GUESTS: There were no guests present at the meeting.

MINUTES: The Board reviewed the minutes of the January 21, 2010, Organizational Board. Director Bergstrom moved to approve the minutes as presented. Director Locke seconded the motion and it carried unanimously.

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS & VOUCHERS: The Board reviewed the Profit & Loss Report for January 2010. The Board reviewed and signed the January/February 2010 Vouchers Report. Vouchers Numbered 36379 through 36434 were reviewed and approved. The Board also signed expense checks.

Assessment payments are being steadily received. Sizeable payments have been received on the Orozco account that has been in foreclosure. Attorney Hojem indicated that the bank is requiring that they pay the account in full and is following up on the matter.

EXCHANGE AGREEMENT: Manager Wilcox reported that he has not heard anything regarding this matter.

POTENTIAL LAND SALE – COLUMBIA LIFE KNOWLEDGE CENTER (CLKC): Manager Wilcox reported that the appraisal had already been done and it was about $300,000. The Hermiston School District’s (HSD) has about 15.62 water rights available due to the new school buildings that are being built. Manager Wilcox has suggested that they transfer the water rights to the CLKC property. Otherwise HSD would need to go through the public bidding process. The CLKC is still interested in purchasing the land and Manager Wilcox expects to have some progress made within the next two months.

PAUL BURNS DEVELOPMENT: Manager Wilcox reported that he has met with Attorney David Hadley. Mr. Hadley is preparing a draft development agreement between HID and Mr. Burns and has a list of issues that he believes need to be addressed in the agreement. HID sent out a notification for Mr. Burns to people who may be interested in purchasing the water rights from Mr. Burns. To date, Mr. Burns has not transferred any of the water rights.

The Bureau of Reclamation has concerns with the crossing agreement. Mr. Burns’ development cannot go under the City’s Master Crossing Agreement because the City is not the underlying land owner. Mr. Burns still wants HID and the BOR to sign-off on Phase I of the development and be allowed to pipe the D-Line canal in the future. However, once the lots are sold Mr. Burns will no longer be the underlying landowner and the District will have no way to make sure that the canal gets piped. One solution to this problem is to require a letter of credit from a bank for Mr. Burns. Mr. Burns will need to deposit funds in the amount of the projected cost of materials and labor to pipe that portion of the D-Line. If the line is not piped by a specified date, then the District can use those funds to do the project.

Mr. Burns’ engineer, Jim Stormo, called Mr. Hadley and requested a meeting between himself, Mr. Burns and Manager Wilcox to resolve some of the issues. Manager Wilcox and Mr. Hadley agree that they need to meet and resolve all of the issues. They also need to include the BOR, since it is their standards that have to be met in regards to the crossing agreement. In addition, HID’s developer’s agreement states that the plats can only be signed after the crossing agreements are in place.

AQUATIC WEED CONTROL: Manager Wilcox reported that Cascade and Teton are still in the labeling process and are currently manufacturing product. The Districts’ attorneys are working on amending the NPDES permits. The amended permits will not be required for 2010, but will be needed in 2011.

The District has applied some Sonar at the head end of the Maxwell Canal at Noel Spill and in the ME-Line.

In 2004 the District sold 15.04 acres of land on Theater Lane to HSD for $140,000. The BOD agreed to consider an offer from HSD to sell them an additional +/- 5.00 acres needed for the future school site. The property will need to be appraised and a boundary line adjustment will need to be done.

WATER REPORT: The Feed Canal is running at 120 cfs at the mouth and 96 cfs is reaching the reservoir. There is about a 20% loss. There is currently 10,109 af in CSR. That is approximately 3,000 af less than this time last year. The District has earned 22,179 af exchange credits for 2010 and has a balance of 5,133 af from 2009. We have a remaining entitlement of 16, 970 af.

We are allowed to recoup up to 20% of our losses if there is 500 cfs at the mouth. However, it is unlikely that we will reach that amount in order to be able to divert our losses.

MAINTENANCE REPORT: Field Manager Eicher reported that there were some initial delays on the I-line project, but the work is progressing along and they should be across Minnehaha Rd by February 15, 2010. From there the project should progress quicker. Manager Wilcox explained that a lot of time has been spent on removing encroachments from the easements and finish work as the pipeline is going through a lot of the patrons’ yards.

TRI-STATE MEETING: Manager Wilcox attended the meeting on January 22, 2010. One item that was discussed there was a request for a new listing for an expanded area for bull trout. Under this listing there would be 22,679 miles of streams and 533,426 acres of lakes and reservoirs in Idaho, Washington and Montana that would be listed as critical habitat for bull trout.

In Oregon, there would be 3,100 miles of streams and 29,139 acres of lakes and reservoirs. That does not count the in-common stream miles of Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River and Oregon and Idaho along the Snake River. Manager Wilcox does not expect that this will have much effect on the District directly, other than some additional regulations.

They also discussed the Cascade and Teton products and some of the things that are happening in Washington, D.C. There is more language being used regarding peak and ecological flows, what it is and how it is determined.

NORTHWEST IRRIGATION OPERATORS CONFERNCE: Manager Wilcox will be attending the conference. It is being held in Boise, ID on February 17-18, 2010. SePro is holding a meeting on February 16, 2010, just prior to the conference.

BOARD MEMBER TRAINING: Director Jeppeson attended an SDAO Board Member Training in Bend, OR. He said that there was a lot of good information presented at the meeting.

PERSONNEL: A long time employee of the District has been terminated and Manager Wilcox is looking for new qualified employees. The employees have agreed to work on President’s Day in exchange for the day after Thanksgiving.

ANNUAL MEETING: The Annual Meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 24, 2010. Barry Norris with OWRD has agreed to give a presentation on the Integrated Water Supply Strategy.

MINI EXCAVATOR: The District is considering the purchase of a mini excavator and has been trying out a couple of different models.

ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned by Chairman Miller at 5:24 p.m.