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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAg & Extension 06-04-02X REVISED ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING TO: Clarence Malick, Chairman St. Croix County Board FROM: Chris Bethke, Chairman COMMITTEE TITLE: Extension Ag Committee/Resource & Education Committee DATE: June 4, 2002 TIME: 12:30 p.m. LOCATION: Agricultural Services & Education Center CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES ACTION ON VOUCHERS UNFINISHED BUSINESS: ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT ❖ Federal Budget Update ❖ State Budget Update •:• County Budget Update �:• WACEC - County Authorization Forms for WACEC Meeting •'• Personnel - Horticulture Position - Personnel Study PLANNING DEPARTMENT'S REPORT ❖ Spring Collections Report ❖ Clean Sweep 2003 Grant Resolution ❖ Grant Payments to Municipalities ❖ Legislative Update • Recycling Rule Comments 4 -H YOUTH AGENT'S REPORT ❖ Summer Assistant Update ❖ Celebrating 100 Years of 4 -H — Special Events •:• Fundraising Efforts: - Coupon Book - Kwik Trip Rebate Program AG AGENT'S REPORT • Pasture Walks • Summer Dairy Tours • Farm City Day • Milking System Analysis Programs • Farm City Day • Other Programs RESOURCE AGENT'S REPORT • County Officials Workshop • Small Business Management Counseling • Hudson School District Survey • New Richmond Community Business Analysis • Comprehensive Planning Programs - Town Programs - Tri- county Plan Commissioner's Workshops NEW BUSINESS: ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE POSSIBLE AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING: ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily presented in this order.) SUBMITTED BY: Kim Reaman DATE: May 28, 2002 COPIES TO: County Board Office County Clerk News Media/Notice Board Committee Members x AG & EXTENSION/RESOURCE & EDUCATION /PLANNING COMMITTEE Tuesday, June 4, 2002 Ag Services & Education Center, Baldwin Convened: 12:30 p.m. Adjourned: 2:30 p.m. Present: Leon Berenschot, Ronald Raymond, Art Jensen, Chris Bethke, Lois Burri, Dave Fodroczi, Lee Milligan, Jim Janke, Kimberly Reaman, Mary Barney, Tiffani Calmes, and Melanie Melander. Absent: Mary Lestrud The meeting was called to order by Chairman Chris Bethke at 12:30 p.m. Date of next meeting was set for Tuesday, July 2, 2002 at 12:30 p.m. Ron Raymond moved that the agenda be adopted as presented. Art Jensen seconded the motion. Motion carried. Leon Berenschot moved that the previous meeting's minutes be approved. Ron Raymond seconded the motion. Motion carried. Ron Raymond moved that the vouchers be approved. Lois Burn seconded the motion. Motion carried. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT Federal Budget Update —No report. State Budget Update —No report. County Budget —A meeting has been scheduled with the Finance Committee and the County Committee Chairs for June 12. Reaman distributed the list of long -term goals from the goal setting session conducted by Larry Swain. WACEC Update —Janke distributed the County Authorization Forms to Burri and Berenschot who will be attending the Wisconsin Association of County Extension Committee's annual conference June 23 -25. Personnel: Horticulture Position — Melanie Melander was introduced as interim horticulture agent. She will be working Tuesdays and Wednesdays in St. Croix County and Mondays in Polk County. Melander is a graduate of the horticulture program at UW -River Falls. Personnel Study —no report. 1 PLANNING DEPARTMENT'S REPORT Spring Collections Report: Barney shared the results of the various spring special collections. The electronics collection in early May had almost twice as many participants and materials collected as the prior year. She said that electronics waste is the fastest growing component of the waste stream. The contract with Kleenair of Rice Lake allowed the county to dispose of 30 old computers free of charge. The hazardous waste Clean Sweep event on May 17 & 18 resulted in the collection and safe disposal of 18,000 pounds of hazardous materials from households, farms and businesses. In addition, 755 bulbs, 225 oil filters and 20 computers were accepted. Tire and appliance roundups on June 1 St resulted in the collection of 62.78 tons of tires and 460 appliances. Hudson, New Richmond, Baldwin, and the Town of Troy hosted the roundups. 2003 Clean Sweep Grant Resolution: Berenschot moved to approve submitting a grant application to the DNR for the 2003 hazardous waste program. Burri seconded the motion. Motion carried. Grant Payments to Municipalities: Barney explained that DNR grant funding has been frozen at the 1999 level, and local recycling costs for municipalities have gone up. Accordingly, 2001 actual costs can only be reimbursed at the 53% level. When the DNR payment arrives she will reimburse municipalities the final 2001 payment, and the first 2002 payment based on 25% of projected costs. Berenschot moved to accept the payment schedule as presented. Burri seconded the motion. Motion carried. Fodroczi reviewed data from 2001 that showed much higher than average costs for a few municipalities. He indicated that staff would suggest some options for the 2003 grant application that would address these apparent inequities. Legislative Update: Barney reported that the legislative session ended in April with no late developments pertaining to recycling issues. However, recycling and solid waste associations are in the process of preparing legislative agenda items for the next legislative session, including mercury reduction and disposal issues, DNR funding for HHW and appliance collections, and landfill bans of oil filters, computers and TV sets. Recycling Rule Comments: Fodroczi summarized proposed administrative rules from DNR that establish a pilot program for alternative recycling compliance and recycling efficiency grants. He said the pilot program would not apply to St. Croix County's program, but that staff had several concerns about the efficiency grants. The Committee agreed that staff should attend the June 13 public hearing and submit written comments reviewed and approved by Chairman Bethke. 4 -11 YOUTH DEVELOPMENT AGENT'S REPORT Summer Assistant Update —Reaman introduced Tiffani Calmes who started as the 4 -H Summer Assistant on May 29. Calmes reported that she has been working on a resource fair to help teen counselors plan effective educational sessions for campers at 4 -H summer camp. Calmes will also be working on the County -to- County Exchange, the delegate orientation for State 4 -H Youth Conference and the Wisconsin State Fair registrations. Celebrating 100 Years of 4 -11— Reaman distributed a 4 -H Centennial Page that she had developed. The flyer was 2 included in the FSA newsletter which has a mailing list of 4,000 and the 4 -H Communicator, the regular 4 -11 family newsletter. • Calmes and Reaman will be working on a special display for the County Fair which will highlight 4 -H over the decades. • Reaman has been selected to teach at the North Central Regional 4 -H Leaders' Forum, Celebrating 100 Years of 4 -H, October 17 -20. "Unequal Resources, Unequal Results" is the title of the seminar Reaman will lead. The workshop is designed to help volunteers see what happens in a youth program when some members start out with fewer resources, but are still expected to achieve the same quality. Two questions will be asked: "Is your 4 -H program a `one size fits all' program ?" and "How can we make sure our 4 -H program provides a positive experience for ALL members, not just those that have the most resources available le to them ?" Fundraising Efforts —The 4 -H Leaders' Council has initiated two additional fund raising efforts to help cover the cost of publishing the St. Croix County Plat Book: Coupon Book produced by C &C Marketing and targets the Hudson and River Falls area. 4 -H is the sponsoring organization and will make $3 per book sold. C& C Marketing estimates the total sale of books to be 2,500. KwikTrip Rebate Program —Kwik Trip has a rebate program for non - profit organizations. Individuals who use the Kwik Trip Charge Card can designate the St. Croix County 4 -H Leaders' Association as the non - profit organization to receive the individual's rebate. Once additional questions are answered, the rebate program will be promoted with 4 -H families RESOURCE AGENT'S REPORT The County Officials Workshop scheduled in Eau Claire was cancelled due to low registration. Janke and Kim Reaman worked with Chairman Malick to organize an alternative session for St. Croix County. Three new supervisors and four returning supervisors participated in the session. The group viewed several video tapes and participated in discussion about various county government procedures and issues. The latest Small Business Management Counseling Session was held in Hudson in April. All appointments were filled by people on the wait list from the previous session. The next session is scheduled on June 11, and all appointment slots were filled as soon as the announcement was printed in the area newspapers. Given the current state budget problems, there is little hope that funding will be available to have the campus counselors available on a monthly schedule. Janke is increasing his counseling time with clients who have basic questions and referring clients with more difficult immediate concerns to the Service Corps of Retired Executives. Janke assisted the Hudson school district administration to design and interpret an opinion survey about changing the school hours for high school. The New Richmond Chamber of Commerce has requested UW Extension to conduct the "Business District Market Analysis" program. Janke and Extension Specialists will work with the Community Planning and Resources Committee over the next 9 months to analyze the current retail/service business sector and to identify opportunities for new or expanded business types in New Richmond. Janke is working with six towns on comprehensive "smart growth" plans (Hammond, Baldwin, Erin Prairie, Cylon, Stanton and Emerald). There is a close collaborative relationship between the Extension Office and the County Planning Department, in which Extension is providing leadership on the educational aspects and public participation activities. Recently Janke has led Issues Identification "Kickoff' workshops in Stanton, Erin Prairie, and Cylon. Public opinion surveys were recently completed in Hammond and Baldwin. Surveys for Erin, Cylon, and Stanton will be designed during the summer, but not mailed until after Labor Day. Resource Agents from Pierce, Dunn and St. Croix Counties held their second "Tri- county Plan Commissioner's Workshop" in Baldwin on May 28. 60 people attended, including 29 from St. Croix County. The topic was how to get started on a Comprehensive Smart Growth Plan. The next workshop is scheduled in late July. Additional workshops are scheduled every other month into early 2003. AGRICULTURE AGENT'S REPORT Milligan is in the process of measuring the quality of standing alfalfa. The information is being used by producers to determine when to start harvesting alfalfa for high quality dairy forage. At the end of May the quality is about 190 -210 relative feed value. The recommendation is to begin harvesting at 170 -180 relative feed value for dairy quality forage. Dave Kammel, UW- Extension agricultural engineer, visited five dairy farms with Milligan. The focus was on dairy cattle housing facilities. Milligan attended the Western District Extension department head meeting. Professional development schedules were developed. State budget issues were discussed. Contacts included calls on farmland rent, custom machinery rates, corn and alfalfa management, dairy nutrition, milk quality and facility issues, farm management issues, and 2002 Farm Bill. Milligan received a first place award for the Farm City Day mailing piece and a third place award for his newsletter at the Wisconsin Association of County Agriculture Agents annual professional development conference. Milligan has scheduled a dairy facility tour at the Roger Kukowski Farm June 17. The tour will feature calf housing and management and low cost dairy milking parlor. The tour is sponsored by Polk and St. Croix County UW- Extension Offices and WITC Farm Business Program. Milligan will be giving a presentation. A pasture walk has been scheduled for June 25 at the Dan and Terri Pearson dairy farm in Mann Valley. The focus will be on establishing and renovating pastures, using a no -till drill and raising Holstein steers on kura clover /grass pastures. Milligan will be giving a presentation. Milligan is working with the St. Croix County Holstein Association, as they are hosting the District 1 Holstein Show June 19 at the St. Croix County fairgrounds. 4 The 2002 Farm Bill was recently passed by congress. Milligan is cooperating with FSA on providing information on it. Leon Berenschot moved to adjourn. Art Jensen seconded the motion. Motion carried. Submitted by, Art Jensen Secretary cz 9