Friends of the Muscatatuck River Society Meeting Minutes: June 7th @ 5:30pm in the Jennings County Library Meeting called to order @ 5:32 pm. Attendance: Tom Moore Sherida Moore Joann Moore Kevin Jayne Troy Jackson Simeon Stearns Leanne Whitesell Everett Sparkman Les Ticknor Greg Fischesser Jennifer Boyle Delbert Vincent I Delbert Vincent II Minutes: Approved as submitted Treasurer's report: Simeon reported a balance of $1,860.94. Outgoing expenses included $89.41 educational expenses for Leanne and $253.96 to Susan Walters The Historic Hoosier Hills possible bookkeeping error was resolved, but will take some time to file the information properly. OLD BUSINESS: A reminder: there will be no July meeting. FMRS sign progress at the Vernon Commons: Tom Gave Larry Allsop a hard copy of the design and Simeon will follow-up. An alternative plan suggested was to make our own sign, or have someone make it for us. Signs at Sugar Creek State Park were given as an example. Leanne commented on the signs made for Graham Creek Elementary by Joe Ragsdale. Troy to call Joe and inquire on design style and materials used, and has offered to machine the lettering at his workplace in about 3 weeks (when his machine schedule is open). Simeon and Troy will coordinate material purchase; Simeon to contact Eric Johnson to supply material. Materials suggested by the group were black walnut, maple, native cedar and even plastic; painting and treatment (polyurethane coat) would complete the sign construction. Dave McCorvie (North Vernon Treatment Plant supervisor) visit: Tabled; Mr. McCorvie was unable to attend. The group did receive notice that another treated sewage overflow occurred May 20th due to excessive rain accumulation. Grant issues / alternatives: Please review Jennifer Boyle's section below on the 319 grant. Troy researched 'www.TGCIAlumni.com' for sources of grant funding possibilities, but found it pretty overwhelming; his suggestion was to assign the Grant Committee to review it. IDEM Q&A session with new commissioner Tom Eastlery: In summary, nearly all of the available funding needed to fix county sewer and septic issues has been depleted From a $1,100,000 budget (in which funds must be used up by July 30), $600,000 went to JNRU and $500,000 to DMC and Hickory Hills cleanup projects. The APC has addressed this issue. It was noted that the county needs another water treatment plant with a 4 to 5 million-gallon capacity; a suggested opinion was to look into a joint effort with the new military training center. Status of the railroad rails at the commons: The current Madison Railroad crew reported that the group previous to them left them there. The crew needs to have a waiver prepared for approval to remove them from the sight. The Madison Railroad director will contact us as to the next step. APC Environmental section: Simeon noted that Cheryl has it ready to submit with the Environmental Appendix to FPBH. Simeon also has info to submit on the county's septic systems and other Health Department issues. Sherida put a thank you in paper to all River Sweep contributors (IGA, Wal*Mart, Papa John's, Subway, McDonalds, etc.), and a letter to Sheriff's Department. The bill from PDS was for $52.00. The Early Learning Center participated in a fundraiser this year to raise money to donate to a randomly selected, non-profit organization. The FMRS was blessed and honored to be the recipient of the funds. Fund amounts and other details will be disclosed at the next meeting. NEW BUSINESS: Educational, grant money, and task report from Simon and Leanne: Hourly balance: 300 hours allocated, 241 hours used to date. We need to look into a summer program or some fair activity to use up the remainder. Some of the teachers at the elementary schools failed to return their hours and workbooks (approximately 500 hours and $1,500 in materials). Financial balance: approximately $20,000 (expires November 18). Breakdown is as follows: $5,000 for education $5,000 for water quality management $8,000 for public outreach $2,000 for report writing We could use some remaining funding for October's river sweep expenses. 319 grant possibility - discussion with Jennifer Boyle: Jennifer stated that our 205j application was well written and scored high during evaluation. She feels that we would have success in applying for a 319 grant focusing on implementation only, covering an 11-digit watershed in the Muscatatuck (section 378) and Hardy Lake (section 386) areas in Jennings, Jefferson and Scott counties. Action items would include the insallation of filter strips, parian buffers, bleach boxes, septic, livestock and wildlife issues. She suggested a cooperative venture with Jefferson and Scott county officials to implement fixes at a 14-digit level in these areas; we should request support letters from each county. The grant form would lay-out a plan to identify problem areas, utilizing a 6-8 month planning phase and 3-4 year implementation phase. Sponsorship could be provided by Scott County Health Department or Historic Hoosier Hills. Funding would begin by late summer 2006, with approval being obtained by spring 2006. Jennifer feels that we could 'cut and paste' most of the existing 205j application; items such as expanding the budget to cover an 11 digit watershed would need to be updated; LAYER and TMDL (total maximum daily load) report data could be added, but is not fundable. Simeon and Greg could provide a small-focus Hoosier Riverwatch testing result. Any maps that are required could be provided by IDEM. Submission deadline is October 1, so the Grant Committee would need to reassemble and have a rough draft no later than late July or early August. The committee could also solicit support letters from Jackson, Jefferson (Amy Carpenter) and Scott County IDEM and SWCD, as well as Sheriff Departments and Crosley Reserve. Jennifer to re-review our 205j forms and to email Simeon the IDEM test data results and locations. Jennifer made the general comment that IDEM is aware of the 23million gallons of raw sewage dumped into 6 Mile Creek by JNRU from 2000-2004. Delbert Vincent mentioned a need to clean up old, abandoned mobile homes, and asked Jennifer if grant money would be available for cleanup funding (i.e. USDA Solid Waste Grant). The APC is looking for a better disposal method than currently used. She suggested looking into a RCAP (rural community assistance program) focused on treating low-income private areas. Jennifer to forward info on this to Simeon, who will forward to the group. Everett Sparkman's findings on DNR ticketing and prosecution of said violations: DNR was resistant in releasing any info to Everett, in which he feels it should be public info. Everett will try contacting the Sheriff's Department, ISP and the prosecutor's office for more assistance. FMRS office use at the Visitor Center / Camera issue: Simeon will look into moving his and Leanne's office space to the Health Department and possibly donating the furniture to the Visitor Center; Greg and Susan seemed in favor of this. Advantages include a closer association with Simeon and Leanne, and access to a T1 internet line. Tom and Sherida to discuss this idea further with Greg and Susan. Simeon to approach Bill Black @ Citizencorp to create and maintain the website and supply a link to the JC site. Fair Booth (June 26 - July 2): We need the following to run the booth: - Setup volunteers for Friday/Saturday: FMRS has a 10 x 10 space reserved. We will set up our display along with Elizabeth's macro invertebrate display, if available. Note: Clifty Creek has asked to borrow our septic display for the Bartholomew County Fair; all members agreed this was OK. - Volunteers to work: Leanne will email a signup sheet and coordinate the signups. Booth times are 5pm-10pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and 1pm-10pm Wednesday and Saturday. - Sell items for fundraiser: T-shirts and carabineers could be sold. Pencils and brochures can be given out also; 1,000 brochures were supplied by PDS. We chose to save the water bottles for river cleanup events. - Les to coordinate recycling (not affiliated with FMRS). He will contact fair board members Glen Brooks and Rob Raney to coordinate storage and Jim Reeves of the recycling center for a truck for hauling and disposal on July 2. Task and contract balance: We need to meet with Kathleen Hagan in June to discuss closing out the grant. Hazmat demonstration and gloves from the Sheriff's Department for River Sweep on 10-1-05: A FMRS official will contact Dave Turner before the cleanup (???), since he has done such a wonderful job in the past. 2 issues brought up in closing notes: - Sim wants to look into a night-time monitoring device to aid in catching dumping perpetrators. Becky Shaw offered to supply mobile units ranging in price from $200-$300. Tom suggested also to contact Crane Naval for surplus supplies. Tabled until next meeting. - Kevin looking for approval to pass out FMRS flyers in the Methodist Church's Railroad Days parade. Set agenda for the next meeting: Tom will use these minutes to issue an agenda for next meeting. Meeting adjourned @ 7:42 pm Next Meeting: August 2 REMINDER: NO MEETING IN JULY NEXT RIVER SWEEP IS...October 1st Mother Nature Thanks You Use the TIP LINE. Call 1-800-847-4367 (1-800-TIP-IDNR)