Hightlights of the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Raymond Irrigation District held Monday September 21, 2020 commencing at 8:25AM in the RID Board Room.
Attending: Craig Palmer Vice Chair, Rod Wendorff director, Jason Miller General Manager and recording clerk, Cody Heggie Operations Manager and Kelvin Kado as needed.
Delegation: Bruce Hancock
It should be noted that Provincial Health guidelines were followed during this meeting due to the CVOID-19 pandemic concerns.
The Agenda for the September 21, 2020 meeting was approved on motion by Rod Wendorff and carried.
The Minutes of the, August 19, 2020 board meeting were approved on motion by Craig Palmer and carried.
BUISNESS ARISING
Expansion and RID annual meeting – Reminder of the annual meeting is scheduled for November 19 and the plebiscite on November 26. The Ag Society building has been booked for November 19. Jason will follow up with Jollin Charest and Len Ring to confirm they will be available to present at the AGM.
IRP Update – IRP 2341 – The contractor is to begin work on October 15 on the Hancock structure.
IRP 2356 – R8-1 – Cody Heggie reported risers will be completed by the end of the week. Some pipe has been received with additional loads coming by the end of this week. We are prepared to start soon, but will need to wait for the road crossings to be completed. The contractor will be doing the crossings once his current projects are stopped due to weather.
Two individuals have been hired to assist with the fall/winter pipelining.
Monthly Operations and Maintenance report – Cody Heggie showed a slide presentation of work performed over the past month.
Irrican – Kelvin Kado reported that ICPC has made 75% of the 2020 payments to the districts.
RID financial – Kelvin Kado reported that assessments were mailed out on August 17 and payments are starting to come in. The addition of accepting e-transfers has been very popular. Our ICPC payment can be used for some capital improvements, salary subsidy in 2020 and possible equipment upgrades.
Town of Raymond – The drainage agreement is now completed and signed by both the Town and RID.
Emissions Reductions Alberta (ERA) – The application has been submitted, but it may be sometime before we hear back from them.
Sprayer – Cody reported that materials and supplies have been purchased. During down time in the winter months the crew will begin assembly of the sprayer unit.
NEW BUISNESS
Directors Items – there were no directors items
Delegation – RE: Right of Way – The delegate was invited into the Board meeting and discussed a proposal to trade right-of-way on E27-5-20-W4. This would include granting the RID easement for access to right-of-way via the private road running east & west. In exchange the RID would grant the owner of the land parcel to the southeast an easement on the right-of-way to the buildings that are currently on the RID right-of-way, but after the trade will belong to southeast parcel landowner. The Board approved the sub-division.
Bruce also advised regarding water, gas and telephone lines running through the road where the new IRP 2341 structure will be installed.
AIDA Committee Meeting – Jason attended the meeting on John McKee’s behalf. The key points of the meeting included: IDA amendments were discussion to clarify wording and reduce red tape, a presentation was given regarding updating the Economic Value of Irrigation report, Trevor Helwig was appointed to the CWRA as the irrigation rep, and AIDA budget was presented.
CAP Grant – Jason reported that the CAP grant application was denied. The CAP grant application consisted of 2 projects – Reservoir analysis and an operational modelling tool. Work has nearly finished on the reservoir analysis, at a cost of approximately $50,000. The main canal will be responsible for this entire cost now. The operational modelling tool will be on hold for now.
Horsefly Flood Mitigation Project – Jason and John attended a conference call with SMRID, TID, and a committee spearheading this project. The group asked the RID to commit funds to the project. Jason and John declined the request not having sufficient information or time to review the request with the rest of the Board. The group said they would provide information and someone to present details to the RID, but as of the Board meeting nothing substantial has been received from the group.
Drain Maintenance or Relocation SE5-7-20-W4 – Jason reported that the drain running north and south on this property needs some attention. The land owner would like the drain moved to the west edge of the property to remove the land severance, increase his ability to irrigate and improve the land drainage. It was also noted that currently the RID pushes water using the RS4 ditch and the drain on this property to push water down the Stirling drain to water users on the east of hwy845. Once RS4 is converted to pipeline this drain, will become the only channel to push water to those irrigators. The estimated cost of relocating the drain is between $50,000-$70,000 and the landowner is willing to pay 50% of the cost. Alternatively, if the channel remains where it is, it would require $15,000-$20,000 in repairs.
On motion made by Craig and carried, the Board approved relocating the drain channel on SE5-7-20-W4 to the west edge of the property
Equipment – Jason reported that some large projects are on the horizon so we may have to start looking at replacing some of our equipment
Stirling Drain Cleaning – The rainfall this spring/summer caused the Stirling Drain to flood and highlighted the need for it to be cleaned. The Stirling drain is subject to the Stirling Drain agreement with the County of Lethbridge, County of Warner, Town of Raymond and Village of Stirling and the RID, all sharing the cost. The drain will take 3 years to clean. Sugimoto Excavating has been hired for this fall to start the project. The RID excavators have insufficient reach to clean the drain.
RID Policy Manual – review deferred until the December Board meeting.
Next meeting date – Wednesday October 21, 2020
Motion to adjourn – There being no further business the meeting ended at 12:20 PM on motion by Rod Wendorff.