Minutes: _____ Northwest Kansas Groundwater Management District 4

August 10, 2006 Board Meeting

1. OPEN MEETING, ATTENDANCE AND AGENDA

The August board meeting was opened at 10:10 a.m. CDT, August 10, 2006 in the district office, Colby, KS by President Scott Maurath.

Board members present for some or all of the meeting were: Dave Mann, Bill Nondorf, Dave Rietcheck, Monty Biggs, Scott Maurath, Mitch Baalman, Lon Frahm, Roger Zweygardt and Doug David.

Board Members absent were: Jeff Deeds and Jon Friesen.

Others present for some or all of the meeting were: Wayne Bossert, Ray Luhman and Dan Simmering – GMD 4 staff; and Mark Billinger and Darci Paul - DWR. Mark Billinger introduced Darci as having filled the Topeka position previously held by Mindy Sieck.

There were no changes to the agenda.

2. CONSENT AGENDA

Dave Mann moved for approval of the consent agenda including: 1) the July 13, 2006 minutes; and 2) the July financial reports including the July, 2006 expenditures totaling $37,670.96. Doug David seconded the motion which passed unanimously.

3. MANAGER'S REPORT

In addition to the written manager's report in the board packet several other items were reported on:

1) Polled the board about their desires for the Christmas dinner. Lon Frahm graciously agreed to host the dinner again at his house.

2) GMD 2 remains without a manager. The board has re-announced the position and extended the application period.

3) The board was informed that the State Water Plan grant for the purchase of steel tapes would not be reimbursed (as reported earlier) until the required water level measurements were made and uploaded to the KGS water level database.

4. UNFINISHED BUSINESS - None

5. NEW BUSINESS

a. Support for Thomas County Conservation District Buffer Initiative: Manager asked the board if they wanted to support the Thomas County Grant request by signing their partnership agreement letter. Following discussion, it was the decision of the board to sign the agreement. No motion made.

b. Refinement of High & Medium Priority Area Triggers: Following much discussion, Dave Rietcheck moved to adopt the staff proposal for high and medium priority areas as was proposed in the August 10, 2006 board packet - using the same triggers approved during the July 13, 2006 meeting and eliminating all sections with less than 15 feet of saturated thickness or less than 25 acrefeet of water use density. Lon Frahm seconded the motion. In further discussion, Dave Mann was concerned that the motion addressed the issue of combining high priority areas. It was clarified that the motion only addressed the issue of which sections were identified as high priority areas. The issue of combining smaller high priority areas was not part of the motion and would need to be addressed later. Upon the call for the question, the vote for the motion was unanimous.

6. DWR REPORT

Mark Billinger related that Scott Ross was attending the Republican River Compact Meeting in Phillipsburg, KS and could not attend. Part of the activities of the RRCA meeting was the Kansas/Nebraska joint conservation study looking specifically at how much terraces and ponds affect surface runoff in the region. While there is more study and analysis to be done, early results are indicating that terrace impacts are significantly more than pond impacts. The study continues to look into quantifying the impacts better. Mark also indicated that DWR would be meeting with the Republican River Basin Advisory Committee to discuss DWR's high priority protocol areas and seek comments. Finally, Mark indicated that the data logging project on wells in the lower Republican was still progressing.

7. OPEN SESSION - PUBLIC QUESTIONS/COMMENTS

No issues presented.

8. SET NEXT MEETING DATE AND CONSIDER FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS

September 7, 2006; November 9 and December 14 are the next scheduled board meetings.

9. ADJOURNMENT

With no objection, President Scott Maurath adjourned the meeting at 12:00 p.m., August 10, 2006.

Respectfully submitted:

__________________________________

Dave Mann, Secretary