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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand & Water 06-01-04 x ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING TO: Clarence Malick, Chairman St. Croix County Board FROM: Ron Raymond, Chairman COMMITTEE TITLE: Land & Water Conservation /Agriculture & Extension Committee DATE: June 1, 2004 TIME: 10:40 a.m. LOCATION: Ag Center, Baldwin CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING: July 6, 2004 ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES PARKS DEPARTMENT NEW BUSINESS: Director's Report Upgrade Position Requests - 2005 Request for Proposal - Pressure tank relocation Capital Outlay Plan - 2005 Park Money Distribution Policy Bills /vouchers UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Park House - Asbestos removal LAND & WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT Agency Reports FSA NRCS DNR RC &D West Central Area NEW BUSINESS: Subdivision Review - 1:00 p.m. Capital Outlay Plan - 2005 budget Farmland Preservation - Soil & Water Conservation Standards Warren Town - Drinking Water Program *Sub committee /Parent committee Vouchers UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Staff Reports Information & Education report Priority Watershed Projects Summer Tour ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE POSSIBLE AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING: ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily presented in this order) SUBMITTED BY: Robert Heise DATE: May 20, 2004; amended May 25, 2004 COPIES TO: COUNTY BOARD OFFICE NEWS MEDIA /NOTICE BOARD COUNTY CLERK COMMITTEE MEMBERS * ADDITIONS /CORRECTIONS /CHANGES LAND & WATER CONSERVATION Reconvened: 1:22 p.m. Members Present: Lois Burri, Jim Cody, Bill Peavey, Ron Raymond, Gene Ruetz, Jan Zoerb Members Absent: None Staff Present: Director -Bob Heise; Land Specialist -Pete Kling; Technician -Tammy Wittmer; I & E Coordinator - Aleisha Miller; Interns -Casey Ambers, Stacy Volkert; Secretary - Arlene Lier Others Present: Bob Hendrickson -FSA, Steve Pernsteiner -NRCS, Rudy Erickson Staff Introductions Heise introduced the two new interns: Casey Ambers, student at River Falls, will be helping Pete Kling with subdivision inspections and other department projects. Stacy Volkert, just graduated from UW -River Falls, is taking on the Willow River project with the Minnesota Science Museum. RC &D Ruetz reported on the council meeting he attended at Eau Claire on May 26. • New officers were elected. • The council expressed how impressed they were of the work of Leon Berenschot and will miss him greatly. He lobbied for them in Washington D.C. and did a lot of extra work for the organization. River Country RC &D (Resource Conservation and Development) plans to appoint him to the council as an emeritus position. • An investment broker gave a presentation on "family farm trusts ". West Central Area Raymond reported on the Area Tour being held June 17. Registration will begin at 8:15 a.m. The business meeting will start at 9:00 a.m. with the tour following the meeting. The catered lunch will be served at Homestead Parklands. The tour will end at approximately 3:00 p.m. FSA Robert Hendrickson reported: • Agency continues to work on CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) C/S (Cost Share) agreements and notifying producers of their need to complete their cover requirements and turn in 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. • The DCP (Direct and County Cyclical Program) sign up ends June 1 st for this year. Any farms that aren't signed up by today will have to pay a late file fee of $100.00 to sign them up before September 30`. • Compliance is going well. Many post cards have already come back in for CRP. We are booking appointments for crop reporting. The late file fees have changed for this year. They have now gone up to $25.00 per farm number and $10.00 field. There is no fee if reported before July 15 • The MILC (Milk Income Loss Contract) payments for April are nearly complete. • The Interest rates for our facility loans are 3.375 %. • In the future, farm plans will be WEB based. NRCS Pernsteiner reported: Twenty six applications have been received for the 2004 Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) in St. Croix. These applications allocate approximately $160,000 of the $220,000 slated for St. Croix County. We should consider having another signup deadline in June. Local EQIP work group will meet at the Ag Center on June 8 at 8:00 a.m. Three new applications for Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP) have been forwarded to the State Office. Lower Chippewa Basin has been selected for Conservation Security Program (CSP). This program rewards farmers doing a good job of conservation. This includes the Eau Galle watershed in St. Croix County. Training will be held June 24 with program sign up sometime in July. NEW BUSINESS Capital Outlay Plan — 2005 BudLyet Heise presented the Capital Outlay plan projecting expenditures through 2010: • 2005 — We are looking at an individual GIS license for staff. • Our existing laptop went on us so we had to buy a new one through Computer Services with the repair and replace fund. We will re -pay Computer Services in 2005. • Also in 2005, we plan to do some work on the 80 -acre Kinnickinnic property. There is an existing trail system. If we get a dozer in there to work on the ruts and have the boot camp do some pruning, we would have a very good trail system complete on this property. • 2006 — Computer software, possibly a new vehicle (replacement), (4) computers. • 2007 — Laptop and 2 PC's. • 2008 — Vehicle, (4) computers. • 2009 — (2) computers, total station (surveying), computer server. • 2010 — Vehicle, (4) computers. Subdivision Review Kling reported: Plan revisions for Gavin's Acres did not arrive for presentation. He gave an update on the timeline for the revised "Land Division Ordinance ". We are still looking at August 17 for county board vote. Farmland Preservation — Soil and Water Conservation Standards Heise reported: DATCP is requesting each county that participates and has an approved Farmland Preservation Plan, amend their soil and water standards to incorporate the new NR -151 standards and prohibitions, and submit them to the Wisconsin Land & Water Conservation Board by October 2004. This process will require a "public hearing" to openly discuss these standards. Warren Town Drinking Water Program Heise reported that LWCD and UW- Extension conducted the drinking water program in the Town of Warren. Approximately 75 samples were collected. One out of every three samples came back exceeding the drinking water standards for nitrates. Map of Warren was provided showing the locations of "nitrates over 10 mg/1 ". Zoerb inquired whether the Public Health Department gets involved in informing the public on the high nitrate test results. Decided to discuss with Barb Nelson. Heise said that homeowners could install a reverse osmosis unit to remove the nitrates or dig a deeper well, which may or may not solve the problem. Sub Committee /Parent Committee Raymond stated that at the last county board meeting, a chart was provided on information regarding committee structure. Zoerb informed the committee that being on Administration Committee, they felt that there should be a guide for all committees to follow. Lengthy discussion followed. Raymond commented that our committee should be concerned that we adhere to the current county board bylaws or the amended bylaws if they are in need of change. Vouchers Reviewed vouchers. Burri questioned the voucher for Dean A. Gehrman (Parking lot project — Oden Memorial Wildlife area — Cylon Twsp) in amount of $3,500. Heise explained that it is a 2003 conservation aids project which has just been completed. Peavey made motion to approve Chair Raymond's signature on the June voucher list (total $21,353.83), seconded by Cody, carried. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Information & Education Report Aleisha Miller reported that 1,780 students have participated in environmental education presentations between October 1, 2003 and June 10, 2004. Another teacher, Randall Bergman, has requested a scholarship. There is money available within the Information & Education budget ($200 from line item "teaching aid" and $100 from line item "camper scholarship ") to support another scholarship. Zoerb made motion to approve use of $300 that is available to create another scholarship for a teacher, seconded by Cody, carried. The first naturalist event will be held on June 19` at Glen Hills Park. Priority Watershed Proiects Tammy Wittmer reported: Lakes Cluster Squaw Lake - Met May 26` with the Squaw Lake Rehabilitation District where phosphorous indexing and balancing was discussed. This is the last step before the ALUM treatment scheduled for Fall 2005. Bass Lake - The Engelhart/Wilson shoreline restoration permit with the DNR is now open (until June 17) for public review. Staff will be conducting a shoreline inventory this month for Squaw, Pine and Bass Lakes. Lake Mallalieu — Wittmer attended the association meeting on May 27 There are several individuals interested in restoring their shorelines. Kinnickinnic The Dorwes easement best management practices (BMP's) are underway; 2 dump closures, waterway and CREP. Kinnickinnic River rip rap with the DNR is beginning construction. St. Croix Central Schools project will be started at the end of this week. This project includes 3 waterways and critical area stabilization. South Fork of the Hqy River The floodplain on the Fairgrounds property has been delineated and a survey will be completed on Tuesday (June 2) and forwarded to the Fairboard's consultant. No word yet on the results of the TRM Grant for the stream restoration. Miscellaneous Since no LWCC member attended the LCC supervisor training session in Eau Claire, Heise gave each of the new supervisors a copy of the Wisconsin Land Conservation Committee Handbook. Heise stated that Buck Malick, County Board Chair, sent him a resolution (written by Polk County) on the "milk volume production (MVP) " program. It is similar to what was discussed at the State Association meeting. Polk County took it a step further. This resolution requests that conservation requirements be a part of the MVP if public money is being invested on these farms. Should St. Croix County follow with a similar resolution? Will discuss at the July LWCC meeting. Meeting adjourned at 3:19 p.m. Jan Zoerb Secretary Arlene Lier Recording Secretary