WHITE MOUNTAIN LAND TRUST
Minutes of October 5, 2005 meeting
Board members present: Keith Justice, Lynn Krigbaum, Norris Dodd, Ginny Handorf, Jim Roeder, and Sue Sitko
Board members absent: Jim Anderson, Dottie Baker, Richard Remmington
Also present: Gretchen Forbeck, Darryll Hagen, and John Vuolo
President Keith Justice called the meeting to order at 6:10 PM. A quorum was present.
Darryll Hagen introduced himself. He is a 7 month-a-year resident of Lakeside Summer Homes. He is interested in the “Fernandez Property” across from Blue Ridge School. He is interested in acquiring the land for use as a park or simply open space. In researching Federal grants, he found that a non-profit such as a land trust is needed to apply. He will pursue activities concerning the property and keep us informed in case this might be something in which we should be involved.
The minutes of the July 27th and August 31st meetings were discussed, amended, and approved.
Norris gave the revised Treasurer’s report. The P.O. box will continuea to be monitored by Norris with backup by Sue.
Meeting times were discussed and it was decided to try Monday nights. The next meetings will be November 7th and December 5th, both at 7 PM.
Committee and Liaison Reports:
1.Fund raising/membership is waiting for the 501(c)3 status to be confirmed. We should identify festivals, events, and meetings where we should have a table with a banner and information. April 22, 2006, is the date for the Grand Opening of the new sports park. John Vuolo reported that this will be an appropriate event for us to have a table to let people know that we are accepting donations.
2.Town Relations: We want to help with the inventory of open space in the area and assist in identifying who could help Paul Esparza in getting started. He has no staff person to help and he is very busy. The Town has to initiate the action here. Ginny will volunteer to help Paul by chatting with Kelly Udall
3. Land Acquisition: There is no recent word on the Allen property. The appraisal was done, but we don’t know the results. Keith will call Allens to touch base.
4. Newsletter: Dottie is away and Sue reported regarding the Newsletter/Publicity committee that she has updated the Power Point presentation and it is ready to be used as about a 20 minute program. It can be downloaded when it has been put on the web site. Sue suggested making a banner with photos for presentations or an event table. She will check with her husband, Bruce, about doing this for WMLT. Joe Renco is a nature photographer who has offered any of his images to us for free. Norris will get the notice into the newspaper for the November 7th meeting.
NRWG didn’t meet, but will meet October 11th and Keith, Ginny and Sue will attend.
5. Town Council is considering PUD changes to the regulations to protect open space by clustering housing.
6. 20/20 and TRACKS: Lynn went to both meetings. There is slow progress, but they know we are here.
7. Forest Service: The way Federal lands are managed may have changes. Department of Energy is holding hearings to gather comments for the new programs which may carve up public lands for energy development especially as concerns power lines and gas lines. The quality of public lands will suffer. There was a discussion of population projections showing 35 million people in Arizona by 2050.
8. AZ Game and Fish is working on acquisitions so Norris will talk with them to see if we should be involved. Norris also wants to be liaison to Blue Ridge School District because there is a bond issue to be voted on and more schools are needed so more land is needed. Big Springs is a dedicated Environmental Study Area under a special use permit.
Keith led us through the new notebooks he prepared. Norris will e-mail the final By-laws to Sue and Lynn.
Jim Anderson was absent so there was no report on the name badges. A list was circulated to insure correct spelling of names.
The meeting was adjourned at 8 PM.
Minutes submitted by Lynn Krigbaum, secretary