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Minutes of Regular Meeting
VANDERBURGH COUNTY SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT
(SWCD) Office, Evansville, Indiana
7:00 p.m., Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Members Present:                                                                                     SWCD Personnel:
Phil Hoy, Chairman                                                                                       Norma Duckworth
Holly McCutchan, Member                                                                           Bonnie Bittner
Wayne Fehd, Member
Lauren Preske, Member                                                                                NRCS Personnel:
Fred Padgett, Associate                                                                                 None
Tom Niksch, Associate                                                                                  IDNR Personnel:
Susan Fowler, Associate None

GUEST: Carolyn Rusk, Brownfield Coordinator

The minutes of the February meeting were mailed to each member prior to the meeting.

Phil Hoy asked the board to refer to the February financial report. The previous balance 02-01-04 $35,883.63 Receipts, $3,405.33, Debits $3,023.62 and balance as of 02-29-04 $36,265.34.

A motion was made by Wayne Fehd to approve the treasurer’s report as presented, seconded by Holly McCutchan, and carried.

                Wayne Fehd made a motion to approve the February claims, seconded by
                Holly McCutchan and carried.

Chairman Phil Hoy said the first order of business was to elect a Chairman and Vice-Chairman for this year. After some discussion

                Lauren Preske made a motion to elect Dave Ellison Chairman, seconded
                Wayne Fehd, and carried

                Holly McCutchan made a motion to elect Phil Hoy Vice-Chairman, seconded
                Wayne Fehd, and carried.

Phil called for volunteers to serve as Finance Committee, Preservation/Creation of Natural Area and District Operations chairpersons. Holly McCutchan volunteered to take over as Finance Committee chairperson. Lauren Preske volunteered for Preservation/Creation of Natural Areas and Wayne Fehd for District Operations.

Phil introduced our guest Carolyn Rusk and asked members to introduce themselves and their capacity on the board or as staff.

Ms. Rusk gave some general background on her life and her position as Brownfield Coordinator was a new position that was developed in 2000. The position was funded for 5 years by a grant with Evansville Urban Enterprise Association and City, and will expire at the end of 2004. She gave the U.S. EPA’s definition of a Brownfield, said EPA today dedicates ¼ of it’s funding for petroleum cleanup and talked about local Brownfield related issues. Specifics of progress in Evansville Brownfield initiatives were discussed along with how SWCD and Brownfield can work together. The EPA Brownfield Conference will be in St. Louis September 20-22, 2004 and there is no registration fee. We will advertise the conference in the July newsletter and Bonnie asked Ms. Rusk to submit and article if it works in her schedule.

Lauren Preske said Sustainable Evansville workshop goals are to influence Urban Planning and she will contact Carolyn Rusk.

Natural Resource Committee: David Ellison/Todd Thomas, Chairpersons
Lauren asked member to refer to copies in their packets of the e-mails concerning she and Norma’s meeting with the commissioners to address the district’s involvement with MS4. They met with Catherine Fanello first. She suggested they also meet with Cris Cottom and Pat Keepes and give them the same materials they brought to her. Lauren is still communicating with the city engineer’s office about the cities consultants including the district in the MS4s. Since our last meeting we met with Suzanne Crouch which she felt went very well; she was very open, positive and helpful. Lauren is also communicating with John Stoll, County Engineer about talking to their consultants Clark Deitz about including the district in the MS4s. Lauren and Norma have an appointment with Commissioner Mosby tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. Commissioner Crouch had some excellent suggestions, which they will follow up on.

Lauren reported she would like to table the Daylight Farm Supply, Inc. Cooperative Research Proposal until next meeting. Holly said she learned at Supervisor Training that we should invite Extension to partner with us on projects like this.

Lauren reported she is still working on the Sustainable Evansville, Inc. Workshop and will get with Bonnie after the meeting to get the names and numbers of caterers.

Preservation/Creation Natural Areas Committee – Tom Niksch, Chairperson
No Business This Month

Farmland Preservation Committee – Wayne Fehd, Chairperson
Bonnie said she would talk to Darrell about his making a presentation at the April board meeting on the Farm & Pasture Protection Program.

Bonnie will also contact Dave Elgin, Four Rivers’ RC&D director to make a presentation at the April board meeting on Farmland Preservation.

Wayne Fehd, who was the district delegate in the business meeting at Annual Conference reported the IASWCD floor resolution: "Farmland Preservation" was adopted.

Holly McCutchan said she finally got a hold of the Zoo Curator of Waters at the Indianapolis Zoo. He is so excited that we would like to use the Indiana Zoo Farmland Conversion Display. After 2006 he will give it to us, but he wanted to send us all the graphics by e-mail that day. Holly will ask him to burn them to disk and mail them to us. Board and staff discussed several possibilities of places to contact that might like to utilize the display.

Land Use Committee – Phil Hoy, Chairperson
The Business Plan items Educate/Inform the General Public Officials on the importance to the community of the "Brownfield" and urban resources opportunities and Partner with Evansville Brownfield Coordinator; Phil felt like with covered with our guest in the beginning of the meeting.

Legislative Committee – John Hahn, Chairperson
Wayne Fehd asked members to refer to copies in their packets of the resolutions voted on at Annual Conference Business Meeting.

Finance Committee, Todd Thomas, Chairperson
Bonnie thanked Holly for giving her some other ideas to explore for the Envirothon signs. She checked with each one and Budget Signs gave her the best price. The signs are ordered and will be ready before the April 13^th date of the Envirothon.

Bonnie called several businesses to check on prices for a Laser Jet color printer, one was higher than Keller Schroeder and one was $30 cheaper but they were out of stock. She ordered the printer from Keller Schroeder.

Bonnie asked Wayne to contact Todd and set up a date to audit the books; the report is due on March 31, 2004.

District Operation Committee – Bob Zimmerman, Chairperson
Norma reported she did not attend the county commissioners’ meeting this month.

Natural Resource Committee – David Ellison/Todd Thomas, Co-Chairpersons
Norma reported no constructions in a floodway this month.

Bonnie asked members to contact her with nominations for the 2004 River Friendly Farmer. The nominations are due the end of June.

Preservation/Creation Natural Areas Committee – Tom Niksch, Chairperson
No Business This Month

Farmland Preservation Committee – Wayne Fehd, Chairperson
No Business This Month

Brownfield and Urban Land Use Committee – Phil Hoy, Chairperson
No Business This Month

Legislative Committee – John Hahn, Chairperson
Phil asked members to refer to copies in their packets of the Legislative Wrap Up from Dean Far, Executive Director of the IASWCD. He covered Clean Water Indiana and Farmland Protection. Dean sent his personal thanks to everyone who contacted legislators and worked on the mentioned legislation.

Finance Committee –Todd Thomas, Chairperson
Wayne Fehd reported petty cash is in order and asked for members to initial the report.

Bonnie gave the bottom line of the Common Computing Environment (CCE) computers thru the USDA contracts that have been offered to districts. We need to take advantage of this offer if the district is to continue to have high speed internet and the ability to send e-mails. Districts are encouraged to purchase the CCE computers by the state association. The deadline for ordering is March 31^st. After some discussion:

                        Holly McCutchan made a motion to purchase two CCE computers and two
                        15" LCD Flat Panel Displays, second by Lauren Preske, and carried.

District Operations Committee – Bob Zimmerman, Chairperson
Norma reported on Friday afternoon (2-19-04) she received e-mail from Patty White (Commissioners’ Office) to attend a Job Study meeting on Monday morning at the Civic Center. The commissioners hired a company to update job descriptions of the employees under their line item. They gave Norma a folder with Employee Questionnaires for Mike and Bonnie to fill out. The form for Mike was given to John Stoll and they gave Norma an Employee Questionnaire. They also gave her an Operation Review form to fill out for the office. The forms are due on April 5^th.

Phil asked members to refer to copies in their packets of Amy Steeples’ report.

Phil asked member to also refer to copies in their packets of Norma’s report, the Inspection Log and Mileage Log. Norma reported she conducted a poster contest in the schools on the Living Soil, the Soil Stewardship theme for 2004. She received 46 posters all of which were judged by four different people. Norma showed staff and supervisors the winning posters.

Holly reported the public meeting on March 18^th for Friends of Scott Twp. Park was a success. Thirty people attended and Jim McCutchan praised the SWCD for all the help they are giving to get the park organized and going.

The NRCS report was tabled. Bonnie passed the paper work on Maurice Baumgart’s filter strip for review and signature.

County employee time sheets were passed for review and signature.

The April meeting was set for April 27, 2004 at 7:00 p.m. in the Vanderburgh County SWCD conference room.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m.

                                                                                                                Respectfully Submitted
                                                                                                                Bonnie Bittner
                                                                                                                Executive Assistant

Minutes approved on 4-27-04

David Ellison _________________________

G. Phillip Hoy _________________________

Wayne Fehd _________________________

Holly McCutchan _________________________

Lauren Preske _________________________

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