July 26, 2012 RID Board Meeting Highlights

Attending: Byron Wilde Chairman,John McKeeVice Chairman, Alan Heggie  Director, Gordon ZoBell, General Manager and recording clerk, Mark Jensen Operations Manager Kelvin Kado, Office Manager, attended as required.

BUISNESS ARISING

IRP Project Update given by Gordon ZoBell and Mark Jensen.

Water Management Special Funding IRP 2146 – The devices are almost all installed. Should be completed soon.

IRP 2240 – Welling #5 – Gordon went over the logistics of the final design of phase 1, with the board. The Highway 52 crossing will be the first part of the project to be completed this fall. Late September is when construction should begin.

RID Maintenance report – Mark showed the board a slide show of maintenance activities completed this past month.

Irrican – Total revenue through June 30 is $2,386,714.00

RID Financial Report – from Kelvin Kado – Account receivables have been updated from July 1. We currently have a total of $19,930.81 outstanding as of today. Statements have been sent to irrigators with outstanding payments and payments have been coming in.  We will be sending statements on a monthly basis to those who have a balance due.  More reminders may be beneficial. Updates on the assessment roll have been completed and should be ready for assessment billing.  Assessment should be ready to go as scheduled on August 15.  Currently reviewing land rental and other purposes to ensure that they are ready for assessment billing. We will be updating the files on July 30 to set up the new rates for this year. $10.00/acre irrigation and $200.00 household and minimum acres and $12.10/acre for terminable. Review of assessment lists, complied list of customers that we needed contact information for.  Letters sent requesting telephone and email addresses. Capital Purchase of new Panasonic laptop from Data Control Management Solutions Ltd. It is an extra duty machine. And has an extra bright screen for working outside. This will be used by Mark and crew for meter readings etc. We will be using Data Control Management Solutions to also do an office system review and computer tune up. We are on Blue Cross HCS, beginning this month. Kelvin has reviewed the process with the staff and indicated that they will need to use the account or lose it if they do not.  All seem to understand the process.

RID Proposed Plebiscite Vote – Gordon noted that RID staff has been working on bringing the ddit information up to date. This information will assist with the computer modelling process.

RID, Welling – GPS – The EOI was submitted to the CCEMC for consideration. The board will wait and see what becomes of the CCEMC EOI and move from there.

RID By-law 2011-5 – Being a Capital Assets Charge By-Law – review – The board determined that they will leave the current By-Law unchanged at $750.00 per acre.

Irrigation Council – Irrigation Act Review – Byron and Gordon attended a meeting held June 25th at the Keg Restaurant in Lethbridge. Many areas of change were considered and agreed to by those attending. This information will be forwarded to Irrigation Council on behalf of the AIPA for consideration. Each district is also free to make their own suggestions as they see fit. Gordon noted that out of the review an idea for the RID board to consider is changing terminable agreements to permanent or annual agreements. Byron requested that this be brought up at a later date for the RID board’s consideration.

NEW BUISNESS

Directors Items – Alan Heggie asked what the status was, of allowing rural households to apply for Town of Raymond water. Gordon noted that the moratorium had been lifted by the Town and the process of approvals was back to where it was prior to the moratorium.

Alan also noted that he had met with Richard Larson regarding the use of R/W north of Raymond’s main street approximately ¼ of a mile. Richard rented the adjacent land previous to it being sold to Hugh Metzler. Richard requests the continued use of a 2.7 acre portion of the R/W there, for the purpose of haying it. Hugh would also like the use of it. The board recommended that Larson and Metzler come to an agreement between themselves. If an agreement cannot be reached the board will look further into the matter.

Magrath History and Museum Association – Looking for donation funding. The board felt that the Magrath area and district should carry the required donations. If a specific donation for the irrigation component of the museum is sought it should come from the AIPA. Gordon will make note of this to Ron McMullin, AIPA Executive Director.

ORRSC – Wilde Brothers Farms Ltd – To subdivide an existing 3.22 acre parcel to create two parcels approximately 1.40 acres and 1.82 acres respectively in size. No irrigation acres on the current parcel. There are no concerns here from the RID.

SMRID – 1997 GMC spray truck for sale. Make offer? – The board authorized Gordon to make an offer of $4000.00 for this truck.

RID subsequent seepage control plan 2012 – 2016 – Gordon noted that the new plan has met the requirements and no appeals were received. It must be filed again with Irrigation Council; prior to June 22, 2015.

Next meeting date – August 22, 2012

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 3:20 PM on motion by Alan Heggie.