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HomeMy WebLinkAboutApproved MINUTES_JUNE _2012GRANT COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE MEETING June 5, 2012 9:00 a.m. Ag Services Building Lancaster, Wisconsin The meeting was called to order by Chairman, Mark Stead at 9:00 a.m. Present in addition to Chairman Stead were; Lester Jantzen, Vince Loeffelholz, Dwight Nelson, Dale Hood, Roger Guthrie, and Marvin Kettler. Others present were, Lynda Schweikert, Kevin Lange, and Annette Lolwing. Certification of Open Meeting Law: Annette Lolwing Annette Lolwing sent the agenda to Karla Schwantes to post in the Administration Building and at the Courthouse, also sent agenda to Bob Middendorf, WGLR, and was posted in the front of the Ag Service Building. Media notices were sent to Karla Schwantes, Herald Independent, Tri County Press, and the Platteville Journal. Motion by Lester Jantzen, seconded by Dwight Nelson to approve the agenda with 2 additional waste storage permit approvals; for Gerald Pitzen and for Brett Runde. Motion carried. Motion by Vince Loeffelholz, seconded by Marvin Kettler to approve the May 1, 2012 minutes. Motion carried. Motion by Dwight Nelson, seconded by Lester Jantzen to approve the bills. Motion carried. County Cost Sharing: Lynda Schweikert Lynda reported that at the April meeting when the majority of the cost sharing was approved, there were 8 landowners that had their projects prorated and approved each of them for $1,428.00 for their high priority rip rap projects. Brian Nichols, Little Grant Twp., Pat Udelhofen, Harrison Twp., Burr Oak Farms, Liberty Twp., Roger Graney, S. Lancaster Twp., and Ron Pelky, N. Potosi Twp. stated that they wish to defer their county cost share application to 2013. Motion by Dwight Nelson, seconded by Roger Guthrie to approve the deferrals of the 5 rip rap projects. Motion carried. Lester Jantzen Abstained. Lynda reported that the Blue River Valley Church, Muscoda, had a well decommissioning tentatively approved in 2011. County Cost Sharing allows the landowner 1 year to complete their project. Landowner requested to cancel his county cost sharing. Was not happy that he could not do the well decommissioning on his own. Motion by Vince Loeffelholz, seconded by Lester Jantzen to cancel his $250.00 cost sharing. Motion carried. Lynda presented final approval request for county cost sharing of $500.00 on a well decommissioning project for Mike Vondra, Ellenboro Twp. Motion by Dale Hood, seconded by Marvin Kettler to approve payment. Roll Call: 7 Yes, 0 No, 0 Absent. Motion carried. Lynda presented tentative approval request for county cost sharing on 4 well decommissioning projects for Stan Henry, Ellenboro Twp., $195.00, Mark Bader, North Potosi Twp., $500.00, John Gibson, East Glen Haven Twp., $500.00, and James Moore, East Cassville Twp., $500.00. Motion by Roger Guthrie, seconded by Lester Jantzen to approve the 4 well decommissioning requests. Motion carried. Lynda presented tentative approval request for county cost sharing on 2 closures of waste storage facilities for Earl Jantzen, Jamestown Twp., $3,500.00, and Tom Schneider, Beetown Twp., $3,500.00. Motion by Vince Loeffelholz, seconded by Lester Jantzen to approve both waste storage closures. Motion carried. Lynda presented tentative approval request for some additional county cost sharing on a rip rap site for Ronald Kunkel, Hazel Green Twp., $2,072.00, and for Steve Gehrke, Ellenboro Twp., $2,072.00. In April they were both tentatively approved for $1,428.00. With the additional $2,072.00 they will both be requesting the maximum of $3,500.00 county cost sharing. Motion by Marvin Kettler, seconded by Dale Hood to approve both rip rap projects. Motion carried. Lester Jantzen Abstained. Animal Waste Storage Permit Approval: Lynda Schweikert Lynda reported that Kieler Farms will be constructing another manure storage facility on a separate farm. Motion by Vince Loeffelholz, seconded by Lester Jantzen to approve the manure storage permit. Motion carried. Lynda reported that Gerald Pitzen, Paris Twp., is building a concrete storage facility, 250’ long, by 70’ wide. Ralph Hemling, DATCP, is doing the design. Gerald has paid his $200.00 permit fee. Motion by Vince Loeffelholz, seconded by Roger Guthrie to approve the manure storage permit. Motion carried. Lynda reported that Runde Farms, Brett Runde, Hazel Green Twp., is also building a manure storage facility. Ralph Hemling, DATCP, is doing the design. All information needed for the construction of the storage facility is ready except for the NMP. Brett is requesting permission to start construction and he will not store any manure in the facility until the NMP has been approved. Runde’s have paid their permit fee of $64.00. Motion by Dwight Nelson, seconded by Marvin Kettler to approve the manure storage permit, with a contingency on the permit that no manure will be stored until we receive the NMP. Motion carried. Land and Water Conservation Department Report: Lynda Schweikert Lynda reported that she had been approached by Lisa Kivirist; she works for Moses “Midwest Organic Sustainable Education Service”. They were awarded a grant to do an informational training session “Women Caring for the Land Workshop” aimed at independent, retired or widowed women now running the farm. The grant pays for refreshments, facility, transportation, and postage. Should be a small group of approximately 20. South room at the Youth & Ag Center is reserved for Monday, September 17, 2012 for the workshop. Lynn Hess from Iowa will be the facilitator. Motion by Dale Hood, seconded by Marvin Kettler, to approve Lynda to host this in Grant County. Motion carried. Lynda reported that RC&D had contacted Lynda to see if we would be willing to share a space with them at the Grant County Fair. RC&D would like to present Invasive Species, and they will help man the booth at the fair. NRCS will also be partnering with the LWCD and RC&D at the fair. Lynda reported on the Southern Area Association Spring Meeting. Jim VandenBrook, the new Executive Director for the WLWCA was in attendance and gave an introduction of himself, Dale Hood was elected to be the LCC representative for the WLWCA State Board of Directors, and Lynda will be helping with the re-writing of the By-Laws for the reorganization of the SAA. WLWCA is asking for volunteers for the Administrative Committee, a Professional Improvement Committee, and for the Technical Committee. Lynda reported that the County Conservationists have 2 meetings a year; 1 in the spring and 1 in the fall. Will not be having the WLWCA Conference in December to review any resolutions. The WLWCA Conference will now be held in March. Need to have an annual meeting to vote on resolutions before December. The 59th Land and Water Conservation Association Annual Meeting along with the Fall County Conservationist Meeting to be held on October 4th & 5th at the Hotel Mead, Wisconsin Rapids. Lynda reported that there were 233 hits on the LWCD Website Counter as of June 5, 2012. FPP Report: Kevin Lange Kevin reported that last month they signed 30 to 40 Notices of Noncompliance. Has been busy trying to answer questions from these landowners as to how they can get back in to compliance. Kevin reported that he has 3 Voluntary Notices of NonCompliance for; Gary Waldman, Liberty Twp., Dennis Fritz, Liberty Twp., and Kylene and Mark Everson, Clifton Twp. These 3 individuals opted to not continue with FPP. Kevin has been working on a few CREP sites. CREP (Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program) is an enhanced version on the general CRP. CRP is entirely a federal program, and CREP is a part Federal and part State program. Specifically for lands adjacent to water. Patureland is either planted to trees or Prairie grasses. Cropland can have cool and warm season grasses or tree planting. Kevin reported that he and Annette had been working on the Transect Survey. DATCP has required the counties to run the Transect Survey since 1999. Have 671 stops, stopping every half mile to look at the field to the left and to the right. Document the crop, the amount of residue, the tillage system, and ephemeral erosion. Picked up an additional 6 cropland points because of all the sodbusting that is happening. Kevin reported on the final numbers from our tree sale. We had 156 orders, selling 9,400 trees along with selling an additional 861 extra trees for a total of 10,300 trees. Committee encouraged the LWCD to offer the tree sale again in 2013. Have been offering the tree sale since 1996. NRCS Report – Melissa Bartz Melissa provided a NRCS written report, Lynda read through it. Melissa was busy out in the field doing wetland determinations with soil scientist. Soil Conservationist, Marlene Sorenson, was in Lafayette County working on their FSA Compliance status reviews for the last 2 weeks. Our field reviews were completed by a state office employee, John Forsyth, and are finished. Melissa will be meeting with John next week to review his findings and will be mailing out letters. In house staff are not able to do their own county status reviews. - The second round of CSP funding is done. There were 5 more applications that got accepted as contracts. Marlene and Melissa will be doing field reviews this week and drawing up contracts that need to be signed by Wednesday, June 13. - Office has been getting a quite a few sodbusting requests because of crop reporting. Melissa and Sue have been working on them, as the process of doing them will be changing in July. - Melissa is still waiting to hear of a contribution agreement that may be available for the LWCD staff to help write CRP contracts. All 78 CRP applications were accepted and got approved. Motion by Vince Loeffelholz, seconded by Dwight Nelson to adjourn until July 3, 2012. Motion carried. Respectfully Submitted by Annette Lolwing for Lester Jantzen