McKinley
County
February 10,
2004
MEMBERS
PRESENT:
Karl Lohmann
Coal Basin MDWUA
Joan Sandy
Pueblo of Zuni
Rhonda Berg
Rehoboth-Red Mesa Foundation
Loline Hathaway
YahTaHey Water & Sanitation District
FACILITATORS/STAFF:
Larry Winn
McKinley Soil & Water Conservation
District
Evan Williams
Northwest New Mexico Council of Governments
Jeff Kiely
Northwest New Mexico Council of Governments
I.
OPENING. Larry Winn opened the meeting at 10:20
AM. Introductions
proceeded.
II.
NOTES
& HANDOUTS. A number of handouts were provided to
the members, including notes from the January 26th meeting and copies
of the McKinley County Water Board Bylaws.
Loline Hathaway motioned to approve notes from January 26th
meeting, and Rhonda Berg seconded the motion. All were in favor; no one opposed
passing notes.
III.
COUNTY
WATER PLANNING. Rhonda Berg offered an avenue of
technical assistance in the way of Pete Bosher with “Engineers without Borders”
at the University of Wisconsin.
This led into discussion around County planning and prioritizing water as
the number one issue. The Board
revisited the scenario of having Marc DePauli as a consultant on “retainer” for
the County. The question was raised
if targeting Marc was inappropriate.
Jeff Kiely explained, that as he understood it, the County would not have
to put out to bid projects less than $25,000. If it was over $25,000, then the County
would need to go out to bid with an RFP, of which Marc DePauli still is a number
one candidate because of local working knowledge. Larry Winn noted that a systemic
approach needed to be taken and that Marc has worked with many of the local
systems.
Jeff Kiely offered two ideas in the situation of having Marc DePauli on retainer. First, the Board could ask Marc if he’d be interested in performing a systemic needs assessment and initial planning for all local systems, under CDBG planning grant funding. The second would be to go out to bid for someone work to work on county-wide projects and infrastructure needs on retainer for the County. The latter would need to be funded probably by Environmental Gross Receipts Tax funds.
IV. CDBG PLANNING. The group was informed that at 12:30 the County Commission would be hearing CDBG planning grant projects, and making a decision on which local water associations needed and deserved planning funds. There was conversation on the role the County could play. Karl Lohmann bought up that jurisdictional issues needed to be surpassed, and how do we move to multi-jurisdictional situations? Rhonda Berg offered that the County is a weak local government, but the only government that represents all of our interests. Karl Lohmann then asked if State involvement was needed to bring all players together and develop a team. Joan Sandy agreed that the State is important and it cannot just be us. Larry Winn stated that in future this should be revisited, but that immediate focus was needed to move the CDBG conversation. Rhonda Berg summarized some previous comments into a statement that the County should hear and that is to impress the County to see water as a top priority and respond with a statement of new leadership in the form of this regional opportunity.
The
Board came to census around the recommendation that “the County take specific
steps in a role of leadership on water issues by supporting a regional system
planning process, starting with the CDBG planning proposal.” Rhonda Berg made this motion and
Joan Sandy seconded it. All were in
favor; none were opposed.
IV.
Organizational
Structure. Jeff
Kiely prepared Bylaws with a small taskforce, consisting of Jonathan
Flannery, Loline Hathaway, Larry Winn, and Jeff Kiely, of the McKinley
County Water Board. The Board
discussed and edited the Bylaws line by line. Several important corrections were made
to the Bylaws. Jeff Kiely would
implement changes and redraft the Bylaws for the next meeting of the MCWB, upon
the important of the Board. At the
next meeting, the Bylaws will be revisited for adoption or correction.
V. CLOSING COMMENTS/NEXT MEETING. Larry Winn provided closing comments and suggested that the Board designate a standing time and a meeting schedule they would like to keep. Joan Sandy offered the second Wednesdays of each month. It was decided by board members that this schedule would fit their needs. According to this schedule, the next meeting will be held at 10 AM in Veterans Hall on Wednesday, March 10th. At this time, an overview of the Gallup Town Hall on Water will be provided.
VI. FUTURE SCHEDULE OF DATES. Veteran’s Hall, 10 AM-12PM.
April 14th, May 12th, June 9th, July 14th, August 11th, Sept 8th.
Respectfully submitted,
Evan Williams
Associate Planner, Northwest New Mexico COG