Highlights of the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Raymond Irrigation District held Thursday, June 19, 2019 commencing at 9:00 AM in the RID Board Room.
Attending: John McKee, Chairman, Craig Palmer Vice Chair, Rod Wendorff director, Gordon ZoBell, General Manager and recording clerk, Cody Heggie Operations Manager in training and Kelvin Kado as needed. Mark Jensen Operations Manager, was on holiday.
IRP Project Update – Cody showed the board a slide show of maintenance and operations activities over the last month.
Monthly Maintenance report – Cody Heggie gave a verbal report of the operations and maintenance performed over the past month.
Irrican Power – Don Johnson from TID and Gordon are to look into and meet with the County of Warner in regard to the taxes on Raymond Plant and Drop 4/5/6 Plant, as the taxes on those 2 plants are considerably higher than that of the County of Lethbridge taxes (Chin Plant)
Solar arrays (power generation), going forward with 40 mile and possibly at (SMRID) Bow Island 12 and Yellow lake.
Forward pricing contract in place, to generate $2,000,000.00 in income.
RID Financial – RID newsletter response has been well received, but the response to provide contact info has been slow.
I have sent 2 letters of interest regarding 2 grant prospects for solar projects; (1) Community Generation Project Incubator (CGPI) and (2) the AIDA and ATCO Solar project grant. I have meetings on July 10 and 11 in Lethbridge about the community generation projects.
We replaced our DDIT computer this past month. Curtis Start suggested that we provide the ditch riders with tablets compatible with our computer system so they can use to maintain their crop report and system usage report.
Raymond 8-2 pump and pipeline – Gordon noted that staff has reviewed the energy billing process which includes minimum fee for non-irrigation by a user in a given year and an energy fee for domestic users. A list of users has been compiled and they will be billed beginning in 2019. On motion by John McKee the board approved a $100.00 flat yearly energy fee to be charged to each user of the 8-2 system who do not have permanent irrigation acres. These funds are to go toward the energy billing of the 8-2 system yearly. Also each of this group will also be charged a $60.00 pump fund fee which will be added to the 8-2 maintenance fund each year. Also any user of the system who has permanent irrigation acres will be charged a $10.00 per acre standby energy fee if they do not use water in any given year. The motion was carried.
The board reviewed the last water supply report and voted in favor of increasing the per acre allocation from 12 inches to 13 inches.
Employment – The board instructed the manager to advertise for a replacement for Phil Wilde with the goal of hiring a new employee by mid-August 2019.
Mini hoe – The board requested the manger to obtain bids from several local suppliers for a 60 series machine.
Letter from Premier – The manager noted that a letter of congratulations had been sent to the new Premier of Alberta Jason Kenny and that a note of appreciation had been returned to the district from the Premier.
HPA – NE- 13-5-20-W4 – Plan 9410636 Linc 0027 516 393. Approved on motion by Craig Palmer and carried.
AIDA tour – Gordon showed a slide show and verbally reported to the board regarding the tour of the WID. It was interesting and informative.
John McKee reported on the last AIDA executive meeting he attended.
EID continues its struggle with the right of a water user to apply for new water and are looking for judicial support of district by-laws.
Electrical intervener will be looking into a rebate for farmers who may have been overcharged over the past several years.
Road bridges etc. – there is problems between some larger districts and rural municipalities regarding duplication of works for drainage purposes. Standards are also being reviewed for lesser used bridges.
IRP Funding – Districts are under the impression they will receive 14 million collectively in 2019 and 10 million in 2020. It is felt that this is the bottom of the cuts.
Alberta Council is being hired for 2 months until AIDA year end to determine which new proposed reservoirs are the most likely to be built and also to look into hydro vac mud regulations that appear to be way to stiff.
Irrigation Council – A good meeting was held with this group and the executive committee.
Art Hudson – wants to purchase R/W in 44893 Block 202 Lot 6A – The board declined Mr Hudsons offer to purchase as the noted piece of R/W is used by the RID as a drainage course.
Next meeting date – Wednesday July 17, 2019 at the RID board room.
Motion to adjourn and time meeting ended – Having no further business the board ended the meeting at 3:36 PM on motion by Rod Wendorff