Highlights of the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Raymond Irrigation District held Friday November 27, 2015 commencing at 9:00 AM in the RID Board Room.
Attending: Byron Wilde Chairman, John McKee Vice Chairman, Craig Palmer Director, Gordon ZoBell, General Manager and recording clerk, Mark Jensen Operations Manager and Kelvin Kado, Office Manager as required.
IRP 2307 – W#5 phase 4 – Mark noted that construction on the installation of the pipeline has commenced.
IRP 2308 – Ortho Photo’s – Gordon noted that the photos have not arrived yet.
Maintenance report – Mark showed the board pictures of work completed over the past month by RID staff and equipment.
Irrican Power – Gordon noted that management is reviewing a proposal from URICA that might hold some promise to assist Irrican with the management of selling power, recs, and in responding to AESO in a timely manner to prevent penalty fees.
From K Kado – All plants shut down for the season. Income for May to October including REC’s;$6,488,445.78
RID Financial – from K Kado – Account Receivables have been coming in steady, we have $118,868.44 outstanding down from $450,000.00 as of August 31, 2015. Most will be paid by the end of December.
Expansion Plebiscite in the RID – Gordon noted that several water users have responded to our letter asking for potential new water dryland acres. The board reviewed the file of those interested. It was hoped that more water users would have responded. The board noted that they hoped additional information will come from more water users over the next month. Discussion centered on several of the comments that were received due to the letter. The board noted that for the next board meeting they would like a map prepared showing a graphic of where the proposed new acres would go. They also want staff to look at ways to provide information of how many inches the RID water users have used in 2015. Even a good cross section of a few larger users would show a good idea of volumes used. DDIT has this capability and can be used to assist in this regard. The board also mentioned that each pivot in the district has a design readily available to show its design volume. This information can be entered in DDIT for each pivot. The RID also has a portable meter that could be used to gather information on systems that the volume usage is unknown. RID staff will begin to gather this information immediately. This topic will be carried forward to the next board meeting.
Town of Raymond Annexation – The board authorized that a “memorandum of understanding” (MOU) regarding concerns raised by the RID about the annexation area be signed by the Chairman and Manager. This was done on motion by Craig Palmer and carried.
Conference Call from Minister of Agriculture and Forest, Oneil Carleir October 27, 2015. – It was noted that the minister informed the irrigation districts that the 2015 IRP funding was approved. This was due to a later Provincial budget approval. The 2016 Provincial budget will be approved in March of 2016. The TID chairman invited the Minster to tour the ID’s in the summer of 2016. The Minister accepted and noted that he was very much looking forward to the tour.
Directors Items – concerns re: WCB and OH&S for farm workers – The board noted that they hoped the Provincial Government would allow the farmers of the Province to have input on Bill 6 prior to it’s passing.
RID 2016/2017 – Three Year Plan – On motion by Craig Palmer the board approved the three year plan as presented.
Carolynne Adams – letter of concern – The board requested that RID staff meet with the neighbor as soon as possible to discuss the concerns raised.
Doug Keeler – Feels RID should obtain the easement sooner than later for the GPS that would bring water from the environment canal to the Welling area of the district. The board was in favor of this and asked RID staff to proceed with obtaining this easement. They also requested that a paragraph on the easement be added that will allow those landowners giving the easements the first right to new available water under the RID by-law capital asset charge for new irrigation acres at the time and date they are made available. Approved on motion by Byron Wilde and carried.
Irrigation acre transfer – 77 irrigation acres to SE-1-6-20-W4, from NE-9-6-20-W4, KD. Approved on motion by John McKee and carried.
Irrigation acre transfer – 5 acres to SE-15-6-20-W4, from NE-9-6-20-W4. Approved on motion by John McKee and carried.
AIPA AGM and conference review – Nov 23rd AGM, Lethbridge Lodge, 24th and 25th The board noted that this conference was the best in memory. Very interesting and timely topics. At the AGM it was noted that there was lively discussion regarding the use of Prismatic as our public relations firm. The executive will discuss this matter more. A new member of the executive was installed from the smaller districts replacing Andy Strang from AID. He is Daniel Hunsperger a board member of the UID.
RID seminar and annual meeting March 17, 2015 – Some of the ideas for presenters were as follows; Dave Hyland Irrigation management course presentation and perhaps Richard Phillips on efficiencies. The same presentation he gave at the AIPA 2015 conference. Also Rod Bennett from Alberta Agriculture speaking about the changes to the growing forward grant that was announced.
Next meeting date – Wednesday December 16, 2015.