Broad River Watershed Association Board Meeting

February 11, 2009

Present at Meeting: Mary Freeman, Bud Freeman, Victor Johnson, Pat Kelly, Paul Webb, Michael Moody, Jean Smith, Debbie Lester, Robbie Griffith

Minutes from the January Annual Retreat were reviewed and Bud moved to approve them as they were written. Motion was seconded and approved unanimously.

January financial report was reviewed. Victor recommended BRWA spend the remaining Norcross Wildlife Foundation Grant money on a handheld Delorma PN-04 GPS unit. Robbie moved to purchase the Delorme GPS with the Norcross Grant money. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.
Robbie asked Victor to check to see if the county taxes on the two Purvis Woods tracts are billed on one or two forms.

Victor described the Ga. Legislative Breakfast. He said he learned that BRWA is known to be one of the first Land Trusts in Georgia to actually acquire easements instead of just talking about it.

Mary reported that Jeff Pentz met with Eric and got an administrative password. Jeff will post things to the website for us or he will teach us how to post information ourselves.
Jean will be responsible for posting upcoming events. Pat agreed to be responsible for sending Jeff other information to be posted after board meetings, including approved minutes. Debbie said she was interested in learning how to post onto the website.
Jean asked if it was okay to let Jeff put a link to the Buckhannon River Watershed Association on our website and ask them to do the same for us. Everyone agreed that was a good idea.

Jean said that Pat Kelly would get a list of names and addresses for land owners. Pat said she would start with Stephens County since we have no members from there. The committee will then produce a glossy letter to send them describing all the things that BRWA can do for them and asking them to join the association.

Michael Moody said that the BRWA display on his kiosk is cracked and faded and needs to be redone and probably updated. Mary said she could get one of her students to work on that.

Mary says the BRWA is still on tract to issue an award at the State Science Fair on Thursday at 4PM on April 2 at The Classic Center in Athens. Someone needs to judge and make the award for BRWA.

Robbie reported that he is trying to lease Purvis Woods for next year and has several interested folks. The lease pays the taxes on the easement. Robbie moved to merge the Purvis Woods committee into the Resource Management committee. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.

Pat reported that Mary Gazaway from EPD and Shane Sartor, the local game warden, met with members of the BRWA ecoli monitoring group. They all looked at a map of the Shiloh and Scull Shoals Creek watersheds to discuss locations of possible sources of the high ecoli count in samples taken from those creeks last September and November. Mary Gazaway and Jean, Pat, Paul, Michael and Kale walked upstream of the Shiloh Creek sampling site at Manley Martin Rd. They found cows and cow bones near the creek, trails with cow tracks into the creek, and piles of cow manure in the creek. BRWA will attempt to meet with the ASCS for Madison County to try to get them to contact the landowner and encourage him to make management changes to reduce the access of his cows to the creek. They also walked upstream of the Scull Shoals Creek sampling site and saw a very small stream that had suspiciously green foliage growing in and around it.

Victor says he will be conducting a Get the Dirt Out training this spring in Madison County. The Madison County Industrial Authority will be making a $400 donation to BRWA for Victor doing the training.

Victor moved to appoint Jean Smith to serve in Jeep Gaskin’s place on the board since Jeep has resigned. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.

Mary agreed to ask Dudley if he would be willing to come back on the board in Michael Hill’s place.

Robbie volunteered to be on the nominating committee. Victor made a motion to appoint Robbie to the nominating committee. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

Victor said he felt there were some things that needed to be changed in the bylaws. Mary asked him to present them to the board to be discussed and then passed on to the membership in time to be voted on at the annual meeting. Victor agreed.

Victor passed out copies of the conflict of Interest policy, check reimbursement form, and overview of Clean Water Act permitting process.

Victor explained that the City of Danielsville had experienced a leak from a raw sewage pipe four feet under ground. Victor had lent them one of BRWA’s conductivity meters to help them monitor situation. Mary moved to approve lending the City of Danielsville a conductivity meter. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

Mary asked that the group set the annual calendar of events. The schedule below was agreed on and will be posted on the website.

March 14 – Wildflower Walk with the GA Botanical Society
March 21 – Easement Monitoring
March 28 – Float and River Cleanup w/UGA Emerging Green Builders Club
May 16 – Shoal Lily Float
Sept. 19 – Annual Meeting (Victor will reserve Watson Mill Park location)
Oct. 10 – Fall Float

Mary said the Land Trust Alliance SE Regional Conference is on March 25&26 if anyone is interested.

The next BRWA board meeting is March 11.

Victor moved to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.