Minutes from 7-19-2007
Southwest Project Grass Executive Committee/ Counties Meeting – Somerset Service
Center 10:00 am
Members in attendance:
Chris Rerko, Jason McGinnis,
Lou Kopczyk, Dan Griffith, John Hewitt, Glenn, Moyer, Ryan Harr, Julie Sigler, Don Williams, Beth Futrick, Rich Huether, Lynn
Ann Vozniak, Carl Rohr, Laurel Hoffman, JB Harrold
1) The
first item discussed was the PA Project Grass State Conference planned for October 24 and 25 in Washington County. JB passed out a flyer about the conference. John reported
that the planning is going well and the budget appears good. He said more vendors
are needed and ask the group to spread the word. JB discussed the keynote speaker,
Ralph Quillin with Kentucky Graziers. Lynn
is in charge of the door prizes and ask each county to donate money towards door prizes.
The money will be used to buy grazing related books and/or subscriptions from the Stockman Grass Farmer. John discussed who has already made donations.
2) The
next item that was discussed was the balance of unspent funds from the Growing Greener Grant.
At the February 8, 2006 meeting a motion was passed that all funds should be spent by July 1, 2007, any unspent funds
would be redistributed as needed. Balances by county are: Blair $9,533.33, Centre $3,300.83, Fayette $478.96, Greene $656.41, Somerset $4,833.33, and Washington $591.63. Blair
said they could spend their money if given more time on the original project. Centre
said they could spend theirs on new projects; their original project was completed under budget. Somerset said they could spend $2,400 of
their balance on a new project, they had a landowner back out. The other counties
stated their projects came in under budget and the funds could be reallocated. The
Blair project was discussed first because it was one of the original projects in the grant.
After much discussion,
Motion by Laurel,
Seconded by Dan:
Moved to strongly request Blair County Conservation District to modify their contract deadline with John Black from
June 30th 2008 to April 30th 2008. The $9,533.33 funding
for the project will be provided by the Southwest Chapter of Project Grass.
Motion carried with two Nay votes: Jason & Lou
The Somerset
and Centre new projects were discussed next. Centre had two (PSU and Gates) and
the discussion led to selecting one (Gates). The Somerset project is Imler.
Motion by Lou Seconded by Dan:
Moved to leave the additional $3,300.83 in Centre County
to fund the Gates Farm Project and to leave $2,400.00 in Somerset
County to complete the Imler Project
Motion was unanimously approved.
That left $4,160.33 to allocate. Indiana, Cambria, Fayette, Allegheny,
and Centre all offered new projects. The group wanted to complete one project
rather than install part of a project. Beth said the money could be used towards
the Gates project and that would be enough funds to complete his system.
Motion by Jason Seconded by Lou:
Moved to allocate the remaining $4,160.33 to Centre County to use on the Gates Project to be completed by April 30th 2008.
Motion carried with one Nay vote: Lynn
JB ask Don and Beth to get new contracts and related
paperwork to him within two weeks.
3) The
next item was the PA PG State Committee. John reported on problems with the State
Committee as related to the conference. JB was asked to comment and reported
that all NRCS employees in western PA have been told not to work with State PG. NRCS
support for State PG will come from the NRCS State Office Jana Malot. NRCS would like to work with one State Grazing Group and have decided it will not be the PA Project Grass
State Committee since they do not represent the entire state. Several members
voiced concerns about membership, lack of southwest chapter representation and the unavailability of meeting dates and minutes
at the state level. JB said State PG says that it is open to new members and
told them to contact Candace for more information. JB reviewed the benefits the
chapter receives from the State PG. Jason and Lou discussed some of their issues
with the State PG. JB was asked about the status of the Southcentral Chapter. They had decided to withdraw affiliation with State PG. JB said they approved that and were sending a letter as of early July to State PG. JB had seen a draft copy of that letter.
Motion by Jason Seconded by Rich:
Moved to obtain the withdrawal letter from the South Central Chapter of Project Grass and change it to suit our needs
and send it to the PA State Project Grass Committee withdrawing our affiliation with them effective immediately.
Motion was unanimously approved
Jason will draft the letter and all officers will
sign the letter.
4) There
had been a request to hold the quarterly meetings in the evening. That was discussed
and it was decided to continue with day meetings.
5) The
next Southwest PG meeting will be September 19 at Hoss’s in Somerset. The group asked JB to invite PA GLCI to the meeting along with the other four PG chapter
coordinators and their respected chairman for a discussion.
Meeting adjourned at 12:45 pm.
Submitted by: John Hewitt
Southwest Project Grass Secretary/Treasurer
