Crook County Natural Resource District

Crook County Natural Resource District (CCNRD)

February 5th Regular Board Meeting Minutes 12:00pm

CALL MEETING TO ORDER

Mr. Chairman, Wayne Garman called the meeting to order at 12:12 pm at the Sundance USDA Service Center 117 South 21st Street Sundance, Wyoming 82729.

ATTENDANCE

Board: Wayne Garman, Ted Parsons, Lily Altaffer

Employees: Sarah Anderson, Raesha Sell, Carmen Horne-McIntyre (Call in)

Guests: NRCS District Conservationist-Keela Deaton & FSA County Executive Director, Sarah Rytting

OPEN ISSUES TO DISCUSS

Guest Update

Keela Deaton provided an update for NRCS. Keela said, we got a new Farm bill in 2018. We have 11 RCPP contracts we wanted to obligate. The new farm bill is being loaded into Protracts. Once the new farm bill is loaded we can pay contracts. We have 13 soil health applications, 44 grazing and 8 forestry. We compete against Campbell and Weston County applications for funding. We are preparing them for ranking now. Keela summarized the 2018 Farm Bill talking points. She said that NRCS will continue to operate the same programs. However, the talking points emphasized that there are new resource concerns anticipated that will allow NRCS to assist during extreme weather events. The lease has been renewed with the building owner & NRCS for two years.

Sarah Rytting provided an update. FSA programs extended deadlines that had a deadline during the furlough. They include: MFP, honey acreage reporting. Their new deadline is this February 15th, 2018. There is 2019 buy up coverage and the LIP program. NAP approval for new crops to be covered in this county including Teff and mixed forage (small grain, vegetable, legume, grass). Arc/Plc coverage is offered again. If you have cattle losses report that that to FSA within 30 days of loss.

Water Quality by Carmen & Raesha

Carmen summarized the joint water quality meeting. She shared the regression graphs showing relationships between Turbidity & E. coli. The CCNRD Board was interested in collecting sediment samples to help identify if e. coli is present in the sediment. Parsons made a motion to cancel the 319 contract with Joe Onderziek. Ms. Altaffer seconded the motion. Motion was carried. Raesha summarized the BMP Project Funding that remains and a strategy to collect new applications. The CCNRD currently has dollars remaining to allocate. The Board was in support of giving preference points to applicants who could complete their projects early fall, 2019. The Board also was in support of funding soil health projects that would also benefit water quality.

Local Issues by Carmen

Gillette/Madison Water Concerns: Carmen said that things have been quiet lately. She said that she did get the well report for M11. The report doesn’t identify what the potential cause of the pH change was. There may or may not be a permeable layer between the Minnelusa and the Madison formations. She also said that she hasn’t received the water sampling results or summaries for other wells.

Strata Energy Comment Letter: was discussed and the support we received from WDA to write one that reiterated our concern of issuing a permit prior to reviewing the data from the small-scale study.

Penta Concern: The CCNRD Board asked Raesha to please Call WDEQ and inform them of the potential contamination issue. They also emphasized that we should reach out to Mr. Straley and offer additional guidance on how to proceed to receive data If not already been done.

Forest Health by Sarah

Sarah summarized her accomplishments for January. She also summarized the 2019 CAFA proposal. WSFD recently hosted a community wildfire workshop and conducted a fire simulation of the Pine Ridge forests near Pine Haven. Residents were engaged and maybe interested in partnering to conduct wildfire mitigation threats. WSFD would like to capitalize on the traction by partnering with the CCNRD. State Forestry would help support the CCNRD by offering CO-OP money.

Financials

Financial Voucher: Lily Altaffer made motion to pay bills, open bank statements and reconcile reports for the checking and savings accounts. Mr. Parsons seconded the motion. Motion was carried. The bills and financial vouchers were signed in approval.

Approve Minutes

Lily made a motion to approve the minutes from the January 10, 2019 Board Meeting. Mr. Parsons seconded the motion. Motion carried.

NEW ISSUES TO DISCUSS

Legislative Discussion Update

The CCNRD discussed the new Public Records Act bill and agreed that it was an improvement. It was emphasized that training needs to be offered to know what information is considered private/personal and what information can be released by the Board to an applicant. The Board shared that it is important to use the current bill, not the new bill in legislative session. They also said that we are allowed to charge as long as it is at a fair and reasonable price.

Vehicle Bids Review: No bids were submitted to the Board. Lily highlighted that it will be very difficult to find a vehicle that meets all of our requirements for the price we want to pay. The Board recommended submitting an additional bid request through public purchase and Facebook without a price to at least see what vehicles are going for.

2 Public Records Requests were received on 2/4/19. Response was provided on 2/5/19.

SCHEDULE:

Crook County Commissioners Meeting February 6, 2019 1:00 pm

Watershed Conference Casper Hilton Garden Inn February 20-21st

Special District Training February 27-28th in Cheyenne

Strata Tour Scheduled for February 27th, 2019 from 12:30 pm – 3:00 pm Meet at Carlile Fire Hall at 12:30 pm.

Next Board Meeting March 5th, 2019 at 12:00 pm

Employee Winter Training March 19th-21st, 2019 in Saratoga, Wyoming

Water Quality Monitoring Training April 23-25, 2019

TIME OFF REQUESTS

Raesha Sell: Tuesday, February 12th, 2018

Sarah D. Anderson: February 22nd, 2019, Friday 1/2 Day

OTHER BUSINESS

New Position: Raesha submitted a letter of resignation to the Board. Her last day will be April 30, 2019. The Board recommended that a job description be crafted to hire two new employees that would become a water quality program coordinator and the office manager.

Suite Water: Cathy Norris will be requested by the Board to demonstrate how to use Suite Water.

Next Meeting: Food for March 5th: Ted Parsons volunteered to bring the food for our next meeting.

ADJOURN: No other business was needed to be discussed. Mr. Chairman adjourned the Board Meeting at 2:58 pm.

3/5/19

3/5/19