Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance
Minutes of the Board of Directors – Work Session
Thursday, February 14, 2019
4:30 p.m. at BWB Building
Directors Present: Jim Andrews, Jay Bailey, George Borrello, Pierre Chagnon, Bruce Erickson, Ted McCague, Dave Shepherd, and Dave Wesp.
Absent: Linda Barber
Staff in Attendance: Erin Brickley – Alliance Executive Director, Randall Perry – Alliance Project Manager.
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I. Call to Order:
P. Chagnon called the work session meeting of the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance (Alliance) to order at 4:34 pm. It was noted for the record that there was a quorum (8 of 9) present.
II. Approval of Minutes:
D. Wesp made a motion to accept the minutes of the 1/10/19 Board Meeting, seconded by T. McCague. The motion was approved unanimously.
III. Discussion of small dollar donations received:
P. Chagnon advised that we have recently received several small donations and need to discuss acceptance. The Alliance decided early on in our formation that we would not actively fundraise as we do not want to compete with fellow non-profit members. After discussion, it was agreed that the Alliance still does not actively fundraise or solicit donations but if we receive them without solicitation, we will accept them and send a receipt letter. If someone asks us about donating we will advise we prefer the donation be made to one of our member organizations as we have always advised in the past, but if we had no opportunity to do so, we will accept. E. Brickley to act on current unsolicited donations received as discussed and will draft a Policy going forward for consideration.
IV. Update on director outreach to members completed to date:
P. Chagnon advised that the first director outbound session was completed by D. Shepherd & T. McCague with the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy (CWC). D. Shepherd & T. McCague gave a summary of their meeting with CWC for those in attendance.
V. Schedule for upcoming director outreach to members:
P. Chagnon advised that J. Bailey was presenting to a combined audience of Town of Ellery and Village of Bemus Point tonight and called for director volunteers for member requested meetings pending with Chautauqua County Visitors Bureau, Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce and Roger Tory Peterson Institute.
VI. Authorization for additional staff member:
P. Chagnon noted that the 2019 budget had already been approved in January which contained a line item for an additional staff person but that the board needed to authorize E. Brickley to initiate hiring process. Directors reviewed and discussed the job responsibilities of the proposed new position of Communications Coordinator. D. Wesp made the motion to authorize initiating the hiring process, seconded by T. McCague. The motion received 7 yes votes and 1 no vote, and carried.
VII. Review funding results for 2018 relative to the Alliance 5-Year Implementation Strategy:
P. Chagnon reviewed summary findings for 2018 Alliance assistance for funding and noted that he was happy to see a balance between successful state funding which tends to focus on preventative actions in the watershed and locally sourced funding which was used to offset the state’s focus by addressing more in-lake needs. J. Bailey commented that is was important to stress to our members that the proportional allocation percentages recommended in the 5-Year Implementation Strategy are guidelines because there are still a lot of variables out of our control. It was suggested that this summary be presented at next month’s public meeting as well.
VIII. Update on County Consensus Strategy for weed management:
G. Borrello gave a brief update on the ongoing effort by the County’s consultant, Ecology & Environment Co (E&E), regarding a consensus strategy for weed management on Chautauqua Lake. He advised E&E has been meeting with and interviewing all pertinent stakeholder groups and now drilling down to commonalities that can start to assemble the strategy parameters. He advised that this will result in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that he would like all organizations to sign onto to and anticipate the MOU would be circulated by the end of March. T. McCague asked about timing since many municipalities have already submitted herbicide permit requests to DEC and it was noted that he was hopeful that the DEC would have the consensus strategy in hand prior to decisioning the pending permit requests.
IX. Status of plan for Burtis Bay:
P. Chagnon advised that there is now a stakeholder meeting scheduled, which includes DEC attendees, for 2/19/19 to discuss how we can possibly prepare/plan ahead of time to be ready with an action plan for spring even though we are unsure of the magnitude of issue that will be found once ice off occurs.
X. Accept 2019 Foundation comprehensive funding grants to Alliance:
E. Brickley advised that the full amount of the comprehensive lake and watershed funding requested from Sheldon Foundation and Chautauqua Region Community Foundation (CRCF) on behalf of our members and ourselves has been awarded and now needs accepted. The Sheldon Foundation granted the Alliance $250k and CRCF granted $80k, which will allow the Alliance to in turn grant the recommendations for funding to our members that the Alliance board made last fall (detailed in the November 8, 2018 Alliance meeting minutes). D. Shepherd made a motion to accept the two grants, seconded by B. Erickson. The motion passed unanimously.
XI. Discussion on additional grants of local funds sourced from the County:
Now that Sheldon and CRCF have made their decisions on the comprehensive funding grant request that the Alliance submitted on behalf of our members for 2019 needs, the board discussed the county funding that is still pending for 2019. It was decided that this discussion would wait until after the county led consensus strategy for weed management was published.
XII. Adjourn:
D. Wesp motioned to adjourn, seconded by B. Erickson at 6:15pm. The motion was approved unanimously.