Marys River Watershed Council
Steering Committee meeting Minutes
March 15, 2006
Benton Soil & Water Conservation District Office

Attending: Sandra Coveny, Curt Seeliger, Gordon Cummings, Tom Bedell, Stacy Carpenter, Gary Blanchard, Tom Murphy, Jim Fairchild

Agenda Items: Fish Passage, Insurance, Awards/recognitions, activities status reports, finance

There was pre-meeting discussion regarding a draft MRWC response to Greenberry Irrigation District (GID) project concept. Sandra is finalizing the letter, along with the several activities associated with other aspects of GID’s envisioned expansion, involving live and stored water uses from the Willamette River, water rights development and possible water transfers to Muddy Cr., and use of treated wastewater from Corvallis.

Fish Passage
Chris Stebbins, (BSWCD) Benton Fish Passage Improvement Project (BFPIP), is applying a new prioritization system that coordinates activities both within Benton County and its various watershed councils. Chris will present this at the Alsea (Midcoast)WC, which Gary also attends. We’ll plan to have Chris is presenting the same information at the April MRWC meeting, having fish passage as our quarterly business meeting topic. A discussion followed as we reviewed factors that helped elevate fish passage in importance, possibly beyond its ecological contribution towards watershed health.

Insurance
Curt is investigating Directors and Officers Insurance, which MWRC doesn’t have. River Network can offer D&O coverage to groups our size for $1,100/year. Such insurance should protect SC members from personal liability for MRWC activities. Our only other blanket coverage is liability, in an indemnification clause in our articles of incorporation. OWEB specific grants provide coverage, but not to MRWC activities outside that source. We will ask for OWEB coveragescoverage’s in the council support grant renewal, and Sandra will ask Janine to make inquires at the OWEB meeting she is concurrently attending.

Awards
We discussed how best to recognize long -term contributions individuals have made to the MRWC. We have given plaques, but other acknowledgements might be more appropriate, such as a paper certificate, a contribution to otheresothers in their name, or a column in “Good Words” or elsewhere in the Corvallis G-T. Curt and Sandra will so proceed with this recipient (Marge Stevens)

Status Reports
Cardwell Hills: The latest landowner meeting went well, and many more landowners (16) wanting management plans came forward than the OWEB grant can support (8). OWEB suggests that we submit for additional funding. Donna Schmitz and Steve Smith (USFWS) have applied for funding to look at management for both agricultural use and listed butterfly habitat recovery.
Newton Creek: Chris S. is identifying and assessing fish habitat for our Healthy Waters Institute Project (Karen F-H), and Steve Smith has offered USFWS dam removal work at a substantially reduced cost.

Rock Creek: Jim F. will be attending Corvallis watershed management planning meetings and will keep the SC updated. Corvallis will be reviewing fish passage and watershed issues in context with their overall objectives in the Rock Creek drainage. Some MRWC attendance at April and later public meetings was encouraged.

Philomath: Some concern has risen that City of Philomath is waiting for a the MWRC to provide an assessment for them, rather than using our resources to determine what they need to know. Though we have few city residents active in MRWC, it was suggested we try to engage them and city councilors further.

MRWC Financial Status
Curt is transferring our records into QuickbooksQuickBooks. He doesn’t see any financial problems as of now. As OWEB has started an internal audit, Curt hopes expects their process will reach down to our level, and thus help cover auditing our records, which can be expensive and that OWEB will cover the audit cost. It was suggested we have a discussion of our financial arrangements, particularly in separate handling of income, bookkeeping, and disbursements.

Next MRWC Meeting:
April 5th: Along with Chris Stebbins and fish passage considerations, we’re to have a map and overlays of activities and interests in the subwatersheds, as well as more in-depth reports from staff and committees.