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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand & Water 11-04-08 NOTICE OF MEETING AND AGENDA ST. CROIX COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE November 4, 2008 —10:40 a.m. Agricultural Service & Education Center 19608 1h Avenue, Baldwin, WI CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING — December 2, 2008 LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT Agency reports FSA NRCS DNR RC &D West Central Area NEW BUSINESS: Director's report Vouchers OLD BUSINESS: 2008 Strategic Initiatives 2009 budget /COLP (Capital Outlay Plan) WLWCA convention Ultimate Land Use Study tour — update LWRMP Letter — DATCP — 2009 Joint Preliminary Allocation Plan Staff reports PARKS DEPARTMENT NEW BUSINESS: Director's report Bills /vouchers Misc. — price changes — proposal OLD BUSINESS: 2008 Strategic Initiatives 2009 budget/COLP (Capital Outlay Plan) Pine Lake Park — upper parking lot - update ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE ADJOURN SUBMITTED BY: Robert Heise DATE: October 22; amended October 28, 2008 COPIES TO: COUNTY BOARD OFFICE NEWS MEDIA /NOTICE BOARD COUNTY CLERK COMMITTEE MEMBERS (Items may be taken in different order) *Additions /Changes /Corrections UNOFFICIAL ST. CROIX COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE Agricultural Service & Education Center, Baldwin, WI November 4, 2008 Members Present: Ken Graf, Linda Luckey, Bill Peavey, Gene Ruetz Members Absent: Buzz Marzolf, Dan Raebel — both excused Staff Present: Director -Bob Heise, Administrative Assistant - Arlene Lier Others Present: Bob Hendrickson -FSA; Steve Pernsteiner -NRCS; Chuck Whiting — County Administrative Coordinator; Cheryl Clemens - Harmony Environmental, Inc. Ruetz called the meeting to order at 10:55 a.m. Action on Previous Minutes: Peavey made motion to approve the October 7, 2008 meeting minutes with an amendment requested by Luckey to change under Parks Department -NEW BUSINESS -Ag Center- energy cost /Art Tobin from "year, savings" to "year. Savings ", seconded by Graf. Carried. Adoption of Agenda: Motion by Graf, seconded by Luckey, to adopt the agenda. Carried. Date of next meeting: December 2, 2008 LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT FARM SERVICE AGENCY (FSA) Bob Hendrickson - County Executive Director reported: • Office staff attended Farm Bill training on October 28 -30 at Stevens Point. • The CRP — SAFE program (Conservation Reserve Program — State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement) is going well. To date, 427.1 acres have been signed up. We have 3 new SAFE applications which are on hold due to new Farm Bill regulations not in place yet. • We have 6 CRP participants that have not completed their crop reports so we will not be able to make payments until they do. • There is also a program to go along with DCP (Direct and Cyclical program) called ACRE that we will be getting more information on later. • A few DCP payments are being made for contracts that came in late. • The 10 -acre base rule did get changed for just this year. A letter was sent to producers giving them until the end of this month to come in and apply for this DCP payment on the rule change. • Jeff Johnston, District Director (DD) for Area One, retired on November 3. He had over 33 years of service with FSA. His replacement (Randy Cook -CED- Barron) will start on Monday, November 11. NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE (NRCS) Steve Pernsteiner-Di strict Conservationist reported: NRCS is receiving applications for the 2009 Environmental Quality Incentives Program. The list of approved practices is now posted on the NRCS website. A cutoff date for applications has not yet been set. Payments are still being made for 2008 application of practices. NRCS has paid over 1.2 million dollars through EQIP in the past five years to St. Croix County producers. The SAFE Conservation Reserve Program signup has slowed down. NRCS is working with approved landowners on seeding recommendations for next spring. The Assistant State Conservation position in Eau Claire is still vacant and being filled on a rotating basis by State Office Staff. For the month of November, Sheryl Paczwa is acting. Don Baloun will be acting for December. DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES (DNR) No report. RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT (RC &D) Ruetz reported that RC &D has just been approached by a wind power company to work with them through the entire process for a wind power farm in Buffalo County. The grazing program is going well. They have lost two employees and one new person has been hired. WEST CENTRAL AREA Heise reported that the fall meeting and speaking contest was held on Thursday, October 23, at Eau Claire. There was an interesting presentation (Wind Energy in the Upper MidWest) by Mike Arndt- Director of Project Development for Invenergy LLC during the business meeting. The winning speakers presented their speeches and conservation awards were presented after the luncheon. LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT NEW BUSINESS Director's report Heise reported: • Town of Emerald — private drinking water issues — An informational meeting was held on October 23. There were several issues in spring during the spring runoff event of manure getting into private wells. A professor from UW -River Falls, DNR staff, LWCD staff, and about 40 town residents attended the informational meeting. Information was provided on geology and karst features in the area. There was a good question and answer period after the presentation. Citizens will be meeting with the town board. It is now up to the town board as to what they want to do. • Farm Lease — County Farm — During the past month, we bid out the County farm lease. The successful bid (same landowner as last year) is for 4 years, with a 2 -year additional provision, and higher rent. We are incorporating hay into the rotation on the 4 -year lease. Vouchers Reviewed vouchers. Peavey made motion, seconded by Luckey, to approve Chair Ruetz's signature on the November LWCD voucher list (total $48,431.25). Carried. OLD BUSINESS 2009 — Bud2et /COLP Heise reported that the Finance Committee accepted the $20,000 LWCD budget reduction. County Board will approve the 2009 budgets at the November 11 t" meeting. WLWCA convention Heise reported that the state WLWCA annual conference will be held at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel, Appleton, WI on December 10 -12. He and perhaps Ruetz will be attending the conference. LWRMP (LAND & WATER RESOURSE MANAGEMENT PLAN) Heise commented that last month a meeting was held with the Citizens' Advisory Committee. Comments and feedback was received and some of the comments were incorporated into the plan. The plan draft was sent to DATCP, WDNR, and FSA. Comments were received from all of the agencies. We will go through the comments and make the necessary amendments to the plan. Cheryl Clemens - Harmony Environmental Inc. presented the LWRMP update. After the presentation, decision was made to schedule the public hearing for December 4 (Thursday), 7:00 p.m., at the Ag Center. Deadline for written comments will be Friday, December 12. Special LWCC meeting for approval of the plan will be held on Thursday, December 18, at 9:00 a.m. DATCP needs to have the LWCC approved plan by the end of the year. Land and Water Conservation Board (LWCB) approval is scheduled for February, 2009. Final county board approval will be held after the state LWCB approves the plan. Letter — DATCP — 2009 Joint Preliminary Allocation Plan Heise presented a draft letter of response to the 2009 Joint Preliminary Allocation Plan. Discussion. Luckey made motion, seconded by Peavey, to approve Chair Ruetz's signature on the letter to Dilip Patel -DATCP with suggested grammatical changes. Carried. Committee took a break 12:12 -12:20 p.m. PARKS DEPARTMENT Members Present: Linda Luckey, Bill Peavey, Gene Ruetz Members Absent: Buzz Marzolf, Dan Raebel — both excused Staff Present: Director -Bob Heise, Operations Manager -Dave Larson, Administrative Assistant - Arlene Lier Others Present: None NEW BUSINESS Director's Report Homestead Parklands is closed. We are still doing some project work at the park while weather permits. Vouchers The November bills list for Parks was presented. Motion by Peavey, seconded by Ruetz, to approve Chair Ruetz's signature on the voucher list (total $16,257.84). Carried. Misc. — price changes — proposal Larson presented the Committee a fee comparison from the local governmental parks. Staff recommended raising the 2009 fees on firewood ($4 to $5); boat /canoe rentals ($7 /first hour to $8, $3 /each additional hour to $4); and paddle boats ($7/hour to $8 /hour). Discussion. Peavy moved, seconded by Ruetz, to accept the staff recommendations. Motion carried. OLD BUSINESS 2009 budget /COLP (Capital Outlay Plan) Heise reported that Finance asked Parks to cut the budget by $50,000. We offered $30,000 at the last meeting. Finance director found a $30,000 error on the surplus applied. Finance accepted the $30,000 offered by the department and the $30,000 surplus applied for a total of $60,000 budget reduction. Heise commented that he did attend the Finance committee and requested $10,000 back for seal coating the internal park roads in the campground. Finance will take this into consideration. Pine Lake Park- upper parking lot Larson provided the Committee an update on the Pine Lake Park project. No response has been received from Xcel Energy since our counter offer in late August. Upper parking lot remains barricaded and closed to use. The balance of the project was blacktopped in early October by the County Highway Department. Discussion. Chair Ruetz adjourned meeting at 12:40 p.m. Arlene Lier Recording Secretary