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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand & Water 09-05-06 • NOTICE OF MEETING AND AGENDA ST. CROIX COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE September S, 2006 —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 PARKS DEPARTMENT NEW BUSINESS: Director's Report Bills /vouchers 2007 Budget Kinnickinnic Land Trust — property acquisition OLD BUSINESS: Review Capital Outlay Plan LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT A2ency reports FSA NRCS DNR RC &D West Central Area NEW BUSINESS: Subdivision update Board of Adjustment update Stillwater Bridge Crossing/Advisory committee County Aid grant — Pine Lake improvements 2007 Budget LWCC training — Wednesday, September 6 Wisconsin Counties Association - resolution Vouchers OLD BUSINESS: Staff reports Priority Watershed Projects ADJOURN SUBMITTED BY: Robert Heise DATE: August 23, 2006 COPIES TO: COUNTY BOARD OFFICE NEWS MEDIA /NOTICE BOARD COUNTY CLERK COMMITTEE MEMBERS (Items may be taken in different order) *Additions /Changes /Corrections UNOFFICAL Convened: 11:09 a.m. Recessed: 11:37 a.m. Reconvened: 12:44 p.m. Adjourned: 2:48 p.m. ST. CROIX COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE Agricultural Service & Education Center, Baldwin, WI September 5, 2006 Members Present: Lois Burri, Sharon Norton - Bauman, Bill Peavey, Ron Raymond Members Absent: Gene Ruetz Staff Present: Director -Bob Heise, Operations Manager -Dave Larson, Administrative Assistant - Arlene Lier Others Present: Bill Cranmer - County Board Supervisor -Dist. 22 Adoption of Agenda: Burri made motion to adopt the agenda, seconded by Peavey. Carried. Action on Previous Minutes: Motion by Raymond, seconded by Burri, to approve the August 23, 2006 meeting minutes as presented. Carried. Date of Next Meeting: October 3, 2006 PARKS DEPARTMENT NEW BUSINESS Director's Report Heise reported: • Park Map — Glen Hills Site Map — Heise reported that the map is printed and will be delivered today. • Glen Hills Fishing Pier — Park staff has received permits from the Wisconsin DNR and approval from the Board of Adjustment (B.O.A.) on the proposed amendments (retaining wall) to the Glen Hills fishing pier. The project will be completed by the end of the year. • Pine Lake Park — County Board passed the resolution to move forward with the Pine Lake boat landing improvements grant application. Dave Larson met with the Wisconsin DNR Waterway Commission last week and made a presentation for the project. We did receive approval that day. We need the approval letter before we can begin the project. Any type of construction would be next year. • South Cedar Bay — We have tentative approval on the grant application for this project and are waiting for the approval letter. We are sponsoring this project but there are no county dollars involved. We will be involved with construction oversite. • Troy Beach Guard Rail — The park is officially closed so we will be moving forward with the guardrail project and installation. • Timber Harvest Revenues - Reviewed the summary sheet showing the timber revenues received to date. The sales so far total $86,179.15 (without the Stanton Forest harvest) which exceeds the Biewer bid amount of $84,645.00. • Kinnickinnic and Stanton Forests — We have new signs for each of these properties. Highway Department surveyor surveyed south property line of the Kinnickinnic Forest. We are trying to make trails through the forest. We will be working on improving the parking lot. Work will also be done on the Stanton parking lot after area is cleared. Kinnickinnic Land Trust — property acquisition - They are considering property in Kinnickinnic township close to the forest. They are looking at a type of conservation easement or purchase of that property (60 acres, about 30 -35 acre wetland, another 25 acres of cropland). They are wondering if the county would be interested in this property should the land trust acquire the property. 2007 Budget — Heise stated that the budgets have been turned in to Finance. Both Finance and Administrative Coordinator -Chuck Whiting have what they need. BillsNouchers The September bills list was presented. Motion by Peavey, seconded by Norton - Bauman, to approve the Parks account bills ($30, 475.81). Carried. OLD BUSINESS Miscellaneous Bill Cranmer asked if the Parks Department has information on our county parks (maps, brochures, etc.) available at the county fair. Heise stated with the experience we had with the Land & Water Conservation Department, the interest was minimal. Discussed the possibility of having County Department handouts available at one of the county buildings. Recessed: 11:37 a.m. Reconvened: 12:44 p.m. LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT Members Present: Lois Burri, Jim Cody, Sharon Norton- Bauman, Bill Peavey, Ron Raymond Members Absent: Gene Ruetz Staff Present: Director -Bob Heise; Land Specialists -Steve Olson, Tammy Wittmer; Administrative Assistant - Arlene Lier Others Present: Mary Warner -FSA, Steve Pemsteiner -NRCS, Bill Crammer- County Board Supervisor -Dist. 22 FARM SERVICE AGENCY (FSA) Mary Warner (Farm Loan Manager) reported for Bob Hendrickson (County Executive Director): • Staff has started the 2008 through 2010 REX (Re- enrollment/Extension) CRP spot checks. • The agency ended up with about 10% of the 2007 REX contracts that had to have a small fine. Landowners will have a chance to get back in if their CRP is cleaned up before September 30. • St. Croix County only had 11 different producers apply for Sign up 33 CRP. Two of them backed out and the rest have or will be approved very soon. • Nationally over 1 million acres were offered for Sign up 33. Currently there are 740,000 CRP contracts with 770,000 payments issued on 425,000 farms for $1.7 BILLION dollars. FSA estimated that saves about 450 million tons of topsoil every year. • FSA had applied for Emergency Haying and Grazing of CRP to WDC via our State office and were turned down. We only had a 36% loss in moisture and you needed 40 %. • Our agency also applied for a Secretarial Disaster Declaration for the County. We and 18 other counties have been approved for that plus another 22 adjoining counties. • Staff received a couple of late filed DCP (Direct and Cyclical Program) applications. The cost is $100.00 per contract to late file. • Rumor has it that there will be a full Counter Cyclical payment on corn for 2005 come October I". Landowners that asked for an advance payment have already received .28 cents per bushel, and could get up to another .12 cents per bushel (or a total of .40 cents per bushel). There could be a small payment on Soybeans also. • The interest rate for September Commodity Loans is 6.125 and facility loans are 4.875. • LDP (Loan Deficiency Payments) rates today are .00 for corn and .15 for barley, .00 for soybeans. • A note for this year's LDP'S (Loan Deficiency Payments) - If you don't have any grain, i.e. your corn never made it because of the drought, you cannot get a LDP on the stock. There has to be grain. Corn silage can earn a LDP if there is some grain in it. More on that later. • MILCX (Milk Income Loss Contract Program) payment rates known to date are: Oct. 5 -.00, Nov. 5`" -.00, Dec. 5 cents, Jan. 5` . 10 cents, Feb. 5"` .10 cents, March 6"' -.4080 cents, and April 6"' -.8398 cents. May is .9248, June is .9996, July is .7990, August is .9480 and September is .9656. • The July MILCX payments are out now. • Drought conditions are here. We don't have any "drought programs" yet except the Managed Haying and Grazing of CRP. Managed Haying and Grazing of CRP you can do ONCE every three years with a 25% reduction of your annual CRP payment on the acres you hay or graze. • Mary also now has some loans available to producers if they qualify. • FSA County Committee Elections - Jim Cody is finishing out his last term now. The Townships that we need nominations from are Star Prairie, Stanton, Cylon, Forest, Richmond, Erin Prairie, Emerald and Glenwood. August I" is the last day to file nomination forms at our office. The election will take place the first week of December and the new person will take office in January. NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE (NRCS) Steve Pemsteiner- District Conservationist reported his four -week detail to Louisiana to work on Emergency Watershed Program clean up of streams. Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) plans have been completed on all new applications. The plans for 2007 re- enrolls have been over one half completed and we are waiting for 2008 -2010 re- enroll data from FSA. State Conservationist Pat Leavenworth has been detailed for four months to serve as Acting State Conservationist in Oklahoma. Don Baloun will serve as Acting State Conservationist in Wisconsin. Jay Custer had been assigned two days a week to help Pierce County NRCS catch up on contracting for Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP). He should be done in the next couple of weeks. Kara Nelson, Student Carrier Enhancement Program, will be back to work this school year in our office. We have also been allotted 50 intermittent hours for Andrea Crownhart to work before October 1. We may also be receiving help from an Office Assistant person being hired in Polk County. EQIP sign up should start in October. This sign up, practice will be contracted using a flat rate system. Payment would be based on size of job and not contractor cost. This should make payments easier. DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES (DNR) No report. RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT (RC &D) No report. WEST CENTRAL AREA Chair Raymond reported on the August 17' meeting held at the Dunn County Ag Center in Menomonie. Posters were judged with fewer entries than previous years. Al Carothers (Buffalo County) serves on the state WLWCA Board and gave a report on the Julyl7th meeting. The Board is in the process of hiring an Executive Director, interviews have been conducted. They are now working on a strategic plan which Carothers indicated would be similar to the current plan. Three people will be elected to the State Land & Water Board (LWCB) at the annual WLWCA conference to be held on December 6 -8. Each county (member of state organization or not) is eligible to attend meeting and vote for the LWCB candidates. Heise stated that Barron County will host the fall meeting on Thursday, October 26, at the Plaza in Eau Claire. A representative from the West Wisconsin Land Trust will be on the meeting agenda as a speaker. NEW BUSINESS Subdivision Update Tammy Wittmer reported that she was back from maternity leave and working with Jeff Lueck and Pam Quinn on active subdivision projects. The Land & Water Conservation Department, in the next few months, will be looking at conservation easements and overall land preservation in the county and try to establish a land evaluation and priority checklist. Our first conservation development is underway at Rolling Hills Farm in Hammond Township. This would be an excellent project for the committee to tour in the near future. Tammy will look to sending the active subdivision inspection report out to the committee every quarter. Board of Adjustment Update Steve Olson reported to the LWCC Committee the number of and LWCD staff hours spent reviewing Board of Adjustment and Land Use Applications in 2005 and so far in 2006. Discussion was brought up as to what stormwater standards should be used in the shoreland district. The two standards discussed were NR -151 or the St. Croix Riverway standard. The committee encouraged staff to put together a presentation for next month's meeting to discuss what standards should be used in the shoreland district. Stillwater Bridle CrossinalAdvisor Heise reported that the county has been invited to participate in the continued stakeholder meetings regarding the bridge crossing. There are a couple of advisory committees (Stillwater Lift Bridge advisory committee and also the Water Quality Permitting advisory committee) that may warrant continued participation and input from St. Croix County. Motion by Burri, seconded by Cody, to recommend Heise to serve on the two committees. Carried. County Aids grant — Pine Lake improvements Heise reported the Sportsmen's Alliance supports the Pine Lake Boat Landing improvements (overflow parking on upper lot across from the shelter facility) for the Conservation Aids project for 2007. This is a WI DNR grant with 50% match from the WI DNR for a total of $4,000.00. $2,000 is budgeted in the 2007 LWCD budget under the conservation programs account. Cody made motion to approve the 2007 Conservation Aids project for overflow parking at Pine Lake, seconded by Burri. Carried. 2007 Budget Heise stated that the budget ($40,000 over 2006) was handed in to Finance and Administration. LWCC training — Wednesday, September 6 Heise announced that there is training being offered at Rice Lake. Vouchers Reviewed vouchers. Norton- Bauman made motion, seconded by Peavey, to approve Chair Raymond's signature on the September LWCD voucher list in the total amount of $27,577.66. Carried. Wisconsin Counties Association (WCA) — resolutions Heise reported that he received an e-mail with over 50 resolutions from various counties in Wisconsin for the WCA to take action on at their next meeting. Reviewed and discussed #9 (Eau Claire County — Urging the Wisconsin Legislature to Raise Landfill Tipping Fees to Reduce or Eliminate the Economic Incentive for Out -of -State Waste Being Deposited in Wisconsin Landfills), #10 (Requesting the State Legislature to Support AB 798, Increasing the Recycling Tipping Fee on Landfill Waste and Increasing Funding for Local Recycling Programs), and #40 (Outagamie County — Ordinary High Water Mark). Consensus of LWCC was to support #9 and #10, not support #40. Recommendations will be given to the County Board Chairman to consider while he is attending the WCA meeting. OLD BUSINESS Priority Watersheds No report. Miscellaneous Heise reported that Staff is beginning to work on incorporating the Siting legislation into our general county ordinance. The amendments should be adopted by November 1. Goal for staff is to try to make that November 1 deadline. It may be difficult to schedule because the next County Board meeting is October 31. Proposed amendments should be available to be discussed at our October Y LWCC meeting. Perhaps a joint committee meeting with Planning & Zoning may be necessary to expedite the process. Chair Raymond adjourned the meeting at 2:48 p.m. Gene Ruetz Secretary Arlene Lier Recording Secretary