Minutes of the annual meeting of the Irrigators of the Raymond Irrigation District held on Thursday March 23, 2017 at the Raymond Ag Society building:
Attendance:37
Directors & Staff: 6
Irrigators: 22
Visitors: 9
District General Manager, Gordon ZoBell called the meeting to order at 1:54 p.m. Gordon ZoBell acknowledged informative presentations at our 33rd annual seminar in the morning. Gordon welcomed all in attendance and made introductions: Byron Wilde – RID Chairman, John Mckee – RID Director & Vice-chairman, Craig Palmer – Raymond Area Board member, himself – RID District Manager, Kelvin Kado – Office Manager, Mark Jensen – RID Operations & Maintenance Manager. Gordon acknowledged and introduced the visitors; Herb Wall from Irrigation Council, Lloyd Healy, Rod Bennett and Adele Harding from Alberta Agriculture, Jennifer Nitschelm Irrigation Secretariat, Lawrence Wegitz, Jollin Charest from Alberta Environment, Tony Mahacek TID Board Chairman and Doug Wilde auditor from Mercer Wilde.
Gordon explained who is eligible to vote in the meeting. Must be an RID water user and owner of land with permanent acres on the assessment roll of the district. A corporation has 1 vote, an irrigator with more than one name on a parcel has 1 vote, and if they own two or more parcels (all with permanent acres) they get 2 votes. No vote for household terminable or annual agreements.
Gordon ZoBell called for nominations for meeting chairman. Craig Palmer nominated Byron Wilde seconded by John McKee, Nominations were called for 2 more times. Byron Wilde proceeded to chair the meeting.
A motion was made by Richard Bennett to accept the meeting agenda, seconded by Jeff Nelson. Carried…
Kelvin Kado read the minutes of the March 17, 2016 AGM. There were no changes and no business arose from the minutes. Motion; by Norman Wilde to accept the minutes as presented, seconded by John McKee. Carried….
Returning officer Gordon ZoBell announced that he had received only one nomination for the Welling area director position, Rod Wendorff. Mr. ZoBell declared Rod elected by acclamation. Gordon then thanked Byron for his many years of service.
RID Chairman, Byron Wilde thanked Joan ZoBell and her crew for the meal. He read the chairman’s report (page 5 of Annual Report). No business arose from the report. He also thanked the district for the support during the time (21 years) he has sat on the RID board. Motion; by Jeff Nelson to accept the report as presented, seconded by Darin Wilde. Carried…
RID Manager, Gordon ZoBell presented the manager’s report (page 7 of Annual Report). He reminded us, that we all should be wise stewards of the water.
No business arose from the report. Motion; by Norm Wilde to accept the report as presented, seconded by John Liska. Carried…
Auditor’s report; Doug Wilde from Mercer Wilde Group, thanked the district for allowing their firm to remain as auditors for the district. He acknowledged the good working relationship they have with the RID staff. The books were well prepared and met all their needs. Doug presented his report and highlighted pages 2, 3 and 15 of the audit report. 2016 Income had an increase due to the increase in irrigation rates (Increased from $10.00 to $12.00) and expenses were similar to 2015. The financial cash position improved from the small loss shown in 2015 .There was a significant change in investment returns from 2015 due to an upward change in the financial values. He also noted, similar to last year, due to the paying down of Irrican loans there is some positive changes to RID financial position. No business arose from the report. Motion; by Jeff Nelson to accept the report as presented, seconded by John Zobell. Carried…
RID Manager of Operations & Maintenance, Mark Jensen presented the annual maintenance and crop report. Mark acknowledged the good work of his crew. He reviewed the crops grown in 2016 and he reviewed some of the maintenance highlights and referred to his morning seminar presentation and noted that the irrigators can review pages 9 & 10 of the annual report for more details. Motion; by John McKee to accept the report, seconded by Phil Wilde. Carried…
Other/New Business: No business came from the floor
- It was announced that Terminable Irrigation Acres have been cancelled and replaced by “Annual Agreements”,
- Everyone was reminded to make good use of the district website, that is where you will find the up to date information about the district and it has links to other sites,
- The Terminable Irrigation Acres will be moved into permanent irrigation acres, by way of application to the board. An application form will be available April 3, 2017 on the RID website. raymondirrigationdistrict.ca
The irrigation water for new acres not be available for the 2017 irrigation season.
Byron closed the meeting by referring to “Alberta Irrigation Information” from the Internet. Link: www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$Department/deptdocs.nsf/all/irr7401
We are under utilizing the amount of water we are licensed for and by rough calculation our district in 2015 used an average of only 8 inches of water/irrigated acre of the 17.4 inches allotted. In 2016 we diverted and used less water than 2015. Our 41 year average diversion has only been 33,000 acre feet and our license is 81,000 acre feet. We would be wise to pass a plebiscite and spread our unused water to more land.
Gordon lead a short discussion about how to disperse the irrigation water. Where and when the water could be approved for either intensification or expansion.
- The first criteria is the district must be able to deliver water to the proposed land
- The land must be classified and note on title that the land is included in the Raymond Irrigation District
- This would apply for the sale of acres from Terminable cancellation and future acres if a plebiscite vote approves more acres that would become available.
- Applications will be available from April 3, 2017 and the policy and procedure will be in place by the end of April.
Craig Palmer made a motion to adjourn.. 3:10 p.m.
Kelvin Kado
RID Office Manager