Dawson County Weed Advisory Board

DAWSON COUNTY WEED ADVISORY BOARD 23 FEBRUARY 2011

1415 Called to order Attendance: Dale Kreiman, Linda Peterson-lohse, Art Gehnert, Joe Sharbono, Michael Bacon, Bruce Smith, Jim Skillestad, Doug Buxbaum, Josh

TOPICS DISCUSSED  Replacing Tom Lee as a member since he has trouble making it to meetings due to his job with the City of Glendive o Possible replacements- James Whitmer, Kyle Martinson, Gary Miller or someone who resides in the City limits  Possibly placing an ad in the paper for the position(s) and having up to 5 members on the board.  Evening meetings come summer time instead of middle of the day  Art mentioned that there are some funds available that he knows of to help fight Yellow Spurge and Russian Olive along the Yellowstone River which may be a possibility to look into since the river runs right through Dawson County.  Linda stated that per the Conservation District, since taxes are earmarked for the Weed Department, they still want the Weed Department to do private lands as well as public lands.  Finding part time summer help has been a problem due to the oil field and other higher paying jobs. Possibly putting up flyers and DCC and DCHS and in the paper early in the spring to try to get more summer help. Art mentioned that with the money saved by combing the weed and road department it might be possible to be able to hire more help if we could find people who want to work. Bruce stated that with the idea of having private land owners’ hire private applicators; we may not have the normal revenue needed in order to hire more people even with the money saved from the combination of the two departments.  Joe mentioned that he would like to try to get his dealers license and that private applicators could then buy chemical from the county. He asked to go to a seminar in Helena on March 22 -23 that will discuss new weed chemicals that are on the market as well as different weed plans that he may be able to integrate into our weed plan. Joe also asked that he and Michael are allowed to go to a seminar in Miles City on April 6-7. It was discussed that board members could maybe attend this meeting but was decided that they would benefit more if we would send them to the annual state weed board meeting instead.  Shirley and Joe have been working with the state for possible leniency on the grant problems however we may lose the BLM grant due to the previous Weed Coordinator and Weed bookkeeper’s lack of keeping records and lack of full filling the terms on the grant.  Since lots of information about weed application, vendor purchases, use of grant money, etc., was taken/missing, the county attorney may be contacted to investigate Greg Mendenhall about the missing information.  Heath Craig will start prepping the weed equipment next week for the upcoming weed season.  Next meeting set for April 5 at 1400.

1507 Meeting Adjourned