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LMREP Board Meeting Minutes

February 10, 2010

November 11, 2009

March 11, 2009

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LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING

& BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING

Wednesday, February 10^th, 2010 at 6:30

Industry, Illinois (Industry School)

Board members present: Roger Barclay, Tharran Hobson, Dan Moorehouse, Jurl Southerland, Pat Sullivan, and Dana Walker

Others present: Jeff Boeckler, Martha Shepherd,

President Tharran Hobson called meeting to order at 6:35 pm.

Election of officers and board vacancies:

Pat Sullivan moved to appoint Becky Fischer to the board for Hancock County.  Motion seconded by Roger Barclay and passed.

 Dana Walker moved to elect Pat Sullivan as LREMP Vice President.  Motion seconded by Dan Moorehouse and passed unanimously.

Dana Walker moved to elect Dan Moorehouse as LREMP Secretary.  Motion seconded by Pat Sullivan and passed unanimously.

Treasures Report:

Martha Sheppard presented the financial report to the board.  The remainder of the IDNR support grant was spent on $660 on postage and $573 on a sign for the gully erosion stabilization project.

Dan Moorehouse moved to accept the financial report.  Motion was seconded by Dana and passed.

Annual Meeting Minutes / Secretary’s Report:

Roger Barclay moved to approve the annual meeting minutes.  Motion seconded by Dana and approved with two spelling corrections.

Old Business:

Annual meeting review – Consensus that the meeting went well with a very good speaker and was well attended.

Brown Field Partnership with Prairie Hills – We have sent a letter of support but have not heard back.

319 project report – Jeff Boeckler stated that we are off to a slow start because the fields are muddy and the SWCD has not been able to get out to survey.  The McDonough county SWCD is down to 4 days a week and the Fulton County SWCD is down to one staff member both due to budget cuts.  Hopefully this will not hinder this project. 

Jeff stated that we have signed up the last producer in the livestock 319/equip grant project.

Jeff also stated as of August 15^th he will become a private consultant but he hopes to do the same work he is doing now with us.

New Business:

We received a letter asking for support for the Macomb Earth Day on April 24th.  Dan Moorehouse moved to donate $100 to the Macomb Earth Day from the Jeff Boeckler Honorarium.   Motion seconded by Pat Sullivan and passed.

319 project signage – Martha informed the board that we will be purchasing 1 sign for the 319 gully stabilization project that we hope to put on a visible road next to one of the projects.  The sign cost $670.

LEAP Grant: Pat Sullivan announced that she had visited 10 schools to demonstrate our watershed model educating 207 kids and 52 adults.

West Hancock Annexation: We received a letter from Tammy Watson that she needed some basic information and after sending it she would approve our request.   Martha stated that the info she requested had been sent.

Jeff Boeckler volunteered to make a new map of the partnership with our new boundaries.

Next meeting April 28, 2010 at the Senior Center in Augusta,  IL.

Meeting Adjourned at 8:25pm

Minutes submitted respectfully

Dan Moorehouse - Secretary  LMREP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING

ANNUAL MEETING

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 6:30pm

Phoenix Opera House, Rushville Illinois

President Tharran Hobson brought the meeting to order at 7:15pm

Financial report – Martha Shepard

Martha talked about the grants that are still outstanding including $500 grant for educational outreach with our watershed model, gully stabilization grant in Northern McDonough and Fulton Counties, and our partnership operations thought IDNR.  Dana Walker motioned to accept the financial report.  Motion seconded by Tim Sullivan and approved. 

A motion was made by Tim Sullivan to approve our previous meeting minutes.  Motion Seconded by Dan Moorehouse and approved.  

OLD BUSINESS:

Martha Sheppard stated that she received a letter from the mayor of Hamilton Illinois requesting to join our watershed.  Dana Walker motioned to ask IDNR to accept the western portion of Hancock County into the La Moine River Ecosystem Partnership.  Motion seconded by Tharran Hobson and approved.

NEW BUSINESS:

We broke for elections to elect Brown and Schuyler County board representatives.

Board members elected:

Pat Sullivan   

Jerl Southerland

Our next meeting February 10th 2010 6:30pm at Industry School.

Dana Walker moved to adjourn the meeting.  Motion seconded by Scott McConnell.

Motion Approved

Meeting Adjourned 7:35pm

Minutes submitted respectfully

Dan Moorehouse - Secretary  LMREP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING

& BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING

Wednesday, March 11^th, 2009 at 6:30

Industry, Illinois (Industry School)

Board members present: Tim Sullivan, Tharran Hobson, Robyn Hyman, Dan Moorehouse, and Dana Walker

Others present: Jim Hemingway, Jeff Boeckler, Martha Shepherd, Pat Sullivan.

President Dan Moorehouse called meeting to order at 6:30 pm.

Election of Officers:

The board elected Tharran Hobson President, Robin Hyman Vice President, Dan Moorehouse Secretary, and Martha Sheppard Treasurer.

Reports:

 

C2000 – Jim Hemmingway talked about the disarray of the C2000/Partners for Wildlife program.  Jim does not think there will be any grants this year as there were no grants for the past two years.  In addition, they are now talking about not including the Partnerships in the grant process in the future.  He also informed the board he will be retiring in April and moving to Texas.  He said there is very few staff left and there is little communication between him and his boss Tammy Watson.  Jim stated that he does not know what administrator will be assigned to us be he thinks it will be Randy Holbrook from Alton as he is now the closest.  Dan Moorehouse asked if there was any info on rescheduling the canceled watershed conference which Jim responded he had not heard if they were going to reschedule the conference.

Dana motioned to send a letter to Dir. Miller of IDNR to ask to replace Jim Hemmingway.  Motion seconded by Tim Sullivan.  The motion passed unanimously.

Education – Dana Walker and seconded by Tim Sullivan motioned to approve $30 to pay for a booth at the Science Education Update Conference at WIU.  Motion Approved.

Pat Sullivan informed the group that she will be making a presentation at Earth Day in Macomb and the WIU Environmental Summit where she will be using our watershed model.

Treasurer – Martha Sheppard stated that our support grant ends in September and we need to get working on new project to spend this money of we will lose it.  Martha suggested we could do something with the gully project and adding an educational component to it.

Jeff Boeckler stated that Adam Lucie was hired to talk to producers in our priority watersheds about conservation programs.  The money is from IEPA and will be used to compare how active outreach to landowners/producers affects conservation practices in a sub-watershed.

Old Business:

 

Dump Cleanup – Dan informed the group that he is still looking for an appropriate site to clean up.  We hope to get a cleanup date this year.

Dana brought up adding the rest of Hancock County into our partnership.  He stated he was talking to the mayor of Hamilton to this end.

New Business:

Newsletter – Dan said his timeline for the newsletter was to have the articles in by March 31 and the newsletter out by April 30^th.

Next meeting June 10^th at the Peace of Earth Lodge.

Minutes submitted respectfully

Dan Moorehouse - Secretary  LMREP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING

& BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING

Wednesday, September 12^th, 2007 at 6:30

Industry, Illinois (Industry School)

Board members present: Tim Sullivan, Pat Sullivan, Tharron Hobson, and Scott McConnell Dan Moorehouse, Dana Walker

Others present: Jim Hemingway, Jeff Boeckler, Martha Shepherd, Herb Edwards, Marilyn Callahan, Alica, Haley, Eric Owiredu, and Linda Prokopy. 

President Tim Sullivan called meeting to order at 6:42 pm.

Dir Pat Sullivan informed us of a letter from the IDNR informing our group about the actions IDNR is taking to contain the emerald ash bore.  This letter was in response to a letter LMREP sent to express our concern about the problem.

Dir. Pat Sullivan showed a slide show from our Wheels for Conservation Bus Tour.  Pat informed us about the successful bus tour that involved a total of 44 people.

Jeff Boeckler handed out Smoked Coho Salmon with crackers and cream cheese from his trip to British Columbia for the group to taste.

President Sullivan suggested that we send a thank you to the Schuyler-Industry School District for letting us use their Industry building on a regular basis.

President Sullivan began with introductions of all of the people in the room.

A motion was made by Dana Walker to approve the minutes from the last meeting. The motion was seconded by Pat Sullivan.  The minutes were approved unanimously.

Martha passed out the budget and went over the different accounts/grants for the partnership.  She mentioned the $4000 support grant was approved and we will need to spend it in the next two years.   Dan and Martha agreed to be on the budget committee. More members are needed for this committee—to plan out a spending plan for our new Support Grant.

Martha handed out a La Moine River activities summary sheet and asked for additions or corrections. 

Dana brought up us voting for joining the State watershed organization and mentioning to Martha needing to pay the $25 for us to join since the Illinois Watershed Association now has an official bank account.

Dana moved to approve the finance report. Motion was seconded by Scott McConnell.  Motion approved unanimously.

Education committee:  Pat Sullivan talked about the accomplishments of the bus tour, Pat also mentioned giving a speaking engagement for LMREP with the TIPS club in Macomb. A new LEAP Grant ($500)will be written to help cover these speaking engagement costs by our members.

Conservation Committee:  Dan Moorehouse talked about the continued work the Prairie Land Conservancy is doing in getting up and going.  In addition the LMREP held a stream cleanup this past August which cleaning up two sites in McDonough County.  In addition LMREP hosted a meeting to gauge landowner option on the new federal “SAFE” program.

Herb Edwards from WIU biology Dept talked about the 2^nd annual La Moine river Cleanup day and invited the LMREP to partner with the small group he has organized through WIU.  The cleanup will be this Saturday at 9:00 am and focus on the La Moine river east fork along WIU. It is a part of the IL River Sweep-It’s Our River Day. Volunteers should meet at the Physical plant. 

Tim Sullivan brought up planning for our Annual Meeting in November.  Suggestions were to have the meeting in Brown County. Date possibilities include Wednesday or 7th Nov 13^th,14^th, 15th at the YMCA in Mount Sterling. Scott McConnell will provide the speaker, Therron Hobson will reserve a location for the meeting, and Marylyn will be in charge of publicity.  Tim Sullivan asked for items that members wished would be added to the agenda.

Board recruitment: The Board talked about possible ways to fill the vacancies on the board and recruitment for new Board members  Suggestions included working on Brown and Fulton &.Adams Co  Jim Hemmingway suggested calling possible board members.

Jim Hemmingway. The C2000 staff will be having a IDNR meeting on the 25^th to discuss changes to the C2000 Program. C2000 is still waiting on the money for 2007 grants.   Jim suggested we should look ahead and start looking for new grant opportunities for next year.   Jim mentioned having a grant workshop earlier than later.  Dan Moorehouse mentioned having an idea workshop for grants rather than a technical grant writing workshop.  In October or early Nov. We will plan one on one of the approved Nov dates that we don’t use for the Annual meeting ---in Macomb.

Linda from Purdue University (doing a study about targeted watershed.) talked to the group about the landowner survey that will be conducted by the university.  Dan Moorehouse suggested mailing out postcards along with the survey that landowners could send back to us independently from the survey to landowners for them signify their wiliness to work with the LMREP as part of the survey.  Linda said she hoped for the survey to go out later in the year, possibly in October.  Or January She also asked if our group could provide comments for the survey questionnaire.   Comments should be made by 19 of September.  Linda will send us a press release so we can forward it to the media.

Dan Moorehouse was asked to post new photos on the web site.

Tim asked Committees to have meetings before our next meeting in order to set goals for next year.

Motion to Adjourn was made by Dan Moorehouse and seconded by Therron Hobson.  Motion passed

Meeting adjourned 8:50

Minutes submitted respectfully

Dan Moorehouse

Secretary – Treasurer LREMP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING

& BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING

Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 at 6:30

Macomb. IL

Board members present: Chuck Ehlschlaeger, Scott McConnell, Dan Moorehouse, Trevor Toland, and, Dana Walker.

Others present: Jeff Boeckler, and Sara Wood.

Vice President Chuck Ehlschlaeger called meeting to order at 6:45 pm.

Dir. Dan Moorehouse talked about our plans for the “Wheels for Conservation Bus Tour” Saturday August 18^th.  The bus departs at 9am from the old Farm King parking Lot. We will be touring three sites including a stop on the East Fork of the La Moine River for a Fish ID demo given by Prof. Timothy Spears from WIU.  Next we will go to a Stream Bank Stabilization talk at Trevor Tolands Farm, and finally we will visit to Fowl Play, a recreational hunting outfit in Schuyler County.  In addition we will be having a free steak sandwich lunch at Fowl Play and a talk about restoring a tall grass prairie.  We should be back by 4pm

Jeff Boeckler talked about the upcoming River Cleanup on July 28^th.  He said that we will meet at the Farm King parking lot at 8:30am.  We will be cleaning up two sites one on Ina road south on Industry.  The second cleanup site is located near Argyle Lake State Park on Comanche Road.  Participants should dress appropriately boots and clothing they can get dirty.

Dir. Trevor Toland updated the group on the livestock initiative.  The said it has been difficult to recruit farmers.  They plan to have a BBQ at Trevor’s in August to help recruit producers / farmers into the program. The overall goal of this program is to reduce water pollution by helping farmers with funding to enable them to fence the cattle off the stream,  provide wells for watering cattle, provide cattle crossings, stabilize the riverbank, and return some natural vegetation the stream bank/wetlands. 

Jeff Boeckler from IDNR talked to the group about possibly putting in a proposal for the federal SAFE program (CRP for wildlife).  The told the group of a meeting with local landowners at the Community Room in the Macomb City Hall on July 24^th.  Dan Moorehouse will contact the local papers and radio station in order to publicize the event.

VP Chuck Ehlschlaeger will put together a Yahoo Group for our organization to improve communication between members.

The board approved the minutes from the last meeting.

Next meeting:  September 12^th 2007 at 6:30.

Meeting adjourned at 8:45

Minutes submitted respectfully

Dan Moorehouse

Secretary – Treasurer LREMP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING

& BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING

Wednesday, May 9^th, 2007 at 6:30

Industry, Illinois (Industry School)

Board members present: Dan Moorehouse, Dana Walker, John Cox, Tim Sullivan, Trevor Toland, Pat Sullivan, Chuck Ehlschlaeger, and Scott McConnell.

Others present: Jim Hemingway, Jeff Boeckler, Martha Shepherd, Bob Henry, Linda Prokopy,

President Tim Sullivan called meeting to order at 6:33 pm.

Dir Pat Sullivan motioned to approve the minutes seconded by Dir Cox. Approved

Martha Shepherd submitted a finance report to the board.  She informed the board we need to get receipts and hours in kind for the LEAP grant.  

Martha Shepherd brought up the Family Outdoor Day September 8^th, 2007 at the Muddy Rivers Lodge.

Dir. Walker talked about an addendum page for the La Moine River Resource Inventory published by IDNR.  Dir Pat Sullivan said she would send a letter to IDNR about the publication.

Plans for the La Moine River Day: Pat Sullivan mentioned that a site visit to would not be advisable because the Dan Wolf project won’t be done in time.  She recommended having the day in August which no objection was brought up.  The committee will work out the details at a later meeting.  Possible dates are the 18^th or 25^th.

Membership:  Chuck mentioned our new Yahoo Group that members can use to communicate, post minutes, and remind members of an upcoming meeting.  Dan mentioned having focus group meetings.

McDonough Co Cleanup:  John Cox explained having a cleanup at places along the east fork of the La Moine with specific clean up sites.  Volunteer NOW in Macomb will help.  We are waiting for Kester’s Tire for agreement to take the tires.  Kim Ernt will work for the Township to haul out the waste.  John is looking at July 28^th for the cleanups.   Dana mentioned IRID Illinois removes illegal dumps.  They are part of IEPA.  

Martha Shepherd wrote a letter for the Victory Foundation for funding a partnership coordinator.  However, Martha mentioned the foundation only gives grants in areas near Chicago. 

Dir. McConnell announced the new director for the WIU IES is Roger Viedero.

Grant for Watershed Coordinator.  Jeff needs help searching for appropriate grants.  Jeff will put together a proposal and a draft budget.  The board discussed the possibility of WIU IES housing the coordinator.  

A property on Brown County Jeff got funding for a treatment lagoon for livestock waste a $9,000 project from our willing land owner list contacted by Carolyn Benninghoff.  The project will be finished by the end of June.

Pat and Jeff have been canoeing on Camp Creek, Drowning Fork and starting on Troublesome Creek to look for and measure bank erosion and GIS their location,

Linda Prokopy from Purdue University will be conducting a study in our watershed.  Karren McDermade from the U of I Extension is collaborator.  The study looks at the role of social indicators to improve land management practices.  This study is funded by USDA and CSREES to collect baseline data on three sub watersheds and determine if it help to have social knowledge to influence landowner opinion on BMP’s.

A greenways and trails grant was awarded to Bill Kuhn for Schuyler Co. He wanted to know if he could get some data and input from our partnership. 

Jim Hemingway informed the partnership that HB 1780 passed the house unanimously extending C2000 program and renaming it to Partners for Conservation

Dana brought up Emerald ash bore in Illinois.  Dana made a motion to write a letter to IDNR.  Motion approved.

Next Meeting July 11^th at Macomb

Meeting adjourned at 8:50

Minutes submitted respectfully

Dan Moorehouse

Secretary – Treasurer LREMP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
& BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 at 6:30
Industry, Illinois (Industry School)
 

Board members present: Dan Moorehouse, Dana Walker, John Cox, Tim Sullivan, Trevor Toland, Pat Sullivan, Chuck Ehlschlaeger, and Scott McConnell.

Others present: Jim Hemingway, Jeff Boeckler, Martha Shepperd, Kim Erndt, and Loutla Orty-Ribbing

President Tim Sullivan called meeting to order at 6:42 and attendees introduced themselves.

Dir. Walker motioned to approve the annual meeting minutes seconded by Scott. Motion approved.

Kim Erndt gave an overview of Prairie Rivers Network. Their main goal is to help communities protect their water resources. They offer workshops to watershed groups to inform local citizens about how to protect their watershed and how to work with local governments to achieve these goals. Kim’s job it to work with local watershed/environmental groups to help them with organization, public outreach, news releases etc. There web site can be found at www.prairierivers.org. She briefly talked about a new grant they received from NFWF will increase their role in conservation programs by connecting landowners with conservation funding.

C2000 and other grants:
Jeff Boecker talked about a possible C2000 grant for invasive species in the southern portion of our watershed. Jeff also was planning to submit a Livestock Management grant for the North Fork La Moine for our partnership.

Dir. Ehlschlaeger submitted a USEPA targeted watershed grants for SWCD and WIU with help from LMREMP.

Grant writing workshops. No one attended the Rushville workshop and a few people attended the workshop in Macomb.

Earth Day Discussion: Dir. Moorehouse brought up LMREP being part of the Macomb Earth Day. The board without decided we should have a booth at the Macomb Earth Day Fair.

Jim Hemmingway discussed the Feb 15th C2000 meeting in Springfield. He said they can accommodate up to 4 people from each watershed. The topic will be the future of C2000 program as the funding for C2000 will run out in 2008. The board discussed contacting our legislators about the importance of C2000 and our thoughts on its disestablishment.
Martha Sheppard finally received the money for the Jan-2006 LEAP Grant which had erroneously been sent to the Two Rivers Girl Scouts.
Board discussed the proposed budget for the support grant.

Martha talked about a LMREP financial reports and will report to Dir Moorehouse our treasurer before each meeting.

Environmental Cleanup: Dir Cox talked about LMREP getting involved in educating/ and cleaning up our streams and waterways. Jeff Boeckler said he would help in finding sites we could target. Kim Erndt announced that June 5-9 is national clean river week and River Sweep is Sept 17.

The board discussed the definition of roles as it concerns committees: Dir. Moorehouse recommended having only two or three committees: recreation/education, natural resources / soil erosion/ and water quality and possibly a publicity committee. Dir. Ehlschlaeger recommended we have a committee as a whole instead of committees which he thought would be more productive.

The board talked about publicity / meeting notification. Jeff Boeckler suggested having one person responsible to direct publicity efforts. Dir. Ehlschlaeger suggested setting up a Yahoo Group which he volunteered to do. Kim Erndt recommended we put the want add out there (like at earth day) that we want a publicity person.

Conservation committee report: Dir. Moorehouse reported that the committee worked on starting a land trust with the Prairie Hills RCD. We have had two meetings and are starting to organize and work on operating procedures.

President Sullivan stated that at the next meeting we will discuss how we want to work on goals and committee assignments.

Our next meetings: Grant review meeting 6:30 pm April 12th at Industry and our regular meeting May 9th 6:30 at Industry.
Tim will make sure the notifications before the next meeting go out.

Education Committee report: Dir Pat Sullivan told the board about the new PowerPoint presentation she made for LMREP. So far we have given five presentations to other organizations. Pat than showed the LMREP power point. She noted that we all need to document our presentations and turn in to Martha for pay that will be covered by the Sept LEAP grant (Total $500 to be used by June 30, 2007).

Dir. Pat Sullivan stated that we are still in the process of putting together a plan for the La Moine River Education day. A New LEAP Grant has been applied for to cover transportation for the Bus Tour. Adjustments need to be made to our grant proposal (and get approved by IDNR) if we want to continue with our plans for a Bus Tour format.

Meeting adjourned at 8:56
Minutes submitted respectfully

Dan Moorehouse
Secretary – Treasurer LREMP
 

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
& BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
Wednesday, December 6^th, 2006 at 6:30
Industry, Illinois (Industry School)

Board members present: Dan Moorehouse, Dana Walker, John Cox, Tim Sullivan, Pat Sullivan and Chuck Ehlschlaeger.

Others present: Jim Hemingway and others.

President Sullivan called meeting to order at 6:42

Dir Cox motioned to approve the annual meeting minutes seconded by Sullivan and approved.

Election of officers: Tim Sullivan was elected as President.  Chuck Ehlschlaeger was elected as Vice President, and Dan Moorehouse was elected as Secretary Treasurer. 

Directors at Large:  Pas Sullivan motions we keep our two directors at large Chuck Ehlschlaeger  and John Cox.  Motion approved unanimously.

Committee Reports:

Recreation Committee:  No report from John Cox.  Discussion centered on canoe access on the La Moine.  John brought up official IDNR boat ramps on the Spoon River in areas of the river that in not considered public access by the State of Illinois.  The IDNR grant to fund water access points/boat ramps is due August 1^st.   The board discussed possible funding opportunities for constructing canoe access.  Dir. Chuck E suggested we try the inexpensive model by buying gravel, a sign, and publish it by a web site.  John was concerned just putting in an access without getting it declared public would be considered breaking the law by trespassing.  Pat suggested we should put the rules (about trespassing) on the sign and leave it up to the public.  The committee agreed to meet in the future perhaps as a conference call.

Education Committee:  Pat asked about needing a power point for local presentations of our watershed.  Dan suggested we need a basic power point using pictures, maps, and basic text about our goals.  Pat talked to Farm Bureau and will plant to have a LMREP table.

Soil Erosion Committee:  No official report however he is working on submitting a new C2000 grant.  The partnership needs to keep making contacts with Landowners.

Conservation Committee.  Dir Moorehouse reported about the meeting with Prairie Hills RC&D about forming a land trust.  We understand that the RC&D has a land trust on “paper” but has not protected any land and is at the beginning stages of forming a land trust they call the “Prairie Land Conservancy”.  Alice Henry and Dan plan to meet with the RC&D board in December to hash out how we could partner with the RC&D to get them up and running.

Dan made a motion seconded by john for the executive committee to put together a support grant and submit it.  Motion approved.

Pat talked about the watershed day and stated that the collaboration with the Macomb earth day has fallen apart.  We are thinking about targeting landowners and combining it with a bus tour.  Pat suggested working with Friends of Argyle on our watershed day.  The committee will continue to work on the watershed day and report back to the board.

Pat brought up possibly working with the clean water association.

Dir Moorehouse brought up having a few grant writing workshops in January.  Dan agreed to set one up in Macomb (TBA) and Tim will set it up in Rushville Jan 25^th 6:00 pm at the High School library.  Suggestions for advertising include posting ads at feed, implement, and farm stores.  “Conservation grant workshop”  “Green for your green”.  Landowner conservation grants.  Dir Walker will look for possibilities of having a workshop in Carthage.

Next partnership meeting: February 7^th at Industry school 6:30pm

Meeting adjourned 9:04

Minutes submitted respectfully

Dan Moorehouse

Secretary – Treasurer LREMP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP
ANNUAL MEETING
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Macomb City Hall Community Room
Macomb, Illinois

President Tim Sullivan brought the meeting to order at 6:39 and welcomed all attendees.  Pres. Sullivan talked about accomplishments for the year.  Our largest accomplishment is finishing our watershed plan. He talked about our new brochure.  We also voted to join the Illinois Watershed Association.  We established a partnership with WIU.  We received three C2000 grants include VIT school outdoor habitat, La Moine River watershed event, and the Toland Woods Improvement Project.  We established plan implementation committees.  We put together a tree planting project.  We received two leap grants for watershed education in our partnership including purchasing a watershed model.  In addition we got funding for honorariums for speaking engagements to talk on our watershed.  We helped in getting our watershed a state wildlife grant (SWG) for Brown and Adams county for habitat restoration.

Pres. Sullivan introduced Angela Smith, director of Sugar Grove Nature Center, to talk on exotic species.   The talk started out by informing us why we can’t ignore exotics.  She told us that exotic species are estimated to cost us $130 billion a year. Impacts of exotics can be found in recreation, health, ecology, and economics.  She talked on how we as individuals can help this problem by doing simple thins like planting native species instead of invasive exotics and washing watercraft to prevent the spreading of exotic species.  She then showed slides of local invasive exotic plants including Garlic Mustard, Dames Rocket, Day Lilly, Bush Honeysuckle, Autumn Olive, Crown Vetch, Multiflora Rose, Kudzu, Canada Thistle, Teasel, Purple Loosestrife, White and Yellow Sweet Clovers, Reed Canary Grass, Common Reed Grass, Lilly of the valley, Perry-winkle, and Butterfly Bush.  Exotic animals include Norway Rats, European Starling, Monk Parakeet, Eurasian Collared Dove, House Sparrow, Asian Clam, and Zebra Mussel.  What you can do?  Learn to ID, Volunteer in eradication efforts, use native plants, monitor your land for exotic plants.  Ways to deal with exotics include cutting, mowing, root raking, hand pulling, burning, and herbicides. 

Break for elections for McDonough and Hancock counties.  McDonough County membership elected Dan Moorehouse, Trevor Toland and Scott McConnell.  Hancock County membership elected Dana Walker as there representative.  Pres Sullivan talked about planning for the La Moine River Day we plan to have next year.  Dir Toland talked about VIT outdoor classroom project they got C2000 funding for.  He says clean up will begin cleanup this year and planting next year.  Trevor also talked about the Toland Woods Project that improves land by fencing out cattle and reforestation of land that borders Ferster’s Woods natural area owned by WIU.

Pat Sullivan announced the tree planter which was purchased through C2000 funds was used by 12 landowners to plant 160 acres/70,000 trees.   Jeff announced Two Rivers RC&D was awarded $39,000 for gully inventory, cattle survey, stream bank erosion inventory, develop land owner contact list to link a landowner up to a potential project.  Jeff says it picks up from our plan and starts putting it to work by finding projects to accomplish the plan.   

Pres. Sullivan introduced Jim Hemmingway, IDNR Ecosystems Administrator, to give a presentation on C2000 grant program.  He briefly went over the program (conservation 2000 or C2000) which deals with conservation projects including natural area protection, habitat improvement, etc.  It is a competitive state wide process where grants ranked by the partnership and IDNR.  More info on IDNR website click “get involved”.  Grant applications due Feb 28^th.  May 15 – April 30^th partnerships rank grants.  Grants are announced in the fall of the year.  Mr. Hemmingway conveyed that on the ground projects are the projects that tend to be the projects funded. 

Next partnership meeting December 6^th at Industry School 6:30 pm.

Meeting Adjourned 8:45
Respectfully submitted:
Daniel Moorehouse
Secretary LMREP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
& BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
Wednesday, July 19^th, 2006 at 7:000
Macomb, Illinois (City Hall)

Board members present: Dan Moorehouse, Dana Walker, John Cox, Tharran Hobson, and Trevor Toland.

Others present: Jeff Boeckler, William Doe, Chuck Erschuler, Sara Wood, Debbie Fugal, Dave King, Marty Fisher, Debbie Fluegel, Harry Henderson, J. Scott McConnell, Jim Hemingway, Glenna & John Dormire, Gene Hartwey

Vice President Walker called meeting to order at 7:05

Committee Reports:

Education and Recreation Committee:  John Cox informed the partnership that trying to get canoe access ran into problems. First was that part of the land intended for the site turns out to be city property and not park board property.  The second problem was the park board wanted legal interpretation of canoe access law between state and federal laws before beginning.   John said we should drop it for this year and work on it next year as the timelines are not long enough to get over these problems.  Additionally he said that we have a great start and have made many contacts. 

Jeff Boeckler will put together a list of eligible land owners and payments for potential CREP projects.  Jeff sent the list to Alice Henry that will be taking the list and try to get new signups for the program.  Dan put together a list of funding sources on website.  Jeff announced SWG grant for $90,000 to fund restoration and conservation in the Siloam Springs/Buckhorn Complex.

Jeff also announced a grant from IEPA 319 grant for $36,000 on behalf of the partnership that Two Rivers RC&D will manage.  This grant will coordinate putting conservation projects together with willing landowners in targeted sub watersheds.  Jeff also announced the IEPA has funded the Ralph Welch Gully to fix the erosion problem with 319 IEPA grant money.

Harry Hendrickson and Debbie Fluegel came to represent trees forever and give a talk.   Harry talked about how he could help our organization by applying for grants to establish stream side buffers in our watershed.  He said he is hopping to accomplish 10 projects a year in our watershed.  Harry said his program was similar to Eco-watch in helping the landowners with their property and document the results of restoration.  He told us that Debbie Fluegel is the local field person for Trees Forever (former Eco-watch trainer) and she could be working up to ½ her time in our watershed.  They hope to get some precipitation from our partnership in local labor, local organization, and landowner contacts.   They are looking at constructing riparian buffer sites for there program.  VP Walker asked what Harry needs from us.  Harry said we would need a letter to establish a working relationship with the partnership which will get the ball rolling.  Trees Forever will not start before they get funding (not from us) but they/us will apply for a grant.  John Cox made a motion to send a letter to Trees Forever to form a partnership with them seconded by Dir. Hobson.  Motion unanimously approved. 

Letter of support for WIU Grant Application.  Dr. Bill Doe from WIU talked to the partnership about submitting an Illinois 319 grant by for a local conservation/watershed project involving 12 landowners.  This grant would put in $105,000 of federal funds into these projects.  WIU would manage the projects and do GIS work.  SWCD would provide technical assistance.  They have tied their grant into what are partnership goals.  The Grant will target upper watershed specifically Drowning Fork Creek and Upper East Fork La Moine River.  Dr. Doe asked for support for McDonough County Board and the Prairie River RC&D and would like to ask us for our support.  Dir. Moorehouse mad a motion seconded by Toland to provide a letter of support to WIU for this grant.  Motion Approved.  Need letter by end of week.

The partnership discussed a grant to hire a part time watershed Coordinator for our partnership.  Jeff recommended a committee search for a grant to hire a coordinator.  Jeff wanted to throw this idea out to discuss.  Idea is tabled to the next meeting.

VP Walker talked about the Illinois Watershed Association meeting in Springfield.  He said the plans for getting off the ground and becoming an official organization is getting close to fruition. 

Jeff Boeckler talked about a local meeting in Macomb to form a group to improve the Spring Lake Watershed.  They met to elect directors and will have another meeting soon.

Partnership broke up into Committees.

Meeting adjourned 8:35

Minutes submitted respectfully

Dan Moorehouse  Secretary – Treasurer LMREP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
& BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
Wednesday, May 24^th, 2006 at 6:30
Industry, Illinois (Industry School)

Board members present: Dan Moorehouse, Tim Sullivan, Pat Sullivan, Dana Walker, John Cox, Amy Hinchee, and Trevor Toland.

Others present: Jeff Boeckler, Dan Wolf, Robin Hinchee, Bill Doe, Glenna Dormire, John Dormire, Kim Erndt, Tim Kelly, Bob Henry, Alice Henry, Chuck Ehlschlager, Kevin O’Donnell, Carolyn Benninghoff, and Martha Sheppard

President Sullivan called meeting to order at 6:41pm.  He talked about our watershed plan which includes possible action items to help us achieve our goals.  His plan for the meeting is to break up into groups to discuss the steps we should take in the 1^st year of the plan to achieve these goals.

Introductions:

Bob Henry, Trevor Toland, Jeff Boeckler, and Jim Hemmingway talked about their projects funded through C2000.  Pres. Sullivan and Pat Sullivan also talked about several non-c2000 grants we have received.  Several members including Bill Doe, Pat Sullivan, Dana Walker, and Tim Sullivan talked about grants that were submitted this year they hope will be funded.

Dir. Cox talked about access to canoes on the La Moine River.  He stated that the La Moine River is not considered a public waterway by the State of Illinois; however, it is considered a navigable waterway by the Army Corps of Engineers.  He stated that the requirements for a waterway to be public were the same as that the corps uses to label the river navigable.  John has talked to other groups who also have this problem which they concluded that you can canoe but not step off onto the bank.  In the future John wants to put canoes launching sites on the la Moine.  He found that there are several public sites that are on the La Moine that could be used to put an access in.  His plan is to write a grant to obtain funds to put in canoe accesses. Martha Sheppard stated that it was only municipalities that could apply for these grants.  Some members were concerned over private property rights in not wanting a path that ATV’s could use to get on private land because of legal access to the river.  In addition concern was brought up about littering if the river was opened to canoe traffic.  Kim Erndt brought up that this problem is the same throughout the state and she encouraged us to keep an open mined to work with landowners and use stream cleanups to accomplish goals that will suit all landowners.       

Pres. Sullivan talked about breaking into groups to brainstorm in ways to accomplish goals.  We will break up into 5 groups (1 for each goal) for 25 minutes to come up with ideas to come up with goals for the 1^st year. 

The groups gathered back together to discuss their groups planning.

Goal 1 Natural Communities. 1. List of INAI sites needs to be expanded to include other sites that needs to be protected.  2. Get a database of possible programs for land conservation.  We hope to update Bob and Alice database of possible funding sources (Alice Henry)  Long-term goal will create a land trust.  3. The conservation committee will contact landowners within priority areas and try to facilitate land protection between willing landowner and other organization (conservation committee). 

Goal 2  Water Resources 1. Change goal to include lakes with streams in objective A.  Contact other entities like DU, pheasants forever, turkey, deer groups by September.  2.  Meet with J Boeckler to match up willing landowners with possible projects  Match up 3.  Mach up one project with a private landowner that’s  has high visible that we could get funding. 4. Host workshops along with other groups like SWCD or Farm Bureau, to educate the public on water recourses and funding opportunities (Tim Kelly).    

Goal 3. Soil erosion and sedimentation.  1. Locate fields with slopes >2 %.  2. Find funding sources for these slopes.  Farm Service Agencies, SWCD’s, NRCS.  Provide incentive payments for no till on these grounds.  A problem they encountered was how to grow list of willing landowners in order to contact them about these programs.  Dana walker suggested putting info into the SWCD newsletter.  (Chuck E. will do action #1)

Goal 4.  Education. 1. Increase committee size 2. Put together power point presentation to tell what we do.  3. Conduct watershed tours (somewhat being done) and maybe do an inventory of what is being done.  Publicize tours through schools.  Put on professional workshops for educators.  Maybe have an open farm day. (Pat Sullivan and Carolyn Benningholff)

Goal 5. Recreation & Tourism.  Identified difficulties with canoe access. Liability for landowners, trespassing, maintenance, access for poaching, 4-wheeler access through the river.  Possible solutions:  Have a groups or club maintain access. Signs to let people know where private and public land is.  1 Start small with maybe a 10 mile stretch.  2  Find a club or group to be responsible.  3  Work with the landowners to involve them.  Look into liability issues.  (John Cox) 

Old business

Martha Sheppard presented two awards to Dana Walker and Pat Sullivan for NRCS Naturalist.

Next meeting Wednesday July 19^th 2006 6:30pm, possibly at Macomb City Hall (Dana Walker will check if available). 

Pat Sullivan asked the group about a possible meeting about large scale confinement.  The meeting that was supposed to happen about he subject was canceled due to a conflict of dates.

Dir. Walker moved to adjourn the general meeting and go into executive session; Dir Cox seconded the motion which was approved.

General meeting adjourned at 9:13 pm

Executive session:  9:20 pm

Jeff Boeckler of IDNR informed the board he will no longer be employed at the end of June.  Dir. P. Sullivan asked why this happened.  Jeff answered that the paperwork that was supposed to transfer his employment from a contractor to a union employee did not get to the right people in time and therefore he was told that his employment would end at the end of June.

Dir. Moorehouse moved to send a letter to the relevant officers of IDNR and our elected representatives to inform them that Jeff Boeckler has given out partnership exemplary service in making our watershed a better place to live.  In addition we will ask them to do everything in their power to keep Mr. Boeckler employed by IDNR so he may continue helping watershed partnerships across the state.  Motion seconded by Dana Walker.  Motion approved unanimously.

Motion to adjourn made by Dir. Cox and seconded by Dir. Moorehouse.  Motion Passed.  Meeting adjourned at 9:35 pm.

Minutes submitted respectfully

Dan Moorehouse

Secretary – Treasurer LREMP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
& BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
Thursday, April 20th, 2006
Industry, Illinois (Industry School)
 

Board members present: Dan Moorehouse, Tim Sullivan, Pat Sullivan, Dana Walker Tharran Hobson, John Cox, Amy Hinchee, Trevor Toland.

Others present: Jeff Boeckler, Bill Doe, Dan Wolf, Robin Hinchee, Duane Manser, and Martha Sheppard

Vice President Walker called meeting to order at 5:44 pm

Introductions

Grant applicants present their case

Hutchins wetlands Dan Wolf – 5:48 - 6:03
TNC Brush control Tharran Hobson - 6:04 - 6:28
WIU Dr. Doe – 6:26 – 6:43
Ralph Welch Habitat Duane Mansir - 6:44 – 6:57
Henrick Wetland – did not show

Board Discussion

Hutchins wetlands 47.29 adjusted to 50
TNC Brush control 38.17 adjusted to 40.9
WIU Dr. Doe 42.57 adjusted to 45.3
Ralph Welch Habitat Duane Mansir 37.43 adjusted to 40.1
Henrick Wetland 37.00 adjusted to 39.7

Dir Moorehouse Moved to add 2.7 point to all grants. Motion seconded by Pat. Motion approved.

Jeff Boeckler announced tree planting at Carolyn Louis property on May 5th, Will start at 9am kids will get their at 11am. We will be planting 2500 trees.

Dir. Toland brought up a meeting Bill Hollis for the (hog confinement facility).

The board discusses the position the partnership should take on large scale hog operations.

The board will have a meeting to further discuss large scale hog confinements on 23 or the 25 of May which will be determined later.

Next meeting 24th May 2006 6:30pm, Industry School.

Dir. Moorehouse moved to adjourned the meeting, Dir Cox second and passed

Meeting adjourned at 9:04 pm
 

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
& BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING   Wednesday, January 12th, 2006
Industry, Illinois (Industry School)

Board members present: Dan Moorehouse, Tim Sullivan, Pat Sullivan, Dana Walker.

Others present: Jeff Boeckler, Earl Bricker, John Cox, Angella Moorehouse, Martha Shepperd, Carolyn Benninghoff, and Chuck Ehlischlager

President Sullivan called meeting to order at 6:45 pm

Introductions

Martha Sheppard told the board Two Rivers RC&D new address:
PO box 87 Pittsfield 1256 w. Washington St.

Tim discussed the meetings Agenda.

Earl Bricker gave a presentation on the Watershed Plan. Explained this is the long version of the plan.

Discussed putting map shape files of watershed (stuff Jeff made) to the future WIU GIS FTP site.

Missing in goals – timelines in Goals 4 & 5

Comments were given to Earl about plan

Need info about bus tour, community meetings, flyover for the plan.

Have large appendix that includes maps and data from the plan.

Comments back by Jan 27th to Earl

Put PDF of brochure on plan CD

Dan made a motion to preliminarily approve the watershed plan that Earl Presented pending comments and adjustments with final proofing by Jeff Boeckler. Motion seconded by Dana. Motion approved.

Martha Brought up money left in the planning grant. She will reserve two hotel rooms and register Dan, Dana, Pat,

Dana moved we change the travel reimbursement to $.40 a mile seconded by John and approved.

Suggestions to spend money: Stamps, office supplies,

Dan moves to make John Cox a board member at large seconded by Dana. Motion approved unanimously.

Jeff Beckler made a list of willing land owners for the committees to go over for potential grant projects.

Grant workshop Thursday Feb 9th in Brown County and Dan will plan the workshop in McDonough Co.

Elections of officers. Pat made a motion to elect Tim, Dana and Dan to be President, VP, and Treasurer and Secretary respectively. The board approved the slate unanimously.

Jeff Conference call Tuesday Jan 17th 9 am conference call (Conservation Committee)
Jeff Conference call Wednesday Jan 18th 8:20 am conference call (Recreation Committee)

Meeting adjourned 9:48 pm

Next meeting 20th April 2006 6:00pm, Industry School
 

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
& BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
Wednesday, December 8th, 2005
Industry, Illinois

Board members present: Dan Moorehouse, Tim Sullivan, Pat Sullivan, Dana Walker.

Others present: Jeff Boeckler, William Doe

President Sullivan called meeting to order at 6:57 pm

Board discusses agenda of meeting.

Introductions

Minutes – Pat Sullivan made motion to accept the minutes and seconded by Dir. Moorehouse. Approved

Tim Sullivan brought up membership development. Maybe to create 5 groups and each take a goal. Dan suggested two groups one for conservation and the second for canoe access to the La Moine River. Pat suggested five groups were too much and we should concentrate on membership.

Jeff Beockler applied for a $35,000 for gully stream bank erosion study, field verification of models, membership, cattle and hog confinement study of impact on watershed.

Dan makes a motion to create two committees recreation and conservation to start implementing out watershed plan. Motion approved.

Brochure decisions. Martha said we have about 4,000 for the design and printing of the glossy. Pat said 3,549 for 5,000 handouts and design. Dana Walker made a motion to order 5,000 copies of the glossy seconded by Pat Sullivan. Motion approved.

Dir. Moorehouse to check if we can prepay web site for 5 years.

Discussion of how to spend remainder of money.

Suggestions:
Conference – Hotel, registration fees, travel
Postage
Website.

Support grant – Jeff will call Jim to get support grant rolling.

WIU environmental summit 18th of April.

Jeff Boeckler gave a presentation on his work with the science involved with the watershed plan.

Meeting adjourned 9:15 pm

Next meeting 12th January 2006 6:30pm, Industry
 

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
Wednesday, August 31st, 2005
Industry, Illinois

Board members present: Moorehouse, Tim Sullivan Pat Sullivan, Toland Walker.
Others present: Earl Bricker, Jim Hemmingway and Amy Hinchee.

President Sullivan called meeting to order at 6:37 pm

Dir Walker motioned to appoint Amy Hinchee the director for McDonough County, seconded by Dir.Toland. Motion approved

Turn in time log by September 20th to Pres. Sullivan

Minutes for June 8th approved with corrections.

Logo –Pat S brought up suggestions for the logo of the board

Dir. Moorehouse reported on the status of the Fish Fry – Put off to October 8th, 1st, or 22nd. Maybe find a third site for trip. Will try to get buses with bathrooms.

Jeff – can we write up a “progress monitoring plan” by next week? – Planning committee will address topic.

Board discussed overall plan specifically should we include action items in plan.

Dir. Walker suggested changing 2 canoe access points to three in the LREMP Plan.

Earl commented about the words “purchase” and “other habitat types”.

Board suggested changing the wording to “protect’ and getting rid of other habitat types.

Dir. Toland suggested add “at least” 10,000 acres; to the protecting & manage goals in the plan.

Dir Toland and Pat Sullivan approve to goals and objectives as amended.

Booth trade show- Dana manned the booth at Macomb and handed out brochures.

Earth Day – Had a booth in Macomb.

Dana moved to send a letter to the director of IDNR requesting needed corrections for the inventory of region’s resources booklet; Seconded by Dir.Toland. Motion approved. Dir. Moorehouse voted no. Moorehouse made the objection that the booklet had an overall negative outlook of our watershed and was unable to be corrected in an addendum.

TNC hike on the Emiquon levee September 24th. 8am

Illinois River sweep September 17th at Browning Landing.

Next planning committee meeting September 13th 7pm Trevor Toland’s house

Annual meeting November 13th. Rushville, IL 7:00pm

Meeting adjourned 9:20 pm

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP
ANNUAL MEETING
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Mount Sterling YMCA
Mount Sterling, Illinois

President Tim Sullivan brought the meeting to order at 6:48 pm and welcomed everyone to the annual meeting.  Tim introduced some of the board members and other active partnership participants.

He gave an overview of LMREP and a timeline of Partnership accomplishments and activities.

President Sullivan introduced Bill White from the Illinois State Water Survey.

Mr. White discussed the Illinois River Restoration Project.  He explained how important C2000 is to Illinois River restoration.

Mr. White talked about the importance of the Illinois River and how it has declined due to human impact.  He talked about the aerial helicopter survey of parts of the La Moine River funded in part by our partnership. Next he showed a power point presentation including video and maps of our watershed.  During this presentation he illustrated different types of problems identified on the survey.  In the future this data will be linked to a database with other agencies and available to the public.

President Sullivan introduced Karen McDermaid, Senior Research Specialist from the University of Illinois.

Ms. McDermaid has been working with our partnership for the past 3 years.  She presented the results of 3 different surveys.

The 1^st survey was targeted to random residents of the watershed.  287 responses were received (50% city: 50% rural). There was a general agreement that residents wanted more wildlife; however, they felt that the current amount of habitat was sufficient.

The 2^nd survey targeted educators regarding environmental education.  Teachers who responded felt that their greatest needs were: videos, classroom visits by environmental specialists and additional field trip opportunities.

The 3^rd survey was sent to rural landowners within the watershed.  514 responses were received from over 2,000 mailings.  A goal of this survey was to find willing landowners to participate in restoration projects.

The weighted concerns for landowners were:

#1 soil erosion / soil loss
#2 habitat loss
#3 water quality
#4 over use of farm chemicals
#5 loss of landowner rights

Election of Directors:  Members from McDonough and Hancock Counties caucused separately to elect their directors.  The results are as follows:

McDonough County – Dan Moorehouse & Trevor Toland

Hancock County – Dana Walker

President Sullivan introduced Jim Hemingway, ecosystems coordinator from the IDNR

Mr. Hemingway spoke on grant funding for C2000 projects.  He told the partnership there was no money for educational or research grants and there might be money for conservation and land acquisition for next year.  He stated he would be willing to put on a grant writing workshop for the partnership.

The partnership unanimously approved the minutes from the previous annual meeting.

Meeting adjured at 8:57 pm.

Respectfully submitted:

Daniel Moorehouse

Secretary LMREP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
Wednesday, July 14th, 2004
Industry, Illinois

Board members present: Henry, Moorehouse, Pat Sullivan, Tim Sullivan, Walker.

Others present: Martha Sheppard, Jeff Boeckler, Jim Hemmingway, and Earl Bricker.

President Sullivan called meeting to order at 7:15 pm

Pres. Sullivan explained that the primary focus of this meeting was to plan for the upcoming planning meetings. 

Martha stated we had $450 left in the budget for advertising the meetings.

Dir Moorehouse Volunteered to put together ad’s and spend the money to publicize the next three planning meetings.

Pres. Sullivan recommended placing radio ads at WJXQ for next Saturdays Mt Sterling Meeting.

A discussion was held about how many meals to plan for at the Mt Sterling Meetings.  An agreement was reached to provide 35 meals.

Dir Henry asked if the survey results will be ready for the meetings. Mr. Boeckler the random survey is done but the targeted survey has about 2 more months of work. 

Mr. Boeckler showed the board the short presentation he will give before each meeting.  He took suggestions for improving the presentation by board members.

The minutes were brought up but no action was taken.

Next board meeting was set for September 8^th 7pm Industry School 

Meeting Adjourned 9:35pm

Respectfully submitted:

Daniel Moorehouse
Secretary LMREP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
Wednesday, May 12th, 2004
Mt. Sterling, Illinois

Board members present: Henry, Moorehouse, Pat Sullivan, Tim Sullivan, Walker, and Wood.

Others present: Martha Sheppard, Jeff Boeckler, Jim Hemmingway.

President Sullivan called meeting to order at 6:35 pm 

Minutes approved from Jan 12, 2004 meeting.

Committee Reports

Planning Committee:

Dir. Walker talked to Mary Holms and said she wanted $250 a meeting to be the facilitator; however she had a conflict with the 17^th of July.  Two of the planning meeting dates are set; Aug 7 Carthage and July 17 Brown County YMCA.  We still need a meeting date for Macomb if we plan to have one there. 

Public Relations Committee:

Dir. Wood tried to set up a meeting but have been unable to set a date.  Dir. Wood further stated she did not know how to publicize the planning meetings as she had little information from the planning committee.  Carolyn Benninghoff had an informational booth at the Schuyler County awareness day.  Dir. Wood also an informational booth at the environmental summit at WIU. 

Dir. Walker brought up the cost overrun of the watershed flyover.  Dir. Walker stated he did not have a firm idea where to fly and flew the western part of east fork of the La Moine that was not in the plan.  The pilot who charges for hours billed us for $5,400 which came out to $589 over budget.  Dir. Henry asked if there were any areas of interest or problems they found on the flight.  Dana responded yes there was a few.  Dir. Walker moved to approve cost overrun seconded by Dir. Pat Sullivan.  Dir. Moorehouse stated that the board should have been contacted before paying for the over budgeted expenses   and why do we need to approve something after it was already paid for out of our planning grant.  Motion approved 4 to 1 Dir. Moorehouse voted no.

Logo Contest:  Dir. Moorehouse updated the board about the logo contest.  Jeff Boeckler wrote the letter, Dir. Moorehouse gathered local library addresses and created a flyer, and Dir. Sears was supposed to gather school addresses and mail out the packets.

Treasurers Report: 

Martha Sheppard submitted expenses for the support and planning grants.  Dir. Moorehouse asked what fund we will take from to make up for the $500 overrun in the flight.  Martha said it will probably come from the plan writer line item. 

Martha informed the group we needed to spend the rest of the support grant by the end of the fiscal year.  Dir. Walker motioned to give the finance committee permission to spend the rest of the money in the support grant.  Motion seconded by Dir. Moorehouse.  Motion was approved unanimously. 

Dir. Walker moved to approve finance report.  Motion died without a second.  Dir. Henry motioned to table finance report.  Seconded by Dir. Pat Sullivan and approved.    

Deciding locations for stake holder planning meetings:

Dir. Walker moved to have three meeting locations; Mt Sterling, Carthage, and Macomb.  Motion seconded by Dir. Moorehouse.  Motion approved 4 to 1 with Dir. Wood voting no.

Pres. Sullivan put fourth tentative board meeting dates for the rest of the year:

July 14^th

September 8^th

November 10^th – Annual Meeting

Motion made by Dir Moorehouse to let President set the board meeting dates for the rest of the year seconded by Dir. Henry.  Motion approved.

Martha Sheppard brought up applications for plan writer. Seven people applied for the job.  Martha passed out the applications and asked to board member to score each applicant and return them to her by May 21^st. 

Meeting Adjourned 8:45pm

Respectfully submitted:

Daniel Moorehouse
Secretary LMREP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP

ANNUAL MEETING
Thursday, November 12, 2003
Macomb City Hall Community Room
Macomb, Illinois

 President Dana Walker brought the meeting to order at 7:06 pm and welcomed everyone to the annual meeting.  After telling a brief history of our organization Pres. Walker introduced the board of directors.

Karen McDermaid, Senior Research Specialist, from the University of Illinois presented an opinion survey of residents in our watershed.  Its purpose was to identify citizen perceptions of our watershed, land use citizens prefer, how citizens use natural resources in our watershed, and to give citizens an opportunity for public participation.  Ms. McDermaid gave an estimated population of our watershed at 52,247.  Of these she surveyed 801 random residences with a 40 percent response rate to date.  She explained this was the first of 3 parts and a land owner survey and an educator survey still needed to be accomplished.   She hoped to have the final summary finished by winter 2004.

Dir Moorehouse presented both the treasurers report and the minutes for the last annual meeting.  Both were unanimously approved by the membership.

Bill White from the Illinois State Water Survey presented a proposal for a “rapid assessment of our watershed”.  By using a helicopter and a video camera a large amount of river miles can be served quickly to find problems.  Mr. White showed a video from a previous survey of Shoal Creek in Southern Illinois. Using video and GPS he described how we could pinpoint problems areas on rivers and creeks. 

V.P. Janet Keyes presented the annual report for our organization.

Jim Landing, our Ecosystem Administrator, from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources presented a current state of grant funding.  So far 1.4 million went out to 16 grants state wide for the first round.  He stated there will most likely be a second round but he does not know how much money will be granted.   He proposed he could put together a grant writing workshop for our watershed.

V.P. Janet Keyes motioned to accept the bylaw changes recommended by the board.  Motion passed.

Election of Directors:  Members from Brown and Schuyler County caucused separately to elect their directors.  The Results are as follows:

Brown County – Therron Hobson, Vacant                   Adams County - Vacant

Schuyler County – Tim Sullivan, Pat Sullivan                 Fulton County - Vacant

Other Business:

Jeff Boeckler from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources presented our ongoing project to map out conservation easements in our watershed.

Meeting adjured at 9:20 pm.

Respectfully submitted:

Daniel Moorehouse
Secretary LMREP

 LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
January 14th, 2003
Carthage, Illinois

Board members present: Henry, Hobson, Moorehouse, Pat and Tim Sullivan, Walker, and Wood.

Others present: Jeff Boeckler, Jim Hemingway, and Alice Henry.

President Dana Walker called meeting to order at 8:30 pm. 

Secretary’s report: minutes were approved.

A motion was made by Dir Moorehouse and seconded by Dir. Tim Sullivan to move the camera money to general funds.  Motion approved.

Dir. Pat Sullivan suggested we start having conference calls so we could meet more often with the benefit of not having to drive.  Jeff Boeckler informed us that IDNR could do the conference call for no charge.

Watershed Logo – No action

Illinois Watershed Conference – register by January 22 cost $25.

Dir. Pat Sullivan asked to reorder future meeting agendas and stick to the agenda so we can better utilize our limited time.  She also asked to set different meeting times to get a better attendance.   

Pres. Walker brought up appointing at large directors.  Directors Tim Sullivan and Bob Henry made a motion to elect Sara Woos and Carrie Boehm as the directors at large.  Motion Passed.

Ecosystem Administrator Jim Hemingway conducted officer elections:

Results:

President – Tim Sullivan
Vice-president Theron Hobson
Secretary-Treasurer – Dan Moorehouse

Contract oversight committee: informed the board that they came up with funds ($2120) for the helicopter flight of the la Moine.  The money was shifted from promotion and plan writer budget.

Dir. Wood sugested to write letters to the organizations that helped us in obtaining a stream helicopter flight.

Grant Schedule - Thursday March 18^th 6:30pm Grant presentations Rushville H.S. Library.  Wednesday March 24^th 6:30pm Grant ranking (if needed) Rushville H.S.  Each applicant will have 15 minutes split between a presentation and Q&A.

Jeff Boeckler brought up a possibility of having local students name sub watersheds.  Dir. Pat Sullivan volunteered to send out information to schools in order to get participation. 

Jeff Boeckler went over planning grant timelines asking for input.

Dir Walker suggested moving back the large meetings to June – August 2004.

Jeff Boeckler suggested having committee meetings to define roles of each committee.

Dir. Walker motioned to have our next meeting march 24^th 6:30pm at Rushville.  Seconded by Dir. Wood and passed

Meeting adjourned 10:21pm

Respectfully submitted:

Daniel Moorehouse
Secretary LMREP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
November 12th, 2003
Macomb, Illinois

Board members present: Coventon, Keyes, Hobson, Moorehouse, Sears, Pat and Tim Sullivan, Walker, and Wood.

Others present: Martha Sheppard, Jeff Boeckler, Jim Hemingway,.

President Dana Walker called meeting to order at 9:30 pm. 

Secretary’s report: minutes were approved.

A motion was made by Dir Moorehouse and seconded by Dir. Tim Sullivan for the camera committee to decide what to do with the camera money we budgeted in the wake that the two rivers RC&D has bought a camera.  Motion approved.

President Walker brought up having a contest to design a logo for our partnership.  Dir. Sears volunteered to head this effort up and inform schools about the contest.  A motion was made by Dir. Moorehouse and seconded by Dir. Sears to have a prize of $50 for the logo contest.  Motion was approved. 

Pres. Walker asked for suggestions for an article in the Conservation Communicator.   Dir Moorehouse suggested having an article about our GIS work mapping CRP and CREP projects in our watershed. 

Jeff Boeckler of IDNR brought to our attention a possibility to get a helicopter video survey of some local streams.  This survey can document problems with the streams and possibly help us center our efforts.  He said the air time would be tacked on to another survey and if we wanted this we would need to come up with $2,500 to $3,000. 

Dir. Pat Sullivan made a motion to give the budget oversight committee the authority to review the budget and see if they could find funds to shift over to the survey.  If the committee found these funds they could give spend the money on the survey.  Motion seconded by Dir. Wood and approved.

Jeff Boeckler said the streams they were looking at were Drowneding Fork, East Fork of the La Moine, Camp Creek, Grindstone, and Troublesome Creek.

A motion was made by Dir Moorehouse to have our next meeting in December. Seconded by Dir Coventon.  Motion passed.

Dir. Tim Sullivan Moved we make the December meeting a committee meeting of the whole board and have our first official board meeting January 14^th.  Seconded by Dir Coventon and passed.

Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted:

Daniel Moorehouse
Secretary LMREP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
Wednesday, April 9th, 2003
Colchester, Illinois

Board members present: Benninghoff, Coventon, Keyes, Moorehouse, Sears, Sullivan, Walker, and Wood.

Others present: Martha Sheppard, Jeff Boeckler, Jim Hemingway, Dana Curtiss, and Chris Delany-Barmann .

President Dana Walker called meeting to order at 6:38pm and introduced Jim Hemmingway our new Ecosystem Administrator and Dana Curtis also from Ecowatch. 

Dana Curtis spoke about the governors plan to cut 200 million from the DNR budget and we should write our representatives to tell them what we think about this.  She also talked about how budget cuts have affected C2000 by laying off all of the regional trainers which will limit training sessions for volunteers.  Her plan for Ecowatch is to establish a level of monitoring to get a hold of what is happening in our watershed.  Her hope is for Ecowatch to go from a state wide level of analysis to a partnership level.  The goal is to come up with data so our partnership can make sound decisions.  So far our partnership is in pretty good shape for the number of Riverwatch sites but we will need more forest and Prairiewatch sites. All said she stressed better and more monitoring of our watershed can help in getting grant money.

Treasure’s report: Treasurer Moorehouse submitted the budget and expenses report.    Martha informed the board we need to spend the money soon from the partnership grant and that she will put in for an extension so we don’t lose it.  Dir. Coventon recommended purchasing a digital camcorder instead of a camera.  Dir. Sullivan seconded by Dir. Coventon made a motion to increase the budgeted amount for the camera to $550 and that the camera committee will choose to purchase a digital camera or a camcorder.  Motion approved.  Treasurer’s report accepted unanimously.

Secretary’s Report: Minutes submitted by secretary Moorehouse and approved unanimously.

Jeff Boeckler brought up needing at least 5 more prairie-forest watch people (volunteers) to man the new Ecowatch sites.  

Chris Delaney-Barmann brought up to the board an issue with Macomb using reverse-osmosis to filter the brine out of the well water from their new deep wells that will supplement spring lake.  His concern was that pumping 1 million gallons a day of brine water (mixing it with treated sewage to dilute the salt water) into the Kiljordan that will eventually pass through the La Moine River. 

President Walker correspondence:

Pres. Walker informed the board the secretary sent letters of support for Ecowatch and C2000.

Got a letter from Kishwaukee River Ecosystem Partnership asking us to send letters in support of C2000.

Planning Committee Report:

The planning committee submitted a draft grant application for a C2000 planning grant to the board for approval. 

Comments:  Dir. Wood was concerned the planning committee would be making all of the decisions on the plan.  Jeff Boeckler said the committee could go to the board if they needed more help and that this is all flexible and that we hope the plan takes everyone into account. 

Pres. Dana suggested we push back public meetings by a month so we do not interfere with farming in the spring. 

Motion to accept the planning grant proposal; with the exception of adding up to $3000 more for putting the plan together. 

Dir. Wood said she thinks we are cutting ourselves short on money and it would be great to get more money so we can put the data on the web. 

Motion passed.

Grant Ranking

The board then ranked all the grants submitted to our partnership by averaging the scores of the voting directors.  The following were the averages that were voted upon (Table 1).  Directors Moorehouse and Wood abstained from voting on grant # 2. Dir Boehm-Corrie submitted her ranking by mail and was included in the voting.

Table 1.  La Moine River Partnership grant rankings

Dir. Wood made a motion which was seconded to adjust the total of the habitat and capital grants by +5 points and all other grants by +1.8 points.  Dir. Wood argued that because these grant categories were more likely to be funded in times of smaller DNR budgets we should prioritize both the habitat and capital grants because these grants would more likely be funded.  Dir. Moorehouse disagreed and stated if we should not preference one type of grant over the other because of its category rather we should raise all of the grants equally by 1.8 points so our highest ranked grant can get a perfect score.  Motion was approved with Directors Moorehouse and Sears voting no. 

Next Meeting 7:00pm Monday, June 16^th at the board of education office in Rushville, IL

Meeting Adjourned 10:15 pm

Respectfully submitted:

Daniel Moorehouse
Secretary LMREP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Argyle Lake State Park
Colchester, Illinois

Board members present: Benninghoff, Boehm-Corrie, Coventon, Hobson, Keyes, Moorehouse, Sears, Sullivan, Walker, and Wood.

Others present: Martha Sheppard, Jeff Boeckler, Larry Patterson, and others.

President Dana Walker called meeting to order at 7:03 pm and invited everyone to introduce themselves in the meeting.

Secretaries Report: Minutes submitted by secretary Moorehouse and approved unanimously.

Treasures report: Treasurer Moorehouse informed the board we need to spend the money soon from the partnership grant or we will loose it, possibly purchasing the digital camera that was allocated in the budget.  Pres. Walker suggested forming a camera committee to suggest a purchase to Martha.  Directors Wood and Moorehouse volunteered.  Martha also suggested using some of the money for travel expenses or maybe a conference.  Maybe hire a professional designer for a logo, stamps, and stationary.  Treasurer’s report accepted unanimously. 

President Walker correspondence:

A letter was received from Dave Pittman asking to send a letter in support of Ecowatch.  He asked to send letters to elected representatives, the governor and the DNR director.  Dir. Wood made a motion to send letter of support, seconded by Dir. Hobson and approved unanimously. 

A letter from Karen May was received asking for support for HB 442 a regulation concerning isolated wetland regulation.  Dir Moorehouse motioned to table this request so the board could get more information about this bill, was seconded by Sears and approved. 

Technical Committee Report: Dir Hobson reported our first meeting was a success.  We had representation from several different fields and a lot of the information we would need to put together a plan is already out there for us to use.  Mr. Boeckler said we will be building cost estimates into the plan proposal.

Planning Committee Report: Dir. Benninghoff informed the board the committee has a rough draft of the proposal and using the input from the committee we should have a rough draft in a couple of weeks.  Karen McDermaid submitted a proposal with cost estimates for a social profile study which will be included in the proposal.  Patrick Curry – working with the extension office as a census guru volunteered to help us analyze the survey data set and work with census data.  Another suggestion is a possible cold calling survey possibly using LREMP members to call. 

Dir Walker suggested conducting the survey from May through June as it will not interfere with the planting and harvesting seasons.  

A motion was made Dir. Coventon to accept Karen McDermaid proposal seconded by Dir Sears and approved unanimously. 

Pres Walker asked for people wanting to serve on a survey committee.  Dir. Walker and Wood said they would serve and Dir Benninghoff and Moorehouse said possibly.

The planning committee will try to get the planning grant proposal done by April1^st and try to get formal board approval by April 9^th. 

Martha will be sending out grant applications in the next meetings mailings. 

Our new Environmental Administrator is Jim Hemmingway 309-446-9084

The board decided not to act on participating in the Mt. Sterling Rodeo.

Pres. Walker informed the board of possibly having to change our bylaws now that C2000 has new rules.  Major revisions include having board members not voting on grants they have ties with and publicizing all meetings.  Pres Walker will get back to the board in three months with suggestions to change our bylaws. 

Dir. Wood suggested we need better publicity for our meetings.  Martha said she could but a list together with media contacts to help.  Dir. Moorehouse made a motion to appoint Dir. Wood to be chairperson of the publicity committee seconded by Dir. Coventon and approved unanimously.

Dir. Wood brought up setting up a table at the Macomb Earth Day. The board decided to drop the suggestion due to lack of attendance at the earth day event.

Next Meeting 6:30pm Wednesday, April 9^th at the Colchester Medical Clinic, 110 Market, Colchester IL.

Meeting Adjourned 8:28pm

Respectfully submitted:

Daniel Moorehouse
Secretary LMREP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
Wednesday, January  8, 2003
Brown County SWCD office
Mt Sterling, Illinois

Board members present: Benninghoff, Boehm-Corrie, Coventon, Hobson, Keyes, Moorehouse, Sears, Walker, and Wood.

Others present: Martha Sheppard, Jeff Boeckler, Karen McDermaid, Alice and Bob Henry, Jurl Southerland

President Dana Walker called meeting to order at 6:40 pm and welcomed all to the meeting.

Martha Shepard informed the partnership about the building of a large hog production facility in Brown County north of route 24.  Speaking for RC&D she asked the partnership not to take a stand on the issue. 

Jeff Boeckler announced a new Ecosystem Administrator was assigned to our partnership.  Additionally Marvin Hubbell will be leaving C-2000. 

Jeff Boeckler introduced Karen McDermaid a research specialist in natural resource policy from the University of Illinois and that she is here to help us design and conduct an social survey for our watershed.  Jeff talked about the need for a survey to better understand our watershed and the time constraints in which the money must be obligated before the end of the fiscal year.  

Karen McDermaid spoke about what information a survey could gather.  Specifically a survey can gather data on human issues in the watershed including problems, how the public thinks best to address those problems and who should address the problems.  The benefits include getting opinions from people in our watershed  that are unlikely or have not yet shown up to a meeting.  Other survey methods include focus groups,  meetings, and targeted questionnaires.   She also stated they have had a response of over 50%  from past surveys they have done.  Some issues in setting up the survey include should everyone in the watershed be sampled or just landowners.  Or maybe a random sample of only rural residents or landowners. 

Jeff Boeckler stated we need to get a proposal in as soon as possible to apply for the planning grant.  This plan needs both costs and objectives for coming up with the plan.  Basically he stated we need goals, what we want to do, and the cost.  This would include the data analysis needs.  Jeff also recommends we form a technical advisory committee to recommend what data we need for the plan and the cost in obtaining the data.

Pres. Walker recommended Tharran Hobson be the chair of the committee.  A motion was made by Dir. Boehm and seconded by Dir. Sears to establish a technical committee and make Tharran Hobson its chairman.  Motion Approved.

Other Members on the Committee who volunteered will include Pres. Walker, Dir Moorehouse, Bob Henry, and Angella Moorehouse from the Illinois Nature Preserve Commission.  Jeff recommended we try to get people from all different disciplines to be on this committee to help us gathering the environmental data we will need.  Recommended were professionals from fisheries biologist, habitat biologist, natural heritage biologist, forester, IEPA, geologist, NRCS conservationist and an environmental education specialist.

Pres Walker suggested the technical committee should meet sometime in February and the proposal be done by early May to get money for the survey in June.  Dana further suggested a timeframe of technical committee in March > planning committee in March/April > and the board taking the suggestions at the March meeting.

Karen McDermaid suggested we get together a group to design a survey and look at possible questions.  We also must decide who we want to target, a random sample of everyone or a sample of only landowners.  She stated the survey will cost about $4 a person which includes mostly printing and postage. 

Jurl Southerland recommended to the board that we have a table at the Brown County Rodeo ($50 a table) April 26-27 for publicity.  

Secretary report:  The minutes were respectfully submitted by Dan Moorehouse.  A motion was made to approve last meetings minutes.  Motion approved.

Pres. Walker brought up the vacant directors for Hancock Co.  Director Wood Motioned we appoint Debbie Sears and Dennis Coventon to fill the vacant positions.  Motion seconded by dir. Keyes and passed unanimously.

Pres. Walker brought up a letter he got from WINTAG (Western Illinois Network of Trails and Greenways) asking for support.  Director Moorehouse made a motion to write a letter of support and it was seconded by Dir. Benninghoff and approved.

Dir Moorehouse made a motion to send a letter to C2000 to ask to extend the grant application due date, seconded by Dir. Wood and Approved

Planning committee meeting: 5:30pm, March 12, 2003 at the Argyle Lake State Park Office / Visitors Center.

Next board meeting: 7:00pm, March 12, 2003 at the Argyle Lake State Park Office / Visitors Center.

Meeting adjourned at 9:05pm

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP

ANNUAL MEETING
Thursday, November 14, 2002
Rushville State Bank Annex
Rushville, Illinois

President Dana Walker called meeting to order at 7:05 pm and welcomed everyone to the annual meeting.

Pres. Walker announced that tomorrow was American recycling day.  Also he thanked Schuyler County for hosting the annual meeting.  Dana also informed the partnership that there was no word on the grants but he was expecting to here anytime now.

Annual Report – VP Janet Keys

2002 Annual Report

January-  Two grant workshops were held, one in Rushville and one in Macomb.  Jason Beverlin, IDNR gave presentations on how to apply and types of grants that have been funded. These workshops were to encourage and help potential grant applicants applying for C-2000 grants from IDNR. 

February- The Brown County SWCD and Brown County Farm Bureau requested that the remaining part of the county be admitted to the partnership.  This part of Brown county primarily drains to the Illinois River by McKee Creek.  The board voted to table the request for 6 months to see if another partnership forms that will include this area.  The partnership asked Martha Sheppard to submit a grant on their behalf to hold an event called “La Moine River Day.”

March-Fourteen grants were submitted to IDNR from the La Moine partnership area.  The board of directors met and ranked the grants according to the ranking criteria the partnership had developed.  The grants were then forwarded on to IDNR to compete for funds.

May- The meeting was held at the Brown County Soil and Water Conservation District Office in Mt. Sterling.  Dan Moorehouse has gotten the website up and running.  www.lamoineriver.org

July- The meeting was held at the La Harpe Town Hall.  IDNR budget shortfalls were discussed and how this would affect the partnerships.  The statewide Ecosytem Partnership meeting scheduled for September was cancelled. Jeff Boeckler, IDNR Ecosystem Project Planning Manager gave a presentation on starting the planning process and help that he can provide.  It was decided that meetings will be rotated througout the area with members from the host county responsible for meeting site, program, etc.  Janet Keyes was chosen to represent the partnership on Conservation Congress. 

September-  The meeting was held in Macomb at the McDonough County Health Department.  A program on Natural Areas in the La Moine River Basin was presented by Angella Moorehouse, Natural Areas Preservation Specialist with the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission.  The board voted to include all of Brown County in the partnership and a by-law change was proposed.  President Walker attended a meeting with IDNR about the budget and a meeting with The Nature Conservancy at Peoria.

Treasurer’s report: Moorehouse said the budget was in good shape.  As of 11/1412002 we have spent $344.16.  Most of the money went toward mailing and copying expenses.  Motion by Dir Boehm to approve the treasurer’s report and seconded.  Motion Passed unanimously. 

Jason Beverlin – The new grant applications are online now.  The online grants are due February 28, but if you apply by paper the grants are due by January 31.  Due to Budget cuts Jason said that the 6 million asked for was cut to 3.5 million.  All of this money must be used for capital projects.  Jason also did not know when the approved grants will be announced. 

Director Moorehouse asked why only capital projects will be funded.  Jason: Because the grant money is bonded money and can only be used for programs that last more than 10 years. 

President Walker brought up the proposed bylaw change that was announced by mail to the members which would add a second director for Brown County in response to incorporating the southern part of Brown County into our partnership.  Motion made to approve the change was maid by Pat Sullivan and seconded by Jack Michel.  Motion approved unanimously.

Election of Directors:  Members from McDonough and Brown County caucused separately to elect their directors.  The Results are as follows

McDonough County elected the following directors: Dorothy David, Dan Moorehouse, and Dana Walker

Brown County elected the following directors: Tharran Hobson, Janet Keyes

President Walker announced Jeff Boeckler from IDNR who gave a talk about our partnership which included information on:

            Socio-economic overview Geology

           Land Cover

            Water Resources

            2002 IEPA Water Quality Data

            Biologically Significant Features and Natural Communities

            Pre-settlement and Existing Conditions

                        Comparisons

            Management recommendations

After the Presentation Jeff talked to the membership about the possibility of a socio economic survey and that Karen McDermott was still interested in doing the study.  He also informed us of DNR could possibly spent $5,000 to do the study.   He also said we would need a proposal for the study and we would need to have this proposal soon.  He also said that the planning grant was no longer limited to $10,000. 

Pres Walker announced a letter he got from Shannon Dunkin of the Western Illinois Regional Council where they asked for help with a plan for their grant “Illinois Greener Communities”.   Potential benefits – To take advantage of multiple funding sources, Looks good having partnerships with other organizations, and can be a learning experience for both organizations.

Motion to adjourn made by Dir. Boehm and Seconded by Dir. Wood. Motion passed

Meeting adjured at 9:30 pm

Respectfully submitted:

Daniel Moorehouse
Secretary LMREP

LA MOINE RIVER ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIP MEETING
BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
Thursday, November 14, 2002
Rushville State Bank Annex
Rushville, Illinois

Board members present: Benninghoff, Boehm, David, Hobson, Keyes, Moorehouse, Sullivan, Walker, and Wood.

Others present: Martha Sheppard

President Dana Walker called meeting to order at 9:40 pm and welcomed all to the abbreviated board meeting after the annual meeting..

Secretary report:  The minutes were respectfully submitted by Dan Moorehouse.  A motion was made to approve last meetings minutes.  Motion approved. 

Dan Moorehouse asked to be reimbursed for $24.95 for a price increase to our web site.  Motion approved

A motion was made by Dan Moorehouse and seconded by VP Keys to make a proposal to ask for planning money for making a partnership plan.  Motion unanimously approved.

Next meeting 6:30pm, January 8 2003 at the Brown County SWCD office

Meeting adjourned at 9:50pm

La Moine River Ecosystem Partnership
c/o Two Rivers RC&D
1256 C West Washington,  P. O. Box 87
Pittsfield, Illinois 62363