Highlights of the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Raymond Irrigation District held Monday, September 30, 2019 commencing at 12:00 noon in the RID Board Room.
Attending: John McKee Chairman, Craig Palmer Vice Chair, Rod Wendorff director, Gordon ZoBell, General Manager and recording clerk, Mark Jensen Operations Manager Cody Heggie and Kelvin Kado as needed.
The Agenda for the September 30, 2019 meeting was approved on motion by Craig Palmer and carried.
The Minutes of the, August 26, 2019 board meeting were approved on motion by Rod Wendorff and carried.
IRP Project Update – Mark reported that a new additional culvert was added under the Town of Raymond water line crossing in Attwood’s on IRP 2341. All the pipe and most of the fittings are on site for the R8-1 IRP 2356 project. Phil Wilde has begun fabricating the risers. The project will commence soon. A few easement maps needed to be changed after the line was actually located in the field due to the location of the old R8-1 line.
Monthly Maintenance report – Mark gave a slide show of the operations and maintenance performed over the past month. He noted that some of the districts buried pipelines were drained on September 29 due to a storm and frost warning.
Irrican Power – Financial information: 2019 income to August 31 is good at $5.5m. With RECs for Raymond and Chin being about $500,000. September numbers will not be in till the end of October. We will see the additional payment in October to the districts.
RID Financial – RID newsletter, the response to provide contact info has been slow, but the insert with the assessment is bringing in the update of personal contact information. We have had a steady inflow of rates. Many questions about the increase of rates. We have had an increase of $136,000+ over the past 2 years. (= $3/acre)
RID code of conduct – The AIDA executive has requested that all ID’s consider enacting a code of conduct. A template was made available for the board’s perusal. After discussing the matter and on motion by Craig Palmer the matter was tabled until the next meeting.
Solar – 7-1 and 8-2 project proposals. Kelvin Kado went over a proposal regarding solar arrays to be erected at these two sites for a total consideration of $488,000.00. After much discussion on and on motion by Craig Palmer the board tabled this item as well until the next meeting.
IPEX – has invited the MID and RID boards and staff to a BBQ to be held at the RID October 16. The board looks forward to this combined event. IPEX will fund all costs for the BBQ.
Water shutdown date – Will be Friday October 4th, 2019.
AIDA directors meeting held September 26, 2019 in the Taber Heritage Inn. – Gordon attended this meeting and noted that the Irrigation Council Chairman noted that October 24, 2019 is the Provincial budget date. The chairman had no idea what funding might be available from this budget for irrigation districts. The chairman also requested ID’s to be vigilant in the maintenance of IRP projects. AIDA executive director Margo noted that the Alberta Council is on a short-term contract to assist the AIDA with political lobbying and suggestions. They are organizing an MLA reception for AIDA members in the Federal Building in Edmonton to be held November 19, 2019. Rod Wendorff and Gordon Zobell indicated that they would be interested in attending this function. Gordon reported that in the directors meeting a report was given on Mussels. He noted that 19 fouled boats had been detected entering the Province. The dog sniffing program has been working well. Richard Phillips noted that alternative chemicals for treating aquatic weeds is being considered but the AIDA may need to foot the costs of registration. There was a short report on Potash treatment as well. Chris Gallagher from the TID is going to conduct a compensation survey to determine wage levels in the ID’s.
Overtime – Gordon noted that as of September 1, 2019 the Provincial government changed the legislation to not allow 1.5 hours’ time off for overtime. It will be 1 hour off for 1-hour overtime worked or payment of 1.5 times salary for 1-hour overtime worked.
HPA – Dale Collins Box 1845 Raymond – Plan 0410483 Block 1 Lot 8 Linc 0030 340 947 SW-16-6-20-W4 – Approved on motion by Craig Palmer and carried.
Application to transfer acres under Section 26 ID Act – Robert Heggie customer #1041, 5 irrigation acres from SW-18-6-20-W4 parcel 10072 to: Michael Hofer customer # 1102 SE-23-6-20-W4 parcel 10231. Approved on motion by Rod Wendorff and carried.
Next meeting date – Wednesday October 16, 2019, to be held at the RID board room.