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Home My WebLink AboutLand & Water 07-03-01 A ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING TO: Tom Dorsey, Chairman St. Croix County Board FROM: Art Jensen, Chairman COMMITTEE TITLE: Land & Water Conservation/Resource & Education :Committee DATE: July 3, 2001 TIME: 9:00 a.m. LOCATION: Ag Center, Baldwin CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING: August 7, 2001 ACTION ON PREVIOU$ MINUTES r NEW BUSINESS: Closed session per Wisconsin Statute 19.85(1)(c) Considering employment of any public employee per Wisconsin Statute 19.85(2) Come out of closed session Teachers-Scholarships - 9:30 a.m. Subdivision Review - 10:00 a.m. Farmland Pre$ervation - Agreement Vouchers Local EQIP Work Group* UNFINISHED BUSINESIS: Staff Reportsl Education Activity Priority Watershed Projects Glen Hills Watershed - Relolcation update Agreement with RC&D re: Glen Hills Pipe Separations Ag Issues Cedar Creek Flume Homestead Park Capital Outlay Plan* Agency Reports: FSA NRCS DNR RC&D West Central Area - Summer tour ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE POSSIBLE AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING: ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily presented in this order) SUBMITTED BY: Robert Heise DATE: June 21, 2001; amended June 27, 2001 COPIES TO: COUNTY BOARD OFFICE NEWS MEDIA/NOTICE BOARD COUNTY CLERK COMMITTEE MEMBERS * ADDITIONS/CORRECTIONS/CHANGES UNOFFICIAL Convened: 9:00 a.m. Adjourned: 11:45 a.m. ST. CROIX COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION/RESOURCE & EDUCATION COMMITTEE Agricultural Service & Education Center, Baldwin, WI July 3, 2001 Members Present: Leon Berenschot, Chris Bethke(arrived at 10:30 a.m.), Jim Cody, Art Jensen, Ron Raymond Members Absent: Lois Burri(excused) Staff Present: County Conservationist-Bob Heise; Land Specialists-Pete Kling, David Sander; Technician-Kyle Kulow; Secretary-Arlene Lier Others Present: Steve Pernsteiner-MRCS; Bob Hendrickson-FSA Meeting called to order by Chairman Art Jensen. Berenschot made motion to adopt agenda. Raymond seconded. Carried. Berenschot made motion to approve June 5, 2001 meeting minutes. Seconded by Cody. Carried. Next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 7, 2001 at 9:00 a.m. TEACHERS -SCHOLARSHIPS Heise reported that only olne teacher attended the conservation course sponsored for teachers. This course was conducted at the UW-RF campus and was held during the week of June 25- 29. Initially, St. Croix County had six teachers that were interested in taking the course. Karen Ye, Meyer Middle school teacher of River Falls, attended the class but due to a personal conflict asked if she could attend the August 7 committee meeting to receive her scholarship award. EDUCATION ACTIVITY Sander reported: Two students from the Glenwood City area attended conservation camp in Bruce during week of June 5-8. Some events at camp were canoe safety, wildlife workshop, exotics, evolution of a river, habitat construction, stream improvement, voyageurs, and water biology. SUBDIVISION REVIEW Kling presented: Grandview Estates (In part of the SW1/4 of the SWIA and the NW1/4 of the SWl/4 all in Section 2, T31N- R19W, Town of Somerset, St. Croix County, Wisconsin) - 70 acre development, 17 lots total. Recommended for approval. Cody made motion to recommend that the storm water and erosion control plans are acceptable and a letter be sent to the Planning & Development Committee. Berenschot seconded. Carried. Cedar Villas (In part of the NE1/4 of the NE1/4 of Section 8, T28N-R19W, Town of Troy, St. Croix County, Wisconsin) - 22 acre development, 7 lots total. Recommended for approval. Berenschot made motion to recommend that the storm water and erosion control plans are acceptable and a letter be sent to the Planning & Development Committee. Cody seconded. Carried. FARMLAND PRESERVATION - AGREEMENT Kulow reported: Genevieve Francois signed a 10-year agreement application. Surrounding landowners want to develop and run water and sewer across part of her land according to Genevieve. LWCC tabled the signing of the application for agreement until August. They referred Kulow or Sander to talk with Corporation Counsel Greg Timmerman about the agreement and potential ramifications of it. VOUCHERS Reviewed vouchers. Motion by Berenschot, seconded by Raymond, to approve vouchers. Carried. LOCAL EOIP WORK !5ROUP Pernsteiner reported: The local work group for EQIP met as part of the LWCC meeting. Discussion on 1998 and 1999 EQIP projects which have not proceeded with installation. Extensions had been given previously because of low milk price and trouble with haying because of wet weather. A few landowners were requesting further extensions. It was felt that we should require the landowners to start installation of a practice by September 30th of this year. PRIORITY WATERSIZD PROJECTS No report. GLEN HILLS WATERSHED Heise reported that there has been a delay in the closing date of the Brettingen property due to having the abstract researched and reviewed. Middle of July is now a tentative closing date. Heise explained the agreement between RC&D and St. Croix County to have RC&D facilitate the proposal process to hire an engineer to design the repairs for the pipe separations on five Glen Hills Dams. NRCS is responsible for the costs of the engineering expenses. Heise commented that Corporation Counsel had reviewed the agreement and made suggestions to the language. Berenschot made a motion, seconded by Raymond, to have Chair Jensen sign the agreement when it arrives at the LWCD. Carried. AGRICULTURAL ISaUES -UPDATE Sander reported: The animal waste ordinance has been slowed due to some recommendations from Corporation Counsel. The hope is that by mid August we will be back on track. Emerald Dairy's public hearing for the Department of Natural Resources was held on June 26th. Permit modification for the dairy should be out the first part of July. Erosion control practices, housing for approximately 500 cows, and the start of EcoFuels will be constructed this year. Jon-De Farms has yet to notify the county as to whether or not they have completed construction. We will work with Zoning to ensure compliance with the special exception permit. CEDAR CREEK FLUME Heise reported that the impoundment remains full and Mr. Nutzman (the owner of the primary dam) has done very little to lower the water level. The DATCP engineer located in Eau Claire requested that once Mr. Nutzman lowers the water level that he be called to inspect the internal concrete of the flume. The committee directed Heise to call Mr. Nutzman in regards to lowering the water level in the impoundment so inspection of the flume can be conducted. HOMESTEAD PARK Kling reported: Phase 1- Road to site almost completed, blacktop yet to be completed. Playground is 90-95 % completed. Phase 2 - Beach development - Plan will be submitted to DNR in the next week, followed by public comment time. Will be working through late September. Scheduled events: Sportsmen's Alliance picnic on July 10 and "public viewing" on July 14. CAPITAL OUTLAY PLAN (LWCD) Heise handed out and presented the revised capital outlay plan for the department. The revised plan outlines priority items and the cost status rating. Discussion. FARM SERVICE AGENCY Bob Hendrickson reported: ➢ CRP(Conservation Reserve Program): Letters have been sent out for cost sharing practices. There will probably be an extension or late file provision for those producers that didn't extend their contracts that will expire in September. ➢ Crop reporting is 70 to 75 % done. The crop reporting was also exposing some contract changes for our PFC( Production Flexibility Contracts) as farmers are always changing their farming operations. ➢ LDP's (Loan Deficiency Payments) have been extended to accept late files until the end of July for those producers that didn't LDP all of their grain, sold or fed it. ➢ Facility Loan interest rate for July is 5.25% ➢ The Noninsured Assistance Program (NAP) program has begun. We will be selling insurance for crops that haven't been insurable, such as pumpkins, strawberries, ginseng, and honey. The county that has the administrative records $or the farmer is the county that will sell the insurance. NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE Steve Pernsteiner reported: CRP plantings went in fast last week. Big thanks to DNR for getting drills and doing custom planting on many prairie sites. It looks like all seedings and shrub planting will be done on time. The Soil and Water Conservation Assistance Program (SWCA) has been funded at $324,800 and sign-up will end July 13, 2001. Practices covered include: Nutrient Management, Prescribed Grazing and Minimum tillage. I A large Wildlife Habitat Improvement Project (WHIP) was recently approved for planting prairie on Carpenter Nature Center in Troy Township. DNR No report. RC&D Berenschot reported: He attended a meeting in.Trempealeau County with Mary Anderson and Pam Herdrich. They promoted River Country RC&D and explained the purpose of RC&D and its administrative functions with the communities and cooperating agencies. WEST CENTRAL AREA Heise commented that Eau Claire County would be hosting the West Central Area tour this year. The date is scheduled for Wednesday,; July 25, 2001. Additional information will be forthcoming to specific times and locations. Presently, five members of the committee were interested in attending. CLOSED SESSION Motion by Berenschot, seconded by Bethke to enter into closed session per Wisconsin Statute 19.85(1)(c) to consider employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation of public employees at 11:29 a.m. Discussion. Motion by Raymond, seconded by Bethke, to support revised job description. Roll call vote: all yes Motion by Berenschot to come out of closed session per Wisconsin Statutes 19.85 (2) at 11:41 a.m., seconded by Raymond. Motion by Berenschot, seconded by Raymond, to adjourn the meeting 11:45 a.m Chair Jensen adjourned meeting at 11:45 a.m. Jim Cody Secretary