DEVILSLAKEBASIN JOINT WATER RESOURCE BOARD

Minutes of the regular monthly meeting held Wednesday, March 17th, 2009 at the MunichCommunity Center in Devils Lake, ND.

Chairman Ash called the meeting to order at 9a.m. Roll call of the counties was taken and Representatives from Walsh, Towner and Pierce were absent.

CavalierCounty Larry Gellner

EddyCounty Absent

NelsonCounty Mike Donohue

PierceCounty Duane Hawk

RamseyCounty Duaine Ash

RoletteCounty Sherwood Haakenson

TownerCounty John Elsperger

WalshCounty Absent

Others present: See list attached to original minutes.

Chairman Ash stated that the minutes were sent out to board members in their pre-meeting packets and asked if everyone had a chance to read the minutes and if they had any corrections. Hawk moved to approve the minutes of the February 17th meeting, second by Haakenson, motion passed unanimously.

The financial report for the month was presented:

Elsperger moved to approve the financial report, second by Gellner, motion carried unanimously.

The following list of bills was presented for payment:

February 2009 Bills

Adobe.com – Adobe Contribute Website Design Software / $199.00 / Debit
Localcalender.com (Website Calendar Subscription) / $9.5 / Debit
Leevers CountyMarket / $32.21 / 3093
The Fort Garry / 283.16 / 3094
RamseyCounty Auditor: Rent / $190.00 / 3095
RamseyCounty Auditor: Pstg.* / $100.79 / 3095
RamseyCounty Auditor: Telephone: December – January / $59.73 / 3095
RamseyCounty Auditor: Copies / $152.30 / 3095
Ramsey County Water Resource District - Copier Rent / $50.00 / 3096
ND SWC - Jan. & Feb. 2009 Downstream / $1,811.13 / 3098
ND PERs - Health Insurance / $825.76 / 3099
MunichCommunity Center / $50.00 / 3100
* Includes $20.00 Postage Meter Fee

Gellner moved to pay the bills as listed, second by Elsperger, motion carried unanimously.

TEST PROJECT UPDATE:

# NDSU Update: Frith directed the board members to the report from Drs. Steele & Hopkins contained in their packets of which a copy will be included with the official minutes. Frith stated that the Drs. Had requested that they be able to continue with the Test Project, especially at the sites that they were not able to complete in the fall of 2008, at a no cost the Joint Board. Frith stated that a continuation would have to be with the cooperation of the site operators. Hawk moved to allow NDSU to go ahead with a NO COST one-year extension to the UpperBasin Water Utilization Project, second by Donohue, motion passed unanimously. Frith stated that the Drs. had said that they would be will to come up the April board meeting to discuss the extension and answer any questions that the board may have, the board agreed that would be a good idea.

7th ANNUAL JOINT BOARD TOUR:

Frith distributed to the board a preliminary itinerary for the June 24th, 2009 joint Board Water Tour. Some discussion was held an what routes would be best to show the amounts of water that is in that part of the basin, Frith said that he would work with individual board members to get the best route would work in their area.

BENSONCOUNTY :

Frith said the John Beckstrand from the Benson County Water Board stopped by the office and dropped off the letter that is in the board’s packets, a copy of which will be included with the official minutes. After looking through the letter from the Benson County Water Board the joint Board members asked if Frith could invite them to our next meeting to discuss the considerations and the amount of land list in BensonCounty within the Basin that is addressed in the letter.

SWEETWATER/MORRISON STORAGE CONTRACTS UPDATE:

Frith stated that there is one outstanding contract that he is waiting for and that he has spoken to the landowner and there were no problems other than it was forgotten about. Frith stated that he expected the final contract to be in the mail this week.

ESAP STORAGE CONTRACT UPDATE:

Frith updated the board members about the 9 ESAP Storage Contracts that will be expiring at the end of 2009 and one contract that has an expiration date of the end of 2010. The annual contract payments are $12,785 and Frith mentioned that the Board will have to approve those payments at the next board meeting in April.

WATER MANAGEMENT PLAN UPDATE:

Mike Noone presented the final draft of the Water Management Plan to the board. Noone stated that he thought we could get by with an inexpensive printing of the plan this go around instead of an expensive fancy cover. Hawk moved to approve the update to the Water Management Plan, second by Elsperger, motion passed unanimously.

DEVILSLAKE DIKE RE-ALIGNMENT and JOINT POWERS AGREEMENT:

Frith stated that because the board meeting had to be re-scheduled Devils Lake Mayor Fred Bott was unable to attend today’s meeting. Frith did mention that that had not been any meeting with the Joint Powers Committee and the board needed to choose a representative for that committee. Elsperger moved that Frith continue representing the Joint Board on the Devils Lake Dike Re-Alignment Committee, second by Gellner, motion passed unanimously.

OTHER OLD BUSINESS:

Frith stated that the new office furniture is scheduled to be delivered and setup Friday of this week.

NO OTHER OLD BUSINESS:

NEW BUSINESS:

ESAP SITE INSPECTIONS:

Frith stated that before any of the ESAP Storage checks can be sent the site have to be physically inspected usually sometime in April, weather provided. Frith relayed to the board that both Noone & Curry from the SWC as well as former manager Mike Connor have agreed to help out with those inspections.

DEVILSLAKE OUTLET ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING AND APPOINTMENT:

Frith stated that the Governor’s Devils Lake Outlet Advisory Committee is scheduled to meet in DevilsLake on March 25th in the Historical meeting room of the Ramsey County Armory. Frith also mentioned that Dale Anderson was the Joint Board’s representative for that committee and with Mr. Anderson’s retirement the Joint Board need to nominate a new representative for the Governor to appoint. After some discussion on whom and from what area the representative should come from Hawk moved that John Elsperger be the representative from the Joint Board, second by Gellner, motion passed unanimously.

ELECTRONIC PRINTED CHECKS:

Frith told the board that the checks that the board is currently using is just about out and that he would prefer using Electronic checks that could be printed right from the Quickbooks Accounting software. Gellner moved to approve Frith to get the checks that he thinks would work best, second by Hawk, motion passed unanimously.

TOLNA COULEE CLEANOUT:

Frith stated that with the forecast for the lake to rise three feet or more this year it has been brought to his attention that the Tolna Coulee Cleanout should once again be discussed. Frith noted that by the volumes of notes and documents associated with this topic is has certainly been discussed extensively by the board in the past. The discussion focused on the level or the depth that the coulee could be cleaned out and in the past, when discussed, only a foot could be removed with having to get a permit from the SWC.

OTHER NEW BUSINESS:

BASIN BOARD REPORTS:

CavalierCounty: Not much going on right now. They do have some water going over the roads in at least one township.The Carp issue is still unresolved and several meeting to address those issues have been postponed one of the major landowners involved in the project is pretty much against the project. Gellner feels that there is a good chance that carp could make it down given the amount of water that is expected.

EddyCounty: No Report

NelsonCounty: Not much happening, they have a lot to do but just can’t get them done mainly because of the weather. They will have a lot of problems in the StumpLakePark especially if the water comes up as high as they are talking. Both the bathrooms and the pavilion at the park are in danger of being inundated with water and their county commission is working with the Army Corps to come up with a dike plan.

PierceCounty: They have a lot of snow to melt & HurricaneLake should be full.

RamseyCounty: They have been discussing office personnel policies, getting office furniture, and the amount of water that is expected this spring and the problems it will present.

RoletteCounty: No Report (Haakenson had to leave early).

TownerCounty: Spent a lot of time discussing what kind of problems they will be having due to the rising waters. They know they will have issues with roads as the culverts are all full and frozen they expect some water to come over some of the roads until the culverts thaw out.

WalshCounty: No report.

RED RIVER BASIN COMMISSION:

Joe gave the report for the RedRiver Basin.

STATE WATER COMMISSION REPORT:

Erwin Curry, P.E. Presented the SWC report for February; a copy of his report is attached to the official minutes.

USF&W UPDATE:

No Report

NRCS REPORT:

No Report

DOWNSTREAM ACCEPTANCE REPORT:

Joe Belford gave the report for the Downstream Acceptance Program.

MANAGER’S REPORT:

Frith went over with the board contents of the miscellaneous portion of their packets including the monthly moisture report, monthly lake elevations and coulee flows. Frith’s report to the board will be included with the official minutes.

There being no further business, Chairman Ash thanked everyone attending

Date approved: April 8th, 2009

______

Duaine Ash, ChairmanJeff W. Frith, Manager

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