July 30, 2020 at 9:00 AM - Operations Committee Meeting

Rationale:  Nothing to consider for unfinished business.

Rationale:  Nothing to consider for Wildlife Programs.

Rationale:  The O & M Crew is finishing watershed dam maintenance and inspections in the Bellwood Watershed. Started our mowing circuit, we began on Rawhide Ditch, moved to Ames and Cotteral Levee's and are now at Czechland Lake. Unplugged two Cottonwood Dam risers.

Rationale:  The repairs by the contractor under the Corps of Engineers is near 100%. A Pre-final inspection was conducted on Tuesday, July 28th. There will be a "Hit List" of items published after the inspection. Some final items to be accomplished are ROW markers, fencing and seeding.
This project repair has gone very well in working with the Contractor (Youngs) and the Corps of Engineers.

Rationale:  The District needs to approve the Construction Observation portion of FYRA's contract. A previous Board motion approved FYRA to do Project Management, Final Design, Permitting and Bidding which totaled $73,021.00. The Construction Observation cost is $62,524.00, (see attachment).

The District advertised for repairs to the Wanahoo Stilling Basin for three consecutive weeks. Bids were due by 2:00 pm on Tuesday, July 28th and opened. We received two bids, Valley Corporation $1,452,069.27 and M.E. Collins $1,475,330.80 a difference of $23,261.53. See Mike Sotak's letter of recommendation and bid tabulation attached.
The process moving forward;
1. Committee make recommendation to Board to accept low bid from Valley Corporation,
2. Committee makes recommendation to Board to approve construction observation under FYRA's contract.
3. Board accepts low bid, approves FYRA contact item for construction observation and authorizes FYRA to issue Notice of Award,
4. Contractor begins to acquire insurance, bonds, etc. and processes contract,
5. Board authorizes FYRA to work w/ contractor on cost saving ideas,
Once signed contract and required bonds/insurance are received, Board issues Notice to Proceed,
6. Contractor begins work.

Chris Poole has notified FEMA regarding the bids coming in higher than our Engineers Estimate, approximately $472,000. FEMA told us it will be covered at 75% of actual cost but we must work closely with NEMA when we close out the project. We must take this information somewhat cautiously. If we can't obtain 75%, we can possibly use other FEMA Funding from other Project repairs that we didn't use.

The District's cost if FEMA/NEMA fund 75% of Engineering and Construction would be approximately $396,904.

Rationale:  Heimann met with Saunders Co. Highway representatives and Mark Mainelli, P.E. to discuss the potential solutions in addressing the elevation problems on this road structure dam. Mainelli will design solutions and forward them to NDNR Dam Safety. He will also develop an interlocal agreement for the District and Saunders County.
Saunders County will provide engineering services and construction over site and the District may have to solicit bids for the construction work if the County declines.

Rationale:  Newman Grove American Legion Post 73 is requesting cost-share assistant for tree planting around their Roll Call Veteran's Memorial (see attachment). They would like to plant 8 six foot conifers around the memorial at an approximate cost of $2,400. The District's Community Forestry policy for cost share is 50% up to $1,000.

Rationale:  From Chris Fassero Lead Planner/Project Manager COE. A draft report should begin the review process around 01 August, so we're about two months behind schedule  however, we were able to put together a review team that has nonstructural experience, so we're hopeful that the review process will be streamlined by that.  I'll send you another update once we're in review and we establish some review milestones.
The structures included in the final recommended nonstructural plan is summarized as follows:

Structures in Plan:  127
Average Annual Benefits:  $585,040
Average Annual Cost:  $463,546
Flood proofing Cost:  $12,514,441
Benefit-Cost Ratio:  1.26
Total Net Benefits:  $121,494
 

Rationale:  Rezac Seed sent in revenue of $2,053.75 for the first half of 2020. Seventeen cooperators used the drill.

Rationale:  Calender year 2020, M.E. Collins has sent the District $4,957.90.  Since 2012 the District has received $258,643.90.

Rationale:  Don Medinger has requested cost-share assistance for repairs to his jetty system in Butler County on the Platte River. His invoice for work completed is $6,000.

Rationale:  As of 7/29/2020, the District received $6,102.50 in annual permit sales revenue for the month of July. In 2019 the District received $7925.00. 

YTD Totals:
2019: $75,310.00
2020: $86,215.00

Rationale:  As of July 29, 2020, the District has generated appx. $10,166.09 in gross camping revenue. The new cabins opened the first week of July and have already generated $1000 in camping revenue.

Rationale:  We featured the recreation areas for our KTIC Radio ad and Wahoo Newspaper eAds during July. This week, the ad will be switched out with variance request information - see attached.
 

Rationale:  LPNNRD purchased the "News Sponsorship" package with News Channel Nebraska for our Lake Wanahoo commercial. The commercial spot was a 30-second spot, with a 5-second spot showing the LPNNRD logo. During the month of June, the 30-second commercial was shown 12 times, with the 5-second spot showing LPNNRD logo shown 30. I have attached the time slots for all of June.  
 

Rationale:  Lake Wanahoo continues to remain the most viewed page of the website for 4 months now. The top 5 pages being viewed remains the same this month. We had a total of 1,489 users view the website which slowly continues to decline. We continue to see an increase of viewers using phones to view the website more than a desktop or laptop browser.  
 

Month	# of Users	Top Pages/views	Viewing Device
October 2019	710	Home 543 Lake Wanahoo 355 Staff 121 Czechland Lake 100 Contact 95	Desktop 58.73% Mobile 34.48% Tablet 4.79%
June 2020	2,003	Lake Wanahoo 1,992 Home 1,008 Czechland Lake 574 Outdoor Recreation 344 Downloads 251	Mobile 51.7% Desktop 44.4% Tablet 3.9%
July 1-28 2020	1,489	Lake Wanahoo 1,549 Home 712 Czechland Lake 281 Outdoor Recreation 218 Downloads 132	Mobile 54.64% Desktop 38.92% Tablet 6.44%

Our Facebook page continues to grow with followers. This month our top post was a couple photos of the new cabins and that they were open to rent (total views of 6,844). Other top posts included a promotional picture for Pork Chop Island (total views of 1,775) and a drought conditions map of Nebraska during mid-July from UNL (total views of 532).
 

Month	Total Views	Total Reach	Total Engaged Users	Followers
October 2019	9,446	6,772	1,273	873
June 2020	3,399	3,106	147	1,152
July 1-28, 2020	10,795	8,848	1,467	1,170

Our Twitter page dropped one follower since last month. Our top posts for Twitter included the UNL drought conditions map (335 total views, 18 reactions), 4^th of July post/office closed (199 total views) and reminder about irrigation sample kits (183 total views).
 

Month	Impressions	Engagements	Followers
October 2019	3,707	61	300
June 2020	3,029	118	331
July 1-28, 2020	1,976	100	330

Rationale:  We were informed earlier this week that Schuyler's Middle School Outdoor day scheduled for September will be postponed with hopes to reschedule in the spring.

The education flyer will be going out in the next few weeks to area schools. I am not sure how this year's education programs will look, but we will look into options of creating videos, activities or materials that teachers can use in the classroom if visiting schools is not an option. 

Rationale:  Tim Knott with the Wachiska Audubon Society will available by Zoom to discuss an upcoming proposal for a Prairie Habitat Manager.
The Lower Platte North NRD helped the Wachiska Audubon Society support the purchase of the 45-acre Fertig Prairie near Richland in 2016. The LPNNRD contributed 8,839.50.

Rationale:  Results from the lead and copper testing were distributed to participating residents and required reporting was sent to DHHS.  No samples were above action levels.
Monthly testing completed and bills will be mailed out 7/30.

Rationale:  Monthly testing completed and bills will be mailed out 7/30.

Rationale:  Our office was notified last week and confirmed on Tuesday of the NRCS Cheif's visit to Nebraska on August 5th and 6th.  While in the State, the Chief will be visiting one NRD and he has chosen Lower Platte North.  The State NRCS office is excited to have the Cheif visit and has scheduled a busy day beginning with a visit to LPNNRD and Lake Wanahoo.  The draft itinerary is attached which has the Chief scheduled to be at the Wanahoo Education Building from 8:30 am - 12:30 pm on the 5th.  While the NRCS would like to keep the attendance at a manageable number, they are extending an invitation to LPNNRD Directors and staff.  Please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested in attending.