"Changing our World One Drop at a Time" Waterford Waterway Management District Board of Commissioners Meeting Minutes February 23, 2013

Transcription

1 1. Call to Order, Pledge of Allegiance, Roll Call "Changing our World One Drop at a Time" Waterford Waterway Management District Board of Commissioners Meeting Minutes February 23, 2013 Chairperson Barb Baron called the meeting to order at 9:00 AM at the Waterford Town Hall, Waterford, WI. Commissioners present: Don Baron, Andres Peekna, Gary Bluemel and Paul Kling. Excused absences were Kelly Cornelius John Bostrom. 2. Approval of Minutes Motion to approve the minutes of the January 26, 2013 meeting was made by Cmr. B. Baron and seconded by Cmr. Bluemel. Vote: 4 Yes 0 No. Minutes on file. 3. Correspondence/Chairman s Report The following Correspondence was reviewed: A letter from the Wisconsin DNR on tree and shrub availability from the Wisconsin State Nursery program. Notice from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue concerning boundary changes. Treasurer to fill out and mail, retaining a copy for our records. A letter Cmr. Cornelius received and responded to from Dennis and Kim Danowski. A letter Cmr. Cornelius received and responded to from James Rosendall of Gro America and that it is being forwarded to the ESR committee. 4. Treasurer's Report Cmr. Bluemel presented the monthly financial statement. o He stated there were inconsistencies. Questions arose as to its format of the report and if it presented what we needed. o There was a question as to what date should be on the report. Brian Marx indicted that the date was historically through the current board meeting. o Cmr. B Baron stated we don t need a profit and loss statement, but we needed details as to spending on the AIS and ESR committees. o KJ needed access to our on line bank account. Cmr. Bluemel also reported: The $50 approved at the last meeting was for accounting and generating the monthly statement. He wanted an additional $10 for writing checks. Three options exist: o KJ write checks for $10.00 per month o Online checking through the bank is $6.00 per month. o Manually writing checks at no additional cost per month. The website is currently paid on a month to month basis. He would like to change this to an auto payment. The board approved $1,500 for the DNR permit fee at the last meeting. The actual cost was $1,270. Treasurer wanted clarification if he could simply pay the bill or was a new motion in WWMD Board Minutes 1 February 23, 2013

2 order. Cmr. B. baron told him that since it was less than the approved amount, no additional approvals are needed. He will be getting a dump (backup) of all of our financial records from KJ. There is no charge for this service. On the question of KJ s online access to our banking account, the issue of check writing and the account signature was tabled, to be put on the agenda for the next meeting. The treasure will confer with Cmr. Cornelius on was intended to be covered in the $50.00 per month fee and report back to the board at the next meeting. On the question of auto payment of the monthly website fee was tabled, to be put on the agenda for the next meeting. Cmr. Kling suggested that the treasurer present a written report so we know what is going to be addressed ahead of time. Cmr. Bluemel agreed to do so. Cmr. Bluemel report receiving tax checks from the Town of Waterford for $57,575 and from the Village of Waterford for $8, Bill Payment Approval The following bills were presented for approval to pay: Graef information and education $60.00 Your Stor All, administrative $ Printer ink for Kelly Cornelius - Administrative $84.82 $ a. Motion to approve payment and claims of the above bills was made by Cmr. Bluemel and seconded by Cmr. D. Baron Vote: 4 Yes, 0 No 6. Project Updates: Cmr. Kling has nothing to report at this time. 7. Committee Reports a. Aquatic Plant Report on File Dr. Thornton commented on the conference call between the committee, WDNR & himself and on the progress of the Aquatic Plant management update. b. Navigation and Hydrology i. Eco-System Restoration - Report on file. c. Information and Education - Nothing to report d. Marketing - Report on file. i. Political - Nothing additional to report e. Legislative Committee Report Nothing to report. f. Planning Nothing to report g. Special Projects - Nothing to Report WWMD Board Minutes 2 February 23, 2013

3 h. Finance - Nothing to Report 9. Old Business a. Cause Report Reported that 2,800 Walleye were stocked into the waterway at a cost of $3,500. There is a fundraiser on February 24, The carp roundup will be the first weekend in June, coinciding with the free fishing weekend. b. Fox River Commission Report Cmr. Kling reported that: Jim Pindel reported on our ESR activities Cmr. Kling reported on our AIS activities and that we were in support of FRC s position on the City of Waukesha s Water diversion plan. Dr. Thornton elaborated on the FRC s concerns about the project. c. SEWRPC Updates Dr. Thornton gave the board an update as to the city of Waukesha s water diversion. Dr. Thornton mentioned the Fox River Partnership is hosting a Fox River Summit on Friday March 22, 2013 at Veterans Terrace at Echo Park in Burlington, WI. 10. New Business a. Fox River Summit attendance A motion was made by Cmr. Kling to reimburse commissioners for the fee to attend the Fox River Summit. Seconded by Cmr. Baron. Vote: 4 Yes, 0 No. b. Norm Abplanalp gave us a nice presentation recapping the 10 year history of the WWMD. An original painting of the DNR launch site was presented to Dr. Thornton in appreciation of his services since the inception of district. 11. Opportunity for public to address WWMD Commissioners Golden Bay contributed $ to the WWMD Norm Abplanalp made a presentation on the Fix the Fox slogan and the website. A motion was made by Cmr. Baron to adopt the Fix the Fox slogan. Second by Cmr. Peekna. Vote: 4 yes, 0 No. Consideration of trademarking the Fix the Fox slogan was tabled and is to be put on the agenda for the next meeting. WWMD Board Minutes 3 February 23, 2013

4 12. Adjournment A motion to adjourn was made at 10:35 by Cmr. B. Baron, Seconded by Cmr. Bluemel. Vote: 4 Yes, 0 No Respectfully Submitted, Paul Kling WWMD Secretary The next meeting is scheduled for Saturday, March 23, Meeting Guests Name Address Phone Address Barbara Hardy 4527 Riverside Rd rhardy2@wi.rr.com Bill Mainus Clove Ct inspwill@aol.com Bob Hardy 4527 Riverside Rd rhardy2@wi.rr.com Brian Marx Lois Abplanalp 7442 Poplar Cr loisandnorm@aol.com Mike Waghorn 5514 W. Peninsula mikewaghorn@yahoo.com Norm Abplanalp 7442 Poplar Cr Roy Burlingame 6507 Willow Ct Stephanie Waghorn 5514 W. Peninsula stephanie2003@ameritech.net Representatives from C.A.U.S.E. WWMD Board Minutes 4 February 23, 2013

5 Aquatic Plant Management Committee Report February 23 rd, 2013 Members: Mike Waghorn, Stephanie Boutsikakis, Andres Peenka, Dick Kosut, Dennis Hasenfang Clean Boat/Clean Water Program Boat Inspection Training is scheduled for April 27 th with inspections beginning Memorial Day weekend Herbicidal Treatments Permit will be submitted next month ($1,270 fee). Harvesting Preparation of bid documents underway AIS Control Grant We met with Heidi Bunk and Craig Helker from the WDNR, along with Dr. Jeff Thornton (SEWRPC), Mark Kordus and James Scharl from Stantec on Feb 1 st to discuss the submission of the AIS Control Grant Application. Heidi requested additional information in our LMP associated with restoration of the waterway. Because of this we were unable to apply for the grant in the Feb 1 st cycle. We are continuing to work with SEWRPC and Stantec to update the plan. Once this has been submitted and approved by the WDNR we will pursue the grant application. Financials Aquatic Plant Management Budget $145, Expenses to date $15, Aquatic Plant Control Permit $1, Remaining Budget $127,908.00

6 Waterford Waterway Management District February 16, 2013 Hydrology Report to the Commission: Eco-System Restoration Project Team: Don Baron, Paul Kling, Jim Pindel, Andres Peeknes, John Bostrom, Dick Kosut The additional sediment samples requested by the DNR were collected in the past few weeks so initial Phase 2 soil testing analysis is now complete and lab analysis reports will be received at Graef this month, so a complete report can be issued for review by the DNR sediment management specialists to move us into the next phases of dredge application approval. The SE region DNR has assigned an different DNR water specialist as our project coordinator, who is based in Waukesha, as Jennifer Jerich our previous project coordinator relocated to project areas based in Fox Valley regions. We wish Ms. Jerich success with her new assignments. The ESR Project Team has begun to discuss planned public information meetings after a complete engineering report is available, when these full facts and information for waterway dredge project value for restoration of our navigation access is available to the riparian owners. Graef USA advises expectation to complete Phase 2 project so this phase information is available to share at public meetings beginning this year in May and will provide this information to the ESR Project Team for review and acceptance as work completes to provide to the WMMD Commission. The USA Corp of Engineers regional water specialist has begun review of our dredge project including initial meetings with Graef. They advise they expect their action be limited to allow a General Permit after review of the access routes as a check for temporary wetland impacts. They also advised us to check for hydric soils on prospective fill sites in order to evaluate potential wetland impacts. The ESR Project Team recommends that the WWMD Commission take action to send a letter to support the concerns for the City of Waukesha s plan to obtain and return water from Lake Michigan versus the current use of water from wells and returning the water to the Fox River. The SEWRPC, the DNR and the SEW Fox River Commission all have provided in depth information and deep concerns that the reduction in water flow into the Fox River will cause serious reduction in water levels that will cause harm and impair both the biological balance as well as the navigational ability in the Fox River south all the way into Illinois and beyond. *Phase 2 expenses approved to date Invoice #75110 Phase 2 work began after July 20 $ 3, Invoice #75169 Phase 2 with lab test collection services 18, Invoice #75310 Phase 2 professional lab data Graef analysis 18, Invoice #75867 Phase 2 work through Sept 30 Nov 24, , Total ESR Phase 2 project invoices paid to date 43, * *Pending future 90% reimbursement from WSEFRC Commission Respectfully, John Bostrom WWMD Commission / ESR Team Project Leader

7 Februray 23,2013 PR/Marketing Committee Report Discussed WWMD 10 year Anniversary and Presentation by Norm Abplanalp, Who we are and What we do Investigate procedures for public meetings with riparian's with ESR updates (We will need 3 public meetings, Spring, Summer and Fall for input and information sharing ). Set up a conference call with Larry Witzling at Graef to discuss informing the public also set up meeting, 1:00 pm on March 29, 2013 and met with Jim D'Antuono and DeTravis Holte at WDNR to discuss their involvement. Meeting with Larry Witzling from GRAEF and Travis Holte from WDNR re: how to approach public meetings for ESR project (conference call on Friday time TBD) A May spring meeting 2 hours to inform the riparians where we are to date was suggested to be at Waterford H.S. and have a short presentation then have open house with 6 or 7 stations. Station 1 for Graef - Maps showing current levels of silt (muck), and progression over the years with possible future progression of silt Station 2 for Graef - Results of soil samples and ideas for distribution sites for the silt; techniques of silt removal; other content they have available which is TBD at April 9th meeting Station 3 for DNR - Explain permitting process and concept of navigational channels; other content they have available which is TBD at April 9th meeting with them Station 4 for Chamber of Commerce - Discuss economic importance of Fox RiverlTichigan watershed to Village and Town; discuss joint ventures with WWMD Station 5 for SEWRPC - Review Fox River Summit recommendations as related to riparian owners in WWMD District Station 6 for Racine County - present economic data for town, village and riparian owners. Station 7 for WWMD - Sign up for Pontoon Classroom, discuss free fishing weekend activities,? questionnaire for participants to fill out We will inform the public with a special website set up by GRAEF (same as dam project) also in the district newsletter and mailings. Discussed WWMD part with local politicians about Fox River Summit on 03/22/13, Don Baron was asked by SEWFRC to contact IL representatives, Don asked Dr. Jeff Thornton to contact IL Fox Waterways and have them contact them. Discussed local politicians re: unexpected consequences of City of Waukesha using Lake Michigan water on water level of the Fox River, decided not to do any contacting but support the event Dr. John Bjork contacted Chamber and Village re: possible adult pontoon classroom after hour event this summer ( we will ask Chamber to charge members to pay for event), Barb Baron will coordinate event if they agree to terms. Chamber meeting set for with Waterford WI Chamber prersident, Meghan Giese to discuss Adult Pontoon event. Marketing committee will inform John Bostrom ESR chair before any media release's for his approval, regarding dredging project. Once the ESR strategic plan is completed, to accomplish our goal. we will meet to develop the comprehensive marketing approach Communications and Outreach: While the WWMD commission is a significant player in achieving positive results, the public needs to understand the dredging and dredged material management situation. The Marketing committee must concentrate on communication and outreach efforts to provide understanding and involvement to the public and other stakeholders. WWMD wants the people that are being affected by watershed Next meeting, TBD DonaldJ. Baron, WWMD Commissioner Marketing Chairman problems to be informed.