It took little time after approval of the agenda to get to the business of structuring the board officers. Each board must, at its first meeting of the year, select officers from its membership. The process opened with Tom suggesting that Kathy Luedke as vice chair step up and take the chairmanship. She was selected unanimously and immediately took over the meeting. Jack Wallinga quickly nominated Dan Verrips with Tom Konz seconding. Dan Verrips was voted in unanimously.
During discussion of end of year finances board members had a few questions. Konz asked about a figure and a fund for Conservation which he did not understand where the figures shown came from. Wilson explained that he would find out more. Konz noted that as a board, “we’ve learned a lot. I just want to understand how this works.”
The budget 2023 budget closed with a surplus of about $18,000 after all expenses were calculated, but according to Acting Director Mark Wilson, that was not due to wages.
The HR manual and newly proposed bylaws were addressed. There were no specific comments to the HR manual. A couple bylaws met with discussion and suggested amendments. Members of OCCB discussed specific changes to the bylaws as proposed by County Attorney Katie Morgan. Some proposed changes were accepted and others got suggested modifications.
The director’s job description to recruit for a full time director was presented for discussion. Some of the discussion revolved around language to advertise for a fulltime director. The language for law enforcement certification got a lot of attention. Selection process was discussed at length also.The salary to be advertised was set at $58,000 to $63,000 depending on experience and qualifications.
Wilson asked that new staff salary adjustments at 6 months receive this year’s pay raise of 3.5% assuming job reviews support the increase.
Wilson asked the board for feed back about requesting ARPA funding for Mill Creek projects. One request is an all season bathroom. Another project to request funding is to connect Mill Creek to the City of Paullina sewer systems. He also informed the board that staff would be working to get feedback from the public who use the parks. He stated that he is not comfortable with starting new projects as an acting director and without good public input,
Details decided in closed session regarding Douma Park property lines were approved.
The August meeting was set for August 9 at Tjossem Park. He proposed an informational meeting to begin at 2:30. This would give the board members a first hand look at the work being done at Tjossem Park. The regular board meeting would begin at 3:00. Bring lawn chairs.
Wilson updated the board about the upkeep and special projects at the parks. Updates in the older restrooms were expected to open by the weekend.
Wilson also reported, “We are managing Hannibal as it was done in the past.” He went on to say, “I’ve had a series of discussions with different people regarding that. I’m comfortable allowing people who want to ride a horse outside of hunting season to have, it has to be a scheduled event with me. Obviously it would have to be on the firebreaks. It would be up to me to decide when and where. As well as any other potentially non conforming uses in that area.. We can take a hay rack out there for the bison feed.” He capped the discussion by adding that as long as habitat is the priority is we can use it.” Wilson explained that the prohibited use is “established” horse trails.
Naturalist Lindsey Kleinhesselin shared information about her updated activities in the basement and her changes to some rotunda displays. She also reported that she is touching base with principals and teachers in the county. This quarter her education department has reached 2014 people at 54 programs up and down the age scale.