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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand & Water 09-07-04 ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING TO: Clarence Malick, Chairman St. Croix County Board FROM: Ron Raymond, Chairman I COMMITTEE TITLE: Land & Water Conservation DATE: September 7, 2004 TIME: 10:40 a.m. LOCATION: Ag Center, Baldwin CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING: September 9, 2004 ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES PARKS DEPARTMENT NEW BUSINESS: Director's Report Bills /vouchers *Park Dedication fees *Firewood /Glen Hills UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Capital Outlay Plan - 2005 MOU - Friends of Perch Lake LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT Agency Reports FSA NRCS DNR RC &D West Central Area NEW BUSINESS: Subdivision Review - 1:00 p.m. 2005 /Conservation Aids project - Apple River property Hammond /Roberts - Environmental Assessment Farmland Preservation - Soil & Water Conservation Standards 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: August 23, 2004; amended August 30, 2004 COPIES TO: COUNTY BOARD OFFICE NEWS MEDIA /NOTICE BOARD COUNTY CLERK COMMITTEE MEMBERS * ADDITIONS /CORRECTIONS /CHANGES LAND & WATER CONSERVATION Reconvened: 1:00 p.m. Adjourned: 3:05 p.m. Members Present: Lois Burn, Jim Cody, Bill Peavey, Ron Raymond, Gene Ruetz Members Absent: Ron Raymond (excused) Staff Present: Director -Bob Heise, Land Specialists -Pete Kling, Kyle Kulow; Technician -Jeff Lueck; I & E Activities Specialist- Aleisha Miller; Secretary- Arlene Lier Others Present: Bob Hendrickson -FSA; Steve Pernsteiner -NRCS; Rudy Erickson Zoerb made motion to adopt agenda, seconded by Cody, carried. Subdivision Review Kling presented: Emerald Acres — (Located in the NW ' / 4 of the NE ' / 4 , NE ' / 4 of the NW ' / 4 and in part of the NW ' / 4 of the NW 1 /4 all in Section 30, T29N -R17W, Town of Hammond, St. Croix County, Wisconsin) — 102 -acre development, 51 lots total. All storm water and erosion control issues have been resolved and the plans conform to the St. Croix County Subdivision Ordinance. The storm water and erosion control plans are acceptable for this subdivision. Peavey made motion to recommend that the plans for this subdivision are acceptable and a letter be sent to the Planning & Zoning Committee, Ruetz seconded, carried. Star View Acres H — (Located in part of the SW ' / 4 of the SE ' / 4 , and in part of the fractional SW ' / 4 of Section 19, T28N -R16W, Town of Eau Galle, Wisconsin) — 38 -acre development, 9 lots total. All storm water and erosion control issues have been resolved and the plans conform to the St. Croix County Subdivision Ordinance. The storm water and erosion control plans are acceptable for this subdivision. Peavey made motion to recommend that the plans for this subdivision are acceptable and a letter be sent to the Planning & Zoning Committee, Cody seconded, carried. Squaw Lake Estates — (Located in the North '/2 of the NW '/4 , the NW ' / 4 of the NE '/4 and part of the NE ' / 4 of the NE '/4, all in Section 17, T3 IN-RI 8W, Town of Star Prairie, St. Croix County, Wisconsin) — 117 -acre development, 43 lots total. All storm water and erosion control issues have been resolved and the plans conform to the St. Croix County Subdivision Ordinance. The storm water and erosion control plans are acceptable for this subdivision. Peavey made motion to recommend that the plans for this subdivision are acceptable and a letter be sent to the Planning & Zoning Committee, Zoerb seconded, carried. Kling stated that we will have 9 new concepts and 4 new preliminaries coming in during September. FARM SERVICE AGENCY (FSA) Robert Hendrickson reported: • FSA's initiative is to make sure all minorities and SDA (Socially Disadvantage people) are informed of the COC (County Office Committee) election process. • Nomination Ballots — Only one nomination ballot was received. • We completed updating our name and addresses database for the election. • Late filed crop reports are being checked for compliance. • Presently, we have a general CRP sign up taking place. It runs from August 30 through September 24, 2004. This is for CRP contracts that will expire on September 30 of 2004 and 2005 plus any new land that is being offered. • 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. Also found compliance issues of four - wheeler paths that shouldn't be there. • The interest rate for September Commodity Loans is down to 3.0% and for Facility Loans 4.0 %. • No MILC (Milk Income Loss Contract) payments for August. • Barley is only a LDP (Loan Deficiency Payment) for today of .30/bu. NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE (NRCS) Steve Pemsteiner reported: The Conservation Security Program (CSP) resulted in four contracts with St. Croix County landowners. Statewide about 220 contracts were developed. We do not know at this time what watersheds would be included in the 2005 CSP. Thirty six (36) contracts have been completed with landowners for the 2004 Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP). We will need to hold a Local Workgroup meeting soon to discuss the 2005 EQIP program. Steve will schedule a meeting for end of September. NRCS workload for this program will increase after Oct. 1 when FSA transfers duty of making payments to NRCS. This month NRCS will be contacting some of the backlog of landowners who have expressed an interest in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) program. Seven CREP contracts were completed in 2004. RESOURCE CONSERVATION & DEVELOPMENT (RC &D) Ruetz reported: • RC &D continually looks for projects (various money raising ventures). • They plan to have a booth at Farm Technologies Days (formerly Farm Progress Days). • Sponsored an agriculture program conducted by a state planning firm. The program included farm management advice on passing the family farm on to the children, avoiding heavy tax responsibility. Pernsteiner commented that RC &D sent an intern twice to assist MRCS. Heise reported that the Dale Fern per diem and expense payment issue has been resolved. RC &D will pay the RC &D Finance Committee (sub - committee) meeting expenses. West Central Area Heise reported that the Fall Area meeting will be held on October 20 at UW- Stout. The proposed revised bylaws of the WLWCA will be discussed during the business meeting. The amended Bylaws propose that the WLWCA become affiliated with the Wisconsin Counties Association. The speaking contest, poster contest, and awards luncheon will be held that same day. NEW BUSINESS 2005 /Conservation Aids Project — Apple River Property Heise reported that in 2004 we submitted a DNR grant application. The project was not approved last year due to state budget constraints. The application will again be submitted for improving the Apple River property as a Conservation Aids Project for 2005. $4,000 is in the budget ($2,000 county, $2,000 DNR). Motion by Ruetz, seconded by Peavey, to re- submit the DNR grant application. Carried. Hammond(Roberts — Environmental Assessment Heise reported that the Land & Water Conservation and Planning & Zoning Department staff have reviewed and developed a letter responding to the Environmental Assessment (E.A.) for the Hammond and Roberts wastewater facility. St. Croix County identified concerns to the proposed plans and offered comments and recommendations. The letter is merely for the County to have an official record that responded to this E.A. The permit has been issued from the DNR to each of the villages. Zoerb made motion to approve the copy of the joint letter dated September 7 with accompanying document and send to the Central St. Croix Sewerage Commission, seconded by Burri, carried. Farmland Preservation — Soil and Water Conservation Standards Heise reported that the Soil & Water Conservation standards for the Farmland Preservation Program were discussed last month. The document was sent to DATCP for comment and review. Two other documents were developed, one document outlined the Adoption policy and the other described the "Landowner Contact Strategy ". Both of these documents along with the corrected changes were resubmitted to DATCP for comment and review. This morning the department had received an e -mail from DATCP that had one other minor change to the document and that was on page 3, Sec. V -C, where they changed the word "requirements" to "compliance schedules" and deleted the words "with requirements ". Discussion. Zoerb made motion that the St. Croix County Farmland Preservation Program draft documents dated September 7, 2004 be forwarded to DATCP, State of Wisconsin, to be reviewed and returned for the public hearing process, Cody seconded, Peavey opposed, carried. Vouchers Reviewed vouchers. Peavey made motion to approve Vice Chair Burri's signature on the September voucher list (total $6,385.74), seconded by Ruetz. Carried. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Capital Outlay Plan — 2005 Budget Heise stated that there have not been any changes made to the Capital Outlay Plan since the Budget review meeting. Information & Education Report Aleisha Miller reported: During the months of June, July and August, she led 7 naturalist hikes at Glen Hills Park, 1 naturalist hike at Homestead Park, and 3 children's programs. She reached 41 people, 17 adults and 25 children, and taught them about plants and animals of the area, erosion and water quality. A native prairie garden, west of the microwave tower, has been developed for educational purposes and sponsored by the Dairyland Power Cooperative, AgStar Financial Services and Dragonfly Gardens. It is not complete, but is a good start to begin informing the public on the benefits of native species. Priority Watershed Proiects Kulow reported: Kinnickinnic — The Goodman/Linehan proposed rip rap project was permitted and a site showing will be held in the near future with construction to begin sometime in mid to late September. The landowners have been permitted by DNR and a copy of the plan has been submitted to the County Zoning Department. Our department will oversee the project. We are currently in the process of completing designs for three other landowners in the watershed in hopes of installing those projects yet this year. South Fork/Hay River — We were unsuccessful at our attempt to qualify for a TRM grant for the purpose of restoring Tiffany Creek through the Fairgrounds' property. We are now on to plan B. This will consist of funding the project through the watershed programs and will require us to move up the start date and also the completion date as the watershed is slated to end June 30`" of 2005. Lakes Cluster — The shoreline restoration planned for the EnglehartlWilson shoreline on Bass Lake is now in the hands of a private consultant. This is a result of DNR'S inability to have a cost share agreement signed prior to a resolution to the road issue between the Town and the landowners. The consultant's plan will be reviewed by our office and then sent on to DNR. Meeting adjourned at 3:05 p.m. Jan Zoerb Secretary Arlene Lier Recording Secretary