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| Nemaha NRD December
2007 Board Meeting Report Tecumseh – During their regular meeting Thursday, December 13, the Nemaha Natural Resources District reviewed the annual audit report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2007. Art White of Art White & Associates, who conducted the audit, was in attendance and explained the various portions of the report. Following the explanation, the board unanimously approved the audit as presented. At the recommendation of the Programs and Projects Committee, the board voted to proceed with an application to the Nebraska Natural Resources Commission for Resource Development Funds. The assistance to be requested will be for the Buck and Duck Creek Watershed project in the Peru, Nebraska, area. While most funds would be for recreation components of the project, some may be requested for other components as well. Following this preliminary application, if the project is deemed eligible for the state funding, a second, more detailed application would be required. The Programs and Projects Committee also discussed options for a sediment control basin above Iron Horse Trail Lake near DuBois. Last month the consultant who developed the options, The Flatwater Group, reviewed these with the board. Because the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission has now expressed interest in renovating the fisheries at this public recreation lake, the board voted to develop a complete lake renovation plan to include the sediment basin along with additional measures to improve maintenance and function. Game and Parks would also assist with removing some of the sediment in the lake, adding in-lake habitat features, and renovating the fisheries as part of the project. EPA Section 319 funds will be combined with aquatic habitat and Sport Fisheries Restoration Funds for the project, which should be completed by 2010. Two requests for variances to allow for the drilling of irrigation wells were approved. One request was from Royce Gobber for an irrigation well to be located 1.5 miles west of Tecumseh. The other request from Ed Ehmen would allow an irrigation well 0.5 miles west of Sterling. With the upcoming Legislative Conference of the Nebraska Association of Resources Districts, a voting delegate and alternate had to be selected. Orval Gigstad from Syracuse was chosen as the voting delegate, and Don Siske, Table Rock, will be the alternate for the meeting to be held in Lincoln February 5-6, 2008. A group with interest in riding motorcycles on frozen NRD lakes was at the meeting to speak during the public comment period. Mick Hutcheson, speaking on behalf of the group, asked the board to reconsider allowing this sport on lakes such as Prairie Owl near Dunbar. After providing some background information on their sport and reasons they felt the board might reconsider their decision, Ted Godemann, board chair, stated this item would be placed on the agenda of the January 10, 2008, NRD meeting for further consideration. The next meeting of the Nemaha Natural Resources District board of directors will be on Thursday, January 10, 2007, beginning at 7:00 p.m. at the NRD headquarters, 62161 Highway 136, Tecumseh. |