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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand & Water 03-06-07 1 { NOTICE OF MEETING AND AGENDA ST. CROIX COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE March 6, 2007-10:40 a.m. Agricultural Service & Education Center 19608 th Avenue, Baldwin, WI CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING — April 3, 2007 PARKS DEPARTMENT NEW BUSINESS: Director's report Bills /vouchers ** County Government Center property — Beth Stidham ** New Richmond — Outdoor Recreation Plan OLD BUSINESS: Park Improvement grant proposal — list of Park improvements Stanton forest — timber harvest — revenue analysis Bicycle /pedestrian trail/RFP — Regional Planning LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT Agency reports FSA NRCS DNR RC &D West Central Area NEW BUSINESS: Director's report Subdivision update Non - Metallic mining — proposed language — mining in ground water Update — County owned property - Oakridge Vouchers * 2008 Soil & Water Conservation Grant * Job description —Land Specialist Staff reports Priority Watershed Projects ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE ADJOURN SUBMITTED BY: Robert Heise RATE: February 22,2007; amended February 27,2007; March 2, 2007 . COPIES TO: COUNTY BOARD OFFICE NEWS MEDIAjNOTICE BOARD COUNTY CLERK COMMITTEE MEMBERS (Items may be taken in different order) *Additions /Changes/Corrections UNOFFICAL Convened: 10:59 a.m. Recessed: 12:06 p.m. Reconvened: 1:06 p.m. Adjourned: 3:20 p.m. ST. CROIX COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE Agricultural Service & Education Center, Baldwin, WI March 6, 2007 Members Present: Sharon Norton - Bauman, Bill Peavey, Ron Raymond, Gene Ruetz Members Absent: Lois Burri (excused) Staff Present: Director -Bob Heise, Operations Manager -Dave Larson, Administrative Assistant - Arlene Lier Others Present: Joe Kerlin -New Richmond Parks Director, Beth Stidham- Hudson resident Action on Previous Minutes: Motion by Ruetz, seconded by Norton- Bauman, to approve the February 6 and February 20, 2007 meeting minutes. Carried. Adoption of Agenda: Peavey made motion to adopt the agenda, seconded by Ruetz. Carried. Date of Next Meeting: April 3, 2007 PARKS DEPARTMENT NEW BUSINESS Counts' Government Center property — Beth Stidham Beth Stidham (City of Hudson resident) attended meeting and voiced the concerns of her group to the LWCC for possible development of the government center land. Chair Raymond thanked her for presenting the group's concerns. New Richmond — Outdoor Recreation Plan Heise introduced Joe Kerlin, New Richmond Parks Department. Their department is working on a stewardship grant for a project at Hatfield Lake in New Richmond. Additional points are acquired for their grant application by including their plan into the St. Croix County Outdoor Recreation Plan. Heise will bring a resolution to our meeting next month to adopt their plan into our plan and forward to County Board. New Richmond would have to adopt our plan into their plan. Heise suggested that the next time we re -do our Outdoor Recreation Plan, we may want to discuss and have the municipalities incorporate their plans into our plan so it already is in there. Committee directed Heise to prepare a resolution for the April meeting. Director's Report Heise reported: • Glen Hills Park.— The fish cribs have all been installed. • Homestead Parklands — The slash piles have all been burned from work that was done on restoration area. • The snowmobile trail system is open and is all dependent upon weather conditions. • The Counties Association is now sending LWCD monthly updates. There is a big tourism campaign proposed to target Minnesota residents to come into Western Wisconsin. Bills /Vouchers The March bills list was presented. Motion by Peavey, seconded by Norton - Bauman, to approve the Snowmobile accounts ($285.00) and Park accounts (total $4,633.40). Carried. V III Stanton Forest — Timber harvest — revenue analvsis Larson handed out the Timber Sale Summary for all properties. The grand total amounts to $115,230.15. We already received $84,645.00 from Biewer Lumber. They owe the department $30,585.15. Net is $109,222.89 after 5.5% sales tax deduction. OLD BUSINESS Park Improvement grant - list of Park improvements Staff handed out a list of 2007 Park Improvement Grant project items totaling $100,000. Activity items are camping, habitat, picnic, trails, and water. The more activities the greater point values. Another sheet handed out was the non -grant items (Capital Outlay items) deferred from 2007 to 2008 totaling $47,825. These would be the absolute minimum Capital outlay request that the department would submit for 2008. Committee directed Heise to prepare a grant application ($100,000 — 50150 match) for the April meeting. Resolution would be presented to County Board in April. Bicycle /pedestrian trail /RFP (Request For Proposal) — Regional Planning Heise reported that the County has signed the contract with Regional Planning and have had a short meeting with Regional Planning to discuss the Scope of the project. The proposed time table was reviewed. There will be a kickoff meeting with the Advisory Committee on Monday, April 30 at the Ag Center where the trail delegates can meet Regional Planning staff. Our overall goal is to have an approved plan to the Committee and County Board by next March. Recessed: 12:06 p.m. Reconvened: 1:06 p.m. LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT Members Present: Ken Graf, Sharon Norton - Bauman, Bill Peavey, Ron Raymond, Gene Ruetz Members Absent: Lois Burri (excused) Staff Present: Director -Bob Heise; Land Specialists -Steve Olson, Tammy Wittmer; Administrative Assistant - Arlene Lier Others Present: Bob Hendrickson -FSA, Steve Pernsteiner -NRCS Ken Graf, new FSA representative, was introduced to the committee and staff. LWCC and staff introduced themselves. FARM SERVICE AGENCY (FSA) Robert Hendrickson- County Executive Director reported: • Direct & Cyclical Program (DCP) payments are currently up to date. • Milk Income Loss Contract Program (MILCX) payments are being made as we get them. We will be making the February payments as soon as we get the February MILCX information. • The last five months the rate for MILCX is: Oct .4318, Nov .4386, Dec .4284, Jan .034, Feb, .102, March .00. • It came to our attention that as far as the MILCX program goes in the Nation, Wisconsin has 25% of all the contracts in the Nation or 13,259 contracts. The next closest state only has 5,000 contracts. • Wisconsin also has the LOWEST rate of under and/or overpayments for the Nation in MILCX. St Croix County only had 3 underpayments and that was a result of a software error. • Sign ups for Continuous CRP and CREP will be taken at any time producers want to offer the land. • Contrary to rumors, it is not true that producers can get out of CRP for 2007 and 2008 without any pay back. NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE (NRCS) Steve Pernsteiner- District Conservationist reported: EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program), funding has been received for the first 9 of 35 applications. Contracts are being developed. We hope to get funding for more CNMP applications once statewide requests are finalized. We should hear by end of March on 3 applications for State Funded Waste Separation systems. Brochures were handed out on the Emergency Watershed Protection Program (EWP). Steve gave brief overview of this program. Conservation Security Program (CSP) payments have been made for 2007. Producers received a payment equal to their 2006 payment and will receive any additional funds if 2007 budget provides adequate funds. CSP sign up in Milwaukee River Watershed was canceled in 2007 due to lack of funding. Jay Custer, Soil Conservationist has been officially assigned half time to Pierce County. DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES (DNR) No report. RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT (RC &D) Ruetz reported: • Dale Fern (treasurer) has been replaced by Marlin Baillargeon -Polk County. • The federal budget for RC &D calls for a cut from $52 million to $16 million for RC &D. • River Country RC &D helped Minnesota with the Value Added conference. It was aimed at small specialty farming operations. • We have the opportunity to delegate a Citizen at Large member as we have had in previous years. WEST CENTRAL AREA Raymond reported on the February 21 meeting held at Menomonie. • Rod Webb- County Conservationist -Pepin County volunteered to be an advisor on the WLWCA board. • High capacity well legislation (NR -820) was discussed. Raymond encouraged the West Central Area and the state organization to put together some strategies to build a coalition. Raymond suggested that the state conservation organizations pick two or three major issues that we as a group think are important and agree on. • Chippewa County will host the summer tour on Wednesday, June 20. NEW BUSINESS Director's Report Heise reported that he attended a Working Lands Initiative workshop on February 26 in Menomonie. It is a new program that the Wisconsin Department of Ag is trying to create to preserve good agricultural lands in Wisconsin. Part of that effort is considering looking at the transfer of development rights, purchasing of development rights. The meeting was very well attended in Menomonie. There were 3 different sessions throughout the state that week. There is no money in the budget at this time. The program is in its preliminary stages. There were some very well educated speakers from Pennsylvania and Maryland that had been in transfer development rights and purchasing of development rights for years. Last summer a couple of buses went from Wisconsin to Maryland and Pennsylvania to become more educated on this concept. We are in the preliminary stages but this program may have some momentum. Raymond attended a dinner /meeting at UW -RF which was a prelude to these meetings held around the state. How do you compensate the farmer for giving up his development rights? To preserve the working lands we are going to have to find a way to compensate the farmer for losing those development rights. Non - Metallic mining - proposed language — mining in ground water Steve Olson presented to the committee an Executive Summary of the Hydraulic Impacts of Quarries and Gravel Pits done by the Minnesota DNR. The committee will discuss some draft language to incorporate into the county's Non - metallic mining ordinance at the April meeting. 2008 Soil & Water Conservation Grant Heise presented the grant application which represents our staffing dollars and cost -share dollars to administer our soil and water conservation programs. Ruetz made motion to approve the Joint DATCP/DNR Nonpoint Source Grant Application for Calendar Year 2008, seconded by Graf. Carried. Update - County Owned Property — Oakridge Heise reported that there has been no activity on property sale to U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Vouchers Reviewed vouchers. Norton - Bauman inade motion, seconded by Peavey, to approve Chair Raymond's signature on the March LWCD voucher list ($6,519.09). Carried. Job Description — Land Specialist Heise reported that the job description has not been reviewed by Scott Guinter, Human Resources. It will be on our April agenda. Subdivision Update Tammy Wittmer provided a surnmary of February application submittals and an overview of where they fall within the county. A letter of credit was cashed for the Riding Meadows North Development. We will work with Procurement staff to have the work completed this spring. Tammy discussed the need for a database to track all stormwater management practices that have been approved through the Land Division Ordinance. The database would keep track of all practices and the related maintenance activities and schedules. The committee agreed and gave Tammy direction to work on a database. Staff reports Priority Watersheds No report. Miscellaneous Heise reported that on March 20 the resolution on "Deer feeding" will be presented at County Board. Mike Reiter will be attending. Heise stated that he recently received a call from someone on the Warren Town - Groundwater Advisory Committee. They discussed the groundwater issues in and around the county and the proposed legislation NR -820. The State of Wisconsin Groundwater committee is still accepting comments from counties. Chair Raymond adjourned the meeting at 3:20 p.m. Gene Ruetz Secretary Arlene Lier Recording Secretary