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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand & Water 07-01-08 NOTICE OF MEETING AND AGENDA ST. CROIX COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE July 1, 2008 —10:40 a.m. Agricultural Service & Education Center 1960 8 1h Avenue, Baldwin, WI CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING — August 5, 2008 LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT Agency reports FSA NRCS DNR RC &D West Central Area NEW BUSINESS: Director's report Staff work schedule Vouchers * Set date — department budget review OLD BUSINESS: 2008 Strategic Initiatives Land & Water Resource Management Plan COLP (Capital Outlay Plan) Staff reports PARKS DEPARTMENT NEW BUSINESS: Director's report Pine Lake - update Bills /vouchers * Event request — Troy beach OLD BUSINESS: Public Health — Tobacco -free policy - resolution 2008 Strategic Initiatives COLP (Capital Outlay Plan) ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE ADJOURN SUBMITTED BY: Robert Heise DATE: June 17, 2008; amended June 24, 2008 COPIES TO: COUNTY BOARD OFFICE NEWS MEDIA /NOTICE BOARD COUNTY CLERK COMMITTEE MEMBERS (Items may be taken in different order) *Addition s /Changes /Corrections UNOFFICIAL ST. CROIX COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE Agricultural Service & Education Center, Baldwin, WI July 1, 2008 Members Present: Ken Graf, Linda Luckey, Bill Peavey, Gene Ruetz Members Absent: Buzz Marzolf, Dan Raebel Staff Present: Director -Bob Heise, Administrative Assistant - Arlene Lier Others Present: Mark Kubler -DNR, Bob Hendrickson -FSA, Cara Nelson -NRCS, Chuck Whiting - County Administrative Coordinator Ruetz called the meeting to order at 11:02 a.m. Action on Previous Minutes: Motion by Graf, seconded by Ruetz, to approve the June 3, 2008 meeting minutes. Carried. Adoption of Agenda: Motion by Peavey, seconded by Graf, to adopt the agenda. Carried. Date of next meeting: August 5, 2008 LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT FARM SERVICE AGENCY (FSA) Bob Hendrickson - County Executive Director reported: • The Farm Bill has been passed, however discussion continues. • About 50 people attended the June 16`" CRP - SAFE (Conservation Reserve Program — State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement) meeting held in New Richmond at the WITC. Approximately 400 acres are signed up. * Some people may back out due to rule changes regarding the one -time Signing Incentive Payment (SIP) of $100.00 per acre 30 days after the contract is approved. Now the acres in SAFE that are able to get this one -time payment must not have been in CRP already or their contract must have expired eight months prior to going into the SAFE program. * If the producer's contract expires on September 30"' of this year and he is willing to forgo the one- time SIP payment, he can sign up now and still get 50 percent Cost Share. After it is installed and inspected, he could get another 40 percent of the cost of installation towards the seeding down of his SAFE acres. * FSA will use the average of the top 3 soils to determine the Annual Rental Rate. Annual payments (average $60 -80 /acre) will be made once a year after October 1 5 ` *At this point we already have about 10 producers interested in the SAFE program. This number could change depending on what we tell them about the SIP payment • Crop Reporting — We are about 50 percent done. The deadline has been extended until August 15, 2008. • Sign up for the 2008 DCP (Direct & Cyclical program) has started and will run through September 30th. This will be pretty much the same as last year. However, the sign up for 2009 through 2012 will start around October 1, 2008 and there may be some major changes for that sign up. • Changes to the new Farm Bill: Payment Limitations will be hooked to just your ID number. You cannot have any other entities to get extra payments. • A new Program Technician (Beth Zimmerman) has been hired to start July 7. • NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE (NRCS) Cara Nelson reported for Steve Pernsteiner- District Conservationist: NRCS is currently busy making Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) payments on practices from previous contracts. Many of these are Nutrient Management and CNMP. The new Farm Bill has increased funding for this program for future years. Landowners can apply at anytime, but ranking of applications will take place later this fall. There is a lot of interest in the Critical Haying /Grazing of CRP. NRCS will develop grazing and haying plans for interested landowners. 2008 status reviews for conservation compliance are just about completed. There is definitely a lot of land going from hay rotation to corn/soybean rotation. Use of minimum tillage keeps most of these in compliance for federal programs even though the erosion rates are higher than preferred. DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES (DNR) Mark Kubler -Area (St. Croix, Dunn, Pierce, Pepin and Buffalo counties) Forestry Leader reported: • The Pepin County forester position has been filled. • He and Dahn Borh (County Forester) worked for nine days at the Incident Command Center for the flooding at Baraboo. • Starting this fall there will be 7 turkey zones instead of the many smaller zones. • Wildlife - Mike Soergel is working on some investigation tests to spray wildlife areas for woody invasives (boxelder, buckthorn). The herbicide is working great, but it is not a registered releasable chemical yet. • Our local wildlife people are working with the Bureau of Endangered Resources and they have released beetles for leafy spurge. There are 3 sites in St. Croix County. RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT (RC &D) Ruetz reported: • RC &D is coordinating a "buy local foods program" with Sacred Heart Hospital -Eau Claire. The hospital is willing to spend $300,000 this year for food produced locally. The idea is two -fold — one is to buy local and encourage more local production and also to cut transportation costs. • Funding for the grazing program looks better since more grants became available. WEST CENTRAL AREA Heise reported that Clark County hosted the Summer Conservation Tour on June 26. The next meeting will be held on August 20 at Dunn County. New officers elected were: President -Al Carothers (Buffalo County), Vice President -Eau Claire County, Coordinator - Secretary/Treasurer - Buffalo County. NEW BUSINESS Director's report Heise reported: • Town of Emerald — drinking water - During our spring runoff events, we received several calls from town residents expressing concerns on their drinking water. We sent an inquiry to all of the town residents asking them about their drinking water issues. After receivingl2 -15 calls (logged on a town map), Heise met with Tim Hanson -DNR Eau Claire who has a well compensation program. The entire town may be incorporated into the project area. Those residents needing a new well, if they meet financial requirements, may be eligible for cost share. • Rain garden demonstration/workshop — Staff (Tammy Wittmer and Aleisha Miller) were involved in the workshop. About 18 people attended the workshop. • Residential Erosion Control Field seminar — Tammy Wittmer was involved in a workshop with approximately 21 people in attendance. It was held at a construction site where some work was done. • TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) —Willow River project —The stakeholders meeting was held at the Emerald town hall on June 25. It was fairly well attended. We need agricultural producers involved in this project early on. The next meeting will be held at New Richmond. Staff work schedule Heise reported that he received a request by some staff about the possibility to work 10 -hour work days, 4- day work weeks. Peavey made motion, seconded by Ruetz, to authorize Heise to have two staff work 10- hour days, and work out schedule so both are not gone on the same day of the week. Carried. Set date — department budget review Discussed date for the budget review. Decided to have a brief regular committee meeting on August 5 and follow with the Parks and LWCD budget reviews. If necessary, August 13 (9:00 a.m.) would be the date for a second meeting. Each department has to present their budget to the County Board at the September meeting. 2008 Strategic Initiatives Ruetz commented on item #10 (preservation/protection of the environment) - reduce nutrients and sediment runoff by 20% by 2020. We already have a start with the Willow River TMDL. He suggested that we have Pete Kling -UW- Extension assist us with this goal. Land & Water Resource Management Plan Heise reported that we held our first technical work group meeting on the amendment of our Land & Water Plan on June 18 with about 20 people in attendance. Next meeting is scheduled for July 23. After that a citizen advisory work group will be formed for one meeting to give them feedback essentially of what the technical work group decided on to be included in the plan and get feedback from the group. Our goal will be to have our plan in draft form (public hearing) by December and present to the Land & Water Board in Madison in February; County Board approval in March. Ruetz suggested that this plan be incorporated into the County Comprehensive Plan. COLP (Capital Outlay Plan) Heise stated that there has been no change to our plan since last meeting. He is waiting for budget numbers from Art Tobin - Building Services on the keyless entry door system (card swipes) for the Ag Center. Vouchers Reviewed vouchers. Graf made motion, seconded by Peavey, to approve Chair Ruetz's signature on the July LWCD voucher list (total $5,590.71). Carried. Ruetz reported that he and Buzz Marzolf attended a training workshop for LWCC supervisors held at the Ag Center in Menomonie on June 12. Copies of the LWCC handbook will be given to the other LWCC members. PARKS DEPARTMENT Members Present: Linda Luckey, Bill Peavey, Gene Ruetz Members Absent: Buzz Marzolf, Dan Raebel Staff Present: Director -Bob Heise, Administrative Assistant - Arlene Lier Others Present: Chuck Whiting — County Administrative Coordinator, Geralyn Karl- Health & Human Services NEW BUSINESS Director's Report Heise reported: • There is another Eurasian Milfoil weed pull scheduled for July 19 with the Hudson Scuba Club at Homestead Park. We also hope to get the University -MN Scuba Club involved on July 19th. • YMCA is having a swim event (one mile and two mile) at Homestead Park on Saturday, August 16. Public Health — Tobacco -free policy resolution Geralyn Karl discussed the concept of Tobacco Free Parks (policy) and proposed a resolution of support on behalf of the LWCC. Health & Human Services recommended that all county grounds be smoke free. Discussion by committee. There should be one resolution to cover all county grounds and facilities. Discussion. Peavey made motion, seconded by Ruetz, to ask Health & Human Services to include Parks in the County Tobacco -Free Policy resolution. Carried. 2008 Strategic Initiatives One item is to support trails and parks, under "effective community issues ". Pine Lake — Update Heise reported that we have not heard anything from Xcel Energy on the auxiliary parking lot. Brian Halling- County Highway Surveyor will be coming out to shoot the height of the wire, not only by the parking lot but also over the road. Capital Outlay Plan - COLP Heise reported that the COLP will be discussed at our August meeting. Vouchers The July bills list for Parks was presented. Motion by Peavey, seconded by Luckey, to approve Chair Ruetz's signature on the voucher list (Snowmobile accounts total $19,544.99, Park accounts total $16,339.66). Carried. Event Request Heise reported that he received a request from a couple that wishes to have their wedding ceremony on the beach at Troy Park, Hudson, on July 25, 2009. Committee discussed charging a fee for the event. Heise will discuss the liability issue with the county risk manager. Heise is to look into policies from other parks for "special events ". Chair Ruetz adjourned meeting at 12:58 p.m. Arlene Lier Recording Secretary