December 16, 2020 Board Meeting Highlights

Highlights of the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Raymond Irrigation District held Wednesday December 16, 2020 commencing at 10:04 AM in the RID Board Room.

Attending: John McKee Chairman, Craig Palmer Vice Chair, Rod Wendorff director, Jason Miller General Manager and recording clerk, Cody Heggie Operations Manager, and Kelvin Kado, office Manager, as needed.

It should be noted that Provincial Health guidelines were followed during this meeting due to the CVOID-19 pandemic concerns.

The Agenda for the December 16, 2020 meeting was approved on motion by Craig Palmer and carried.

The Minutes of the November 18, 2020 board meeting were approved on motion by Rod Wendorff and carried.

BUISNESS ARISING

  1. RID AGM and Plebiscite Expansion – Debrief and new acre application process:

All felt the seminar and plebiscite went well. Positive comments were received from other districts and dignitaries.

The Board reviewed a draft new acre application package prepared by office staff. Interested parties must submit a completed application by January 31, 2021.

  1. IRP Update:

IRP 2341 – Hancock structure – Other than a little bit of finishing work that will be completed in the spring, the project is completed.

IRP 2356 – R8-1 – The crew has started pipelining. All of the work in SW4-7-20-W4 is completed and the crew is starting to dig through the Stirling Drain.

  1. Monthly Operations and Maintenance report – Cody Heggie showed a slide presentation of work performed over the past month. The crew will be taking Christmas break after December 18 and returning on January 4.
  1. Irrican – Kelvin Kado reported:

The RID provided a financial report to the ICPC board on December 8. Income to date has been okay – not a great year, but not a poor one either. Income to the end of October is $5,476,796. This is adequate to cover 2020 expenses. There is still another $529,985 to come in for October, which includes Power generation, REC sale and Fortis Option “M”. There should be a carryover of just over $5,000,000 for next year. Kelvin is working on ICPC year end.

  1. RID financial – Kelvin Kado reported:

Steady flow of income from 2020 assessment coming in. There should be a busy last 10 days for more income to come in.

 Kelvin is Preparing for RID year end.

  1. Modernizations Agreement with GOA & CIB:

The irrigation districts are working with GOA and CIB to finalize the details of the $815M investment in irrigation announced in October 2020.

The RID is a finalized in a grant competition for $5M that would assist with the RID pipedream.

NEW BUISNESS

  1. Directors’ Items – There were no specific directors’ items.
  1. RID Policy Manual – The board review policies 1-7.
  1. 3-Year Plan – The discussed and reviewed the 3-year plan as presented by Jason.

On motion made by John McKee and carried, the Board approved the 3-year plan for 2021-2024.

  1. Irrican & Main Canal Meeting Report:

John, Jason and Kelvin attended an Irrican & main canal meeting on December 8, 2020. The Irrican update is the same as Kelvin presented earlier to the RID board today.

In the main canal meeting, a subcommittee was created to monitor and provide input for reservoir expansion. John McKee and Craig Palmer from the RID were appointed to the subcommittee.

  1. Interest and Penalties on Annual Water Rates:

The board reviewed the interest and penalties the RID charges on late payment of annual water rate fees. The RID charges interest at 7.25% twice annually. On average other districts are charging 6-8%. The board discussed waiving or lowering the interest rate. After considerable discussion the Board decided to continue with the same practice and at the same interest rate.

  1. Next meeting date – Wednesday January 20, 2021

Motion to adjourn – There being no further business the meeting ended at 3:00 PM on motion by Rod Wendorff.