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HomeMy WebLinkAboutForestry & Parks Committee - Minutes - 8/12/2019 BAYFIELD COUNTY FORESTRY AND PARKS DEPARTMENT COMMITTEE MEETING August 12, 2019 County Board Room Members Present: Fred Strand, Chairperson; Jeffrey Silbert, Vice-Chairperson; Larry Fickbohm, David Zepczyk and Harold Maki Staff in Attendance: Jason Bodine, Administrator; Lindley Mattson, Office Manager; Steve Probst, 1. Call to Order of Forestry and Parks Committee Meeting. The meeting of the Forestry and Parks Committee was called to order by Chairman F. Strand at 6:01 P.M. 2. Public Comment. Chairperson Strand called for public comment. After repeating the call no one came forward. Closed public comment. 3. Approval of the June 10, 2019 Meeting Minutes. MOTION: (Fickbohm, Zepczyk) to approve the minutes as presented. All: Yes. Carried. 4. Land Use Agreement/Lease Xcel has made a request to store approximately 100 power utility poles in the Sand River Pit for their scheduled work up north this fall. There is a possibility of 20-40 poles staying over the winter months. JB provided a lease agreement sent over by Xcel, we added a caveat at the end that addresses the Apostle island sled dog race as well as some of the spring wood that gets staged in the pit. Xcel agreed to work with us on the staging area for the race, if any poles are in the way they would be moved to accommodate for the race. In exchange they would pay the county $500 a month, with an expectation of it taking 10 months. MOTION: (Maki, Silbert) accept the storage lease agreement with Northern States Power to put their poles in Sand River Pit. All: Yes. Carried. 5. Monthly Reports. Discussion of general activities, events, issues and accomplishments. Possible action on report(s) only. A. Forestry (all updates) a. 2019 Budget Ahead of the pace. Currently 2.67 million in revenue compared to 2.5 million at this time last year. Expenses are on track. Budget is looking good for 2019. b. Comprehensive Land Use Plan Will be a topic on the agenda for the next year and a half. Templates have been created and distributed to county forest administrators. Between now and the next few months we will be opening the chapters and revising the plan. Much more to come. c. Certification Audit This was a full re-certification audit for FSC and SFI. Included in the distribution material for the committee members were the maps of the tours as well as the descriptions for each stop. Each tour made it about halfway through the scheduled tour. Timber sales, recreation stakeholders, Barnes Barrens, and the Cable rec area were among the stops. The audit went extremely well, there were no corrective actions nor observations for improvements. This is rare for an audit in general and extremely rare for a full certification audit. The full report will be forwarded to the committee once received by administrator. Some committee discussion on what the auditors were looking for. d. Oak Wilt J. Holmes has been flying the drone looking for new signs of Oak Wilt. There are some new spots we will be sampling. The DNR is going up next week in a plane to look at our current problem areas, Cable and south Barnes. Hoping for no new outbreaks but wouldn’t be surprised to see more. Side note: no new positives on EAB, traps remain empty. e. Trespass in Iron River Still in withdraw phase, should have a final decision shortly. They did have some questions regarding withdraw, which were answered promptly. After withdrawing, we will move quickly on closing the property. B. Parks (all updates) Parks are extremely popular this season. As of this week over $90,000 in revenue. Parks have been growing for three or four years. Expecting to level out. Few requests for the 2020 budget, will be covered later in the meeting. C. Trails and Recreation (all updates) a. Motorized Trials Not a lot to update regarding trails. We managed to escape any major trail damage in these last few storms. Committee discussion on county roads opening up to ATVs. b. Non-Motorized Trails i. Siskiwit Falls Met with representatives from the Town of Bell to update the new chairperson on plans for Siskiwit Falls. They were all supportive of the plans. Next week we will be working with highway to start some of the first infrastructure improvements, focusing on the main access route on the eastern lot. We did receive the $30,000 WI Coastal Management grant for the primary hiking trail on the east side of the river. We applied for Knowles Nelson Stewardship for the other half, hoping to have a positive announcement soon. Side note: For Lost Creek Falls, we applied for a RTA grant from the state which would take care of the last remaining work on the Lost Creek Trail. That is a 50/50 grant for $11,000, our match is part of the proposed 2020 budget. Committee discussion on development of surrounding area (field). ii. Fire Hill The Stewardship grant was approved. We are waiting to hear back form WI Coastal on the other matching half. If the Coastal grant is awarded, there is a chance to close on the property still this year. c. Yurts Yurts, very active this summer. Bayfield yurts are pushing the 100% occupancy. Cable is around 40-50%. Great reviews all around. There is some maintenance over the next year or so; new stain on floors/deck, update tables etc. d. Events No previously approved events were addressed during the past month. Most recurring events are being addressed around the first of every year. In general, once all of the Birke, CAMBA and North End events have come through, we only get a few new events, which will then be brought to the committee. e. FEMA Grant/Projects i. Motorized Trails Both motorized grants are closed out and FEMA reimbursement received. ii. Delta Landfill The landfill portion is still open. DATCP is still committed to assisting us with the project, hoping to meet with them this month. This is budgeted as a Capital project in the 2020 budget. FEMA has committed the 87.5% of the estimated $350,000. The state did say they would look into some additional grant options for the remaining 12.5% Also, looking at reaching out to the town in contributing to this 12.5% MOTION: (Maki, Zepczyk) Receive the monthly report and place on file. All: Yes. Carried. 6. 2020 Budget J. Bodine provided a draft of the 2020 operating budget. Bottom line is a .64% decrease in net return to the general fund. Net return in the 2019 budget was 2.018 million, proposed return for the 2020 budget is 2.005 million. Difference of about 13,000. This is after incorporating the 3% increase in wages, 10% increase in health insurance but the biggest change in budget items is the town road aid increase from 2% to 3%. The 2019 budget for town road aide was $75,000, for 2020 it is $115,000. J. Bodine was able to balance the budget with this increase but is squeezing where we can. Committee discussion on how beneficial this project is to the county. By maintaining the roads better, it will increase the value of future timber sales. Also discussed increase in Good Neighbor Authority (GNA). Staff will continue for 2020. State is now hiring staff to focus on GNA, county is at its max for assistance. J. Bodine will look over the budget once more before sending off to Administrator MOTION: (Maki, Silbert) Recommend sending this proposed budget on to the Administrator. All: Yes. Carried. Joseph LeBouton, DNR Liason –Not in attendance. Meeting adjourned at 6:55 P.M The next Forestry and Parks Committee meeting will be held Monday, September 9, 2019 at 6:00 P.M. at Bayfield County Courthouse, County Board Room, Second Floor, 117 E. 5th Street, Washburn, Wisconsin. Submitted by, Lindley Mattson