June 27, 2024 at 8:30 AM - Operations Committee Meeting

Rationale:  There is no unfinished business to address.

Rationale:  Ducks Unlimited has sent an invoice for the Wetland Restoration Project on the Wanahoo property (attached). The Pruss Excavation was paid $87,201.30 and DU services (engineering, survey, staking, etc.) is $35,567.77 for a total of $122,769.07. DU contributed $53,128.82, LPNNRD $49,640.25 and Game & Parks $20,000. The District did receive credit of $3,227.50 for in-kind work. The contract between DU, NRD and G & P estimated the cost at $145,000.

Rationale:  The O & M staff has been doing O & M and inspections on our watershed dams. O & M consists of cutting or spraying trees (seedlings), filling rodent holes, spraying noxious weeds, clearing debris from principal spillways. Also, assisted in clearing debris on the Wanahoo dam.

Rationale:  HDR has sent out a 60% draft of Chapters 1-6 and appendices D & E for our review on the Supplemental Watershed Plan on Cottonwood 21-A before it's sent to the NRCS. They intend to send this draft to NRCS the week of June 24.
HDR will schedule a 60% review meeting in July.
HDR received a geotechnical report from NRCS that confirmed alternative concepts allowing for finalization of alternatives. 

Rationale:  Work continues on Hwy 77,92/109 Round-About. The contractor is installing the storm water drain system. The District is waiting for an agreement from NDOT for the cost of installing the filter systems around the Windstream lines. The cost of installing the filter systems is estimated at $35,000. When the project is completed, the District will ask Windstream for reimbursement.

Rationale:  FEMA/NEMA visited Saunders County on Tuesday, June 25th to inspect flood damage. They inspected all areas of the Wanahoo property. We believe the damage to the Wanahoo property and Saunders County will meet the monetary threshold for assistance. FEMA/NEMA will review what qualifies.  

Rationale:  After each inspection of the Clear Creek Levee by the Corps of Engineers, the District is flagged for raising a segment of a tie-back levee that connects to the Clear Creek Levee on the north end without permission through the 408 permitting process. (See aerial photo)
The District did not raise the levee, the landowners of the Clear Creek Drainage District did because they sandbagged the tie-back in consecutive years, 2017 & 2018. The tie-back levee also almost breached years before this while the COE was renovating the levee system. The contractor on site hauled in material to prevent that failure.
The COE believes the tie-back levee was raised above the Clear Creek levee elevation and wants the District to hire a consulting firm to prove hydraulically this area will not create a rise in water elevation elsewhere along the system. If approved bu the COE, there would be changes to the As-Built drawings and the O & M Manual updated.
Heimann is waiting for some answers from the COE regarding the details they need.

Rationale:  Kirk Brand is requesting a larger CMP (corrugated metal pipe) in the county road ditch and his field, which drains into Rawhide Ditch 8 along Co. Rd 24 (see aerial attached). The large amounts of rain took a long time to drain his field. The existing pipe is 18". Heimann has asked Dodge County to look at the situation and to potentially assist with a replacement.

Rationale:  The Lower Platte Weed Management group was informed that the Dept. of Ag will not fund any grants this next fiscal year. The Weed Group has been successful in the past few years in obtaining grants. The Papio-Missouri NRD is asking if we and Lower Platte South NRD would contribute an additional $30,000 this next fiscal year on top of our already committed $30,000 that is written in our agreement.
We have asked Papio for an account balance from our funds we have contributed in the past.

Rationale:  We haven't received any applications or payment request.

Rationale:  For the month of May, the District received $14,024.00 in annual park permit revenue. The year by year break down is listed below. 
 

Month	Monthly Total	YTD
May 2024	$14,024.00	$45,667.00
May 2023	$17,235.00	$50,105.00
May 2022	$14,877.50	$51,790.00
May 2021	$14,032.50	$62,340.00
May 2020	$29,177.50	$67,225.00
May 2019	$15,597.50	$50,510.00

Rationale:  For the month of May, the District received $17,571.80 in camping revenue. The year by year comparison is below. 
 

May 2024	$17,571.80	$41,796.45
May 2023	$16,882.93	$43,895.23
May 2022	$20,720.50	$42,486.91
May 2021	$18,148.57	$50,833.79
May 2020	$29,202.83	$54,667.95
May 2019	$13,572.47	$27,160.95

Rationale:  The Clint Johannes Education Building at Lake Wanahoo was rented 24 times with 8 NRD/education events. Revenue for the month was $1,562.50.
 

Rationale:  The KTIC radio ads and Wahoo newspaper e-ads during June featured the availability of cost-share for abandoned wells. July will feature the upcoming variance deadlines.

Rationale:  The LPNNRD Facebook and X pages, along with the website are some of the fastest ways to get information out to the public. Facebook and X posts range from 12 -18 posts per month. If you are on Facebook or X, please like, follow, share, or retweet the Lower Platte North NRD posts!

Total reach/impressions show how many people saw the post/tweet. Engagements include likes, comments, shares/retweets and link clicks.

X (Twitter) made changes to the site again and no longer allows viewing analytics unless you are a premium member.

The month of June had 21 posts total. Facebook followers: 1,625 (up 11 from May). X followers: 431 (up 4 from May).

Top Posts on Facebook:
• Hiring GIS/Grants Specialist
• Wildflowers and Wine Flyer
• Hazard Mitigation Plan Meeting Reminder
• Natural Resources Camp flyer
• Shared video from Ward Laboratories about fertilizer

 

WEBSITE	Users	Traffic Channel Changes	Top Pages	Devices
June 1-26	2,018	Organic -25.16% Direct -20.16% Referral -53.46% Social 103.85%	Lake Wanahoo Home Czechland Outdoor Recreation Downloads	Mobile 64.6% Desktop 34.5% Tablet 0.8%
May	2,895	Organic 40.51% Direct 17.95% Referral 63.64% Social -33%	Lake Wanahoo Home Czechland Flood Damage Reduction Staff	Mobile 62.8% Desktop 35.5% Tablet 1.7%
April	2,012	Organic 6.3% Direct -2.35% Referral -6.73% Social 0%	Lake Wanahoo Home Czechland Outdoor Recreation Forestry	Mobile 56.4% Desktop 42.1% Tablet 1.5%
March	1,489	Organic -8.51% Direct -32.94% Referral -47.5% Social -16.67%	Lake Wanahoo Home Czechland Forestry Staff	Desktop 48.9% Mobile 48.8% Tablet 2.3%
February	1,838	Organic 0.8% Direct -9.6% Referral 64.3% Social -61.8%	Home Lake Wanahoo Forestry Downloads Czechland	Desktop 52% Mobile 45.8% Tablet 2.2%

Traffic channels: organic traffic means they use a search engine then choose an option that includes lpnnrd.org, direct traffic means they type in lpnnrd.org directly (or have it bookmarked), and referral traffic is any other traffic not from a search engine or social (such as a link from another site).

Top referral clicks from: NARD’s website 17, visitnebraska.com 21, Wahoo newspaper website (LPNNRD digital ad) 0.
Clicks from Facebook: 44.
Clicks from Twitter: 0.
 

Rationale:  Upcoming county fair booths and activities:
• Booth set up at the Butler County Fair July 11-14
• Booth set up with kids activities on Tuesday, July 30 from 3pm-5pm
• Booth set up at the Dodge County Fair July 31 - August 4

Rationale:  The Summer edition of the Viaduct is at the printer and will be sent to area newspapers mid-July to end of July.

Rationale: 

• June 3rd: Kid's Summer Institute, Dip Netting - CANCELED
• June 5th: KSI - Bird Watching at Lake Wanahoo with 9 students.
• June 6th: Coffee Lakeside, Calling all caretakers had 0 attendees & 25 students at Cedar Bluffs summer school program explored natural resource based stations. 
• June 10th-14th: NRD CAMP hosted up to 11 students a day. We focused on herpetology, fungi, birds, survival skills, plants and insects with a plethora of outdoor activities. See pictures.
• June 11th: Schuyler 4H night at Czechland Lake with roughly 20 people (families of all ages). Kids went fishing, exploring and critter catching, and finished the night with smores. See pictures.
• June 15th: Lion's Club Fishing Derby at Lake Wanahoo - CANCELED
• June 17th: KSI Nature Journaling with 17 students.
• June 18th: Wildflower Bouquets KSI with 13 kids.
• June 19th: Happy Hearts Daycare Morning at the Lake - CANCELED
• June 20th: KSI Disc golf AM had 22 kids & Cedar Bluffs summer school program field trip PM CANCELED. Wildflowers and Wine night was postponed until this day and had close to 25 attendees. 

Rationale:  This was my biggest impact year to date since I began in December of 2020. Below is a breakdown of the impact on youth and adults for every full year I've been here.

• FY 2021 - 809 youth, 43 adults
• FY 2022 - 2,774 youth, 295 adults. These numbers do not include the 513 students that attended both the land and range judging contests we hosted and co-hosted that year.
• FY 2023 3,504 youth, 326 adults.

My goal for FY 2023 was to reach two new schools I've never been to for educational visits. Arlington, Linden Elementary (Fremont), Archbishop Bergan Early Childhood Center, Scribner Snyder, and Ashland Greenwood were the five new schools I worked with, amongst regular visits to North Bend, Wahoo Public, St. Wenceslaus, Lindsay Elementary, Schuyler, Newman Grove, and East Butler.

I hosted 12 NRD events compared to 10 the previous year. 10/12 months we hosted a Coffee Lakeside. We provided education to every grade level K-12 in schools across our district. I gained over 70 people to my email listserv, bringing the number from 130 to over 200 people. This is imperative when sharing information about the LPNNRD and specifically the education department. 

Sending out a hard copy mailing to all the schools in our district; emails to all school administration and teachers; as well as a heavier social media presence were imperative in getting into more classrooms. Andrew Tonnies sharing these on social media directly impacted my ability to get into more North Bend Classrooms, as they specifically mentioned seeing it from him. Please help spread the word about the opportunities we provide! Building great relationships with individual teachers has them asking for me to return. I will continue to push our reach into the furthest corners of our district and look for unique ways to bring learning opportunities to people of all ages.