NHSWCD_12-12-11_approved minutes
New Hanover Soil and Water Conservation District Board Meeting held at Wilmington, NC.
Meeting Number 6_ Date: _December 12, 2011
Supervisors Present: Others Present:
Dave Thomas, Chair Dru Harrison, Director
Donna Moffitt, Secretary/Treasurer Amy Long, Education Coordinator
Steve Skavroneck Jane Wood, District Conservationist NRCS
Nancy Pritchett Kristina Fischer, Area 6 Coordinator NCSWCD
Was this meeting held during a meal: No _
Mr. Thomas called the meeting to order at 4:01pm.
Agenda Review: Ms.
Harrison
as amended. Mr. Thomas seconded the motion; motion passed unanimously.
MINUTES:
October 17, 2011 regular monthly board meeting #5. Ms. Moffitt submitted corrections ahead
of time. Ms. Moffit moved to accept the minutes as amended. Mr. Thomas seconded the
motion; motion passed unanimously.
FINANCIAL REPORT:
MONTHLY RECONCILIATION Ms. Harrison presented the report, printed copies in folders.
Points of note:
Land Management Account: Ms. Harrison did transfer $4000 from that account into general
checking to cover December payroll. There was an issue with receiving the Soil & Water
assistance check will be distributed by Wednesday (12/14/11). The Division needs a new W9
form filled out in order to send the Matching Funds check. Once they receive the W9, a check
will arrive within 5-10 business days. Ms. Harrison will transfer the $4000 back to Land
Management Account once the Division checks have been received and deposited.
Reserve: $45,000 is in the reserve. Previous budgets anticipated only $25,000. Conservation
expenditures and part-time employee in 2010/11 is why the reserve is so much larger than
anticipated.
Travel/Training: more than 50% of this budgeted line item has been spent since July 1, 2011.
This is typical and historically the Board has always reallocated funds to cover expenditures in
this category.
Ms. Moffitt stated that with the current reserve, she could not anticipate any issues with
realigning the budget as needed. Ms. Pritchett asked what the County pays for mileage. Ms.
Harrison was not sure, but reported that NHSWCD pays staff 48.5 cents per mile.
Mr. Skavroneck reiterated that he is happy with this style of report.
Mr. Thomas moved to accept the report as information. Mr. Skavroneck seconded the motion; motion
passed unanimously.
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SUPERVISOR REPORT:
A. Education Report Ms. Long presented the education report:. The NHSWCD display Wwon
second place for its educational booth at the County Fair. Staff is sStill looking for a school for
a large-scale BMP project. She will have a draft web review document distributed before the
next meeting for review and comment. She will be working with Donnie Bonoit and the existing
Microsoft Expression web software to make changes to the existing site, but may have to start
from scratch and if so recommends budgeting for a web developer to create the site for
NHSWCD.
Ms. Moffitt wanted to add an update on the Area 6 Fall Meeting held in October: The Medicine
Cabinet resolution drafted by Bill Hart passed with strong support, especially from Brunswick
County. Ms. Fischer reminded the Board that a District Supervisor or staff member should be
at The Water Resources Standing Committee to present the resolution at the Annual meeting
in January. Mr. Hart plans to attend the Annual meeting and will be at that committee. Ms.
Moffitt thought the Fall Meeting was a good work session that forced District Supervisors and
staff to really review the importance of the regional coordinators. Kristina Fischer explained the
poll that Pat Harris took at the meeting --- a gauge for how coordinators are used and needed.
Trying to figure out how to best utilize these regional staff members and reassign their job
duties and territories to make up for the loss of 2 of the 8 regional coordinators.
PROJECT UPDATES:
A. CCAP:
Request for payment (RFP) on contract 02-2012-001-12 for a total of $2973 has been
received (cistern at Airlie Gardens is completed). Staff recommendation is to approve the
RFP. Ms. Moffitt moved to approve the RFP from Airlie for $2973. Mr. Thomas seconded
the motion; motion passed unanimously. Ms. Harrison wrote and distributed a press
release but does not know if any paper or news station picked it up. She also offered to
help Airlie buy an educational sign that would also recognize the funding of the project.
The 2500 gallon cistern catches ¼ of the roof water. The Garden can use 200 gallons a
day and avoid running it dry. They currently use 700 gallons a day. An additional cistern on
the back of the building is a possibility in the future. The pay back is about 15 years for that
cistern on that site.
The design for a grass swale at ridge is almost
complete. Division engineers have been designing that project.
RBC grant. Ms. Harrison has been communicating with Tracie Skrabal at NC Coastal
Federation; Coastal Fed and the City of Wilmington are looking for potential projects in the
Bradley and Hewletts Creek watersheds. Roland Grise Middle School and Hoggard High
School are target sites. Other target sites are in place and site visits have been made.
Proposal is being considered as a partnership, a requirement of the granting program.
S&W Divison submitted another proposal for Clean Water Management Trust Funds
(CWMTF) but it was not funded.
B. Eagles Island: A Coalition meeting for December was canceled and rescheduled for January
th
18. Subcommittee is working on the Management Plan for public and private lands. The draft
Management Plan is due to the Coalition by the end of 2012. The subcommittee wants to
partner with local experts who can take charge of each of the targeted portions of the plan.
Subcommittee meeting monthly for all of 2012.
C. Stewardship: An advertisement went out for the part-time employee position. Only one
applicant was received so a second call went out. The hope was for one intern plus one
employee. eon with two
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training sessions on either side of the lunch; realtors training and engineer/planning/architect
There were 5 applicants
for the awards: 1 in Brunswick, 4 in New Hanover; the new Convention Center, Front Street
Apartments, Snipes Academy, Taylor West Apartments, Sunset Beach Fire Station. February
rd
23 luncheon with training at the new Realtor Building on Sir Taylor near Mayfair.
PARTNER REPORTS:
A. Division Report: Ms. Kristina Fischer reported. Her November and December reports were
distributed through email and print outs are in the meeting folder. Area 5 Coordinator started
today, Eric Pare a former DENR employee.
Highlights from reports:
Reminded everyone of the Annual Meeting, registration is open, in Greensboro. There are
targeted breakout sessions this year, including an Urban District Caucus, which will be
important for NHSWCD. Gray Newman from Mecklenburg will lead the discussion and
Shelly Baird will be there for support.
Outstanding Accomplishments in Community Conservation Award (Jim Stephenson
Award): first annual award is being given posthumously to Jim Stephenson.
Resolutions are posted online on annual meeting web site and are available for review
prior to the meeting. One resolution of interest regards the Schedule F form requirement
for Ag Cost Share and AgWRAPsubmit Schedule Fs and some
Schedule Fs, so there are a lot of problems with this requirement.
Personally identifiable information is always withheld, but there is still question about
compliance with Farm Bill.
Kelly Ibrahim (?) is new Ag Cost Share Coordinator.
AgWRAP is a new program the Division is rolling out (Agriculture Water Resources
Assistance Program). Currently accepting applications for new pond construction only, but
other BMPs will be approved at the January meeting. 12/29/11 deadline for county districts
to get projected requests submitted. Water quantity is the focus, not quality.
Department of Ag has an in-house print shop who offers Districts discounted printing. For
brochures, new display, mission statement display board, etc.
B. NRCS Report: Ms. Jane Wood reported. Distributed written report that explains the meetings
she has attended.
Highlights from reports:
New plan for NRCS in North Carolina (a regional approach which will combine NC with 3
other states).
NRCS receieved aA new New Hanover application for Forestry and one for a
(a new national initiative which is basically a greenhouse, but the farmer plants
directly into the ground instead of into boxes. The cover prolongs the growing season a
couple months on either side of the season. Have to maintain it for 4 years).
Energy initiative is a new national program as well sign up for energy audit and in the
next year, you can get cost share funds to install BMPs that address any audit concerns.
1619 Privacy Agreement is available if NHSWCD wants to sign it. Ms. Kristina Fischer
not
reminded the Board that Pat Harris has advised districts to sign the agreement until
SWCD has a better understanding of the law and how it will affect our own agreements
and contracts. Ms. Wood tabled the agreement for later review.
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OLD BUSINESS:
1pm on 2/13/12
Strategic Plan work-session date: Start at with strategic plan session,
followed by regular monthly board meeting. Ms. Long will reserve room and post accordingly.
Employment forms: Ms. Harrison and Ms. Long submitted their forms to Chairman Thomas
during the meeting. Mr. Thomas reported that he received the applications from both staff
members, reviewed them both and approved both secondary employment requests for Ms.
Long and Ms. Harrison.
NEW BUSINESS:
Staff year-end bonus: Ms. Moffitt suggested to go into an executive session as the last agenda
item to discuss this in the absence of staff.
Communications chief: AssociationDivision President Craig Fraizer requestsrequires each
District to assign a Communications Chief who will be in charge of disseminating information
to all supervisors instead of everyone being on the list serve. Mr. Skavroneck agreed to be
responsible for forwarding the information to staff and Board and ensuring that everyone gets
the information. Ms. Harrison conveyed willingness to be the secondary person for
this role. Staff will make sure that staff has the current contact info.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Annual meeting January 8-10, Greensboro, Koury Convention Center.
th
December 14: EI Coalition meeting canceled and rescheduled for January 18.
rd
: Monday January 23, 2pm.
Set next meeting date
At 5:17pm Mr. Thomas moved to go into Executive Session to discuss staff year-end bonuses. Mr.
Skavroneck seconded the motion; motion passed unanimously.
At 5:24pm, regular session was called back into order. Mr. Thomas announced staff bonuses of $400
each for jobs well-done.
Mr. Thomas moved to adjourn the meeting. Ms. Pritchett seconded the motion; motion passed
unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 5:26pm.
Recorded By: Amy Long
Approved By: Dave Thomas
Prepare draft presentation on web site proposal by January meeting. Amy
Review items referred to the various standing committees at the annual meeting and let NHSWCD know
about any that may be of interest to us. Kristina
Inform association president that Steve Skavroneck will serve as the NHSWCD contact person for the new
priority communication system. Dru
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