Elkader City Hall
6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Minutes
Present: Rod Marlatt, Roger Buchholz, Vicki Rowland, Ellen Collins, Bill Ziegler, Maureen Johnson, Chelsea Welsh, Al and Jan Seabrooke, Tim Engelhardt, Darla Kelchen, and Robin Bostrom
Guests: Brian Leaders-National Parks Service, Mary-Elkader Chamber of Commerce, Tim Jergens
The meeting was called to order by chair Vicki Rowland at 6:35 p.m. Motion by Engelhardt, second by Buchholz to approve the agenda. Motion carried.
Minutes of January 10, 2012 meeting were reviewed. Motion by Marlatt, second by Collins to approve the minutes. Motion carried. Printed financial reports were provided by UERPC and reviewed. Motion by Buchholz, second by Collins to approve the financial report. Motion carried.
The January Director’s report was provided in board member packets.
Clermont Report: Maureen Johnson reported that the Annual Report was presented to the Clermont City Council on February 6, 2012. The City of Clermont and the Clermont Trails Committee have submitted a grant application to the Fayette County Community Foundation for the trail project. Awards will be announced in April.
Elgin Report: Al Seabrooke reported that a group of investors have been working with a gentleman from Wisconsin who is interested in opening a café in Elgin. The investors would purchase the current café building in Elgin to help the project move forward. They are also working with Fayette County Economic Development to create a USDA Revolving Loan Fund to assist with business development in the community. A grant has been submitted to the Fayette County Community Foundation for landscaping projects around the clock tower and water fountain. Plans continue to be developed for improvements to the bandstand later this summer.
Elkader Report: Fundraising has begun for the riverfront development with just over $2000 raised so far. The City has been meeting with engineers regarding the city trails project. The Girl Scouts have been approved to move forward with the butterfly garden project and will submit a Keep Iowa Beautiful grant for that project. Sue Gnagy is working on a grant application for the park project to McElroy Trust. Other grant opportunities include the Kaboom Grant from Dr. Pepper.
Motor Mill Report: Ellen Collins provided a written report from Motor Mill. They will be submitting a grant application later this spring to assist with silt clean-up in the basement. Bids have gone out for tuckpointing work on the abutments and center piers and are due February 9th. Work will begin in March. The “Stories in Stone” campaign is underway raising $9700 to date.
Clayton County report: No report.
Fayette County: Work on the Valley bridge project is underway.
UERPC: Chelsea Welch reported that the current RBEG grant which funds the coordinator position for TRRC will be expended by February 2013. The board should begin exploring how they will fund that position after that date. She has meet with Lisa Lensing at UERPC to discuss how to best fund projects that receive grant funding that would be reimbursement. Additional discussions will be needed. She has also begun research for the Keep Iowa Beautiful grants for projects. KIB grants are due April 2, 2012.
Conservation Reports: Marlatt shared pictures of the bridge construction at the Valley Bridge. Low water levels and favorable winter temperatures have made for excellent working conditions. The Regional Transportation Enhancement Committee recently met to discuss how to best move forward with regional trail work. The TRRC trail is considered part of the “backbone trail system” for the region and is a high priority.
“Outdoor Life” magazine featured Project Aware in their winter issue providing some great press for the Turkey River Water Trail. Clayton County has received their $416,000 REAP award check and has been reimbursed for the $20,000 Upper Mississippi Gaming engineering work done for the bridge project at Motor Mill. The capital fund drive for the Motor Mill bridge has raised $12,000.
Brian Leaders with the National Park Service shared information about the recent study done by UNI. He recommended that we apply to Bikes Belong for research study work along TRRC land trails. He will be meeting with a trail group in Volga, the EVENT trail group, and the Fayette County Trails group while he is here. He also shared information about the “Iowa – World Capital of Trails” Facebook page and website. There are opportunities for TRRC to link to this new resource promotion trails in the State of Iowa.
Fundraisers: A report from the Baked Potato Bar fundraiser was shared. Profit from the event was $455. The recycling fundraiser continues.
Grants: Applications were submitted to the Fayette County Community Foundation and the Clayton County Foundation for the Future for the Summer Safari Program. Future applications will be submitted to Keep Iowa Beautiful. Bikes Belong would fund research on trail use and should be explored.
Marketing Update: Work continues on the Turkey River Summer Safari project. Additional sponsorship has been received from the Elgin 2023 group. Bostrom will continue to reach out to local foundations and civic groups, and local businesses for sponsorship dollars.
Other Business: The 2011 Annual Report for TRRC was provided to members. This is the report being shared with our 28E agreement partners. Discussed adding a list of projects and the local contact person for each project so partners can get additional information if desired. The current P&L statement from UERPC will be added to the report as well as volunteer hours. The report will be added to the website when completed.
Next meeting will be March 6, 2012 in Elkader at 6:30 p.m. Motion by Marlatt, second by Kelchen to adjourn. Meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted – Robin Bostrom