Administrator John Smith told supervisors he had received a letter from Rector, saying he planned to retire effective Oct. 31. Rector noted he will have been in extension work for 33 years, 22 of which have been in Warren County.

Smith then relayed a request from the extension service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture based at Mississippi State University, that they be allowed to fill the vacated post at a salary not to exceed what Rector receives.

Smith said the county pays about 40 percent of the county director’s salary.

Extension service offices were created by Congress in a wide-ranging program targeted at rural development. Extension specialists research everything from crops to home safety and make their findings available to people for practical use.

In other business, supervisors: