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HomeMy WebLinkAboutApproved MINUTES_October _2012 GRANT COUNTY LAND & WATER CONSERVATION COMMITTEE MEETING October 2, 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, Dwight Nelson, Marvin Kettler, Dale Hood, and Vince Loeffelholz. Others present were, Larry Wolf, Marlene Sorenson, Patti Jackson Kelly, Greg Cerven, Jared Reuter, Lynda Schweikert, Kevin Lange, and Annette Lolwing. Absent: Roger Guthrie, Excused. 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 Dale Hood, seconded by Vince Loeffelholz to approve the agenda as printed. Motion carried. Motion by Dwight Nelson, seconded by Lester Jantzen to approve the September 4, 2012 minutes. Motion carried. Motion by Dwight Nelson seconded by Lester Jantzen to approve the bills. Motion carried. County Cost Sharing: Lynda Schweikert Lynda presented final approval request for county cost sharing of $850.00 on a 3rd year cover crop project for Steve Adrian, Glen Haven Twp. Motion by Dwight Nelson, seconded by Marvin Kettler to approve payment. Roll Call: 6 Yes, 0 No, 1 Absent. Motion Carried. Lynda presented final approval request for county cost sharing of $990.00 on a 1st year cover crop project for Tim Napp, Fennimore Twp. Motion by Vince Loeffelholz, seconded by Lester Jantzen to approve payment. Roll Call: 6 Yes, 0 No, 1 Absent. Motion carried. Lynda presented a tentative approval request for county cost sharing on a well decommissioning project for June Grass, North Potosi Twp., 348.75. Motion by Lester Jantzen, seconded by Dale Hood to approve June’s request. Motion carried. Closure of Animal Waste Storage Permit Approval Lynda reported that B & E are selling their property. There are 6 manure storage facilities that they will be abandoning; 1 earthen, 1 harvester, and 4 concrete. Lynda completed abandonment plans for all the facilities, with a cost estimate of $5,000 each. No cost sharing is involved with this project. They have paid their permit fee of $30.00. Lynda tentatively approved their permits. Motion by Dwight Nelson, seconded by Marvin Kettler to approve their manure storage closure permits. Motion carried. Approval of WDACP 2013 Budget: Greg Cerven Greg Cerven reported that the county administration was increased by $200 to cover Annette’s time that she incurs in the Deer Donation Program, and a $500 increase in Greg’s mileage. The budget for 2013 is $17,000. This is an in/out account with no cost to the county. Motion by Dale Hood, seconded by Vince Loeffelholz to approve the 2013 WDACP Budget. Motion carried. Budget Approval Lynda reported that the retirement rates have increased more than what was anticipated. With that increase it brings the budget up to a 6.14% increase. The last couple of years Lynda used money from the carry over accounts to balance her budget. Those carryovers are now exhausted. This is $16,984.29 over last year’s budget. Motion by Dwight Nelson, seconded by Lester Jantzen to approve this budget. Motion carried. Land and Water Conservation Department Report: Lynda Schweikert Lynda reported that Grant County received a contribution agreement from the NRCS in the amount of $12,904. This is money we earn by working with the NRCS programs. Lynda reported that she will work on the rewriting of the Manure Storage Ordinance this winter. Lynda reported that the Triton Trailer and Polaris Ranger both have been picked up and paid for. Lynda reported that she sent out information to the other county departments to advertise the cubical office furniture that we have for sale. No interest. NRCS purchased new file cabinets so the cubical has been dismantled. Lynda will contact Jack Johnson to see if it can be added to his sale in November of confiscated items. Lynda reported that the new computers are here and set up, but still working on little bugs here and there. Monitors are not all hooked up. Lynda reported that Kevin works on the installation of riparian buffers, and grass buffers along the stream in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). We have a contract with the state that will expire on September 30, 2012. DATCP was not able to get a new contract signed. Kevin is only able to work on contracts that have already been applied for prior to the September 30th deadline. He will not be working on any contracts if they were signed up after September 30the 2012. This is tied to the Farm Bill and has not approved an amendment. Lynda reported that on September 25th, she met with and spoke to the Farm Bureau membership at their meeting. She talked on the farmer written nutrient management plan training course that the LWCD offers. An item on the Farm Bureau’s platform is the Funding for the Land Conservation. There are no resolutions coming out of Grant County that had anything to do with reducing or removing funds. One resolution was supporting the NMP with the result of irrigating manure. Gretchen Kamps is the new Farm Bureau Area Coordinator. Gretchen and Lynda have a good working relationship from the time that Gretchen was employed at the Pioneer Farm at the UW-Platteville. She assisted Lynda with the landowners in helping them write their own NMP’s. She offered to come back and assist us with the Farmer Written Nutrient Management training classes. Lynda reported that they had their soil sampling seminar had 8 people attend. This is our highest number attending, we usually only get 3 to 5 attend. All 8 plan to attend and follow through the process of writing their own NMP. Teaching them the proper way from the start to take soil samples will make it much easier entering it in the computer program. Lynda gave a final report on the “Women Caring for the Land Seminar” that was held on September 17th. A total of 15 attended: 5 landowners, Rhonda Gildersleeve from the Lancaster Ag Research Station, 2 women from the Women Caring for the Land Program, and our staff members. We toured Majestic View Dairy, Lancaster Ag Research Station, and the County Farm. Lynda reported that the County Con/WLWCA meeting will be Thursday, October 4th and Friday, October 5th. Those who will be attending are: Vince, Dwight, Mark, Dale, and Lynda. Lynda is requesting to have a closed session at our November meeting to go over her evaluation. The Committee will be receiving a packet in the mail with the evaluation form along with the self evaluation. FPP Report: Kevin Lange Kevin reported that he has 1 Voluntary Notice of NonCompliance for James Kretschman, Fennimore Twp. James opted to not continue with FPP. Kevin reported that there were 19 CCRP contracts that were to expire September 30, 2012. He completed rolling 12 of those over into the CREP contracts, and the remaining 7 chose to opt out or they were not eligible for re-enrollment. Kevin reported that he has been working on his FPP status reviews. Kevin reported that he has also been out in the field laying out some contour strips and contour lines. Kevin also reported that 4 weeks ago he missed the LWCC meeting because his daughter had a little baby girl. Zoey came 4 weeks early and weighed 4 pounds 2 ounces. Congratulations Grandpa!!! NRCS Report: Marlene Sorenson and Patti Jackson Kelly Patti introduced herself as the Assistant State Conservationist for the NRCS and is stationed at the Richland Center Office.  Patti shared the news that Melissa Bartz has accepted a D.C. (District Conservationist) position in Darlington, Lafayette County. Melissa’s first day in Lafayette County will be November 18th. For the time being the area grazing land specialist, Jean Stramel, will be acting as the D.C.  Patti also mentioned that the NRCS is on a continuing resolution with the Federal government until March. A continuing resolution occurs when there is no approved budget. When you have a continuing resolution there are additional instructions that come with it. The concern that they are up against is what circumstances they will be able to back fill Melissa’s position or how long do they need to wait for that. If the position was advertised they can then move forward or if there is a freeze then nothing can be filled. Patti has submitted the paperwork to keep the process moving to replace Melissa’s position. If not able to fill the position; it is being considered to just have 1 person come and be the acting D.C. When it comes time to interview, Patti would like to invite Lynda and the LWCC board to assist in the interview process. Marlene reported that last month we had 27 applications for an EQIP sign up for cover crop in the drought affected areas. All 27 applications were accepted for funding. All paperwork needed to be completed by September 30th. Hurricane Isaac came through and disrupted the national finance office in New Orleans. Approximately half of the applicants were delayed because their vendor application was pending. It disrupted the direct deposit information and must be verified down the line that you are eligible and that the bank will distribute the money in the right account. This process got back logged and 2 applications got hung out there. Unfortunately those 2 applications were not able to be made into contracts. Marlene reported that there were 7 HELY CRP contracts. This was an additional CRP sign up only for Highly Erodible Land that may not have been accepted in the previous CRP sign up. Several of these sites were looked at earlier from the continuous CRP sign up that had not been accepted. Again, all this needed to be signed by September 30th. Marlene reported that 180 NHI (National Heritage Inventory) requests needed to be completed on the haying and grazing plans on CRP ground. They were looking for any negative effects for any endangered species that may occur on haying or grazing land. If any endangered species were found they may not be able to do their haying or grazing until 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Only a couple of landowners were not able to hay or graze at all because they were in a sandy area that had possible turtle nests in the area. Marlene reported that the Highly Erodible Land Investigation and the Wetland Determination process have been restructured. We cannot work on your own county requests anymore. Those requests will be reviewed by another county. The wetland determinations are sent and distributed into 4 teams: Crawford, Grant, Richland is one team and their team leader is Rick Lange. Rick will then assign someone to work on that request. Marlene reported that last week she attended a Plant Identification training and Hydric Soils Investigation training. Were very interesting classes. Poster Contest Judging: Annette Lolwing Annette reported that the theme for this year is “Soil to Spoon”. Posters were due in our office on September 28th. We had 116 posters handed in from 5 participating schools along with 2 posters from individuals not participating through their school. Poster winners at the local level are: K-6 Special Needs; 1st Place: David Foust and 2nd Place: Mason Foust, IGEMS. Grades K-1; 1st Place: Wesley Winch, Individual, 2nd Place: Deanna Ramaker, St. Joseph School, Hazel Green, 3rd Place: Lauren Koeller, St. Joseph School, Hazel Green. Grades 2-3; 1st Place: Alisa Ramaker, St. Joseph School, Hazel Green, 2nd Place: Kora Kite, IGEMS, 3rd Place: Bailey Schneider, St. Joseph School, Hazel Green. Grades 4-6; 1st Place: Jonathan Breuer, St. Mary’s School, Bloomington, 2nd Place: Jared Beesecker, St. Clement School, Lancaster, 3rd Place: Gracie Winter, St. Clement School, Lancaster. Grades 7-9; 1st Place: Mara Breuer, 2nd Place: Rebecca Breuer, and 3rd Place: Olivia Breuer, all 3 students are from St. Mary’s School, Bloomington. All first place winners will advance on to the Area contest to be held in the later part of October. NRCS Report: Jared Reuter Jared reported that they will be making all the 2012 DCP, ACRE, and CRP payments this month even though the Farm Bill has not been passed. Can’t sign up any new CRP. DCP and ACRE programs ended in 2012. There is no disaster program. They do have the NAP, the noninsurable crop insurance disaster program. They will need to pay a fee to get crops covered through a catastrophic coverage if not covered by their agent’s coverage. Still able to process 2012 commodity and facility loans. Jared reported that the office building has been measured for new carpeting. Has some water leaking issues on the front of the building, have since had it caulked. Still discussing the replacement of lights, windows, and re- doing some cement work around the building. We are still on a month to month lease on the building. Jared reported that they have an open position available for a fulltime program technician person. Position had been opened for 2 weeks and was closed on Friday, October 5th. Will be going to 10 technicians and are also taking on some of the farm loan support by helping Dennis Hottenstein. Motion by Vince Loeffleholz, seconded by Dwight Nelson to adjourn until November 6, 2012. Motion carried. Respectfully Submitted by Annette Lolwing for Lester Jantzen