Attending: Chuck Lane (Chair), Tom Bedell, Larry Merriam, Tom Murphy, Janine Salwasser, Sandra Coveny (Coordinator)

Chuck Lane called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm

Coveny distributed the Council financial report, as of 5/18/04. Expenditures appear to be within the projected budget. Committee members had difficulty interpreting the report.  Nonetheless it was approved with the understanding that the Treasurer would provide a briefing on the format at an upcoming meeting.

Project Implementation Strategy: Tara Nierenberg presented a briefing on the proposed strategy which uses a Limiting Factors Analysis for setting priorities for projects. This was followed by an extended discussion. While there appeared to be general agreement that the Limiting Factors Analysis provides a conceptually sound approach for setting project priorities, there were a number of concerns about how it would be implemented.
Some key concerns were:
- how does this approach relate to prior Council planned activities, e.g. the Action Plan?
- at what scale(s) will the analysis be performed?
- what specific steps are necessary for implementation of this approach? Committee recommendations included:
- describe how this approach builds upon and moves beyond what has already been done by the Council.
- consider "testing" or "demonstrating" this approach at several scales before its full implementation.
- describe the specific steps necessary for its implementation, including what types of technical experts will be required and how they will
be recruited.
Additional comments: in the Documentation Form, include "administrative" impacts and project costs; use a real example in the table rather than "Bubble Creek"; implementation for 6th field watersheds will be crucial.

Philomath Water Use Study: Lane reported on his May 10th meeting with the Philomath City Council at which the City Council formally approved Lane's proposal for a joint City/Watershed Council public meeting on water use issues. The purpose of the meeting would be to obtain input from the public on water use concerns across the entire Marys River watershed and to discuss a collaborative approach for addressing these concerns.
Ken Schaudt will represent the City Council, and Murphy and Salwasser (along with Coveny) will represent the Watershed Council in planning for this meeting. Coveny will contact Schaudt to set up a joint planning meeting. Meanwhile Coveny, Lane, Murphy and Salwasser will meet on June 21 (9:30 am, downtown Beanery) to discuss the Watershed Council's perspective.

Other items: Coveny was asked to report regularly at Steering Committee meetings on restoration projects as they are developed, in particular explaining how the projects were selected.  It was recommended that the Council consider developing an inventory of technical skills available among its members.

Meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm

Next meeting: June 22, 2004.