North Fork CDC Regular Board Meeting Minutes

June 25, 2007 4:30 PM

North Fork Mill Site, North Fork, Ca.

6:30 pm

The meeting was called to order by President Stuart Pincus at 4:44 p.m.

The Pledge of Allegiance was given. President were Board members Chuck Borden, Tom Burdette, Steve Christianson, Volney Dunavan, Richard Hancock, and Mary Proper. Tammy Armstrong was present as an alternate for Sandy Chaille. Also present was CDC Grant Administrator Jill Mross.

The agenda was approved. There was no public comment.

Organizational reports:

Loggers Jamboree is this weekend. Tammy brought copies of the CHIPS if anyone wanted one. The Pro/Am is Saturday with a tri-tip dinner and then the dance Saturday night. Lions breakfast is Sunday morning. The Car Show will be August 11.
Fire Station information will be presented later in the meeting.
The Chamber is trying to move forward on directional signage, especially at the junction of Hwy 41 and Road 200. Ditton Realty will be helping in a big way. Preliminary costs are in the range of $5,000. Steve Cook is coordinating. There is a lot of volunteer time going into this but the signs need to be professionally done.
The NF Arts Council will be asked to submit proposed designs. Also, almost $20,000 was raised for Kenny Gaines
The NF Women’s Club is working on a Christmas raffle of a handmade afghan, a giant piggy bank, a crisp $100 bill, and a dinner in a basket
Chawanakee Unified School District is moving forward with Minarets High School. Plans will be presented to the Board the second week in July. The educational philosophy will be project based which would, for example, integrate a physicist, welder and metallurgist on a welding project so students not only know the hands on way it works but the physical ‘way it works’. Monday, July 9 is a special Board meeting.
Squirrel Cage Theater’s Children’s workshop will be the last full week in July. They will produce “The Wizard of Oz”.
The minutes, the Treasurer’s report, and the Consent Agenda were unanimously accepted.

Management Committee report:

Tom introduced Jill, our new Grant Administrator. She has been with us about six weeks. She has been really busy, and was very useful with County meeting last Friday.
The auction went really well. There are still a few outstanding checks, but we made over $3,500 on the sale of equipment, over $1,000 in the auction alone. We will probably have another auction with primarily electrical tools and equipment.
We got a little over $800 in unexpected income from the subcontractor for Ponderosa Telephone. They did finish a little early. $70 is still owed.
For security, the two VISTA volunteers are living downstairs. Devon and Hazel are watching the lights, gates, trash cans, etc. Richard helped them get settled in. If there are problems, they will contact Tom. They located the vacuum so will start vacuuming.
Regarding the Fire Station, the Deed of Trust has been received by the County which is processing things. Jeff and Jodee McKinney have been given their 90 day notice. At the County meeting last Friday, the County did acknowledge receipt of the land but there is potential for them to come back to ask for more property as they feel the 1.1 acres may not be sufficient. Ed Guzman (of Sierra Ambulance) and the County have met and developed the need for a project manager to make sure all requirements will be met. The County will be appointing this person. While all are eager to start the project including Sierra Ambulance which has confirmed this in writing, potentially the starting of construction on site may be delayed. Tom advised the County it needed to contact all the players as it seems that everyone is operating on different information with totally different expectation.
The Management Committee will be meeting with the RFP developer groups on Wednesday (6/27) at 3:30 p.m. and on Thursday (6/28) at 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. This meeting will give them an opportunity to ‘interview’ us and get information regarding us and the project. Then they will be invited to submit site specific plans, hopefully by the end of July. All Board members are welcome.
Tom and Jill met with Madera County regarding the Brownsfield loan and the asbestos grant. There were a variety of people there: Environmental Health, RMA, County Counsel, Supervisor Wheeler and Stell Manfedi. They went line by line through the response Tom submitted regarding the Brownsfield loan documents. The response was based on the comments of all Board members to the draft as originally presented. In most cases the County agreed not only with our views but with our request for additional information.

Some specific points:

1) We all need to be aware that the County is satisfied that the EPA is satisfied with our progress so long as we continue to work diligently.

2) Nonetheless, all must be signed off etc. by Sept 15 of this year.

3) The County wants us to address the dip tank this fall; asbestos work is to be done in the winter.

4) The County agreed with us in all but three areas:

a) Interest rate forgiveness: the loan document talks about two different dates and rates.

b) Limit of 365 days of construction to draw down the money; we can complete the work in that amount of time, but not get the sign-off’s within that time frame. We need up to 90 more days for sign-offs.

c) The explanation as to why all documents show a $900,000 loan is that this is what the County needs to show the EPA; the forgiveness of the $200,000 is to us by the County and not to the County by the EPA. The County will supply a separate loan schedule based on the $700,000. This will lower the amount the County will have for future loans.

5) Additionally, they apologized and seemed to understand our concerns regarding the Site Manager. They have provided a separate document about this.

6) The Teepee burner process should be able to go forward this fall.

7) We hope to get the loan documents this week.

8) The original meeting had to do with the integration of the Radanovich (asbestos) grant and the Brownsfield loan. Would the County be amenable to phased development of the site? We can integrate so long as they are clearly stated as separate line items on any contracts, etc. we put out. The asbestos grant is only for Kiln B. We can start moving forward on that immediately, using the asbestos grant. We would need to contract with someone who would be the Site Manager. It would be prepared identifying Phase I and Phase II. Only I would go forward at the beginning. They may allow concurrent work which could save money. The existing report also will probably satisfy the requirements of the EE/CA (Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis) for the EPA. For the most part, only permits are required and not a lot else. Tom and Jill will go forward on this.

9) Elissa Brown, Grant Writer for Madera County and sometimes the CDC, asked to speak and pointed out her belief that the Radanovich grant had nothing to do with asbestos but was for Economic Development.

10a. Steve explained the potable water RFP. The existing telemetry system failed about a year ago. This project will bring potable water on site to current County standards. A video will be done on both wells. If both are bad, the RFP will be withdrawn and revised. Elissa Brown: this is probably the Economic Development Grant. We need to verify which grant. After that, it was moved/seconded and passed that we issue an RFP to begin Phase II of potable water system improvements and well survey, charged to appropriate grant. Bid due date will be July 25, to be awarded Aug 1.

10b. Following our preliminary setting of a policy regarding model airplane use on site, our phone calls are down to zero. We need to work with non-members, folks who are insured through the model airplane organization. The only change needed is that the signs say 2 p.m. so we will change to that time. They will put up a temporary structure to protect them from sun. It was m/s/c to adopt the policy modifying the ending time from 1:30 to 2 p.m.

10c. Steve Parks has recovered documents off our computer hard drive and is putting the system all back together. “We need to buy Jill a new computer” says Richard Hancock. It was decided at this point to give Jill the best existing computer, put the second best in accounting, and the third in the lobby.

10d. The question of whether we should spearhead this year’s Fall Festival was discussed. We asked the NF Women’s Club if they would be interested in taking over the craft fair portion. They will take it to their meeting and let us know. Tom suggested we offer use of the mill site for extra Grizzly parking.

10e. Volney will distribute Paul’s and Gerrit’s Bylaw recommendations.

11. The Brownsfield loan packet was not received, so we may need to call a special meeting. Tom indicated that Tim Snyder’s latest parcel map has increased the number of parcels from 15 to around 25 which could be increased by 8 or 9 more, if the Pitcher Creek grant is received. According to Tom, the County is eager for us to submit the parcel map; we will need to add a small outlot for the water tank. We don’t have the funds necessary to pay for the kind of development we want. The Pitcher Creek grant will allow for this. This puts us in a strong position with any developer and even without a cleanup, we will have increased the value of the property.

There being no further business to come before the Board, it adjourned at 6:04 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Volney Dunavan, Secretary