SHERBURNE – The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation told employees at the Rogers Environmental Education Center in Sherburne Tuesday that their jobs were being eliminated and the center will be closing its doors Dec. 31, citing budget cuts.

The center’s director, Marsha Guzewich, is also among those being eliminated. She confirmed four other full-time employees will be laid off by the end of the year and that all spring activities scheduled with local schools, scouting groups and other organizations will be canceled.

The center has been operating wildlife and nature educational programs for local and regional organizations since 1968.

Guzewich said another DEC position that was funded by a grant program would remain, but she did not know how other offices sharing the site, the Division of Lands and Forest, Forest Rangers and a Division of Operations sub-office, would be affected. She said the environmental education center was one of four others in the state.

Guzewich said she was surprised at the cuts. However, both she and Chenango County’s supervising forester Robert L. Slavicek deferred calls on the matter to the DEC. The state agency’s budget office did not return calls by press time.

Jeff Bishop, press secretary for Senator James L. Seward, indicated that the layoffs were part of job cuts made by Governor David Patterson’s office in order to close New York’s projected $315 million budget gap.