Marys River Watershed Council
Steering Committee meeting Minutes
April 19, 2006
Benton Soil & Water Conservation District Office

Attending: Tom Bedell, Sandra Coveny, Gordon Cumming, Liz Dent (Co-Chair), Karen Fleck-Harding, Tom Murphy, Janine Salwasser (Co-Chair), Curt Seeliger (scribe)

Agenda Items:
Fish Passage
Coordinator and E&O updates
Financial Report
Feedback on new meeting format
Tyee event accounting

• We've been awarded the NFWF grant to hire a technical assistant to coordinate actions among eight watershed councils (North Santiam, South Santiam, Rickreal, Marys River, Calapooia, Yamhill, Luckiamute, Glenn & Gibson). As these are federal funds, it might be possible to get matching OWEB funds.
  Note: A map of Oregon watershed councils can be seen, and a pdf downloaded, from http://www.oregon.gov/OWEB/WSHEDS/wsheds_councils_list.shtml .
• We've been awarded the grant for Woods Creek restoration. [Google finds a startling lack of information on Woods Creek on our website] Outreach funding will allow the Council to work with the community on habitat improvements.
• The Outreach and Education coordinator position has been re-funded for onemore year. The O&E budget is being reviewed and resubmitted to OWEB.
• We will sign a formal collaboration agreement with Oregon Solutions, consisting of the Marys River WC, Bonneville Power, ODFW, OWEB, ODEQ, US Forest Service, US Fish & Wildlife, Benton County, Benton SWCD, Greenbelt Land Trust, and the NRCS. This currently focusses on the Cardwell Hills area as a model for future endeavours. Future cooperators may include OSU and the Luckiamute WC. The councils contributions will consist of Sandra's and Karen's time. Tom noted this was similar to CRIMP, and is glad to see it finally implemented. Janine noted it would be good to learn from this experience, understanding what had gone right in the past and why it hadn't been continued.
• A proposal for funding assessments for the 19 additional interested landowners was made to OWEB.

Outreach and Education update:

• The Newton Creek project has evolved considerably. The pre-proposal to NFWF, based on an estimate for engineering and reconstruction by the NRCS, has been accepted. After the submission but before acceptance of the preproposal, the USFW offered to pull the dam as part of their own program activities. NFWF is still encouraging our application for funds for a modified project which still focusses on habitat and education. ODFW will submit the application forpermits under their fish habitat enhancement waiver.
• A draft poster for the summer fundraiser has been created. A basket weaving demonstration has been settled. Two more demonstrations, of fish printing and flint knapping, are currently in the works, and a list of story tellers is being developed. Tom suggested we also have someone talk about the relationship of land and wine. It is hoped that all of our costs will be covered by sponsorships and gate proceeds, and the entire proceeds of the silent auction will go to our general fund. Payments for the grounds and the music is on a sliding scale. The possibility of paying them a minimum ($150) plus some percentage of the gate proceeds up to a maximum ($500) was discussed. Gordon raised a concern that this may run contrary to participants assumption that all of the fees go towards supporting the watershed council.
• The Healthy Waters program is planning meetings with Philomath school teachers to discuss the extent of existing natural resource education and opportunities and resources to fill the gaps.
• Everyone expressed their pleasure with Colby Davidson's presentation on fish sampling at the last Council meeting. It took a fair bit of courage for a highschooler to get up in front of a bunch of adults and explain his methods and results. Rep. Gelser who had attended that meeting, was also impressed according to Karen. Yep, that's one fine boy!

Council finances:

• Curt provided a year-to-date report of Council finances (and can email a copy to interested SC members feeling masochistic). Sandra suggested that the water quality monitoring (phase 2) project balance is due to a mis-categorized grant entry, and will need to be investigated. Council members requested a separate line item for fundraising, and grand totals calculated. These will be added to the next quarterly report.
• The procedure for checkwriting was discussed, and it was agreed that Sandra would continue writing all checks but those to herself; the co-Chairs agreed to take on this responsibility and will be added to the council account for this purpose. Curt will continue to receive and reconcile bank statements, but will not write checks.
• The procedure for choosing contractors was briefly brought up, but postponed to the next Steering Committee meeting for lack of time.