Hermiston Irrigation District

Board of Directors

   February 20, 2007

Annual Meeting Minutes

DINNER: The meeting started at 6:00 p.m. with a Steak & Beans Bar-B-Q Dinner set-up and prepared by FFA members and alumni.

CALL TO ORDER: Board Chairman Charles Miller called the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Hermiston Irrigation District to order at 6:45 p.m. in the Hermiston Irrigation District shop building.  Also present at the meeting were Board Members Mike Bergstrom, Len Jeppeson, John Lybrand and Craig Coleman; District Manager, Chuck Wilcox; Field Manager, Greg Dell; Recording Secretary, Annette Rambel, guest speaker, Anita Winkler with Oregon Water Resources Congress (OWRC); HID’s office staff; 2 members of the HID field crew and approximately 49 patrons and guests.

INTRODUCTIONS:  Chairman Miller introduced the Board members and the HID Managers.  Manger Wilcox introduced the HID office staff.  Field Manager Dell introduced the members of the field crew that were present.

WATER RIGHTS OWNERSHIP WITHIN A DISTRICT AND WHAT’S GOING ON IN OREGON LEGISLATURE:  Manager Wilcox introduced Anita Winkler.  Ms. Winkler stated that she has been with OWRC for 5 ½ years.  The purpose of OWRC is promoting the protection and use of water rights and the wise stewardship of water. 

Ms. Winkler explained that she and a lobbyist with KLM Consulting, Kristina McNitt met with landowners and irrigation district from all over Oregon to identify their interests and concerns.  After gathering information from all over the state, the OWRC BOD will meet to decide how to act upon this information.  The three ideas for direction that they are considering is to create a Bill of Rights based on the information that they have gathered, a Trust Concept that expands on existing irrigation district laws, or to do nothing at all.

Ms. Winkler then went on to explain bills that are currently in the legislation.

CHAIRMAN’S COMMENTS:  Chairman Miller commented that the BOD has been working on a few projects.  When the Umatilla Basin Project came in we were suppose to have an Exchange Agreement.  To date, the Exchange Agreement has not been completed and signed.  The BOD is standing firm on the negotiation points that they have made.  Encroachments are a growing problem in the District.  As a result of that, the BOD has developed a policy to deal with the encroachment problems.  The Rules and Regulation Handbook for the District has been revised.  Copies were available at the meeting.  The Drop Structure needs to be replaced and the District is looking into grants and is working on the engineering.

MAINTENANCE REPORT:  Field Manger Greg Dell informed the patrons that the field crew started extensively cleaning the 26 miles of the Feed Canal on October 1, 2006 and was done in November in time to start receiving water, they put in a new drain system on the A-Line, and installed 1 mile of pipe on the L-Line.  They crew is now busy putting in screens, cleaning, burning, making repairs and installing new diversions.  In closing, he requested that all maintenance issues be reported as soon as possible to give him time to schedule the work.

WATER REPORT:   Manager Wilcox gave report on the current water situation.

ADJOURNMENT:  Chairman Miller adjourned the Annual Meeting at approximately 7:47 pm.

     Charles Miller                                                                   Annette V. Rambel       

Chairman                                                                             Recording Secretary

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