April 2, 2020 at 8:00 AM - Projects Committee Meeting

Rationale:  No unfinished business to address.

Rationale:  Several weeks ago management and staff began planning for altered office procedures due to the growing concern over COVID-19.  The following is a listing of some of the changes that have been made over the past several weeks:
- Office staff has been divided into two work groups, each working 3 days in the office and 3 days remotely from home.
- Staff members who can continue to work outside will do so when work is needed however they will not be permitted to enter any portion of the office.
- While working from home, staff will be available for phone and e-mail communications and understand all job related responsibilities remain.
- Management and staff are conducting daily conference calls at 10 am and 2 pm to maintain aggressive communication lines and insure all staff is up to date with ongoing District workloads.
- Sick leave will not be utilized while staff is working from home.
- The office doors have been locked and the general public is not allowed into the building without an appointment.
- If a walk-up customer needs to drop off paperwork, payment or any other correspondence, staff will go to their vehicle and take care of business outside of the office.
- All staff is being asked to follow generally accepted CDC recommendations when it comes to washing hands, disinfecting equipment and operating as safely as possible in our current working environment.
- Office cleaning crew is disinfecting all solid surfaces, light switches, door handles and public spaces during their regular cleaning and staff is doing the same at the end of the 3 day shifts.
- All staff will remain home and not come into the office if they have any of the variety of COVID-19 symptoms.
- Our NRD recreation areas remain open however we have closed down the Wanahoo playgrounds and all of our recreation site toilets.
- While we can never guarantee the absolute safety to all our employees, we believe these steps and any future steps, will help us achieve our greatest goal, that of protecting the health and well-being of our staff and the general public.

Rationale:  Nebraska DNR contacted the NRD on 3/13 to inform us of returned NSWCP funds for the fiscal year.  The funds were re-distributed evenly, we have been allocated an additional $3,475.23 for FY20.

Attached is our  amended SWCP policy for approval.

Rationale:  Below are three eligible applications for the LPNNRD's Summer SWCP program.  All three are outside of the established "high priority areas", therefore the maximum allowed cost-share per SWCP Policy is $10,000.00.

20-S-2  Rick Beranek: SEC 25-13-8: Terrace w/ TO, Grass Waterway $10,000.00

20-S-3  Randy Beranek: SEC. 31-13-9:  Terrace w/ TO. $10,000.00

20-S-4  Dennis Beranek: SEC 35-13-8:  Terrace w/ TO. $10,000.00

Rationale:  None.

Rationale:  None.

Rationale:  None.

Rationale:  No new information.

Rationale:  No new information.

Rationale:  No new information.

Rationale:  FYRA submitted our Watershed Plan to NRCS in January and is currently under review.

Attached is FYRA's March 28, 2020, invoice for payment.  After this $5,104.34 payment, a maximum of $20,679.77 will remain under contract. 

Rationale:  Attached is Olsson invoice (and progress report)  totaling $7,781.14 for work on Wahoo Creek Dam Sites 26a, 26b & 27. After this payment, $207,627.70 will have been spent, leaving $376,197.30 of the total $583,825 from this section of our contract. 

Olsson plans to visit sites 26a, 26b and 27 on April 13 - 17, to complete some environmental assessments at those locations.  We will send out letters to landowners notifying them of these field visits.

As approved by the Board, Poole and Mountford have completed an WFPO application for federal construction and construction observation funds ($4,152,700 million ) for Wahoo Creek dam sites 77 & 84 (attachments).  Not including our administration costs, LPNNRD's needed contribution for sites 77 & 84 is estimated at $2,928,000. The attached draft application was sent to NRCS on March 31st for further review and edits. Attached is a copy of Allen Gerhing email on applying for additional funding this year. Since NRCS in Little Rock, AK, has questions on how the economics was calculated, Allen is suggesting we hold off with our application at this time.  He may have more information the week of April 6th. 

Rationale:  Below is an application for our Wahoo Creek Watershed Lands for Conservation program.  As a reminder, the approved 2020 LFC payment rate is $198.00/acre.


Gregg Fujan - 10 acres - $1980.00
Steve Vasa - 16 acres - $3,168.00
Dorothy Peterson - 38 acres - $7,524.00

Totals - 64 acres - $12,672.00

Rationale:  Weston approved their Dam Breach Overlay District on March 2, 2020. We now have all three Dam Breach Overlay Districts approved by Saunders County, City of Wahoo and Weston as needed for the Wahoo Creek Watershed Plan. 

Attached is  JEO's March 12, 2020, $1,491.25 invoice for contract work completed for the Wahoo and Weston Dam Breach Overlay Districts. There is $873.75 unused from our $5,200 contract.
 

Rationale:  No new information was presented.

Rationale: 
On March 27, Elliott and Mountford had a teleconference with JEO personnel who explained the Flood Risk Assessment work that has been completed for Fremont and Schuyler.

 We also discussed and gave input to our LPNNRD HMP Worksheet and District Profile.  The draft plan will go out for a 30 day public review and obtain approval from each participant before being submitted to FEMA/NEMA. Once the draft is received from JEO, our portion of the plan will be forwarded to all Directors for review. Attached is an adoption resolution for review. The draft plan can be reviewed at : https://jeo.com/lpnnrd-hmp. 
A potential Board motion to accept the draft plan and authorize the Board Chairman to sign the attached Lower Platte North NRD  HMP adoption resolution can occur at the April 13, 2020 Board Meeting.   If the Board desires more time to review the plan, it can be delayed until the May 11 Board Meeting. 

Attached is JEO's March 26, 2020, invoice totting $31,098.08 for contract work completed on our Hazard Mitigation Plan update. This work is 75% reimbursable by FEMA/NEMA and Fremont and Schuyler will reimburse us  25% for flood risk assessment portions completed (drafts attached) in each of their communities. After this payment, $28,928.52 will remain in the contract for Board authorized work. To date, the Board has authorized $228,000 under the total $250,000 contract with JEO. 

 

Rationale:  No new updates.

Rationale:  The Projects Committee Adjourned at 8:42 a.m.