Minutes of the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Raymond Irrigation District held Wednesday January 15, 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, Kelvin Kado, Office Manager. and Mark Jensen, Operations Manager. Director Alan Heggie was absent due to illness.
IRP Project Update given by Mark Jensen and Gordon ZoBell.
IRP 2262 – Welling #5 phase 2 – Installation of the pipe resumed after the Christmas break. Conditions are good and work is progressing on schedule.
IRP 2280 phase 3 – nothing to report.
RID Maintenance report – Mark Jensen showed the board a slide presentation of pictures showing IRP related items, there was no maintenance of the works completed over the past month.
Irrican Power – Financial report: The Year-end audit is nearly complete; it is currently in the hands of the senior auditor for peer review. There should be an exit meeting next week. Auditor indicated that the audit went smoothly. Report will be presented to the AGM January 29, 2014. At the next ICPC board meeting Gordon and Kelvin will be presenting a prepayment schedule for Drop 4/5/6 loan with ATB, to have the loan paid out by year-end 2018. SMRID (Tom Crooks) has requested that we look at options for possible loan payouts, such as looking at paying some funds back to the districts. From ICPC perspective this is advantageous, by paying down debt with higher interest loans first. We will pose different scenarios and leave the decision to the ICPC board.
RID Financial – Reminder notices were sent to irrigators on December 3, 2013. We expected a busy time December 30/31 and it was, collecting most of the outstanding 2013 irrigation rates. Still due; 2013 assessment remaining unpaid is $13,762 and 2012 outstanding assessment is $8,624. We will begin chasing for late accounts so we can avoid any Rate Enforcement. RID Financial – Reminder notices were sent to irrigators on December 3, 2013.
We sent out pipeline (7-1 + 8-2) energy and pump fund invoices, January 8, 2014.
Waiting on Water report from the Town, to invoice; Town of Raymond, Village of Stirling, Village of Warner and County of Warner for water conveyance.
Kelvin has started the RID audit process. Looking to have the RID audit completed before the end of February.
We will be starting preparation for 2014 budget. The budget will need to include, major repairs to the semi and the purchase of a new pick-up and gravel truck.
We may see the benefit of the Irrican investment; we may get a $200,000.00 payment back to the RID this year, depending on the ICPC board decision.
Election: Welling area director, Nomination by February 12, 2014, Election March 12 if necessary (as per by-law) Newspaper ad/notice, Jan 30 & Feb 6
RID Annual Meeting and Seminar – March 20, 2014 – Byron and Gordon will make a presentation regarding expansion scenarios in the RID. Jollin Charest will talk about the water quality study that is being conducted by Alberta Agriculture in all of the Irrigation District’s. Nicole Seitz of Alberta Ag will speak about Invasive species (Mussels). The board gave Gordon some names of a possible grains and oil seeds market speaker to contact. It was suggested that a speaker could be found to address ”soil nutrient stratification” as well. Also Rod and Sherry Wendorff will be asked to give a presentation on their work in Peru.
RID Plebiscite Vote – Proposed – After the 2014 seminar this item will be discussed at length by the board.
RID winter party – Will be held January 31, 2014 at the Raymond Seniors Center.
RID Kenworth problems – Dunner Mechanical is still working on the engine and has narrowed the problem to the fuel pump.
Town of Raymond – County of Warner – water quality concerns at Ridge Reservoir – Gordon will attend a meeting on January 17, 2014 in Raymond to discuss this concern and possible ways to assist with better long term water quality.
Sale of 1983 International tandem – offer of $5000.00. On motion by Byron Wilde the board approved the sale as noted.
Corner Pride Farms Ltd – Irrigation acre transfer – Corner Pride is purchasing land in SW-6-7-20-W4 containing 69 irrigation acres. They propose to transfer 37 of these acres to NW-6-7-20-W4. On motion by Byron Wilde the board approved this transfer.
Keeler Farms Ltd – TO from Environment canal and easement proposal. – Keelers would like to access water from the Environment canal in favor of a delivery to 34-5-21-W4. The AE access would be located in 21-5-21-W4. The Keeler plan is to transfer irrigation acres for 1 to 2 pivots on this land from other land they own. This would be done only on a yearly basis and would allow them to grow seed canola in a more isolated area. The board was in favor of this proposal and asked the manager to begin the process of obtaining an easements. The proposed easement is on the same alignment the RID would like to have for the proposed Welling area gravity pipeline system. The RID would allow Keelers to install their own pipeline within the easement if the easement can be acquired. The manager was also asked to obtain permission from AE to install a syphon turnout for the Keeler pipeline from the AE canal as noted.
Dirk Kuerschner – NE-26-6-21-W4 – Would like permission from the board to sell his irrigation acres on his noted parcel. 60 total irrigation acres are currently listed on the RID assessment roll. The board noted that they would allow this sale if/when Dirk can find a suitable buyer for his irrigation acres within the RID.
Household Purposes Agreement – Wayne and Ruth Ann Stelfox, Plan 1345 Lot 68-70 in NW11-6-21-W4. Approved by the board on motion by Byron Wilde and carried.
Rotary dinner dance table for eight – The RID has purchased a table of tickets for this fund raiser event to be held February 8, 2014.
Next meeting date – Friday February 7, 2014.
Motion to adjourn and time meeting ended – Having no further business the meeting adjourned at 2:40 PM, on motion by John McKee.