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Home My WebLink AboutLand & Water 03-02-10 NOTICE OF MEETING AND AGENDA ST. CROIX COUNTY AGRICULTURE & EXTENSION COMMITTEE ST. CROIX COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE March 2, 2010 — 9:00 a.m. Agricultural Service & Education Center 19608 th Avenue, Baldwin, WI CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL REVIEW OF AGENDA 1. Vouchers 2. Minutes of previous meeting — February 2, 2010 3. Date of next meeting — April 6, 2010 OLD AND NEW BUSINESS: • Personnel — Ag Agent Position — Discussion with Deb Jones LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT CONSENT AGENDA (Unless separation of an item is requested, all will be adopted in one motion.) 1. Vouchers: LWCD, Parks 2. Minutes of previous LWCC minutes — February 2, 2010 Agency reports — FSA, NRCS, DNR, RC &D, WEST CENTRAL AREA NEW BUSINESS: Director's report NR -151- Public hearing comments — letter Performance evaluation — LWCD/Parks Director OLD BUSINESS: 2008 Strategic Initiatives Agricultural Enterprise Areas - AEAs PARKS DEPARTMENT NEW BUSINESS: Director's report Bids - Skid steer, lawn mower Outdoor Recreation plan OLD BUSINESS: 2008 Strategic Initiatives ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE ADJOURN SUBMITTED BY: Pete Kling, Robert Heise DATE: February 17, 2010 COPIES TO: COUNTY BOARD OFFICE NEWS MEDIA /NOTICE BOARD COUNTY CLERK COMMITTEE MEMBERS (Items may be taken in different order) * *Additions /Changes /Corrections DRAFT ST. CROIX COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE Agricultural Service & Education Center, Baldwin, WI March 2, 2010 Members Present: Linda Luckey, Buzz Marzolf, Bill Peavey, Gene Ruetz Members Absent: Ken Graf — excused, Dan Raebel Staff Present: Director Bob Heise, Parks Operations Manager Dave Larson, Administrative Assistant Arlene Lier Others Present: Steve Pernsteiner -NRCS Peavey made motion, seconded by Luckey, to adopt the consent agenda approving the February 2, 2010 meeting minutes and removing the Land & Water Conservation and Parks vouchers. Carried. Committee reviewed the LWCD and Parks voucher lists. Peavey made motion, seconded by Luckey, to approve the Parks snowmobile accounts total of $16,627.44. Carried. Peavey made motion, seconded by Marzolf, to approve the Parks accounts total of $30,891.59. Carried. Peavey made motion, seconded by Marzolf, to approve Land & Water Conservation accounts (2009 budget) in amount of $1,488.24. Carried. Peavey made motion, seconded by Luckey, to approve Land & Water Conservation accounts (2010 budget) in amount of $14,644.30. Discussion. Supervisor Luckey offered questions to staff on expenditures. Motion carried. LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT Department of Natural Resources (DNR) No report. Farm Service Agency (FSA) No report. Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Steve Pernsteiner- District Conservationist reported: NRCS is currently doing rankings of applications for 2010 Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). St. Croix had 30 applications for about $450,000 in practices. Landowners applied for a variety of practices including: grassed waterways, manure pits, organic farming plans, nutrient management plans, hoop houses, etc. Contracts will need to be developed for applications selected by April 1. The Secretary of Agriculture has announced that additional acres will be targeted for the Conservation Reserve program (CRP) and a general sign up will be held in late spring or early summer. The Resource Conservation Grazing Specialist has scheduled several meetings in St. Croix County. He recently held a meat cutting demonstration of grass fed beef at the Woodville Locker plant. A pasture walk will be held to demonstrate out wintering of cattle on a farm near River Falls. Resource Conservation and Development (RC &D) No report. West Central Area Heise reported that he and Dan Raebel attended the February 18 meeting in Dunn County. Heise gave an update of where the organization stands as a whole. The summer tour will be held in June and is being hosted by Eau Claire County. NEW BUSINESS Directors Report Heise reported: Last month the committee accepted the new truck bid of $22,752. The question was raised as to what the state pricing is for this vehicle. The answer is $24,692. In our case, the bid was essentially $2,000 below the state pricing. Staff moved forward with purchasing the vehicle. Delivery will be in 60 -90 days. Public Hearing comments — NR- 151— letter Heise reported on the WDNR proposed amendments to the NR -151 nonpoint rules. Staff developed some bullet points and discussion comments regarding the proposed rules. Staff s comments are in "draft" form and will need to be expanded and offer constructive comments to the WDNR. The NR -151 rules were discussed at the West Central Area meeting on February 18. The consensus was that counties should share their comments so we can become more unified in our comments and suggestions, which should provide a more productive effort in change. Staff offered this letter to the committee as a "draft" and allows staff to obtain the chairman's signature on the letter prior to the deadline date of March 12. Performance Evaluation — LWCD /Parks Director Each committee member received a copy of the St. Croix County Employee Performance Evaluation form for evaluating the Director. A copy of last year's evaluation form was given to each committee member. Administrative Coordinator Whiting will be requested to attend the Director evaluation to be conducted during a closed session on April 6. Agricultural Enterprise Areas (AEA's) In St. Croix County we had landowners in two areas of the county that wished to submit an application to establish an Agricultural Enterprise Area. One is in the Squaw Lake Watershed (parts of St. Croix and Polk Counties) and the other in the Town of Rush River. Two applications were submitted to DATCP prior to the February 26 deadline. Strategic Initiatives No report. PARKS DEPARTMENT NEW BUSINESS Directors Report Heise reported: • Park Tractor — The expense spread sheet shows an expense for repair /replacement of a clutch for our Parks tractor. This was a sizable cost, but was a needed expense to have repaired. • Kinnickinnic Forest — Removal of trees (bark beetles) — completed. • Homestead Parklands — Burn wood piles — completed. • Fish cribs — Glen Lake — 18 cribs were completed with the assistance of Parks and WDNR staff. Bids — Skid steer, lawn mower Larson presented the bid results for the skid -steer and attachments. The Parks Department worked with the County's procurement officer to develop the Request for Bid (RFB). Five skid -steer bids came in from four vendors. The low bid received was from Tri-State Bobcat - Hudson. Discussion. The Committee decided to include the extended warranty, pallet forks, and auger under the skid - steer bid. Committee further authorized staff to purchase grapple forks for the Parks tractor. The Committee then re- visited last month's lawn mower bids. Discussion. The Committee decided to apply the cost savings from the skid -steer bid towards the lawn mowers. Total approved expenditures will be under the skid -steer budget amount. Motion by Marzolf, seconded by Peavey, to award the bid for the skid - steer, pallet forks, and auger plus extended warranty to Tri-State Bobcat - Hudson and to award the lawn mower bid award to Value Implement- Baldwin, the lowest responsible bidder. Motion carried. Outdoor Recreation Plan Heise reported that our Outdoor Recreation Plan (January 2006) has to be updated on a five -year cycle which comes up in January 2011. In all likelihood, staff will be updating the plan internally. Staff spent considerable amount of time and effort on the current Outdoor Recreation Plan, considering both long -term and short-term goals and objectives. It is a requirement of the WDNR that counties wishing to submit applications for Stewardship funding or Park improvement grants to have a current Outdoor Recreation Plan on record. Considering the current workload of staff and support staff, Heise recommended that a letter be submitted to WDNR in June, requesting a one -year extension of the current Outdoor Recreation Plan and then plan in 2011 to update the current Outdoor Recreation Plan for a January 2012 approval. Committee agreed on the recommendation. StrateEic Initiatives No report. Chair Ruetz adjourned meeting at 12:15 p.m. Buzz Marzolf Secretary Arlene Lier Recording Secretary