Highlights of the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Raymond Irrigation District held Wednesday December 17, 2014 commencing at 9:00 AM in the RID Board Room.
Attending: Byron Wilde Chairman, John McKee Vice Chairman, Gordon ZoBell, General Manager and recording clerk, and Kelvin Kado, Offiice Manager, as required. Director Alan Heggie was absent due to illness. Mark Jensen Operations Manager was absent due to workload in the field.
IRP Project Update given by Gordon ZoBell
IRP 2280 W#5 phase 3 – Construction is progressing well.
IRP 2307 – W#5 phase 3 – included in 3 year plan.
IRP 2308 – Ortho Photo’s – included in the 3 year plan
Maintenance report – Gordon showed the board a slide presentation prepared by Mark Jensen outlining work completed over the past month..
Irrican Power – Kelvin Kado – Production report for 2014 has been received, as noted previously income was down from past years, especially from 2013 which was a record year. Total income from plants, Rec’s and Misc. through Year end is $5,764,033.34. This fall has had a projected drop in income from past couple of years, due to lower production and lower prices. We may have to use some savings at the CU in Magrath this year to supplement Cash flow for spring 2015. Irrican management (finance officers) has evaluated the income and decided no more bulk payments would be made to the districts and/or ATB loan this year, it will be re-evaluated September/October 2015. We had books to the auditors by Dec. 4, 2014. I have been in contact with the auditors and answered any questions they have had. The next ICPC board meeting will be held January 28, 2015 at the SMRID board room, commencing at 11:00 AM. The annual general meeting will be held at 1:30 PM same place.
RID Financial – Kelvin Kado – Payments are rolling in. The A/R outstanding to November 17, 2014 is $77,518.78 down from $120,356.80 last month. This is reasonable since the due date isn’t until December 31. I sent out reminder notices on December 2, 2014. I also sent out reminder letters on December 15 to all those who would be on our rate enforcement list as of January 1, 2015.
Bob Winter will help us get DDIT up and running on the back computer before Christmas. There are other items to Map Info will be installed on that computer as well. We will need Jeff from Wilde Brother Engineering to set Map Info up on DDIT computer.
ATB security return continues to improve. Average return from investments continues to improve, 5 year return is 3.55%, the return for the past year was 6.37%. The long term average was down due to 2.5% for the first 2 years.
Expansion Plebiscite in the RID – waiting for Bob Winter to assist.
AIPA – Byron, John, Gordon, mark and Kelvin attended the conference held November 24th to 26th, in Calgary at the Deer Foot Inn. The conference was well attended and those who attended noted that the presenters were very good. It was a worthwhile event but a question was raised as to whether the organization is getting any more exposure in Calgary than Lethbridge, from the media. This will be discussed at the next AIPA directors meeting.
MNP – Fraud awareness course – Held December 9, 2014 at MNP, 1 to 5:30 PM –Byron Wilde and Kelvin Kado attended this course on behalf of the RID. They both had good reviews on the content of the course and felt it was well worthwhile to have attended. Byron went over several key points that he had gleaned from the course and suggestions he felt could be implemented.
RID 2014 Christmas bonus and Turkey and ham – A reminder was made to all board members and employees to pick up their Turkey and ham at the Raymond Mercantile as soon as possible.
Irrigation Secretariat – 2015 IRP, 2015, Application for funding – Chairman Byron Wilde signed the application. It will be sent to the Irrigation Secretariats office immediately.
D3 (Oil Company) – Gordon noted that he had granted an easement allowing D3 to bore under the Etzikom coulee with a buried 10 inch oil line just above the measurement weir in SE-4-7-19-W4. D3 will pay RID $5000.00. The agreement must be exercised within one year or D3 must reapply.
Schefter/County of Warner drainage concern in SE-27-6-20-W4 – Gordon noted that Mark Jensen had met with a group on site December 8, 2014 representing the county and Schefter. There was no firm decisions made at that time but the group was further made aware of the drainage concern that Schefter has raised.
R15 – 17-6-20-W4 – Gordon noted that the R/W acquisition/trade between Larson and Hudson is now complete.
RID Strategic Plan – Gordon asked the board if the RID should consider conducting a similar exercise that the TID recently completed. After some discussion the board determined that this item should be placed on the January 2015 agenda for further discussion with the full board in attendance.
ORRSC – Nelson Family Ranches – Subdivision – NE-30-6-19-W4 – To create a 5.21 acre parcel from a title of 132.93 acres for country residential use. Approved on motion by John McKee and carried.
RID Winter Party – Kelvin will pole the employees and board to determine a date to hold the party in January 2015.
Next meeting date – Wednesday, January 21, 2014.