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HomeMy WebLinkAboutUnapproved MINUTES_August_2_2011GRANT COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE MEETING August 2, 2011 9:00 a.m. Ag Services Building Lancaster, Wisconsin The meeting was called to order by Chairman Vince Loeffelholz at 9:00 a.m. Present in addition to Chairman Vince Loeffelholz were, Lester Jantzen, Steve Adrian, Mark Stead, Grant Loy and Marvin Kettler. Others present were, Melissa Bartz, Lynda Schweikert, Kevin Lange, Jared Reuter, and Annette Lolwing. Don Splinter was excused. Certification of Open Meeting Law: Annette Lolwing Annette Lolwing posted the agenda at the Ag Service Center, was sent to Karla Schwantes to post at the Administration Building, County Courthouse and was also sent to WGLR Radio stating the date, time, and place of the meeting. Media notices were sent to WGLR Radio, Herald Independent, Tri County Press, and Platteville Journal. Motion by Mark Stead, seconded by Lester Jantzen to approve the July 5, 2011 minutes with a change to add a “y” at the end of Bob Keeney’s name. Motion carried. Motion by Lester Jantzen, seconded by Marvin Kettler to approve the Agenda as written. Motion carried. Bills: Annette Lolwing Annette passed the bills around for approval. No one made a motion to approve the bills, so they will be resubmitted at next month’s meeting. County Board Chairman Report: John Patcle reported that they are getting started on the 2012 budget. They have had some union negotiation meetings. John reported that the Grant County Fair is coming up, the week of August 15, 2011 County Cost Share Approval: Lynda Schweikert Lynda reported that she has 2 cost share cancellations to report; LaVern Hrubes, Castle Rock Twp., opted to not request final payment of $280.00 county cost sharing for his well decommissioning project. LaVern stated that it cost so little that he was just going to pay for it himself. Kathy Wolfe, North Potosi Twp., returned her $264.10 county cost share check stating that FEMA paid for the well decommissioning and did not need the cost share assistance. The $544.10 cost share money will go back into the cost sharing account. Lynda presented final approval request for county cost sharing on a well decommissioning for Matt Vogt, West Beetown Twp., $115.26. Motion by Mark Stead, seconded by Lester Jantzen to approve payment. 6 Yes, 0 No, 1 Absent. Motion carried. Lynda presented final approval request for county cost sharing of $2,403.07 and $3,500.00 DATCP cost sharing totaling $5,903.07 on a Stream bank Protection project for Roger Lane, Little Grant Twp. Motion by Mark Stead, seconded by Steve Adrian to approve payment. Roll Call: 6 Yes, 0 No, 1 Absent. Motion carried. Lynda presented tentative approval request for county cost sharing on an emergency well decommissioning for Mike & Mary Smith, South Lancaster Twp., $375.00. Motion by Lester Jantzen, seconded by Grant Loy to approve Mike’s request. Motion carried. Lynda presented tentative approval request for county cost sharing on an emergency well decommissioning for Al Wepking, Liberty Twp., $500.00. Motion by Steve Adrian, seconded by Marvin Kettler to approve Al’s request. Motion carried. Lynda presented tentative approval request for county cost sharing on the 2nd year of rye cover crop for Tom Kunkel, Hazel Green Twp. $787.50 and 2nd year of rye cover crop for Steve Adrian, Glen Haven Twp., $508.28. Motion by Lester Jantzen, seconded by Grant Loy to approve both requests. Motion carried. Steve Adrian abstained 2011 DATCP Staff & Support Reimbursement Lynda reported that this is the half year reimbursement of $107,869.00 out of the $113,185.30 eligible funds for staff and support that was expended in 2011. Currently, the staff salary reimbursement is using the 100%, 70% and 50% funding strategy. Motion by Lester Jantzen, seconded by Marvin Kettler to approve Lynda to request the $107,869.00 reimbursement. Motion carried. 2012 Budget Discussion Lynda reported that at the last Department Head meeting Nancy stated that they need a preliminary budget summary to the Finance Director by September 6th. Lynda increased the health insurance; Dean increased 2.64% and Medical Associates decreased by 1.2%. These numbers are based on the Health Reimbursement Agreement. Decreased the Retirement account by approximately $10,000. Scheduled wage increases and step increases are negligible. Lynda has contacted DATCP to see what we would be eligible for staff and support. Plan for worst case scenario from DATCP for staff and support would be reduced by 10%, down to $97,082 for 2012. The DATCP cost sharing is expected to be the same at $60,931 for 2012. Lynda will be presenting a revised copy of the budget at the September LWCC meeting. While discussing the budget, it was brought up to see what the status is for the purchase of a new truck out of the carryover ACCOUNT#100.62.000.493622. Lynda said she would put it on the September Agenda for further discussion. Amos Beiler Storage Update Lynda reported that the committee had given Amos Beiler until July 1, 2011 to update his facility. Lynda sent Amos a letter on June 2, 2011 reminding him that he had until July 1, 2011 to update his manure storage facility. Amos called on July 6, 2011 saying he had hired Larry Austin, engineer, and after 6 months Larry backed out, so now he is going with Greg Evans. Greg called on July 11, 2011 to report that he is going to be doing the soils investigation on July 20, 2011. Greg called on July 26, 2011 stating that he has developed a plan to bring the facility into compliance and will be submitting the permit shortly. Motion by Steve Adrian, seconded by Grant Loy to extend Amos Beilers’ request to November 1, 2011. Motion carried. Animal Storage Permit to Construct and Abandon Manure Storage Facility Lynda reported that John Shea is going to be constructing an earthen manure storage facility. In conjunction of building the new facility, he will also be abandoning a reception pit. Estimated cost to abandon the reception pit is $2,000.00 and permit fee of $2.00, the new earthen facility estimated to cost $75,000.00, permit fee of $75.00. Fees of $77.00 have been paid. Lynda approved both permit applications on July 14, 2011. Motion by Mark Stead, seconded by Marvin Kettler to approve Lynda’s approval of both permits. Motion carried. Lynda reported that WE R Dairy (Steve Retallick & Wehrle) are going to be constructing an earthen storage facility through a private engineer, Delta 3 Engineering. Estimated cost is $75,000 permit fee of $75.00. Also had an older storage facility on site to abandon, estimated cost of $2,000, permit fee of $2.00. Fees of $77.00 have been paid. Motion by Steve Adrian, seconded by Grant Loy to approve Lynda’s approval of both permits. Motion carried. USDA/NRCS Contribution Agreement Lynda reported that she received final approval of the Contribution agreement with NRCS for 38 CRP contracts and 5 CREP contracts equaling $16,626.00. Tree Planting Report Lynda sent out of survey to all 72 counties to see how they operated the tree planting program in their county. 27 counties responded. Their responses were; 21 own their own planters, 8 Managed by DNR or Local Sportsman Club, 8 Let landowners pick up and deliver planter, the amount charged for the use of planters and sprayers, and 4 discontinued the service and a private sector picked up where they left off. Most offices don’t make any money, but they continue it for the service to the public. Lynda was told to try and contact the local sportsman clubs to see if there is any interest in them purchasing all the tree planting equipment. DNR is close to hiring a forester for Grant County. Land & Water Conservation Department Report: Lynda Schweikert Lynda reported that the Spring Brook computer was installed and up and running on July 8, 2011. Lynda sent out a WLWCA/WALCE Merger survey to the committee members. There were no surveys returned. Lynda reported that the Southern Area Tour is on August 3, 2011 in Rock County. Who plans to attend? Lynda received a promotional contest that is going on through RK Dixon. The Southwest Badger RC&D Council is participating in the Make My Non-Profit Run Better contest for a chance to win an office technology makeover from RK Dixon valued at up to $15,000. All you need to do is log into www.rkdixon .com to cast your vote daily from August 1st to August 8th. Lynda reported that on August 11th she will be with the DNR doing some farm visits. There have been some complaints of manure in a stream from farm lot runoffs. Will be doing a final walkover at the Bellmeyer site to make sure all the conditions have been met. Lynda reported that Melissa and herself will be working on a fair display to get a computer connected to a wireless internet site. This will enable the staff to be able to print out landowner aerial maps, soils maps, and manure spreading restriction mapping during the fair. FPP Report: Kevin Lange Kevin presented 7 voluntary Notices of Non-Compliance to Donald Fecht, Hickory Grove Twp., Leon Sauder, Ellenboro Twp., Jeffrey and Leslie Wolf, Fennimore Twp., David and Debra Winkers, Wingville Twp., Brandemuehl Trust C/O Mary Brandemuehl, Liberty Twp., Ronald White, Fennimore Twp., and Jerry Ketterer, Fennimore and Hickory Grove Twp. Motion by Lester Jantzen, seconded by Marvin Kettler to accept the 7 that have voluntarily dropped out of the FPP. Motion carried. Kevin reported that he has been working on Lynda’s contribution agreement requirement. So far he has 6 CREPS done and waiting on signatures for 2 of them. Has also has been working on CRP the last couple of weeks. On July 11th, he and Melissa joined Kory Stalsberg, Ag teacher, from River Ridge. Kory organized a small land judging contest for a few area High Schools. Those schools that attended were; Lancaster, River Ridge, Cassville, and Potosi. Kevin Lange, Melissa Bartz, Rick Lange, and Area Soil Scientist, Jeff Deniger where there to assist Kory. Lynda reported that herself and Kevin will be attending a Harrison Township informational meeting on Monday, August 8, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. for the Farmland Preservation Program. Todd Johnson sent out 246 invitations to all Harrison Township landowners. Lynda reported that they are 44% complete with the 2011 FPP spot checks. We have reached our 100 landowners that are 100% in compliance with the standards. NRCS Report: Melissa Bartz Melissa reported that she is acting DC for Patti Jackson Kelly for the month of August. Melissa will be going to an overnight training session for Supervisor Training. This is the first over night training she has had in 5 years. Melissa reported that NRCS has their FPP spot checks done. Melissa and Lynda will be meeting today with Tom Kraft and Eric Allnes, who are program specialists from the NRCS State Office to see if there is any opportunity to get some more cost share money through other programs for Grant County. There has been the Mississippi River Basin Initiative program going on and the Pecatonica and Sugar River Watersheds and those are in Iowa, Lafayette, and Green County. So far Iowa and Lafayette counties have not acted on this and have not formed a partnership to do any extra conservation work. They are going to try to get one of those areas into Grant County for any extra money to put towards cost sharing. Melissa reported that they are still working on the CRP site visits. September 2, 2011 is the deadline to get those contracts signed. FSA Report: Jared Reuter Jared reported that he has heard no word on the building lease, and no word from the roofing contractor. Jared reported that there is a voluntary early retirement, and Doug Scott at the Farm Loan has decided to take the retirement. His last day will be August 26th. There were a quite a few positions across the state, however there were more in the Northern Area. Jared reported that FSA is running a Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) from death loss caused by the extreme heat. Producers have 30 days to notify FSA by phone, which is called a notification loss. Will follow up with all the paperwork that is due at the end of September. Must have an inventory of all the livestock that they have. The state committee has set the mortality rate to 4.3% per year for cows, which in a year you can expect to lose 4 head. Will be establishing a damage assessment report to send to the state office to confirm the cattle death losses. Jared went down to the Southern part of the county that had the large rain to assess what damages were out there. Didn’t seem like there was much damage that he saw. There was some corn that was blown over. Jared said that they did have an extended ability to take DCP Acre Program contracts up until tomorrow. The county committee can now refer them to the state committee. Had close to 100% of the farms sign up that were signed up last year. Jared reported that there are at least 3 facility loans last year on the facility loan program. Facility Loans could be for grain bins, hay storage, and pit silos. Must meet eligibility requirements to receive a facility loan. Jared reported that they are working on the new CRP signups. September 2, 2011 is the deadline to have the conservation plans back to FSA. There are many producers that are requesting to cut a crop of haying off their CRP fields. They are still working on cost share since Jo Reynolds left. Jared reported on the milk program. If producers have a big operation out there that has October set for their start month for this next year, they have until September 14th to change the start date. Will be sending letters out to those that would or could get the maximum that have October for their start date to see if they want to change the date. Jared reported that the SURE program ended on July 29th, and that’s FSA’s crop disaster program. This is for the 2009 crop season. Finishing up on making payments, and are now sending them out. Jared reported that the county committee nomination period ended. There was 1 nomination, and that would be Linda Ruchti who will be the lone person on the ballat. Call for Agenda Items for Next Months Meeting Other Business Motion by Mark Stead, seconded by Lester Jantzen to adjourn until September 6, 2011. Motion carried. Respectfully Submitted by Annette Lolwing for Grant Loy