Meramec Regional Planning Commission
Minutes
May 10, 2007
Call to Order
Chairman Bob Reed called the May 10 meeting of the Meramec Regional Planning Commission to order at 7:30 p.m.
Welcome
Christine Sorbello, new environmental programs specialist for MRPC, was welcomed to the meeting. Christine will be assisting Tammy Snodgrass with Homeland Security duties.
Other introductions:
Ray Cassidy, director of field operations and rapid response coordinator for Central Region Workforce Development Board, Inc.;
Alan Gerstenecker, new editor for the Rolla Daily News;
Kraig Bone, new at-large representative for emergency management; and
Donald Dodd, new at-large representative for transportation.
Consent Agenda
The following consent agenda items were presented for approval:
Minutes (April)
Phelps/Maries County Health Department
Permission was requested for MRPC’s chairman and/or executive director to enter into a technical assistance contract with the Phelps/Maries County Health Department to conduct a tabletop pandemic flu exercise for the Health Department and other emergency response personnel in Region I.
Meta Fire and Rescue
Permission was requested for MRPC’s chairman and/or executive director to enter into a technical assistance contract for the preparation of a Fire Act Grant narrative, which is due May 4, 2007.
DeAnna Logsden-Griffin/Lakeview
Permission was requested for MRPC’s chairman and/or executive director to enter into a technical assistance contract with DeAnna Logsden-Griffin/Lakeview for the preparation of an EDA or Intermediary Relending Program (IRP) Revolving Loan Fund loan application.
Mo. DNR—Grant Amendment (addition)
Permission was requested for MRPC’s executive director to sign a subgrant amendment, which extends the time period to its grant with DNR for Assessment and GIS mapping of Permitted Wastewater Facilities in the Meramec Region from May 31, 2007 to August 31, 2007.
Dent County
Darrell Skiles, presiding commissioner, nominated Dennis Purcell to a term on MRDC’s board.
Pulaski County
Bill Ransdall, presiding commissioner, nominated Chris Heard as the primary member and Norman Herren as the alternate to the TAC.
Gasconade County (addition)
Ron Jost, presiding commissioner, nominated J.D. Lester to the Transportation Advisory Committee.
No objections were received from MRPC’s board. Therefore, Chairman Reed appointed Mr. Heard as the primary and Mr. Herren as the alternate for Pulaski County and J.D. Lester for Gasconade County to the TAC.
Randy Verkamp made a motion to approve the consent agenda with the additions; seconded by Jim Decker. The motion carried.
Election of Officers & Appointment of At-Large Board Members
The External Relations Committee recommended the following slate of MRPC officers and at-large members for re-election:
MRPC Officers
Chairman: Bob Reed
Vice Chairman: Laura Antolak
Secretary: Russell Scheulen
Treasurer: Gary Brown
At-Large Members
People with Disabilities: Earl Brown
Labor: Peter Herrington
Tourism: Marcus Maggard
Seniors: Franky Todd
At-Large Representative on Executive Committee
Jesse Jarvis, at-large representative for education
Additional nominations were solicited, but none were received.
Jim Schatz made a motion to elect the slate of officers and at-large representatives as presented; seconded by Bill Ransdall. The motion carried.
External Relations Committee
Laura Antolak reported on external relations committee activities as follows:
At the recommendation of the external relations committee, Laura Antolak made a motion to adopt revisions to MRPC’s Board Policies, which were provided to board members for review at the April meeting; seconded by Ray Schwartze. The motion carried.
The committee discussed sending the monthly agenda information by e-mail instead of mailing.
Plans are to have MRPC’s strategic advance on June 19.
Operations Committee
Due to the committee chairman and vice chairman attending an executive committee meeting, Bill Ransdall reported on the activities of the operations committee meeting.
Mr. Ransdall reported that the committee reviewed the draft budget for MRPC for fiscal year 2007/2008. Copies of the draft budget were distributed to board members for their review. Action will be taken at MRPC’s June meeting for adoption of the budget.
Bill Ransdall made a motion to approve the financial statements for the period ended April 30, 2007, which includes MRPC/MRB, MRPC/MRDC-RLF & IRP programs; seconded by Randy Verkamp. The motion carried.
Planning Committee
John Petersen reported on the planning committee meeting as follows:
Anyone with suggestions for a strategic advance (retreat) site were encouraged to contact Connie Willman.
The committee discussed the regional transportation planning process.
Maria Kardon made a presentation on the Revolving Loan Fund program.
Grant Update
Upcoming Application Deadlines
Recreational Trails Grant (through the Department of Natural Resources)
These grants are to be used for motorized or non-motorized trail development, renovation, maintenance and/or the development/renovation of trailheads. All grants are awarded on a reimbursement basis; a minimum 20 percent match is required for projects. Applications must be postmarked by July 16, 2007. The maximum amount is $100,000.
CDBG: All categories are open year-round. The Department of Economic Development began accepting applications on April 1 for community facilities, public needs, downtown revitalization, water and wastewater etc.
Applications in Progress
Eden Heritage, Maries Manor—NAP
NAP tax credits to provide outpatient rehab, respite care, caregiver training and support groups for caregivers.
Hermann Cheese Factory—Industrial Infrastructure
Currently this project is in the planning phase. Looking at adding 10-15 jobs and will be applying for $100,000-$150,000 for road and storm drainage improvements.
Newburg Fire Station – CDBG
Construct a new fire station.
Bourbon Fire Station – CDBG
Construct a new fire station—beginning planning stages.
Sullivan Demolition — CDBG
$125,000 to demolish blighted residential/commercial structures in town.
USDA Loan Guarantee applications for Good Samaritan Resource Center—Genesis Women’s Shelter.
Missouri Department of Economic Development Enhanced Enterprise Zone for Crawford County including the cities of Cuba and Bourbon and village of Leasburg.
Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance Program (CEDAP – Grant) for the city of Rolla Fire and Rescue Program.
Recently Submitted Applications
Dixon Area Caring Center—NAP
NAP credits to acquire and renovate Town & Country into a caring cener.
Assistance to Firefighters Grants (total of five turned in)
Meta Fire and Rescue for a used fire pumper (narrative only).
Grant request of $135,000 —Match $7,000 – Total project - $140,000.
Doolittle Fire Protection District for a new front line pumper with extrication equipment. Grant Request of $256,500: Match—$13,000. Total Project—$270,000.
City of Rolla Fire and Rescue for a new serial ladder truck (narrative only)
Grant request of $831,250—Match of $43,750—Total project—$875,000.
Freeburg Fire Department for a new rescue pumper and driver training grant request $162,925—Match of $8,575—Total project—$171,500.
Total Grant requests—$1,513,156.
Grant Awards
Pending awards
The DRA pre-application for Potosi has been deemed as an eligible project and has been forwarded on to Gov. Blunt’s office for his selection of projects for the state of Missouri. Staff should know by the end of the month if this project will be invited to apply.
Two NAP grants (St. James and Crawford County Caring Foundation).
Two CDBG Community Facility Grants (village of Leasburg for fire department and Osage County for the Ability Center).
Two Federal Home Loan Bank applications on behalf of Cuba Retirement Homes and Leasburg Senior Citizen Homes, Inc. We should hear about these by the end of June.
Environmental Report
Tammy Snodgrass reported on environmental activities as follows:
Staff is working with other planners across the state to provide input on the rules and regulations being drafted by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources that will affect solid waste districts.
Chemical laboratory cleanups have been completed in five schools. It looks like there is enough funds to do one more school.
Staff has trained on the use of new surveillance camera equipment. The camera has been set up and is collecting tape, and staff is learning how to use all aspects of the equipment.
Staff is working with a couple of communities and investigating the feasibility of establishing permanent household hazardous waste collection sites in the region.
MRPC provides technical assistance to Phelps County and the Phelps County Disaster Committee (PCDC). Staff has submitted two applications to SEMA this year to fund the PCDC, and they have been awarded $16,000 and $7,000 respectively for citizen corps and CERT programs.
A CERT training was held in St. James on April 26-28, and in Rolla on May 10-12.
Staff submitted a 604b grant application to MDNR in July, and it started June 1. The project is to conduct an assessment of waste water facilities in the region and map those sites on GIS.
Homeland Security
Tammy Snodgrass reported on Homeland Security activities as follows:
Other projects:
Staff is working with the Phelps/Maries County Health Department on a tabletop exercise on pandemic flu for all of Region I.
Staff submitted an application to USDA Rural Development for solid waste technical assistance to the Ozark Rivers Solid Waste Management District. That application was denied funding.
MREPC
Kraig Bone reported on emergency planning activities as follows:
The MREPC met on April 25 and reviewed grant applications. Jim Pasley, SEMA’s Region I area coordinator, provided a presentation on the Washington County power outage and how that incident was handled at the local and state level.
At the April meeting, the committee approved training grants for Irondale, Rolla Rural, Vichy and Caledonia fire departments.
The next meeting of the MREPC is scheduled for June 27 at noon.
Staff is currently working on updating the hazmat plan and hopes to have a draft completed by June 1.
Staff is working with Jim Pasley at SEMA and hopes to participate in an exercise that is being planned for Maries County.
Business Loans
Tom Klebba reported on business loan activities as follows:
The next meeting for MRDC is scheduled for May 17 at 11 a.m. at MRPC.
A loan review committee was held on April 25 and four projects were approved. The four included three SBA loans totaling $1,453,000 for three small businesses located in Pulaski, Phelps and Boone Counties. In addition, two IRP loans were approved totaling $121,620, and two RLF loans totaling $150,000, both of which are loan requests for businesses located in Washington and Phelps counties.
Candace Connell will speak on MRDC loan programs during the Ike Skelton Satellite Procurement Conference planned in St. Robert on May 30, 2007. This conference is hosted by the University of Missouri-Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach.
New board members for MRDC are as follows: Gerry Lewis, Pulaski County; Jerry Wolfe, Osage County; Scott Schulz and Dennis Purcell, Dent County; and Mark Weidinger, Maries County.
Transportation Advisory Committee
Donald Dodd reported on the TAC meeting as follows:
At the recommendation of the TAC committee, Donald Dodd made a motion to approve MRPC’s Transportation Work Plan contract with MoDOT in the amount of $70,000; seconded by Jim Decker. The motion carried.
District 9 Enhancement Grants applications to submit: cities of Crocker, Waynesville, Potosi, Cuba, Rolla, St. Robert and Pulaski County are due June 15.
Transportation partners across the state have been asked to identify and prioritize projects that they would like to see completed if additional funding becomes available.
Mr. Dodd encouraged people to come to the meeting. There is not as much politics if priorities are made locally.
J.D. Lester gave kudos to MoDOT for its quick response to the recent mud slides in Hermann.
Director’s Report
Richard Cavender reported as follows:
MRPC has a 1989 Chevrolet pick-up for sale.
The Fort Leonard Wood/Rolla/Lebanon commuter service kicked off on May 1. The ridership is a little low yet, however, the commuter service director is optimistic that it will improve. With the high price of gasoline, it would be cost-effective for a commuter.
On May 11 at 8:10 a.m., MRPC’s monthly radio program on KUMR will feature information on Phelps County’s Sesquicentennial celebration by Larry Stratman from the Phelps County Commission and Mark Stauter from the Phelps County Historical Society. The celebration begins at 11 a.m. on June 2.
On May 2 and 3, Mr. Cavender attended NADO’s Regional Economic Development Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. He learned that EDA plans to fill the economic development representative position for Missouri, which was held by Paul Hildebrandt. The new person will cover Missouri and Kansas and will be based in Kansas. A big thank-you is owed to Sen. Bond who worked hard to make this happen, since EDA originally stated it was not going to fill the position.
Richard Cavender has been invited to be a guest speaker at the annual conference of SouthEast Regional Directors Institute (SERDI) on May 18-20 in Georgia.
Adjourn
The meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m.
______________________________
Bob Reed, Chairman
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Russell Scheulen, Secretary