The Central Montana RC&D Council meets every other month on the third Wednesday at 10 a.m. in the Snowy Mountain Development Corporation Conference Room at 613 NE Main St. in Lewistown. The meetings are open to the public. Meetings are held in February, April, June, August, October and December. Please call Coordinator Monty Sealey at (406) 323-2755 or Assistant Coordinator Carrie Mantooth in Lewistown at (406) 535-2591 to confirm the meeting time and dates.

The current meeting minutes follow. Please see past minutes to read about Central Montana RC&D activities during the last year.

Central Montana Resource Conservation & Development Area, Inc.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
10:00 AM at SMDC Conference Room

The Central Montana RC&D meeting was called to order by Chairman, Edgar Lewis with the following people in attendance:  Carole Ann Schaeffer, Ralph Corbett, Dick Ellestad, Doug Hitch, Cody McDonald, Richard Moe, Skip Ahlgren,  Harry Peck, Gary Thomas, Larry Lekse, Ken Ronish, Monty Sealey (RC&D Coordinator), Kathie Bailey (SMDC Executive Director).

The minutes were approved with one correction - Ken Ronish not Ken Minnie moved to approve the minutes at last meeting.( Ken Ronish/Dick Ellestad).

Skip Ahlgren gave the treasurer’s report in Diane’s absence. There are two CD’s of $33,894.71 (8/29) and $16,005.48 (8/29). Checking balance is $5,160.41 with the last checks of #620 and 630 to Cindy Gaffnee. Savings balance is $1,305.57 (2/19 last deposit). Treasurer’s report was approved (Harry/Cody).
Monty presented the bills – All Awards $45.00 Plaque for Southworth Recognition, Roundup Record Tribune $42.00 Ad for growth policy, Times Clarion $34.00 1 yr. subscription, SMDC May $2,261.92 June $3,740.32 which includes the printer, travel to Phoenix Conference, plus expenses. Monty billed DNRC for the available balance of $1,306.85. Moved and approved to transfer funds from savings to pay the bills (Ken/Gary).

Announcements:
• Monty commented on workman’s comp rates for the RC&D employee.
• Monty went over requirements that the Feds are requesting including the Area Plan, Annual Plan, non-profit status, external audit, funds leveraged one to one, and the RC&D program review including a civil rights audit. Central Montana RC&D doesn’t comply because the state hasn’t done the annual audit with civil rights review.
• There is a meeting in Havre tomorrow, 25x’25 Alliance meeting – The group wants a reduction in emissions within the next 25 years. The state RC&D is meeting today at this meeting. Monty encouraged board members to attend tomorrow’s meeting. Monty requested contact information from everyone so that he could send it to the State RC&D. The state RC&D has let the non-profit status lapse and the state association is re-grouping.
• Monty talked about the grants.gov website and a source of funds for the water project was recently listed on it with a 45 day application time period. Regional water applied on this project. Monty explained the DUNS number and CCR registrations. Kathie mentioned that the PTAC program can help entities with these registrations.
• Monty distributed a handout on working with the media and lobbying as a non-profit.
• Monty distributed an article stating that bio-mass creates more greenhouse gases then coal.
• Gazette this morning – couple of large drums for Conoco rehab that is coming through our region which are 24’ in diameter. Four loads at two different times will be going through this region.
• Support has been requested for TransCanada project
• Heartland Center for Leadership Development is conducting a series of five one-hour webinars starting June 22nd in Lewistown, Roundup, Harlowton, and Stanford. This presentation is sponsored by RC&D, SMDC, Triangle Telephone, Extension Services and Chamber of Commerce’s.

Policies
Four (4) policies were approved unanimously included the following: Non-Discrimination, Whistleblower, Conflict of Interest, Document Retention (Gary/Ken )

Regional Water
The Central Montana Regional Water leadership met with regional and state officials regarding the appraisal report which discusses alternatives to serve the region and for the project. The appraisal report needs to be submitted to the Bureau of Reclamation and must comply with the rules which are currently in draft form. There are four minor additions that need to be completed on the appraisal report. They are approving the appraisal report. There are four groups going to the feasibility phase and they were encouraged that this one would be funded. The Water Authority is requesting $800,000 out of the $2 million available to finish this well with the existing $300,000 they currently have. The authority thinks they can go for authorization next fall. Estimated cost of the project is $87 million. Roundup’s water treatment plant is estimated to cost $15 million. The Authority thought they would have to come up with 12.5% locally, but due to the poverty level in the region, they may be able to get more grants for the initial investment. Operations and maintenance have to come out of rates, but they can go up to 100% federal and 17.5% on state due to the poverty level of residents within the region. After Wednesday’s meeting the project is moving along according to the Bureau of Reclamation. Baucus and Tester’s staff said that the project didn’t make it into committee this year.

Musselshell Watershed Coalition
Have one grant in hand to develop a GIS mapping system. Information will be housed on the web, but you will have access to the information. They are in the process of trying to map the entire infrastructure at this time. They are especially trying to map the irrigation systems.  This group meets monthly. RFP is going out now, which are due the middle of July. They have a contract to go out on the ground with GPS and identify infrastructure, narrative on it and an assessment of condition. Both pieces will be awarded mid-July.

RTM Homes
Monty is not aware of what is occurring at this time. Ken reported his house was to be sold a week ago and he should have his money, but he does not at this time. At the last meeting he had bills due, taxes due, and legal issues going on with two former employees. They are probably not going to survive as a home builder. Stockholders will probably lose their funds. They are trying to get the bills paid off. They sold the property in Roundup to pay off the bills.

Musselshell County Growth Policy
Growth Policy is being put together by Musselshell County, Roundup and Melstone. The survey is being completed now. They have about 700 responses on the 8 page survey and are about complete on tabulating it. They have a contractor out of Bozeman that is facilitating the process. They are setting up public meetings to receive priorities from the community.

Mosby Musselshell Off-Steam Storage
Skip reported that they received another grant recently but was unsure what it was.

Monty showed pictures of the Musselshell Watershed Coalition project that was submitted with the application.

Dick Ellestad said the NCOC representative for the Central Montana RC&D resigned from the board because he didn’t believe in cap and trade.

The next meeting is scheduled for August 18, 2010 at the SMDC Conference Room. 

Respectfully submitted by Kathie Bailey.