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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand & Water 08-03-04 ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING TO: Clarence Malick, Chairman St. Croix County Board FROM: Ron Raymond, Chairman COMMITTEE TITLE: Land & Water Conservation DATE: August 3, 2004 TIME: 10:40 a.m. LOCATION: Ag Center, Baldwin CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING: September 7, 2004 ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES PARKS DEPARTMENT NEW BUSINESS: Director's Report Set date for park tour Schedule budget meeting Bills /vouchers UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Capital Outlay Plan - 2005 Request for Proposal - Campground electrical plan LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT Agency Reports FSA NRCS DNR RC &D - Dale Fern - Per diem request West Central Area NEW BUSINESS: Subdivision Review - 1:00 p.m. Schedule budget meeting Hammond /Roberts - Environmental Assessment State Staff Funding Strategy Farmland Preservation - Soil & Water Conservation Standards Discuss Resolution - Milk Volume Production Program Resolution - Lake Planning Grant - Sediment & Nutrient Conference Vouchers UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Staff Reports Capital Outlay Plan - 2005 budget Information & Education report Priority Watershed Projects ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE POSSIBLE AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING: ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily presented in this order) SUBMITTED BY: Robert Heise DATE: July 21, 2004 COPIES TO: COUNTY BOARD OFFICE NEWS MEDIA /NOTICE BOARD COUNTY CLERK COMMITTEE MEMBERS * ADDITIONS /CORRECTIONS /CHANGES Jan Zoerb Secretary Jill Schug Recording Secretary LAND & WATER CONSERVATION Reconvened: 12:50 p.m. Adjourned: 3:17 p.m. Members Present: Lois Burn, Jim Cody, Bill Peavey, Ron Raymond, Gene Ruetz Members Absent: Jan Zoerb (excused) Staff Present: Director -Bob Heise, Land Specialist -Pete Kling, Secretary - Arlene Lier Others Present: Bob Hendrickson -FSA; Steve Pernsteiner -NRCS RC &D Ruetz reported: • He is on the Planning Committee for the State Annual Meeting scheduled for October 26 -28 in Eau Claire. • He was unable to attend the July Council meeting. Dale Fern, citizen member, attended the July meeting. Dale Fern — per diem request - Fern has been selected to serve on a RC &D ad hoc committee (two meetings per month until December 2004) which has been organized to provide financial guidance to the RC &D Council. Lengthy discussion on per diem and expense reimbursement payment for additional meetings per month. LWCC recommended that the county pay per diem and expense for Dale Fern (citizen member) for the monthly RC &D Council meeting and not pay for the Finance Committee (sub- committee) meetings. Director Heise offered to discuss this issue with Pam Herdrich, RC &D Coordinator. FSA Robert Hendrickson reported: • Currently working the election process for electing/re- electing a person from the Local Administrative Area (LAA). Suzette Sontag is serving on our committee for that area and is willing to run again. The terms are for 3 consecutive years with a maximum of 3 terms. Nomination ballots need to be returned by September 3, 2004. The election will take place in December. • The name and address database is being updated at the present time. • Crop Reporting has been completed. About 30 producers will have to late file their crop report. • During Crop Reporting we certified as many farms with the producer as we could with our new GIS mapping system. The new maps were well received. • Agency continues to work on CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) cost share agreements and notifying producers to submit their bills. • Compliance checks on CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) fields found some box elder trees that shouldn't be there. Staff will notify landowners on compliance issues. This will be costly for some of our producers. • The interest rate for July Commodity Loans is 3 %, Facility Loans 4.125 %. • No MILC (Milk Income Loss payments) for July. There was a three cent LDP (Loan Deficiency Payment) for 2003 Corn repayments today (Market gain) • There was also a LDP on Oats and Barley today. NRCS Steve Pernsteiner reported: EQIP program signup ended July 30th, 2004 with 39 applications for a total of $292,000 in cost sharing. This includes one for manure storage. Staff is busy developing contracts and getting plans into computer system. FSA will be transferring administration of the contracts to NRCS after October 1St Conservation Security Program (CSP) signup ended July 30 with 4 applicants. Only landowners in Eau Galle watershed were eligible for this program in 2004. A lot of interest was shown but most producers did not qualify due mainly to lack of soil testing. A mailing about the program was sent to over 450 landowners and a workshop was held July 14 Other watersheds may be eligible in future years. Two applicants were approved for the Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Program (WHIP). West Central Area Heise reported that there would be a meeting sometime in August, yet to be announced. The Fall Area meeting will be held on October 20 at UW- Stout. The speaking contest, poster contest, and awards luncheon will be held that day. NEW BUSINESS Kling reported that there were no subdivisions to review this month. He reported on the comments which the LWCD staff presented to the Planning & Zoning Committee regarding the proposed Land Division Ordinance. The purpose of the letter was to clarify and support what already is in the storm water and erosion control section and a couple of other sections. (1) DNR has a blue book called the "Erosion Control handbook ". It has been the erosion control bible for a number of years. That handbook is being revised into a series of standards. Instead of referring to the blue book, we are going to refer to the Wisconsin DNR storm water construction and post construction technical standards that are agreed upon by the DNR, DOT, Department of Ag and NRCS (Standard Oversight Committee). The idea is to make it standardized so that when you go out and work with the landowner, they have one standard to follow. It meets all the agencies' requirements. The standards will be available on line. (2) Pre - developed runoff curve numbers for Ag land were changed to reflect NR -151 rules. (3) Maintenance plan — how to treat runoff - waterways, ponds. (4) Added language on removing 60% total phosphorus in runoff water. Heise announced that Rod Eslinger has recently left the Zoning Department. Kling will be working on subdivision reviews one to two days per week, with their new employee, Alex Blackburn. Set Budget Meeting The 2005 budget meeting date is set for August 25, 9:30 a.m. State Staff Funding Strategy Heise explained that he served on the State Staffing Grants committee. The committee, at DATCP's request, was convened by WLWCA to develop recommendations for the distribution of additional staffing grant funds that will become available beyond 2006 as priority watershed projects close. Watershed program funding will end in 2009. All eligible counties would receive no less than $85,000. The Staffing Grants committee report was presented and reviewed by the committee. Motion by Burn, seconded by Peavey, to approve the report as presented. Carried. Milk Volume Production Program Heise stated that no signatures were received on the resolution "Requesting Governor Jim Doyle to direct the Wisconsin Department of Commerce to revise the milk volume production (MVP) program in order to protect water quality" which was presented and approved at the July 2004 meeting. Signatures were obtained and the resolution will be presented to the County Board on August 17. Resolution - Small Lake Planning Grant Heise presented a resolution for the department to make application for a Small Lake Planning Grant to sponsor the 5 th annual Sediment and Nutrient Conference. This has been a sponsorship our department has been involved with over the past several years. Peavey made motion, seconded by Burri, to approve the resolution for the department to make application for a Small Lake Planning Grant, carried. Farmland Preservation — Soil and Water Conservation Standards Heise reported that a draft of the proposed Soil & Water Conservation standards for the Farmland Preservation Program was handed out at the July meeting. He compared the language of the proposed draft and the old soil and water standards. Much of the language in both documents is similar. The main difference is the reference to ATCP -50 Ag Performance standards and how the county is to administer the new standards. New Farmland Preservation applications would have to meet new standards. In the proposed draft, Section VI — Administration 1 (a -c) it describes the process on how the department will administer the soil and water standards. There probably will be one area that DATCP is going to comment on and that is compliance. When we accepted the CREP program, we wrote into the agreement, as a provision, to be exempt or waived from Farmland Preservation monitoring and compliance during the administration of CREP. The amended standards have to be submitted to the Wisconsin Land & Water Conservation Board by October 2004. The process will require a public hearing after approval by the state board. Discussion. Ruetz made motion to approve the draft and forward to DATCP for review, seconded by Cody, carried. Vouchers Reviewed vouchers. Peavey made motion to approve Chair Raymond's signature on the August voucher list (total $66,032 .28), seconded by Burn. Carried. Hammond /Roberts — Wastewater Environmental Assessment Raymond briefed the committee on the background of the Hammond/Roberts wastewater facility plan. Heise stated that he received a copy of the Environmental Assessment prepared by the DNR for the facility plan. He has not received a copy of the facility plan. The DNR and Hammond/Roberts villages are requesting a response from the county on the Environmental Assessment. In the past, St. Croix County has responded with letters regarding the facility plans and has done this by a joint letter between the LWCC and Planning & Zoning Committee. Heise described the proposal; there would be two separate communities (Hammond and Roberts) operating separate wastewater facilities. Hammond plans on constructing an additional soil absorption pond, which they always had problems with storage capacity in the past. They are also going to improve the discharge of their wastewater effluent. Roberts will make improvement with their wastewater effluent and discharge the treated effluent to Twin Lakes. Twin Lakes is also designated as 303d water, an impaired water of the state. Heise's recommendation to DNR would be that a total maximum daily load (TMDL) assessment be conducted on Twin Lake. St. Croix County should go on record before a permit is issued for the Hammond/Roberts wastewater facilities. Motion by Raymond, seconded by Peavey, that LWCC directs the County Conservationist to prepare a letter to the DNR, for the record, stipulating that a total mass daily load (TMDL) assessment be conducted on Twin Lakes per the requirements of our Land & Water Conservation Plan and state statutes because Twin Lakes is designated as a 303d water, impaired water of the state. Carried. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Capital Outlay Plan — 2005 Budget Heise stated that he would bring this into the budget when it is presented. Information & Education Report Heise stated that Aleisha Miller has been making presentations at Glen Hills Park and Homestead Parklands. Priority Watershed Proiects Heise reported that on Saturday, August 21, 10 a.m. there is going to be a dedication of the Prairie Flats Wetland Restoration project at Squaw Lake. The project is a showcase for what we call "2005 The Year of Conservation ". Around the state, they are taking 12 projects, one for each month of the year for show casing Wisconsin Conservation effort. Miscellaneous Heise announced that Farm City Day would be held Saturday, August 14 at the Gary Nadeau farm, town of Emerald. LWCD will be assisting with "parking ". Cody made motion to adjourn meeting at 3:17 p.m., seconded by Raymond, carried. Jan Zoerb Secretary