October 29, 2020 at 9:00 AM - Operations Committee Meeting

Rationale:  We have no unfinished business to consider.

Rationale:  Nothing to consider.

Rationale:  The O & M crew placed rip-rap around a monitoring well along the shore of Lake Wanahoo, we continue to eliminate trees on different properties which will be the bulk of our work during the winter months. Prepare equipment for winter. 

Rationale:  The completion of the minor repairs, ROW markers, fencing, staff gauges and a list of smaller items has been completed. The Corps is working with the contractor on all contract closeout documents. We will be notified for acceptance of the Project and if there's a final inspection. The close-out process is occurring.

Rationale:  Valley Corp is still anticipating a mid-November start in placing filter material and prepping for sheet pile placement in early December.

Rationale:  A conference call took place Wednesday, October 28 to cover the Western Sarpy Clear Creek (WSCC) easements, O & M Addendum and O & M Manual for the Levee Systems. See attached a letter from the Nebraska National Guard stating that they have provided a 25 year permanent easement for O & M on the levee on their property. The NRD's are requesting that the easements from the National Guard and the Corps of Engineers (Feds) be perpetual easements. The letter states that they will work on  changing it to a perpetual easement. We received the Corps letter the day of committee (also attached). See attached the U.S. Army 25 year permanent easement.

The COE is trying to complete the WSCC O & M Manual before the end of the year, even though there will be changes in the future to maps and some descriptions because of ongoing improvements being made to the levee within the Guard Camp.
Also, the NRD's and the National Guard are trying to put finishing touches on the O & M Agreement Addendum which is tied to the easements and physical changes being made to the levee. 
We hope to bring these final easements to the Board in December for approval.

Rationale:  Staff will meet with Bob Sullivan the new Dam Safety Engineer for the NRCS today on site at 1:00 pm. Sullivan was to contact Tim Gokie with NDNR Dam Safety for the details of the problem on Cottonwood 21-A.
Since this is a High Hazard dam and designed by NRCS, we are hoping for some cost-share assistance from the NRCS.
Mountford and Heimann met Sullivan to assess the situation. Sullivan is recommending that NRCS to a Dam Assessment on Cottonwood 21-A. An assessment will evaluate  the condition of the structure and the potential scope of any needed rehabilitation. Sullivan will also touch base with their financial headquarters to see how competitive it is to obtain rehabiliation funding.

Rationale:  Heimann met Joel Schommer with M.E. Collins a second time to review the cracks in the RCC. Joel is their concrete/bridge specialist. Joel stated that Collins could fill the horizontal cracks with a hot tar substance such as they do on streets/highways and fill the broken RCC and gaps with Shotcrete. He forwarded contact information to Concrete Industries in Lincoln to which the District can buy the appropriate materials to fill other cracks such as the hair line cracks on the concrete poured ogee weir and the vertical cracks in the RCC with a chalk or paste type material.
He stated that there's nothing to professional in applying these materials and that staff and/or summer employees could do this.

Rationale:  Olsson's has sent a Proposal or Scope of Services for Instrumentation Monitoring/Data and Stability Evaluation for a period of September 28, 2020 to December 31, 2022.
There are many different items to monitor on the Wanahoo Dam (See Scope of Services Attached). Sean Parks and Andrew Phillips with Olsson, will be available via Zoom to go over the basis of the proposal and as a Board Meeting Educational Presentation go into more detail as to what will be monitored/evaluated and why. We ask that you review this document before Board Meeting and prepare your questions.

Rationale:  The Sanitary & Improvement District No.8 (Woodcliff) has submitted assistance requests for project repair of their existing bank stabilization project and also for a new road raise project at the same location (letter attached).

The SID's first request is for assistance on the local share for repairing 2019 flood damages to their bank stabilization project.  They are working with FEMA/NEMA for up to 87.5% on the repairs. The SID's estimated local 12.5% on the repair is $137,000 on what appears to be $1,096,000 total cost.   LPNNRD approved $300,000 assistance toward the original bank stabilization project and has made three $75,000 payments ($225,000) thus far, with one $75,000 payment remaining this fiscal year.

The SID's second request is $400,000, which is 50% of an estimated $800,000 road raise flood risk reduction project (for engineering and construction).

Since we just received these requests, we thought it best to present them to both the Projects and Operations Committees for discussion before inviting SID representatives to elaborate.  This is the first LPNNRD has been informed of these projects, we have been informed the the road raise is 75% complete.  While we have budgeted funds for flood damage repairs under Interlocal Project Emergency Repairs and the Rock and Jetty Program, there are no budgeted funds available for the road raise project this fiscal year.

Rationale:  The Corps of Engineers is preparing to send out the Fremont Non-Structural 205 Study Report for Agency and Public Review. They will send out the report to the Non-Federal partners by Mid-November. They would like to have agency and public meetings in early December.

Rationale:  We received a request for reimbursement from Joel Engel for repair of a jetty on the Platte River in Butler County. The invoice is for $2,340.00. Staff has inspected the site.
Our policy is to pay 50% up to $4,000.

Rationale:  As of 10/28/2020, the District has received $2,750.30 in park entry permit revenue. Of that, $512.50 is from annual park permit sales. The YTD annual permit total is $95,957.50 and overall park entry sales are $120,339.79.

Our 2019 totals for October were $572.50 and the YTD annual permit total was $82,200.

Rationale:  For the month of October, the District received $10,137.00 in camping revenue. 

All cabins now have radiant electric baseboard heaters installed. We hope that this will attract late season campers and ice fishers over the winter. 

Rationale:  During the month of October, the building was rented 27 times. Of these, 4 were NRD meetings, 1 donor rental, and 5 were school groups or youth organizations. Revenue for month of October was $1,240
Full Rentals: 7
Day Rentals: 10
Night Rentals: 8

Rationale:  KTIC Radio ad for October and November is featuring the voluntary cost-share program available to landowners in the Shell Creek Watershed to upgrade septic systems that have an open discharge (see attached).

Wahoo Newspaper eAd is attached for the month of October- featuring the slogan of "Working today. Conserving for future generations."
 

Rationale:  LPNNRD Website: In October, we saw a drop in traffic to the Lake Wanahoo and Czechland Lake pages. Desktop and mobile views are nearly the same again. Sabatka continues to work on improving the mobile portion of our website.

LPNNRD Website	# 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%
September 2020	1,366	Lake Wanahoo 1,205 Home 761 Czechland Lake 282 Outdoor Recreation 188 Downloads 146	Desktop 52.71% Mobile 42.97% Tablet 4.32%
October 1-25 2020	1,105	Home 650 Lake Wanahoo 646 Board of Directors 370 Czechland Lake 125 Downloads 122	Desktop 48.51% Mobile 47.42% Tablet 4.07%

Facebook top posts: The Lower Platte North Natural Resources District in Wahoo is seeking an individual to fill the permanent position of Education Coordinator. Coordination and creation of classroom and outdoor educational outreach for youth and adults, customer assistance for LPNNRD, and more! Resumes are by 12:00 NOON on Friday, November 6.  The Lower Platte North NRD is an equal opportunity employer. For a full description, please visit https://lpnnrd.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Education-Job-Announcement.pdf
  
We had beautiful weather and a great turnout today for the East Central Land Judging Contest! Thank you to all the instructors, contestants and volunteers that made this year's modified contest happen!
  
Shared Press Release - Over 180 students from 11 FFA Chapters explored four soil pits near Czechland Lake Recreation Area to compete in the East Central Regional Land Judging Contest on Tuesday, October 5th. Congratulations to Milford, East Butler, Raymond Central and Wilber-Clatonia FFA teams!

 

Facebook	Total Views	Total Reach	Total Engaged Users	Followers
October 2019	9,446	6,772	1,273	873
September 2020	2,549	2,320	100	1,185
October 1-25 2020	3,882	3,374	174	1,186

Twitter top posts: We’ve been sharing the 12 areas of responsibility on Facebook this month and last month and they have been doing well on both platforms. And our followers continue to slowly increase on Twitter.
  
The Lower Platte North NRD is dedicated to the conservation, preservation, and wise use of our natural resources. Nebraska's NRDs are charged under state law with 12 areas of responsibility. Learn more about fish and wildlife habitat programs at lpnnrd.org
  
The Lower Platte North NRD is dedicated to the conservation, preservation, and wise use of our natural resources. Nebraska's NRDs are charged under state law with 12 areas of responsibility. Learn more about forestry and range management programs at lpnnrd.org
  
LPNNRD is seeking an individual to fill the permanent position of Education Coordinator. Coordination and creation of classroom and outdoor education for youth and adults, more! Resumes are due by 12:00 NOON on Friday, November 6, 2020. Learn more at https://t.co/LRi3ncbXwQ https://t.co/07dGtbKjIf
 

Twitter	Impressions	Engagements	Followers
October 2019	3,707	61	300
September 2020	2,498	76	332
October 2020	2,121	76	334

 

Rationale:  Land Judging
Attached is the news release from the East Central Land Judging Contest. We couldn’t have asked for a nicer day! The competition was held North of Czechland Lake on NRD ground. We had a total of 11 schools in attendance, 181 students competed. Milford FFA took first place, followed by East Butler FFA, Raymond Central FFA and Wilber-Clatonia respectively. We required masks for all attending including instructors and staff.

Classroom Activities

 

Date	School/Group	Grade	# of Students	Topic	Staff
10/6	East Central Land Judging	High School FFA	181		All staff
10/30	Wahoo Middle School Survival Club	8th		Intro to LPNNRD	Sabatka/Gottschalk

Rationale:  The Colon water system had another positive coliform test during the routine monthly sample.  Subsequent repeat tests came back negative, which prevented the Colon RWD from having to chlorinate the system.  Wahoo Water Dept. will be performing their annual chlorination the first two weeks of November which should prevent any potential coliform positives in the immediate future.
Elliott and Tim Thares (DHHS Representative) completed the Level 2 Assessment for the Colon RWD.  The Level 2 Assessment was required due to the positive coliform, and positive repeat samples, from our September testing.  
Meters read and bills will go out 10/30.

Rationale:  The RWD received a request from the Butler County Landfill to bring in an additional service line to their expanding facility:  They already have one 2" service and would like to add another 2" service.   They have a contractor lined up to install service from the meter pit and requested that the work could be done before the frost sets in.  The timeline and size parameters of this job push it beyond the reasonable capabilities of the RWD, therefore Elliott will be reaching out to contractors.
Elliott has contacted the Nebraska Rural Water Association about borrowing their backflow differential gauge to perform annual testing on our 5 backflow prevention devices on the system.  
Meters read and bills will go out 10/30