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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNHSWCD_3-19-12_approved minutes-signed New Hanover Soil and Water Conservation District Board Meeting held at Wilmington, NC. Meeting Number 10_ Date: _March 19, 2012 Supervisors Present: Others Present: Dave Thomas, Chair Dru Harrison, Director Donna Moffitt, Secretary/Treasurer Amy Long, Education Coordinator Steve Skavroneck Bill Hart, Vice-Chair Nancy Pritchett Was this meeting held during a meal: No _ Thomas called the meeting to order at 2:14pm. Agenda Review: Hart added a separate Commissioner Field Trip under Conservation Action Day under Old Business. Pritchett moved to accept the agenda as amended. Skavroneck seconded the motion; motion passed unanimously. MINUTES: January 23, 2012 regular monthly board meeting #7. Corrections were submitted ahead of the meeting. Moffitt moved to approve the minutes as amended. Hart seconded the motion; motion passed unanimously. February 13, 2012 meeting #8, regular monthly board meeting. Corrections were submitted ahead of the meeting. Moffitt moved to approve the minutes as amended. Hart seconded the motion; motion passed unanimously. February 13, 2012 meeting #9, strategic plan work session. Moffitt moved to approve the minutes as presented. Hart seconded the motion; motion passed unanimously. FINANCIAL REPORT: Harrison presented the report. A. MONTHLY RECONCILIATION Appropriations and reimbursements: Two reimbursements due to be received this month; Ag rd cost share technical assistance and the City of Wilmington Stormwater 3 quarter payment. Total value of reimbursements is $10,000. Rain Barrel update: Long included the revised flyer in the meeting folder to show the expanded Rain Water Solutions program. Edits to flyer were suggested. Long explained the new layout for the rain barrel accounting report to reflect the two different barrels now being sold. Hart wants incentive net income added shown in the report. Supervisors should send suggestions on report if they have any. Hart moved to accept the financial report for information. Moffitt seconded the motion; motion passed unanimously. B. COUNTY AND CITY CONTRACTS City Funding: Staff is working with Jennifer Butler (City of Wilmington Storm Water Services) on the FY2012-2013 COW Stormwater contract negotiations. All City contracts, not just Stormwater Services contracts, are being fully reviewed and each deliverable is being evaluated and negotiated. Contracts seem very precarious right now, especially because their Phase II EPA permit is under review on federal level as well. Moffitt stressed that contracting with a government organization like NHSWCD is sounder practice for the City because unlike 1 non-profits, we are held to North Carolina Local Government Budget and Fiscal Control Act (LGBFCA) criteria and public and open meeting laws. Pritchett suggested presenting our work to City Council like as we do annually with the County. Harrison will arrange to do that. County Relations: Harrison reported that NHSWCD is scheduled to give annual yearly report th to the County Commissioners on April 16 at 9am. time has been allocated to the NHSWCD on the agenda of the regular meeting of the Board of County Commissioners for the purpose of updating the commissioners on the accomplishments of the district supervisors and staff. th The meeting will take place on April 16 commencing at 9:00 am.Agenda review is on April 12. It was agreed that Chairman Thomas will introduce the organization and thank the County, then invite Harrison to give the report. Harrison reported to the Board that the Sediment and Erosion Control program that the County runs for the State is being heavily questioned by the Commissioners. Supervisor & Staff Reports A. UNC School of Government/NCASWCD Training report Hart and Long attended the training from held on February 14-15, 2012, in Raleigh on the Chapel Hill campus. Hart reported said that it was much better than it was eight years ago; extremely well done; many new Supervisors with urban interests and some focus was given to urbanizing issues districts, but not enough, although the but move in that direction was good direction to see. Long reported that the interaction between staff and Supervisors was helpful and beneficial. B. Web site Long reported that the revised web site has gone live. Send edits and suggestions to her. Now would be a good time to take Donnie to a thank you lunch/dinner. C. Stewardship Development Awards Program report Harrison reported: The event was held on rd February 23 at Regional Wilmington Realtors Regional Association of Realtors; an official of the U.S. Department of Energy was guest speaker; Congressman Mike McIntyre was also present and spoke. They took McIntyre and guests were taken on a guided tour of green buildings and BMPs afterwards. There were five recipients of the award this year. There was good media coverage. 40 people attended the education workshop in the morning, 125 people th attended the award luncheon. An annual retreat is planned for May 9 to do strategic and financial planning for the future. Moffitt thought it was very professionally done. D. Community Conservation: Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) Flyer: Harrison asked everyone to review and make edits by Friday 3/23/12. Glossy handouts will be sent to all City Wilmington Mayor and Members of Council, County Commissioners, and the management staffs of City and County along with a signed letter from Harrison and Thomas (Director and Chairman). Hart commented that Eagles Island emphasis needs to be recategorized and deemphasized and needs to be stronger about District-activities in the county, e.g., Holly Tree property, be emphasized only services on the flyer. CCAP Advisory Committee Meeting: Hart attended the State committee meeting in Raleigh on March 9 as the designee of the president of the NCASWCD.and reported back to the Board. Attendance was poor and committee may dissolve runs the risk of becoming irrelevant. The management practices (BMP) revisions were the focus of the work session. A Design manual will be developed has been drafted and subjected to a preliminary review by NCSU faculty. Members of the committee were asked to volunteer to do the final review and edits of the manual. (Harrison was volunteered for this by Hart to join him and the League of Municipalities representative for this work). The results of the Urban District Caucus at the Annual Meeting were distributed. circular was also developed and The League of Municipalities is becoming increasingly interested in CCAP; unfortunately, the person sent to represent the Association of County Commissioners Association relations were unclear they did not seem to know who/what SWCDs were and why they should be there.or what they do 2 There may be another meeting scheduled in the next quarter; he will go if the Board wishes. The District Employee Association (DEA) representative did not physically attend the meeting, but may have been attending through teleconference he was not sure. As representative of the Districts, Hart asked the Division to simplify the volume of paper in CCAP contracts (what may be necessary for a $100,000 agriculture BMP should not be the model for a pet waste station). He also recommended that the Division staff develop a mechanism by which the District within which a Section 319 project is proposed be alerted when the Division of Water Quality considers funding the project. Hart proposes: 1) NHSWCD reemphasizes desire for simplified CCAP contract forms. They are currently based on Ag Cost Share application procedure which is largely non-applicable. 2) Asking that Dave Williams and the rest of SW Division staff to find ways to let Districts know in advance about DWQ applications for 319 grants. Partner Reports A. Division Report. Kristina Fischer was not present, but her report is was in the folder. Harrison highlighted points of interest from the report. The Legislative breakfast has been scheduled for th June 14 in Raleigh. All Supervisors are encouraged to attend and make appointments with their representatives. Hart would like Harrison to give him a list of what he needs to do, who he needs to speak with, whom to contact. B. NRCS Report. Jane Wood was not present and did not send a report. Old Business A. Strategic Plan draft Harrison reported. She emailed the draft to staff and Board last week. Skavroneck asked to see the version with all of the comments and mark ups that Fischer and Long took. Harrison will email that version to the Board and give 10 days for feedback. Skavroneck and Harrison will work on the draft based on those comments. B. Rain Barrel Flyer in city mailings Hart reported and gave background history. Staff was told by Melissa Talbert in the Public Affairs Office that it was not consistent with City policy to include the NHSWCD rain barrel sale flyer in their mailings. Harrison asked Hart to talk with City Stormwater before talking to City Manager, Sterling Cheatham. Hart did that and was told by Dave Mayes and Jennifer Butler that a committee was recently created to address these decisions, but the committee had not met yet. Hart went to City Council briefing session to see what he could learn from Council. At this meeting he learned about the 319 grant proposal that Stormwater and The Coastal Federation had applied for to develop a watershed plan for the Hewletts Creek and Bradley Creek watersheds. He expressed to Laura Padgett and Charlie Rivenbark that we wanted to add the flyer and Councilmembers said it could be done, with their help if needed. Harrison added that Talbert told Butler that the flyer could only be included if it did not involve revenue. Hart was struck that Council did not know what NHSWCD did. For example, Padgett did not know cost-share programs existed for non-agricultural lands. Hart asked Harrison to put together a letter to explain to Council what programs the District offers and the services offered to citizens. She will send these letters out on letterhead with the glossy brochure once those edits have been finalized. N C. Conservation in Action Day: st Harrison reminded Supervisors BOS of email she sent to confirm March 21 tour for County officials. The event has to be rescheduled due to lack of Supervisor response WAVE Transit to schedule the tours and will cost $65. She is working with Deputy 3 County Clerk into available dates in April (week of Azalea Festival is out) and will include City officials in the invitation. The plan is to give an introduction on the bus, give coffee and snacks on the bus, then go on a 3 site CCAP tour to Bradley Elementary School, Airlie Garden, and a private residence. Event should not last more than two hours. Funds will come out of the miscellaneous line item in the budget to cover expenses. Consensus was that this tour should happen before the budget is passed. Harrison also suggested inviting primary candidates to N future events if this is to be held annually or biannually. d Davis about taking them on a tour to see what NHSWCD programs do. He never heard back from Davis after initial interest was expressed, but Barfield is willing and interested to go. He asked the Board if individuals should be targeted and toured, or should staff continue with a large invitation event. Consensus was to go for the group, take who you get, and then target individuals after the N tour. D. Candidates for SWCD Board of Supervisors: Hart was surprised that Art Brownell was not at arrison reported that Justin Lanassa came into the office to ask about the District documents only, not verbal information from the staff, would not give his name. Moffitt wants to know if BOS should be doing anything about the vacancies. Harrison will draft a letter for Board, thanking people for their expressed interest in running for the Board and inviting them to attend our public meetings. E. Skavroneck added an update regarding Jock Brandis from the Full Belly Project. He is not interested in coming to talk. He did show Steve three inventions he has created and is introducing for western Carolina farmers for irrigation livestock watering: 1) Gravity fed pump in high gradient streams; 2) Solar pump on trucks to pump water in fields or troughs; 3) Vertical French drain. All three inventions have conservation benefit because it they allows the farmer to fence off the stream from the cattle. Jock needs to know how to get these inventions approved as BMPs and commented that he needs one or two districts to make it their District BMP and then it can move forward for consideration to be as a statewide BMP. New Business A. Bradley Creek - Hewletts Creek Watershed Plan: Hart reported on the City Council briefing that he and Long attended where this watershed plan was unveiled. Major presentation given by Dave Mayes and Todd Miller of the N.C. Coastal Federation announcing the award of a DWQ U.S. Clean Water Act Section 319 grant to move the hydrographs back in Hewletts and Bradley creeks. The applicants are City of Wilmington Stormwater Services and the N.C. Coastal Federation. Hart spoke with Lauren and Todd from Coastal Federation and asked them what happened to NHSWCD. NHSCD has been the lead organization in Hewletts Creek for ten years. We set the objective of reopening the lower portion of the creek to shellfish harvesting. We hold easements and property. What happened? Lauren said that the NHSWCD will be involved in about it and have no money for it. We knew nothing about it. How did this happen? Harrison reported that she knew about the application at the very end of the proposal writing process. She was told not to get involved until after they were done. She was invited to a site visit or large schools and sites they had about a month ago. She was told not to get involved until after they brought it to Council. Since the City Council presentation, City Stormwater asked Harrison if NHSWCD could administer funds for this project if they are awarded the grant. She told Butler that yes this could be done without involving the Division. 4 Skavroneck asked what the Coastal Federation role is in this. Harrison replied that they wrote the grant proposal. We know nothing beyond that, but speculate that the Bradley Creek Elementary School project was the impetus to all of this. We have not seen the plan. Butler told Harrison The Board is not happy that the District has been included in something without being asked and further more have been kept in the dark about the details of the plan. Moffitt is concerned about the expectation that NHSWCD will be asked to do more work with no compensation. The Board wants a representative of this plan to come and explain what the arrangement is we will call a special meeting if necessary. Not happy that the District was used without our knowledge. Board wants immediate explanation. They also want to know if our salaries were used as a match for the 319 grant. B. District Employees Association DEA Resolution Moffitt presented the resolution to provide a travel stipend for the Area 6 representative to the NC Conservation District Employees Association (NCCDEA). This resolution is asking Area 6 to adopt a $500 budget for this representative to cover travel costs to attend DEA meetings. Duplin and Brunswick Counties are discussing the resolution to show local support of the Area representative. Skavroneck asked if this was in the Area 6 budget already or would dues be increased. Harrison replied that it should be in their budget. She also noted that Area 7 already does this. Moffitt motioned approval of the resolution C. Coastal Caucus (Sturgeon Letter) Hart reported on the Coastal Caucus that he attended in Jacksonville, NC. The Caucus was an informal gathering of citizen organizations. The major speaker was Rob Lamme, the employed NC Coastal Federation lobbyist. His view is that the conservative sector of the General Assembly (GA) is appearing to fracture, which causes him to be upbeat about environmental probabilities in spite of the recent events in the GA regarding environmental issues. At the caucus, attendees asked the representative of the League of Conservation Voters to drafted and signed a letter to the State governor voicing their concern over the perceived State fighting opposition to the listing under the terms of the federal Endangered Species Act of two distinct population species of Atlantic Sturgeon. The GA is seeking legal alternatives to oppose the federal listing of the species. U.S. Secretary of Commerce, John Bryson, has finalized his position on designating these distinct populations as federally endangered; the listing goes into effect April 6, 2012. David Knight (Assistant Secretary for NCDENR), in comments made to the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission, the federal listing. Hart wants the Board to be familiar with the issue and to authorize him to sign the letter when it is finalized. Moffitt has concerns signing this version of the letter as an organization. It is heresy based on hearsay and is very negative. Preference is that our Board OS sends a short and succinct letter to Governor Purdue stating our position: that concludes that there is no valid legal basis to challenge the listing of the species. We are concerned and care about the sturgeon becauseWe support the listing becaushow it ties to our mission or water quality and natural resource protection). The Board agrees that the letter is too long and negative. If drastically revised, they could sign on, but not to the current letter. UPCOMING EVENTS: March 20: Coastal Envirothon, Cool Springs ELC March 22: easement check (meet at YWCA at 9am) Pritchett will try to make it Operation Medicine Drop 5 THURSDAY March 22, 10-2 @ DENR office SATURDAY March 24, 9-1 @ Medical Mall or 10-2 @ Kure Beach Police Department March 29: Spring Area VI meeting;9:30 registration, 10am call to order, Wayne County Center, Goldsboro. Long, Harrison, Skavroneck, Hart and Moffitt attending. March 31: Science Olympiad & Household Hazardous Waste disposal April 1: paws4people 5K and 1 mile fun walk @ UNCW, 9am A April 16: Annual update presentation to County Commissioners, 9am April 21: Earth Day Festival at Hugh MacRae Park, 12-6 : April 16, 2pm Set next meeting date Pritchett moved to adjourn the meeting. Skavroneck seconded the motion; motion passed unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 4:47pm. Amy E. K. Long Recorded By: __________________________________________________(Amy EK Long) Dave Thomas Approved By: __________________________________________________(Dave Thomas, Chair) Tick List: Try to arrange a brief presentation to City Council. Dru Try to attend annual NHSWCD presentation to the county board. Everyone Revise rain barrel financial report to include cumulative profit. Amy Review NHSWCD flyer for comments to Dru by end of week. Supervisors Take a look at the new web site and provide comments to Amy. Supervisors Send out an additional draft strategic plan document that shows changes from the 2008 plan and reasons for them to all strategic planning session participants. Dru Review and comment on the strategic plan documents by 10 days after receiving from Dru. All Continue to organize tour for local public officials. Dru Compose a letter to prospective supervisors to get them interested. Dru Request Jennifer Butler or her supervisor to discuss 319 grant with this board. Dru 6