SCOTT COUNTY SOIL & WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT
MONTHLY BOARD MEEETING MINUTES
Thursday, December 20, 2007, 7:00 p.m.
Location:
Present: Bill Comer, Jeff Coomes, John Hardin, Matt Oberlies, Lynda Phillips, Joe Robbins
Absent: none
Guests: Denise Dailey, Laura Fribley, Pat Larr
Meeting Called To
Order by John Hardin
Minutes from November 15 meeting were approved and signed. Bill Comer made a motion to accept the minutes for both months and Joe Robbins seconded. Motion carried.
Old Business
SWCD Business Plan
§
Rule 5 – Denise reported and updated
current Rule 5 projects. There are three
new projects which have been invoiced.
There was discussion about charging more money for industrial projects.
·
Clean Water
Conservation Marketing Grant – Lynda presented the Conservation Marketing Grant for approval. Bill made a motion to approve the submission of the grant and Joe seconded, motion carried. There was discussion about doing the newsletter on our own without coordinating with Farm Services. Lynda will find out what was spent last year in postage and report at the January meeting. We will need a Bulk Mail Permit to implement this grant. Matt made a motion for Lynda to purchase this and Jeff seconded, motion carried.
Sediment &
Nutrient Reduction Grant – Laura went over the grant specifics. There was discussion about the focus of this
grant. It was decided that Soil Testing
is something that would benefit most people, even non-farmers. A committee was formed of Pat, Joe and Lynda
to further research and discuss. Joe
will make a comparison of the percentage of land tested in
Annual Meeting & Dinner
The business plan stated that a speaker on Farmland Preservation would be requested for the 2008 Annual Dinner/Meeting. Lynda contacted Jerene and she is not comfortable talking on this topic. She would be willing to contact someone if we would like. The board decided to keep her as speaker on the topic of her choice and supply a Farmland Preservation brochure for those present at the meeting.
Lynda reported that 67 donor letters had been mailed out. She will follow-up with phone calls.
Steve Broady confirmed that Bob Tobias would be able to make a presentation at the dinner regarding the Muscatatuck log jam.
Lynda presented estimates for promotional rain gauges to pass out at meeting. Matt made a motion to purchase 250 for a cost of $570 + shipping, and Joe seconded the motion, motion carried.
Bill made a motion that Lynda could use the credit card or other means to purchase supplies and flowers for the Annual Dinner/Meeting not to exceed $200, and Jeff seconded the motion, motion carried.
Tickets were dispersed to Supervisors in packs of 10. Control numbers were written down and Supervisors were asked to turn in any unsold tickets. A motion was made by Matt to provide two free tickets to Bob Tobias, Jerene Gilliam, Randy Mace and each Councilman and Commissioner. The motion was seconded by Bill, motion carried. Jeff made a motion that children 12 and under could get in free and Joe seconded that motion, motion carried.
Pesticide Training/Jefferson
County Field Day
Lynda
attended this event along with three from
Plant a Tree for You &
Me: Christmas gift tree sale
We sold four trees and were the only county to have sold anything.
‘Entering
Matt reported that he had not had a chance to do anything else with this. He will contact the Commissioners; while John will ask his dad as a back-up plan.
Extra Money
in County budget
Bill and John had both been in contact with Commissioners and Councilmen, as well as Chief Deputy Auditor. All were in favor of giving SWCD the extra money that had not been spent on the Dist. Coord. salary. However, Auditor was hesitant because Councilmen had not made a motion to do this. Ginger, Deputy Auditor had been unable to get a response from the State Board of Accounts. It was decided that we would submit a claim for this money in an attempt to get them to act.
New Business
2008 Business Plan & Calendar
Lynda
presented a proposed business plan and calendar. Because the hour was late and the meeting
long, it was decided to accept January and February with the exception of the
February purchase of a ‘Food Plot Machine’.
Lynda was asked to get with
Reports
§
Pat Larr – NRCS Pat
reported that there were 3 new EQUIP contracts requiring signatures from the
board.
§
Laura Fribley – ISDA The 2008 Leadership Institute will soon be
announced at the Annual Conference.
§
Lynda Phillips – SWCD Lynda presented a
written summary of the month’s activities.
She got several good ideas from attendance at the regional Dist. Coord. meeting. One suggestion was to send out reminder
postcards about our meetings to the Councilmen and Commissioners. Bill suggested these could be hand-delivered
to their Courthouse mail boxes. She also
found that she should be sending the agendas to members ahead of time so future
the agendas will go to John two weeks out for approval and to the rest of the
board one week in advance. John and Matt
stated that email will be fine for them, but the rest will be mailed USPS. Other districts and State Board of Accounts
allow the Dist. Coord. to sign checks.
It was decided that this would make it easier to handle district
business between meetings. We will still
require two signatures on the checks, but one of them can be the Dist.
Coord. This motion was made by Matt and
seconded by Bill, motion carried. Lynda
presented the board with an End-of-Year summary of their salaries and the
equipment rentals. Bill made a motion
that Lynda could use the credit card to purchase office supplies when needed
and Joe seconded it. She also notified
them of an upcoming Purdue workshop.
Financial District Reports
Approval Checks – Accounts Payable Voucher Register
All checks 4112 to 4121 were signed and approved. The Accounts Payable register was also approved with a balance of $3,197.45. Bill made a motion to approve these expenditures and Jeff seconded, motion carried.
2007 Financial Record audit
Matt thought that he could get someone from Farm Credit to volunteer to audit our 2007 financial records. John appointed Matt to be in charge of our audit committee.
Sign 2006 corrections
Lynda
handed out a summary sheet of her actions.
Matt made a motion to accept the corrections and Bill seconded the
motion, motion carried. Appropriate
documents were signed and will be filed with 2006 financial records.
Savings vs. Money Market acct
A summary of local interest rates from three local and approved depositories was presented to the board. The board felt that we should keep our money in Scott County State Bank because their rates were competitive and they consistently support SWCD. Bill made a motion that a $15,000 CD should be purchased, $10,000 should be placed into a Money Market account and the balance should be placed in a NOW checking account. The existing checking account and savings account will be closed. Joe seconded this motion and the motion carried.
Announcements/Public comments
There were no public comments.
Annual Conference
Jan. 14-16, 08/ Annual Conference of
Adjourn
Joe made a motion at 10:00 pm to adjourn the meeting. Matt seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Respectfully submitted,
Lynda Phillips, SWCD District Coordinator