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HomeMy WebLinkAboutUnapproved MINUTES_October_4_2011GRANT COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE MEETING October 4, 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, Marvin Kettler, and Grant Loy. Others present were, John Patcle, Melissa Bartz, Lynda Schweikert, Kevin Lange, Jared Reuter, and Annette Lolwing. Don Splinter arrived at 9:10. Certification of Open Meeting Law: Annette Lolwing Annette Lolwing posted the agenda at the Ag Service Center, sent them to Karla Schwantes to post at the Administration Building, and County Courthouse, and sent them 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 Steve Adrian to approve the September 6, 2011 minutes with the changes that John Patcle and Don Splinter were both present at the meeting. Motion carried. Motion by Lester Jantzen, seconded by Mark Stead to approve the Amended Agenda as written. Motion carried. Bills: Annette Lolwing Motion by Steve Adrian, seconded by Grant Loy to approve the October 4th bills. Motion carried County Board Chairman Report: John Patcle John reported that they have a county board meeting, tonight, October 4th. Still working on the budget. County Cost Share Approval: Lynda Schweikert Lynda reported that she has a cost share extension request for Merrill Weittenhiller, Clifton Twp., for a well decommissioning project, $500.00. Motion by Steve Adrian, seconded by Grant Loy to approve Merrill’s extension request to November 1st. Motion carried. Lynda presented a cancellation for Walter Bausch, East Cassville Twp., for his well decommissioning project, $87.50. Motion by Steve Adrian, seconded by Marvin Kettler to send Mrs. Walter Bausch a letter, and to approve a 1 month extension. Motion carried. Lynda presented final approval request for county cost sharing of $315.97 on a well decommissioning project for Alan Jentz, Ellenboro Twp. Motion by Steve Adrian, seconded by Marvin Kettler to approve payment. Roll Call: 7 Yes, 0 No, 0 Absent. Motion carried. Lynda presented final approval request for county cost sharing of $309.50 and $1,299.90 DATCP cost sharing totaling $1,608.95 on a grass waterway project for Fred Borsdorf, Ellenboro Twp. Motion by Mark Stead, seconded by Lester Jantzen to approve payment. Roll Call: 7 Yes, 0 No, 0 Absent. Motion carried. Lynda presented final approval request for county cost sharing of $3,500.00 and $7,500.00 DATCP cost sharing totaling $11,000.00 for a grade stabilization project for Wakendale Farms, Inc., Jamestown Twp. Motion by Steve Adrian, seconded by Grant Loy to approve payments. Roll Call: 7 Yes, 0 No, 0 Absent. Motion carried. Lynda presented final approval request for county cost sharing of $415.80 and $5,821.19 DATCP cost sharing totaling $6,236.99 for a grade stabilization project for Kartman Farms LLC, Waterloo Twp. Motion by Mark Stead, seconded by Don Splinter to approve payments. Roll Call: 7 Yes, 0 No, 0 Absent. Motion carried. Lynda presented final approval request for county cost sharing of $1,415.49 and $4,280.84 DATCP cost sharing totaling $5,696.33 for a grade stabilization project for Fred Kieler, Paris Twp. Motion by Don Splinter seconded by Mark Stead to approve payments. Roll Call: 7 Yes, 0 No, 0 Absent. Motion carried. Lynda presented final approval request for DATCP cost sharing of $6,832.86 for a grade stabilization project for Dennis Kaiser, Jamestown Twp. Motion by Don Splinter, seconded by Grant Loy to approve payment. Roll Call: 7 Yes, 0 No, 0 Absent. Motion carried. Purchase New Fleet Vehicle Lynda opened the sealed bids from 7 car dealerships giving us bids on full size and compact size trucks. Motion by Don Splinter, seconded by Mark Stead to have Lynda, Vince, and Randy go look and test drive 2 vehicles; 1 at Les Mack, and 1 at Fillback Auto, and for them to make their best decision that would be the most advantageous to the county. Roll Call: 7 Yes, 0 No, 0 Absent. Motion carried. Sale of 2000 Ford Ranger Lynda reported that she had advertised the truck through Inter department only at this time. One bid was received from the county maintenance department, Karla McAndrews, for $4,000.00. Motion by Steve Adrian, seconded by Grant Loy to accept the bid. Roll Call: 4 Yes, 3 No, 0 Absent. Motion carried. Land Conservation Report: Lynda Schweikert Update on Sale of Tree Planting Equipment Lynda reported that she and Craig Hollingsworth done an inventory to assess what the county owned in relation to the tree planting program. Lynda sent out request for bids on itemized equipment to the Platteville Journal, Herald Independent newspapers, was sent to all the state wide conservation offices, the local sportsman clubs and the forestry custom tree planters. November 1, 2011 at 9:00 am is the deadline to turn in their sealed bids. DNR Complaint Field Visits Lynda reported that she, Mark Cain, DNR, and Kevin met with 3 landowners in regards to runoff complaints filed with DNR earlier in the spring. They found that Perry Leibfried was found to be overgrazing along a stream, Leary Fischer was found to be over grazing along a stream, and Tom Johanson was stacking manure next to drainage way. All the landowners were cooperative and said they would address their situation. No citations were filed. WLWCA/WALCE Lynda handed out a Board of Directors Meeting Agenda for WLWCA merger update discussion. WLWCA Conference Lynda reported that the WLWCA conference will be held on December 8-9, 2011 at the Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells. Lynda would like to know who plans to attend. Looking for any auction items to solicit. 2012 Joint Allocation Plan Lynda reported that she handed out a letter stating that DATCP will not know how much money to allocate to us until next year. We were allocated $3,500 for NMP’s. If we give the money to another county we will not be penalized, it is classified as a spending of the funds. There was no objection to transfer money to another county in the Southern Area. UW Extension Area Conference Lynda reported that the Extension Office is having a conference on October 6th and she was asked to speak with Ted Bay on working with your partners and UW Extension. Todd Johnson has asked Lynda to speak on the Working Lands Initiative and Farmland Preservation. WDACP Budget Lynda reported that the 2012 WDACP budget was approved last month for $16,300.00. DNR now needs a signature sheet signed by the chairman. FPP Report: Kevin Lange Kevin presented 2 voluntary Notices of Non-Compliance for David & Suella Lory, Platteville Twp., and Timothy Richardson, Watterstown Twp. Motion by Lester Jantzen, seconded by Don Splinter to accept the 2 that have voluntarily dropped out of the FPP. Motion carried. Kevin reported that he had been working on his spot checks. He has already had a few contour strip requests and will probably be having more requests as the corn and beans are harvested out of the field. Kevin went to Green County to help with their high school land judging contest. On September 27th, he went for the official judging, and the 29th was the land judging contest. Grant County is continuing their dominance in the land judging area; River Ridge came in 1st Place, Cuba City came in 2nd Place, Potosi came in 3rd Place, Cassville came in 4th Place, and Monticello came in 5th Place. Kevin reported that he and Annette went on the fall WALCE tour which was held over by Shullsburg. They started at Belmont and then went for a tour at the badger mining museum, then they went to the Blackstone Mine that has been in the process of reclamation, finally they went to one of the Opis’s Farms with open bed pack system, milking over 800 cows. NRCS Report: Melissa Bartz Melissa thanked everyone for the cards for the passing of her father. Melissa is receiving phone calls regarding questions that they have for site prep for next year on their CRP. Melissa is helping out Kevin with the sodbusting requests and HEL determinations. Melissa sent out a news release to the papers to remind farmers to stop in and sign up for EQIP and Conservation programs. Melissa reported that Nationally NRCS has been looking at getting their staff out in the field more. Talking of taking away some of their administrative duties. Melissa reported that the payments and contract modifications are closed down for a couple of weeks to upgrade software for making payments. Lots of projects were completed in the last month. Still waiting for a couple of DNR permits for some streambank protection projects. Melissa reported that she has been busy with the year end reports. Melissa reported that Grant County had the most wetland determination requests, over 40, in any county in the Southwest area. More landowners want to breakout new land to plant more commodity crops. Melissa reported that the GIS specialist printed out a map to show the change in T” values for the soils using RUSLE II. RUSLE II takes into consideration what crop rotation the farmer is using and figures how much a certain soil type can be eroded and still have that field remain productive. “T” is the tolerable amount that can erode in a year and still have the field remain productive. The plan is to have a more standard equation across the state borders so things are more uniform. Conservation Plans may be more restrictive by using this method. FSA Report: Jared Reuter Jared reported that they are talking of reducing his staff another 2.5%. The loan department was at 110 staff and has gone down to 87 and they are asking them to drop down to 84 this year. A super committee of 9 senate members and 9 house members that are looking at all programs and will make recommendations toward cuts in mid November. Jared reported that they are in their big payment month for DCP, ACRE and CRP that add up to around 7 million dollars. Jared reported that late this week or sometime next week the new roof will be constructed over the top of the existing roof. Jared has been working with the leasing office in Washington D.C. Since RC&D did move out, they will be getting a contractor in to wall off that area. Poster Contest Judging: There were 122 posters from 6 schools, and 4 individual posters were handed in. County Level winners are: K-1; 1st Place, Jessica Patterson, St Mary School, Bloomington, 2nd Place, Wesley Winch, Individual from Fennimore, 3rd Place, Ella Kirschbaum, St Mary School, Bloomington. Grades 2-3; 1st Place, Randy Winch, Individual from Fennimore, 2nd Place, Sam White, St Mary School, Bloomington, 3rd Place, Kennedy Copsey, St Mary School, Bloomington. Grades 4-6; 1st Place, Dalton Gardner, St Clement School, Lancaster, 2nd Place, Brad Budden, St Mary School, Platteville, 3rd Place, Courtney Jentz, St Mary, Platteville. Grades 7-9; 1st Place, Matt Lambert, St Mary School, Platteville, 2nd Place, Claire Tashner, St Mary School, Platteville, 3rd Place, Alexis Budden, St Mary School, Platteville. Grades 10-12; 1st Place, Joseph Droessler, Cuba City H.S., 2nd Place, Mike Horst, Cuba City H.S., Allison Timmerman, Cuba City H.S. Call for Agenda Items for Next Months Meeting Other Business Motion by Mark Stead, seconded by Steve Adrian to adjourn until November 1, 2011. Motion carried. Respectfully Submitted by Annette Lolwing for Grant Loy