Hermiston Irrigation District
Board of Directors
Regular Board
Meeting Minutes
MINUTES: The Board reviewed the minutes of the April 17, 2008 Regular Board Meeting. There were no changes to the minutes. Director Jeppeson moved to approve the minutes as presented. Director Locke seconded the motion. There being no further discussion, the motion carried unanimously.
FINANCIAL STATEMENTS & VOUCHERS: The Board reviewed the Profit & Loss Report for April 2008. The Board also reviewed and signed the April 2008 Vouchers Report. Voucher Numbers 35120 through 35169 were reviewed and approved.
GUESTS: Guest Lisa Hauner attended the meeting as an observer.
OLD
BUSINESS
ELM ST PROPERTY: Manager Wilcox reported that the District is awaiting a new appraisal which should be available in 10-14 days. Until then the buyer, now Hermiston School District, cannot commit to the sale. The school bond measure that was not supposed to affect the sale is now a factor. Next week Manager Wilcox will meet with Fred Maiocco, HSD Superintendent, to start drafting the sales agreement. It is still the intention of the District to make sure that the Life Knowledge Center gets 28 acres of the property.
DROP STRUCTURE:
Manager Wilcox
reported that Banner Bank doesn’t want to use the land as collateral and that
if the land sale does not come through the District would not be able to make
the balloon payment up front as anticipated.
In this case the District needs to use the FlexLease Program.
Manager
There was some discussion about extending the Drop Structure Project for another year. It was estimated that this would cause at least an additional $200,000 in costs.
Jeremy Morris with Anderson-Perry has looked into the US Army Corps of Engineers permits. Basically, the ACOE does not know if a permit will be required until an application is submitted.
EXCHANGE AGREEMENT: There has been no progress made on the Exchange Agreement. The most recent BOR contact, Tim Personius has been promoted to Deputy Regional Director. Manager Wilcox is uncertain whether Mr. Personius will continue negotiations or if someone else will be assigned to the matter.
KLOEPPER EASEMENT:
Mr.
NEW
BUSINESS
FEED CANAL LEAK INSURANCE CLAIMS: The city of Echo claims that a leak is killing trees in their arboretum. Manager Wilcox and Field Manager Hlawek took a claims adjuster out to view the site. They dug down about 18” and found no wetness. This claim will probably be denied by the District’s insurance.
Additionally, there are homeowners in Stanfield that claim that they have water under their houses that they believe is coming from the Feed Canal. Upon inspection, the District found and removed a muskrat den, dugout, packed and used a vibratory roller on about 200’ of the canal. When the Feed Canal was turned back on it took about 3 days for the water to show up again down by the houses. The houses were built about 5 years ago and are located on a steep slope.
One home had standing water in the back yard and about 8” of water in the crawl space. The insurance adjuster has been out to view the site. While the canal may contribute, it may not be the only source of the problem due to the developers and landowners digging into the hillside and through the natural drainage of the area.
Manager Wilcox met with SDAO’s risk management representative. The representative expressed that the landowners will probably have to sign-on to a potential solution. The District is considering digging a trench on the downhill side, mix in some bentonite and pack it back in.
That area of the canal almost always has standing water. Manager Wilcox and Field Manager Hlawek have discussed that it would be better to fill-in the canal so that water will move on down the canal and dissipate. Some places could use as much as 16” to 18” of fill.
CROSSING AGREEMENT-EDDIE BOSTER: Patron, Eddie Boster applied for a Crossing Agreement located on the I-Line just off of 17th Street. Mr. Boster wants to put a bridge over the canal to access his property. It will need to be filled to get the bridge high enough for the water levels. Manager Wilcox did not see any problem with the agreement.
Director Bergstrom moved to approve Mr. Boster’s Crossing Agreement on I-line and to have it forwarded to the Bureau for approval. Director Jeppeson seconded the motion. There being no further discussion the motion passed unanimously.
GOVERNOR
KULONGOSKI’S LETTER OF SUPPORT OF THE CLEAN WATER
RESTORATION ACT: Manager Wilcox
distributed a copy of the letter from Governor Kulongoski
to
MANAGER’S REPORT
WATER REPORT:
Today the Feed
Canal
is running at 203 cfs with 171 cfs going into the Cold Springs Reservoir.
CSR has approximately 28,541 af in it as of this morning.
We are currently running 95 cfs through CSAO.
ALTO is running at about 20cfs and the
DENVER INFRASTRUCTURE MEETING: Manager Wilcox attended a meeting in Denver, CO on infrastructure and urbanization. Manager Wilcox expressed that he felt that this was one of the better Bureau of Reclamation meetings that he has attended. The BOR has agreed to help the irrigation districts to get developers to take responsibility for the problems that they create. The consensus throughout the western states is that the BOR does not enforce the protection of the easements within the Districts. The BOR said that a lot of the trouble lies with the Department of Justice. The overall message that the BOR sent out was to protect the easements to the extreme.
TARVIN INCIDENT: Brian and Peggy Tarvin contacted the District. There is a drain that passes under the A-Line by Leathers Rd. It comes out on a District easement and onto property in that area. The Tarvin’s complained about the water drainage and asked the District for help. The District agreed to help and called the landowner and got permission to take whatever steps were needed to correct the issue. The field manager took equipment and removed blackberry bushes and locust trees to try to get to the source of the problem. The water was rerouted along its original path.
The Tarvin’s complained about the District removing the bushes and trees from the neighboring property, which they do not own. The Tarvin’s began yelling at the field manager and called the Sheriff’s office. The Sheriff’s would not come out. Manager Wilcox and Field Manger Hlawek met with the landowner and he agreed to let the District clear his place out if need be. The Tarvin’s called the County Code Enforcement Officer. The Code Enforcement Officer came out and he decided that their claim was unfounded and that there were no violations.
TRI-STATE MEETING:
Manager Wilcox
will attend this meeting on
OWRC BOARD MEETING:
The OWRC Board Meeting is being held in Boardman and is scheduled for
ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned by Chairman Miller at 5:07 p.m.
Charles
Miller
Chairman Recording Secretary