MINUTES-SULLIVAN COUNTY

 Soil and Water Conservation District

 

 

 

Minutes for October 18, 2007

Sullivan County SWCD Board of Supervisors met at 9:00 A.M. in the Soil and Water Conservation Office for their regular monthly meeting.

Chairman Bill Coulson called the regular meeting to order at 9:00 AM.

Those present were:

SWCD: Bill Coulson, Bobbi Hunt-Kincaid, Monte Watts, Curtis Horton and Judy Bengochea. Also present were local residents Jack Robbins and Larry Watson.

NRCS: Tammy Swihart, Miranda McGillem

ISDA: State Soil Board Member: Bill Mann

Turtle Creek Partnership

Purdue Extension:

Birds in the Buff:

RC& D: Jack Gettinger

ISDA District Support: Dan Perez

Minutes of the September 20, 2007 were approved as corrected. Monte Watts made a motion seconded by Bobbi Hunt-Kincaid to approve the Minutes. All were in favor.

Claims: Curtis made a motion seconded by Bobbi to approve the claims. Motion passed.

NRCS: Tammy discussed the Talking Points with the Board. (The Talking Points are attached)

NRCS Continuing Resolution: Tammy explained that the NRCS is working on a Continuing Resolution for the Budget until the new Farm Bill is passed.

EQIP:

Eligible Local Resource Concerns: The Board reviewed last years ranking of the Eligible

Local Resource Concerns. After some discussion Monte made a motion seconded by Curtis to keep the ranking the same as last year. (Ranking Sheet attached)

2008 Guidelines for the EQIP program were discussed. NRCS would like to have all EQIP money committed by December 14, 2007. The first sign up will begin Oct 19, 2007. (Guidelines attached) Page 4 of Guidelines lists all dates for selection.

Tammy informed the Board that she had submitted two articles to the Sullivan Daily Times to help the local farmers know about the new deadlines.

ISDA: Bill Mann reported on the State Soil Board meeting.

CWI Funds: It was decided to offer $350,000 in grant funds to the Districts to work on projects concerning Nutrients and Soil Erosion. The Districts will be free to be as creative as they like on the projects. Bill did inform the Board that the SSB likes cooperative projects and likes to see several partnerships in the grants.

Cooperative Work Agreement: The SSB also set aside $200,000 to support the SWCD and NRCS Cooperative Agreement work. This funding will enable the Districts to assist the NRCS with some of its work load.

CREP: The SSB is recommending the addition of several watersheds to the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) and has set aside $500,000 to expand the program. If approved, Sullivan will be included in this program. CREP has the potential to return $8 to the County for every dollar invested.

Office of Management and Budget: The OMB has changed all SSB grant funds to Reverting Funds because of the way the current law is written. The Governor and the Lt. Governor are not ion favor of this ruling. It is hoped that the Legislature will be able to change the wording of the law in their next session which starts in January. This means that District who have not spent all of their grant funds by the ending ate of their grants will have to refund the unspent money to the State.

Birds in the Buff: The SSB granted the District’s request to extend the 2007 contract to January 31, 2009. This will only go into effect if the legislature changes the funding rule to Nonreverting Funds.

Turtle Creek Partnership:

Judy reported for Rex Gambill. The Turtle Creek Catfish Rodeo was a big success. It went so well Turtle Creek is going to have a CARP Rodeo in a effort to reduce the Carp population in the lake.

RC&D: Jack Gettinger reported that the RC&D met on July 30, 2007. They have hired Susan Meadows to fill

the NRCS coordinators position. She will replace Bill Beard who retired last summer.

Birds in the Buff: The Steering Committee met on Sept. 24th. Monte McIntosh informed the Committee that

he would be resigning immediately. It was decided to have Greene County advertise for another technician. Bill Coulson wrote a letter to the Greene County Board of Supervisors requesting to have Sullivan sit in on the hiring process. Curtis was chosen to be the Board member to assist with the Greene County interviews.

Old Business

1. Bank Account

Monte has signed the signature card and Bill Coulson will sign the signature cards before the next meeting.

2. Raft Trip

The Raft trip was discussed. The Board asked Judy to find out from the State Board of Accounts what type of awards are permissible to purchase with State Funds. The Board would like to honor Shan Medsker, Wayne Jackson and others for their dedication to this project.

3. Busseron 319 Grant Meeting

The Board held a meeting on Sept. 20, 2007. Thirty two people attended. Bill Coulson, Bobbi and Curtis discussed the fact that there should have been more land owners present. Jack Robbins expressed his concern that the attendees were mostly environmental professionals. The Board would like this project to be locally led by the citizens of Sullivan County.

It was decided to have another meeting on November 15, 2007 at the City Park Shelter House. The City Park Board has graciously offered the use of the building at no charge to the Board.

Judy will see what a blanket mailing to the landowners would cost. If it is reasonable the Board may want to mail each landowner an invitation.

The Steering Committee was discussed. It was generally felt the majority of the committee members should be local land owners and people with farming interests. Perhaps having the professionals serve on an Advisory Committee. Everyone agreed that this should be a locally led project.

4. Election Committee- The deadline to submit names for candidate to run for Monte’s seat is

December 1, 2007. Various people were discussed and Curtis will contact them to see who would like to serve on this Board.

New Business

5. Annual Conference- Mike Bell was appointed as the Delegate and Curtis will be the Alternate.

6. Soil Judging Contest- The SWCD cooperated with Extension and FFA to host the Regional Soil Judging Contest on Friday Oct. 5, 2007. Approximately 75 students participated. Tammy arranged to use land that is farmed by Wayne Jackson and owned by Bonnie Huff. Mike Frey dug the four pits, Miranda and Judy served as Hole Monitors and SWCD provided water. It was a very successful event.

7. Annual Meeting- Judy asked permission to confirm Dr. Neal Haskell as the entertainment. He

                                is a Forensic Entomologist from St. Joseph’s college. All were in agreement.

Caterers were discussed. Judy was instructed to get the menus and price quotes from several restaurants and the Board will decide on a caterer at the November meeting.

Next Meeting-

November 15, 2007

There being no other business Bobbi made a motion seconded by Curtis Horton to adjourn the meeting. The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted by Judy Bengochea, SWCD Education/Coordinator