Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District March 26, 2009 Board Meeting Minutes

Transcription

1 Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District March 26, 2009 Board Meeting Minutes Directors present: Steve Stierwalt, Eleanor Blackmon, Lennie Heiser, Joe Rothermel, and Eric Suits. Staff present: Bruce Stikkers and Renee Weitekamp. Associate Directors present: Kenneth Kesler. Natural Resource Conservation Service Staff present: Kevin Donoho. Meeting was called to order at 5:25 p.m. on Thursday, March 26, Board reorganization The floor was opened for nominations. Lennie Heiser made a motion to nominate Steve Stierwalt as Chairman, seconded by Eleanor Blackmon. There being no other nominations, Eric Suits made a motion to close nominations and cast a unanimous ballot. Seconded by Lennie Heiser. Motion carried. Lennie Heiser made a motion to nominate Joe Rothermel as Vice- Chairman. Seconded by Eleanor Blackmon. There being no other nominations, Eleanor Blackmon made a motion to close nominations and cast a unanimous ballot. Seconded by Eric Suits. Motion carried. Eleanor Blackmon made a motion to nominate Eric Suits as the Secretary/Treasurer. Seconded by Lennie Heiser. There being no other nominations, Eleanor Blackmon made a motion to close nominations and cast a unanimous ballot. Seconded by Lennie Heiser. Motion carried. Joe Rothermel made a motion to approve the minutes of the February 18, 2009 meeting contingent upon changes noted. Eric Suits seconded, motion carried. Eleanor Blackmon made the motion to approve the financial reports for March Lennie Heiser seconded, motion carried. Old Business St. Joseph Wetland Winter Maintenance Project After several breakdowns, maintenance work was completed at the wetland. Invasive silver maples and willows were removed south of Route 150 using a rented FECON cutter. A report will be completed and sent to the US Fish and Wildlife service for $1,500 reimbursement for the project. Annexation of the St. Joseph Wetland The Village of St. Joseph provided the board with a revised annexation agreement that addresses the tree ordinance. The agreement was reviewed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and meets their approval. Eleanor Blackmon made a motion to approve the annexation agreement in substantially the form presented subject to favorable legal review. The agreement shall also include language allowing the district to replace the sign if damaged or unsightly. Eric Suits seconded, motion carried. Access to FSA s name and address database Nothing new to report. Financial Support for Salt Fork Gaging Station Funding for the two gaging stations on the Salt Fork has been secured for the current fiscal year which ends September 30, The sub-committee is still trying to secure financial support from partners for future years. Eleanor Blackmon discussed the project with Brad Uken at the Champaign County Farm Bureau. Kent Krukewitt is trying to gain support from additional drainage districts. At this time, there is no word on his progress. Soil & Water Stewardship Week Staff asked the board sponsor poster and photo contests. The board supports the photo contest which will mirror the guidelines set by the AISWCD Auxillary. The contest

2 will be open to all youth and adult amateur photographers. The poster contest would be opened up to all schools in Champaign County. Students in grades K-9 would be eligible. The guidelines would follow the AISWCD contest. After discussion, Joe Rothermel made a motion to proceed with the poster contest with a maximum budget of $300. Lennie Heiser seconded, motion carried. St. Joseph Wetland Restoration Plan A plan for the portion of the wetland south of Route 150 is underway. Contribution Agreement The district has entered into a contribution agreement in NRCS. The agreement runs from April 1, 2009 through the end of December. CRP The board and staff will continue to look for ways to promote the program. Ideas for slogans include, Consistent Revenue Producer, or Conservation Revenue Producer. New Business CPP Staff will work on a plan to spend FY08 and FY09 allocations and present the plan to the board at the next meeting. AISWCD Dues Eric Suits made a motion to pay the AISWCD Dues. Joe Rothermel seconded, motion carried. The board noted the Associations hard work and dedication in promoting all the districts. Champaign County Fair After a short discussion the board decided to participate in the County Fair this coming July. Eleanor Blackmon made a motion to enter into the fair agreement with Champaign County Fair Association and pay the tent rental cost when due. Lennie Heiser seconded, motion carried. Envirothon The Envirothon is scheduled for April 1, Volunteers are always needed. Wind Farms The neighboring counties of Vermillion and Piatt will be doing natural resource reports for wind farms and will charge $200/turbine. After discussion, Eric Suits made a motion for the Champaign County SWCD to charge $200/turbine plus the standard flat fee for Natural Resource Reports. Substations will be charged per acre under the current formula. Eleanor Blackmon seconded, motion carried. Next, the board discussed whether to document a formal position on wind farms in general. After discussion, the following position was recorded: The Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District supports the concept of renewable energy while preserving and protecting our natural resources. The Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District supports responsible wind energy. The District is committed to providing technical assistance for the conservation of our natural resources during the planning, development, operations and decommissioning phases of wind farms. (this is the final version after review) Eric Suits made a motion to approve the position in substantially the same form as written above, subject to a final review to be completed by Friday, March 27. Lennie Heiser seconded, motion carried. D.C. Report - is attached. Kevin discussed the EQIP EWP floodplain program, gave an update on the recycling program and notified the board new plat books are available at the Farm Bureau office. A.C. Report - is attached. R.C. Report is attached.

3 Under the guidance of Steve Stierwalt and Joe Rothermel, staff prepared and submitted an application for the NRCS CIG (Conservation Initiative Grant). If awarded as either a Federal or State level grant, the funding would be for the strip-till nutrient management placement demonstration. The district will be responsible for matching funds if the grant is received. In kind work can go towards the work, but overall, the district would be responsible for over $30,000. Committee Updates Barnhart A spring maintenance burn is planned for April 4 th in the afternoon. Strip-till Project the committee will start focusing on two separate areas. One group will focus on strip-till equipment and making it available to owners and operators. The second group will focus on strip-till and nutrient placement. Fabian Fernandez, U of I, and Dan Schaeffer, Illini FS, together wrote a soil fertility plan and submitted a grant application to FREC. The committee recently learned, they were not award the FREC grant. The scope of the project was slightly altered and as mentioned in the RC staff report, an application was submitted to NRCS for a potential CIG grant. Overall approximately $132,000 is needed for project funding. The grant would be a match. Of the 50% the district is responsible for, 25% can be in kind work. The Champaign County SWCD Board will tentative schedule a board meeting on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 5:00 p.m. Eleanor Blackmon moved to adjourn the meeting. Eric Suits seconded, motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 7:50 P.M. Minutes prepared by Renee Weitekamp for Eric Suits, Secretary Champaign County SWCD

4 Renee Weitekamp Board Report March 2009 Items that need action from the board: Water Quality Prepared Filter Strip Plans. Salt Fork Implementation gaging station sent follow-up letter to U of I and provided Kent Krukewitt with information for other drainage district commissioners. Worked on CPP Nutrient Management Plan. Soil Erosion Prime Farmland Preservation Water Management Assisted with the Rain Barrel sale. Wildlife Habitat Prepared Field Border Plans. Prepared Windbreak Plans. Tree sale is underway; pickup will be April 4 th. Fish sale is underway. Aquatic Plant sale is underway. Education & Public Information Envirothon. To date, 6 teams from four schools are participating. Will be ordering shirts by March 23 rd. Soil and Water Stewardship Week Working on information letter and flyer. Compiling an list of teachers. Helped prepare the display and participated in the Greener Living Expo on February 28 th. Prepared brochures for the spring pond meetings we are working on in conjunction with U of I Extension, IDNR and the City of Champaign. Gave a nutrient management presentation to a Parkland College class. Designed flyer for recycling event. Watershed Management District Operations Along with Kevin and Bruce, prepared a plan of work for the NRCS Contribution Agreement. Started preparing for the Transect Survey by editing the GIS layer. Also worked to establish the connection between my computer and the GPS unit. Worked on Recons.

5 Monthly Board Report Bruce Stikkers Resource Conservationist March 2009 Items that need board action: We need a pricing plan for NRIs on wind farms Tree pickup helpers and vehicles need to be set Items for your information: Water Quality Letters were sent out seeking funding pledges for the Salt Fork gauging stations. So far Urbana has promised $1,000 per year and Champaign will participate, but an exact amount has not been determined. It may be more than the $1,000 from Urbana. USGS thinks they can come up with matching funds if we can come up with half the cost (about $12,000 per year) for 2 stations. I spoke to the St. Joseph Village Board about the annexation agreement and added the sigh ordinance and the tree ordinance as concerns. They will draw up an agreement excluding us from those and present it to us. IDNR replied to our request stating they had no concerns with annexation. The FREC grant through the University of Illinois was not funded; the funds available are down and new projects are difficult to get funded. We are meeting 3/17 to modify our plan and I will report on this meeting at board meeting. The invasive tree removal project has a short day until completion. Equipment problems have delayed the work but I hope to finish by the board meeting. Soil Erosion control We completed no 22.02a requests last month. Farmland Protection The wind farm zoning is moving forward with the hope of a zoning wind farm overlay to be completed by May. This will allow a wind farm in AG 1 areas if they meet this overlay criteria. I have been working with the zoning office to come up with the agricultural and natural resource mitigation section of the ordinance. The plan is to have an ordinance that returns drainage and conservation practices to their original functionality. Some flexibility is desirable because repair methods change over time and anything set in the ordinance will be cumbersome to change. We are not involved with housing setbacks and other issues that are out of our scope of expertise. The charges need to be set also; most counties are charging per tower with prices ranging from $125 to $150 per tower. The Vermilion County Board just met and set theirs at $200 per tower. These fees are in addition to a flat project fee ($150 to $450). This fee should e set so we can inform the applicants. The county zoning board is setting fees and they have a draft fee schedule that would come to about $4,550 per tower. Water Management Wildlife Habitat Education, Natural Resource Data, Public Information, and Participation The 5:45 a.m. show this month featured Kevin discussing NRCS programs. The first electronics recycling day for the county is March 17 th. The Lincoln Heritage RC&D is running the program with a grant. We organized St. Joseph and Mahomet as the first towns to be involved. They will come every other month to collect a wide variety of items. Most, except monitors and TVs are free. Rollie would like to expand the service to Savoy and Philo if we come up with sites.