public Vector<String> getAgencyIds() {
		
		Vector<String> agencies = new Vector<String>();
		try {
			rs = stmt.executeQuery("select agencyid from agencies");
			while (rs.next())
			{
				agencies.add(rs.getString("agencyid"));
			}
		} catch (SQLException e) {
			
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
		return agencies;//the method returns a vector of agency ids
	}