Meeting Minutes: 09/10/11

Saturday, September 10th, 2011

Fall Meeting

Tom Tedrick, President, called the meeting to order at 10:04 am at the Coldwater Health Center Conference Center at 379 E. Chicago St., Coldwater, MI. Diane Blanchard, Immediate Past President, Ann Marie Moore, Vice President, Carolyn Morrison, Secretary, Colleen Humphrey, Treasurer and Trustees, Dee Kehoe, Allen Baunock and Jack Collins were also present. According to Colleen, a quorum was NOT present for conducting business. Therefore, minutes and the treasury report were not accepted, but will be tabled until the May 5, 2012 Annual meeting. However, the reports are attached to these minutes for reference purposes.


SPECIAL REPORTS

Kathy Worst, Branch County Conservation District Manager reported that the Stream Monitoring program is going well. People who have helped have enjoyed it. They have sampled twice now with a third day is scheduled yet this fall. See attached report for details.

Kathy informed us that for the second time the 319 Hodunk/ Messenger Implementation Grant has been turned down. Funding is short again. She will reapply as soon as it is available again with a possible rewrite. The Stream Monitoring program, however, is part of that grant which has been approved. Kathy may try writing smaller portions of the 319 grant to see if small pieces might be funded. Kathy reported the following individuals are now all housed at the Conservation District office:

Mike Censk is the Michigan Water Stewardship (MWSP) and Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP) Technician who assists primarily farmers, with agricultural groundwater related issues. He runs farmers through A*SYST programs and certifies them as being in compliance with safe farming practices related to whichever program they are addressing. This can give the farmer a MAEAP certification (signed into law by the governor this year) and some protection against complaints or prosecution from outside people who think, but don’t know, that they are polluting the water with bad farming practices. It also gives them time and tools to fix the problems, and gives the public a way of knowing that they are indeed farming in an environmentally safe manner when certified. They do have to recertify on a fairly regular basis and can lose it if they let things go by the wayside. He can also do something as simple as a class on old abandoned wells. Mike covers St. Joe and Branch counties.

Brad Love is the new Conservation Technical Assistance Specialist (CTAI). His job has some of the same components as Mikes; however he works primarily with the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service as a Soil Conservationist. He helps farmers through NRCS programs to maintain or establish certain practices on their farms and does some of the engineer planning and oversight as well. Brad will cover Branch, St. Joe, and Kalamazoo counties.

Rachel Smith is the Prairie River Watershed Technician. She is basically doing what Ben did, but in three counties and two states. We have never been allowed to cross state and county boundaries before. So this is a large, multi county, state project. Her job is to work with non point source pollution issues in the watershed; noting areas to protect, locating issues we don’t know about, assessing issues we do know about, educating the public and writing a plan concerning how to address everything. She will work with drain commissions, county, city, village, and township governments as well as local citizens.

Glen Spencer, Branch County Marine Patrol, reported that he had had some questions about the placement of buoys this year as they had been changed from previous years. He said the DNR determines placement and that they must be in the mouth of the channel and not in the lake. The DNR gives the permits for these. Also mention by Glen was the fact that there is a hundred foot rule that says boats must be in idle speed 100 feet from docks and boats. The Sheriff Department uses a range finder to calculate where the 100 feet is and that they have ticketed this summer those in violation of the rule. Derek Harmon was introduced as the new DNR officer. Both Derek and Glen noted that signs can be put up on private property. For instance, a slow sign could be put up on land of private property.

Tom Tedrick, Girard township supervisor said that the rewritten ordinances first public hearing is this Weds., Sept. 14 at the township hall. He is the only person representing the lake owner’s viewpoint and urges others to attend the hearing. Additional language has been included for key holing/funneling.

Tom also reported that 142 tons of plant material has been harvested from the lakes this summer. Starry Stonewort has invaded the entire chain now. All of the allocated monies and reserves were used this year. It was suggested that we raise the assessment to more actively address the weeds. Tom will take this suggestion to the Hodunk/Messenger County Board.

ANNUAL MEETING, SATURDAY, MAY 5, 2012: Elections for President, Secretary and one Trustee.

Report Respectfully Submitted, Carolyn Morrison, Secretary
EMAIL ADDRESS: NorthChainLake@gmail.com, WEBSITE: http://www.northchain.com/