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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-11-10 KRSMA Board Packet1 1 Special tvlanagemen8 Area "Working together...9or the river" *** Meeting Agenda*** Thursday, November 10, 2005 5:30 p.m. Kenai River Center I. CALL ~'® OI'sflh;R A. Roll Call B. Approval of ? 0/? 3/05 msnntes C. Agenda Changes and Approval II. PFJIBLIC C®MMEPd'I III, NI+ W BUvIT^III;SS A. Kenai River Operations- Bill B. DNR Appointments and Contacts C. Kachemak Heritage Land;Trust-Barb Seamons D. Carrying Capacity`Woikshop report-Jack Sinclair/Dale Blatma E. Fee Increases IV. E3I.I~ I3IJSI1VE53 A. Membership and Nominees for Board seats B. Kenai River Center Update, Suzanne Fisler C. Horsepower Discussion D. Regulation Package ~. PU&II,TG C®M'1'IL+ i9'T 'VI. AI3S®L'Rt~iMENT A. Board Comments B. Date/Agenda of Next Meeting ~~ ;~~1i Kenai Area OPfice, Box 1247, Soldotna;AK 99669;Soldotna 2625581 ' ~ ~®~ Kenai WmnsulaBOrough Box 850, Soldotna, AK 99669, Soldotna 2525441 Alaska Givis,on of Parks and Cu;tloor P.ecreatlon Departmert of Natural Resources, m cooperation with the Kena Wn,nsula Borough. _ Kenai River Sgecial IVlanageent Area Advisory Board ~'hursday, October 13, `~®05 S:3O ~D.rCY. Kenai River Center I. CA%.I. '1'C ®RI~ER A. Roll Call: Members Present: Ken Lancaster, Ted Wellman, Joe Connors, Pete Sprague, Fioycz Heimbuch, Tim Stevens, Robin West, Jack Sinclair, Rick Wood, Keith Kornelis Guest: Director Jerry Lewanski Members Absent: Dick Hahn, Jeff King, Tom Vania, Deb Cooper, Ted Forsi, Paul Shadura B. Approval of 09/08/05 minutes. The minutes were approved As written. C. Agenda Changes and Approval TI 4yT7i3i.i(° rdl~m.T~BIU°:° None III. IdECA7 BITSIIV~SS A. Kenai River Operations -Bill Berkhahn Bi11 gave the board the annual update en the 2005 field operations. This year within the Kenai River district there were some excellent volunteers - 22 in all within the park and on the river who contributed 15,000 hours of time. In addition to the volunteers we have 1 Natural Resource Technician and 1 P.lask;a Conservation Corps person. Starting in March there was axi additional Park Ranger added to the Kenai River staff, Ryan Gosse. Rangers Don Barber and Jacques Kosto and Bill Berkhahn continue to patrol the Kenai River. 1"he priorities are resource protection, as well as making sure parks are well maintained, safe and accessible. Public education is also important and done through field contacts. Boating safety education in the schools continues to be a big part of the river district's priorities. Insuring people are conducting themselves on a the river in a safe manner through regulation enforcement and education. Kids Don't' Float loaner program continued this year at all the parks boat launches. Rental boat inspections were conducted. They are done every other year. Some of the Boating Safety programs were: Salmon Carnival at Johnson Lake, Safe Kids Water Safety Carnival at Skyview, Bi11 taught 2 classes at Kenai Peninsula College. The Morgan's Landing bank restoration project was completed today! This involved federal funding, Fish & Game funding and State Parks. The project consisted of restoring 250 feet of riverbank with brush layering, willow planting, grass seeding, veg mats and spruce tree revetments with a 90 foot fishwalk with stairs to the river. Law enforcement- is a big part of managing the resource. 972 citations were written on the river this year. With the additional ranger anal overtime funding for July provided by the Kenai River Sportfishing Association (KRSA) that paid for an extra 250 hours of overtime, citations doubled from last year. Bill then broke it down: 144 were boating safety related; fishing violations numbered 251; 78 Horsepower violations. 58 guides were cited of which 18 were for not providing their end of season reports. 4 guides were cited for over horsepower. 3 guides had boating safety violations. 5 glaides were cited for fishing violations. 20 guides cited for other violations such as not registering their vehicles commercially, not paying the boat launch fee. Bill recognized and thanked KRSA for funding $11,300 of additional ranger patrol in the form of overtime in July. Bill. also thanked Dean Hughes of ADF8aG for securing $65,00 of the funding for the Morgans project and. for his technical assistance. Bree Dar, biologist with USFWS also helped secure the funding for Morgans. He also thanked River & Sea Marine and Yamaha Corporation on a deal offered to DPOR for a detuned 50hp 4-stroke jet drive. Joe: When you cite someone for a fishing license violation, do you know at that time that they are anon-resident? Bill said sometimes if you ask the right questions you get your answer right there out in the field but generally there is some follow-up required. Bill said Parks has developed a great relationship with many other states and can research resident issues readily that way. Ken: What were the 144 boating safety violations? Bill said they ranged from not enough PFDs, boat registration, kids under 13 not wearing a PFD, drift boats operating without a powerboat registration(when someone throws a motor on a drift boat). 4 Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board Minutes -October 13, 2005 Page 2 of 5 Jerry: How many contacts per shift do you make? Bill said he would guess about 50 to 60 per ranger per shift. It would be nice to keep better track of the contacts made but Bill said you'd be spending too much time writing them all down in your notebook. B. Membership -New Board appointment applications Jack Provided to the board were the applications that have come in so far. The deadline for applying was October 15th: Jack said a few more will be coming in. The board will then have to nominate 3 per vacancy and there are 4 seats expiring. Dave Westerman has resigned his seat. It was decided there will be a special meeting on November 4th at noon at the Kenai River Center to nominate board applicants. 1. Vice President Election Ken explained this seat has been vacant and he as President will be absent for a few meetings this winter. He opened the floor to nominations. Ted nominated Jeff King and Joe Connors seconded. The vote was asked for and Jeff King was unanimously accepted as Vice President. C. Introduction: Jerry Lewanski, i~irector Alaska State Parks Jerry was introduced to the board. Jerry said he appreciates everyone's participation in this group. He stressed his appreciation for board member's personal time and commitment to KRSMA. D. Work Session report -Ken Lancaster The work session met this afternoon from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Z'alkafl ahrnit attempting t0 arld Trail Lal{nc lanflg tp I{R.Cr~A land anri Ken will work with local delegation. He will report on progress at the next meeting. Public restroom: Working with KRSI to get more available on the river. Also talked about Bill Berkhahn locating some appropriate areas for restrooms. Guide academy: Chris Degernes will be working on that in the regulation package. Kenai River Working Group, User Fee, Carrying Capacity: Waiting on Director Lewanski and the department to get to us on all these issues. There was some discussion about the Kenaitze buyback. Brenda Trefon was in the audience. Ken asked her if she had any other information. Brenda said she just received information from California -they have a similar program called the "early retirement program" for 2 stroke Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board Minutes -October 13, 2005 Page 3 of S motors. It might be possible to adopt some of those regulations. Brenda will meet with the board on November 10th from 10-12. Ken is continuing to work on the Corr property and he will keep the board informed'bf whererthat is,going. Review of the :Kenai River Comprehensive Management. Plan was discussed. Suzanne. has done a review of that and she will bring that to the next board meeting and we will decide where to go with that. Ken thanked the board members for being present as well as Jerry, Parks Director. IV. ®LD I~I7~INE~S A. Boat Wake Study report -Jack E. Sinclair Jack contacted Dr. Maynard. He has not finished yet as he was sidelined with work on Katrina. He is back to working on the data collection and putting it together. He will co>atact Jack as soon as he has some preliminary data to share. B. Kenai River Bridge Update -Matt Couilahan, DOT One of the big days of the project is tomorrow when they will start de- watering the coffer dam around 2pm. This will take several hours. Once it holds water back satisfactorily they will start demolition of the center pier. Completion of the paving on Riverside Drive is slated to be done by the weekend as well as paving the approaches to the bridge. By weekends' end will have stripes done too. The bridge girder segments are on schedule. The new bridge opening is on schedule for August 2006. C. Letters to DEC, Commissioner DNR Letters were provided to the board that were sent to DEC and the Commissioner. No other comments. V. P~ti13LIC C®Idi1~IEIV°I° Brenda Trefon said the volunteers that worked on the Boat Wake Study were much appreciated! VI. PeDJ®ilI21VIdIE1VT A. Board Comments Robin: Thanks for the candy! Floyd: When I hear the term "our park, or the parks" we need to focus on calling it what it is: a special management area. R Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board Minutes -October 13, 2005 Page 4 of 5 Keith: Asked for board quorum explanation. Denise read from the bylaws: A quorum of the transaction of business at any regular or special meeting of the members shall consist of a majority (7) of the voting members of the Board (12): Any number of members present at a duly called meeting constituting less than a quorum shall postpone: the meeting to a time and place where a quorum is expected to be present. A majority of a quorum is'required to approve-items of business unless as otherwise required. (There are 9 public members and 3 agency members. who can vote). Tim: Said Nancy Sonafrank will be notifying all those who submitted comments on the mixing zones when they come up with decisions. They are in final discussions with DNR, ADFSr,G and the Commissioners. Ken: Thanked Ted Wellman and Joe Connors for applying to remain on this board. Thanked the Director for coming to the work session this afternoon and the meeting this evening. B. Date/Agenda of Next Meeting : Nov. 10, 2005 Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board Minutes -October 13, 2005 Page 5 of 5