Call to Order: Chairman Jim Hutchison called the meeting to order of the Stephenson Soil and Water Conservation District Board at 8:06 am on February 17, 2021.  The board met in the Blackhawk Room at the Stephenson Co. Farm Bureau.

Roll Call: Present at the time the meeting was called to order were board members Jim Hutchison, Barb Klinger, Seth Wenzel, Dan Diaz, and Matt Schlachter; District employees Lorna Chezem, Administrative Coordinator and Aaron Dinderman, Resource Conservationist. NRCS employees Abby Mielke, Soil Conservationist.

Not in attendance – Hanna McWhirter, Luke Tweeten and Josh Franks

Approval of Minutes: Jim Hutchison moved to approve minutes of the January SWCD board meeting, seconded by Matt Schlachter. Voting aye: all. Motion passed.  

Bills to be Paid: Dan Diaz moved to approve the bills as listed on the monthly budget sheet for February, seconded by Seth Wenzel. Voting aye: all. Motion passed.

Review and Approval of Employee Time Sheets: Employee time sheets were passed. Barb Klinger    moved to approve the timesheets; seconded by Jim Hutchison. Voting aye: all. Motion passed.          

Action Items:

AG in the Classroom/CAP Report:  Amy Schultz

• Amy has been allowed into Aquin, Open Bible and Orangeville schools to do in person activities with the kids. She hopes this changes soon but does not anticipate this will happen until next school year.
• She is putting together approximately 600 Ag bags for grades K-4 and has been doing virtual lessons with Jr High students.
• Embrology project is ready to go into classrooms.
• Summer Ag has already been cancelled along with the Ag Adventures program.
• Farm to Farm Fun Run will be held and is scheduled for March 27.

Stephenson County Board Report:  Garrett Miller

• The Director of the Stephenson Co. Nursing home turned in his letter of resignation.
• There is a large windfarm coming into the Kent area. It will be 27 wind turbines: 664 feet tall. Noise concerns are less as the wind turbine gets higher/taller. The project will go in front of the Zoning board in October or November of this year.
• Stephenson County board member Hartog has stepped down.
• Stephenson County has no funds to upgrade the prairie path from Freeport to Ridott. Winnebago county is finishing their portion of the trail.
• Stephenson County board reorganization was done at the December meeting. The redistricting and reduction of 4 board members will not take place until 2022.

Freeport City Council Report:  Randy Bukas, City Manager/No Report

Conservation Plans & CPO’s:  Aaron

• FSA is tweaking the CRP program; not many have come over to NRCS/SWCD and probably will not until the program revisions are complete.

Contribution Agreement:  Lorna/Aaron/Abby

• No word about the new agreements for 2021. We are still short the Sep 20 payment for the Administrative Agreement and have not gotten any of the CRP grant payment.

CRP Update:  Aaron/Abby

• A CRP training was held with FSA about Forestry practices and improvements. Mid-management practices have been removed.

EQIP Update:  Abby

• 26 applications made the cut-off; most were rollovers from last year that were not funded; a couple were new. All need to be ranked by February 26.

CSP Update:  Abby

• All payments have been made.
• 8 renewal applications were completed; 2 of those 8 got funded.

Programs / SWCD Updates:  Lorna/Aaron

• Election Results – Barb and Jim were both re-elected to the board.
• Election Paperwork – Election Counting Record was passed for Chairman Jim Hutchison to sign. Finance Sheet that was in the newsletter was passed for Chairman Jim Hutchison to sign. Acceptance of Office forms were given to Jim Hutchison and Barb Klinger to fill out and sign.
• Insurance Adjustment for Lorna was discussed by the board members now that her husband is retired, and new insurance was purchased. Barb Klinger made a motion to increase the monthly insurance reimbursement to $350.00; seconded by Jim Hutchison. Voting aye: all. Motion carried.
• The day after the winter newsletter was sent to Freeport Press for printing the roof on their building collapsed. They worked with another printer and got the newsletter and envelopes complete. With much help from Lorna’s husband, a neighbor and Jim Hutchison the newsletter was assembled and will be taken to the post office after the board meeting.
• CPP – no new applications have been taken. We are waiting for bills for a waterway project that will use the rest of the FY20 funds. There has been no word about the FY21 grant funds. IDOA did send out guidance for their preventive plant cover crop program; since the applications were completed by the producers online, we do not know if Stephenson had any.

Approve Reports as E-Mailed: Barb Klinger moved to approve the reports as e-mailed from: Lorna Chezem, Aaron Dinderman, Abby Mielke, Hanna McWhirter, and Luke Tweeten; seconded by Dan Diaz.  Voting aye: all. Motion carried.

Informational Items:

Correspondence:

1. NACD request for contribution (last payment of $100.00 on 1/10/2020) was discussed. Barb Klinger made a motion to approve payment of $100.00; seconded by Dan Diaz. Voting aye: all. Motion carried.
2. Thank-you from Sydney Duncan (last year’s poster winner) was passed.

Other Business:

1. Office Remodel was discussed; Abby said that the building owner has been in the office A LOT. March 1^st is the targeted start date; and work will begin on the NRCS/SWCD side of the building. It is anticipated to take two weeks to complete.

Adjournment:

Having no other business, Chairman Hutchison adjourned the meeting at 9:33am.

Barb Klinger, Treasurer/Secretary                      Notes recorded by Lorna Chezem.