April 1, 2021 at 8:30 AM - Operations Committee Meeting

Rationale:  We have no unfinished business to attend to.

Rationale:  A prescribed burn for the Wanahoo Wildlife area in Section 15 is planned, weather permitting.
Heimann has reached out to the Big Game Conservation Group and the Wahoo Chapter of Ducks Unlimited asking if they would have some interest in a volunteer day to eradicate trees in certain areas.
Scott Luedtke is exploring grant opportunities for tree removal on the Wanahoo areas.

Rationale:  The O & M crew burned large tree piles at Czechland Lake. Dam inspections after the recent rains. Equipment and vehicle maintenance gearing up for spring/summer. Assisted with a water line leak repair at the dump station. Continue to cut and treat trees on all our areas.

Rationale:  Valley Corp ran pumps to see if they could lower the water table enough for drawing down the stilling basin area safely for the welding of the gabion basket brackets. They were not successful enough to lower the water so, they are discussing alternate "B" Gabion Basket Connection (attached) of which will not be required to lower the water level as much. Discussion involves price. The District is monitoring the Lake level an attempting to get it down one foot and when the water isn't blowing over the weir Valley Corp will begin work on the baffles and then filters #1 and #2.

Attached is the third pay application which was sent too late for the previous Board meeting. We should expect pay application #4 before our April Board meeting.

Rationale:  The Clear Creek Levee O & M manual is still under review within the Corps of Engineers and between LPN and LPS NRD's. Staff has forwarded comments to the COE.
Heimann will register the Army's easement with the Register of Deeds after Board meeting.
There is also an easement with the State of Nebraska, Dept. of Military, within Camp Ashland that was signed by the State but not by the NRD and it also has not been registered with the Deeds Office. Heimann has requested the State to research this.

Rationale:  Currently the District has ordered 11,275 trees and of those 5,245 will be planted by the District for 12 cooperators.

Rationale:  Maps have been put together for haying lands at Czechland, Homestead and Lake Wanahoo. See the five attached maps.
We will advertise for three weeks, send packets to interested cooperators and open bids at our next Operations meeting April 29th.

Rationale:  We have been in contact with Mark Mainelli, Saunders County Engineer and acting Road Superintendent about completing the Czechland Lake Shoreline/Road Stabilization Project this summer. Saunders County is securing a 404 permit (attached) and will also contribute all engineering services.  The total Project estimate is $299,103 (attached). The plan is that LPNNRD will provide the rip-rap and fabric  ($231,955) and the County will provide engineering and do the construction work. We plan to use available EPA 319 and NET grant funding to assist with at least 60% of our expense.

Rationale:  The Nebraska Land Trust is an organization that secures conservation easements on properties throughout the State of Nebraska. The conservation easements protect lands in their natural state preserving them from future development.
David Sands is the administrator of the NE Land Trust and he operates under a Board of Directors (list attached) of many walks of life, agencies and organizations.
Our District can have up to three people listed on the Board with only one of those individuals capable of voting at one time. Since John Hannah was not reelected and was a member of the NE Land Trust, would there be a current board member who would have interest in joining the NE Land Trust Board. Currently Nancy Meyer and Bob Heimann are listed members.

Rationale:  Dave Medinger in Butler County did some repair work on jetties last summer in which we assisted and plans to continue.

Rationale:  For the month of March, as of 3/31, the District has received $8,755.00 in annual permit revenue. The year by year comparison table is below.
 

Calender Year	Permits Sold	Monthly Sales	YTD Toals
2021	537	$8,755.00	$33,692.50
2020	324	$5,357.50	$27,542.50
2019	259	$4,455.00	$29,090.00

Rationale:  As of 3/31, the District has received $1,290.50 in camping revenue.

Rationale:  During the month of March, the building was rented 16 times. 2 NRD meetings, 1 youth event. Revenue for month of December: $900
 

Rationale:  Staff has been working on getting the dump station operational after a line break was found below one of the flush out hydrants. Richard Mullen has returned from Arizona and will begin work on 4/1. Gottschalk and Schomer will be reviewing applications for summer Wanahoo Technicians. We only have one returning employee from last year. We are looking to replace the four past employees not returning as well as at least one person for the guard shack. The new trails have been mapped and work will begin at the start of April.

Rationale:  The KTIC ad and Wahoo Newspaper e-ad from March is attached. The ads promoted our tree sales

Rationale:  LPNNRD Website: The same top 5 viewed pages remained the same in March. We continue to receive most of our traffic from internet searches with keywords: lower platte north nrd, lower platte north, lake wanahoo, wanahoo nrd, czechland and others. We are also receiving traffic from outdoornebraska.org, nrdnet.org, visitnebraska.com, wahoo-ashland-waverly.com and other sites. There were 50 clicks to our site from Facebook and 3 from Twitter.

LPNNRD Website	# of Users	Top Pages/views	Viewing Device
February 2021	1,032	Home 708 Lake Wanahoo 480 Forestry 209 Downloads 171 Certification Test 144	Desktop 61.53% Mobile 34.4% Tablet 4.07%
March 2021	1,696	Home 1,577 Lake Wanahoo 833 Certification Test 245 Forestry 227 Downloads 225	Desktop 56.81% Mobile 39.78% Tablet 3.42%

LPNNRD Facebook: Our top Facebook posts included: docks are back in at Czechland Lake and Lake Wanahoo, press release and information about the new educational series "Coffee, Lakeside"

Facebook	Total Views	Total Reach	Total Engaged Users	Followers
February 2021	1347	1313	37	1217
March 1-28, 2021	3,108	2,843	72	1,192

LPNNRD Twitter: Our top posts included information about the first Coffee, Lakeside event; limited availablity remaining for tree and shrub orders; docks are back in at Czechland Lake and Lake Wanahoo.

Twitter	Impressions	Engagements	Followers
February 2021	1748	49
March 1-28, 2021	3311	90	330

As a reminder, please Like and Share our Facebook and Twitter posts if you have an account - this helps us to reach more people!

 

Rationale:  Last year we shared the Lake Wanahoo video during the start of the pandemic with News Channel Nebraska and had a great response! This year we have two new videos (Projects video, Operations and Maintenance video) that we would like to share with News Channel Nebraska. 
Attached is the coverage map for News Channel Nebraska and it can also be downloaded through streaming devices.
The rates (same as last year) for running the videos are also attached:
News - $475 per month
Ag - $400 per month 

Rationale: 

• The first Coffee, Lakeside is taking place today at 9 o'clock.
• Kyle Arp, EMS captain here in Wahoo, taught safety and first aid to our survival club this month.
• K-6 at Saint Wenceslaus will be coming out to Lake Wanahoo for their field trips in April.
• St. Wenceslaus Pre-K groups will be coming out to Lake Wanahoo for their field trips in April.
• 1st and 3rd graders from Wahoo elementary will be coming out to Lake Wanahoo for their field trips in April and May. 
• Spring Conservation Sensation will be taking place May 5th.
• Aaron Ickler, our CEO student, has been in the office learning from different departments. 

Rationale: 

We received one scholarship applicant this year - Emma Montoya. Her information is attached. She has met the qualifications.

To qualify for the scholarship, applicants must:

• Be a graduating senior at Newman Grove High School or Schuyler Central High School
• Have completed at least one year as a member of the Shell Creek Watershed Monitoring Program
• Be enrolled in an accredited two- or four-year college or university
• Plan to pursue a major or course of study relating to science and/or natural resources

Rationale:  The Nebraska State Envirothon Contest will be held at Lake Wanahoo on April 28th. 

The NCF-Envirothon has decided to make the contest virtual in the last week of July. We will not need any volunteers for this.

Rationale:  DHHS released the 2020 water quality reports for our Colon and Bruno RWDs.  Reports will be posted to our website and at local post offices.
Elliott and Benal attended the Nebraska Rural Water Conference in Kearney March 15-16.  Both acquired enough hours to renew their Grade 4 water operator licenses.  Major topic was the new lead and copper rules going into effect; Colon and Bruno RWDs shouldn't see any big effects, but many water utilities are going to see significant impacts due to increasing lead restrictions and reporting requirements.

Rationale:  New water rates take effect with this month's (March) bills.
JEO submitted a cost estimate (attached) for new development in Colon; the Colon RWD will cover costs of engineering, and DHHS review.
Meters read, bills in the mail, and routine monthly sampling completed.

Rationale:  The new 2" service connection at the Waste Connection Landfill should be completed by 4/2.  M.E. Collins has been contracted for the labor.
Meters read, bills in the mail, and routine monthly sampling completed.