June Winnett ACES Meeting Minutes
Photo by Delight Iverson
June 26 winnett aces meeting minutes
5:00 p.m., Methodist Church
Those present: Brenda Brady, Gary Eliasson, Jim Brady, Craig Iverson, Laura Nowlin, Delight Iverson, Skip and Diane Ahlgren, Chris and Gari King, Jay King, Carie Hess, Bill Milton, Sig Pugrud, Carol Schaeffer, Nick Schultz, ACES coordinator – Brent Smith, WWF – Andrew Horvath, Fergus Extension – Emily Standley, Ag Investments – Colter DeVries, USFWS – Bob Ford, MCC – Michelle Lockhart, DNRC – Mason Nussbaum, MCC – Mitch Hoffman, NGPJV – Dan Casey,
Chairman Craig Iverson called the meeting to order at 5:10 and introductions were made.
Coordinator Brent Smith gave a brief history of his background and stated that he and his family are glad to be back in the Winnett area. He is excited to be working with the ACES group.
Delight Iverson will help the group by working a few hours per month as Outreach Director. She and Brent will work out the schedule of individual duties. ACES is fortunate and grateful for the great staff.
Committee updates:
Brenda reported that new participants to the beef program have pledged beef enough to provide for a 5th year so the program will not have to request from original donators. Lewistown grain elevators have a program whereby producers can donate some grain proceeds to the beef in school program. All very successful and many requests from others for info on how to get the program started in their area.
Laura started the Land Committee report with the update on the 6 young producers who are leasing and grazing on the 54 Ranch. 13 responded to the original request and sorted themselves down to the 6. Gary reported that the workdays were successful and even fun with a mile of new fence being built to add an additional pasture for rotation – “couldn’t be going any better”. Reba set up the pasture rotations with 3 herds rotating thru 4 pastures each. Numbers worked almost perfect and good moisture and grass has provided smooth sailing so far.
Not a great amount to report from the Purchase Committee – Laura and Chris have volunteered to join this committee and a meeting is being contemplated for July 9th.
Colter DeVries reported attending a Farmers Union meeting recently where the Mt. Community Development Corp. (MCDC) was suggesting funding for feasibility study on a grassbank co-op. for young producers. Farmers Union is pledging funding to get a young producer started. Colter had informed that group about ACES and the Land Committee project that is already doing some of what they are proposing. He asked for volunteers from ACES to be on a steering committee with Farmers Union to work through their process. Gary would like to go if time allows, Cedar Woodford would be a good young ag representative if he is willing and Brent could go as staff. This will be firmed up by August. Travel is reimbursed.
Bill stated that the Musselshell Rural Investment Co-op had formed to refurbish the old school in Roundup so he is familiar with Co-op formation. Farther discussion included land ownership by a co-op, or ACES own land and co-op the grassbanking, finding investors (Colter’s expertise), legality of non-profit owning shares, and much more.
Concerning the Elk Committee – Brent talked to Sonja and she will move forward with providing the necessary list of participants for a meeting with the mediator. Zach Brown with One Montana (and a state legislator) would like to meet with this committee to discuss some ideas he is working on. This will be one of Brent’s priorities to keep moving on.
The Historic Building Committee- Laura Kiehl, Laura N. and Chris toured the Courthouse with a State Preservation representative- this would be a big, expensive project but they will continue to pursue it. Flatwillow Hall is going to register as a historic building.
Brenda reported on the Community Center – they have a board in place including LuAnn and Sue as co-chairs, Gari as treasurer, and Brenda taking care of communications. The architect is working on design options and they hope to have those in time for the school reunion. They will have a tent and info at the building site for reunion and ACES information is welcome there also.
As soon as they pick a design and know costs, they will start fund raising. Some of their group met with Kathy Bailey from Snowy Mountain Development on how to achieve successful fund raising. The goal will be to have a grant by next spring and building to start in 2022. Tax deductible donations are being held in the Pet. Co. Endowment Fund. *See additional notes from Sue McKenna at the bottom of this post.
The Education Committee reported that Tris Munsick would like to do a follow up on the Ranch Profitability workshop held last fall. Info to follow.
The Nick Schultz and Chris King families were interviewed and filmed recently for a story telling series that includes information on ranching with BLM lands, bringing the next generation back, the Taylor Grazing Act, ranch stability, and working with local groups like ACES.
Laura reported a small amount of funding for Delight’s position. The NFWF grant was successful and will fund Brent’s half time position for 3 years along with on the ground cost share projects such as seeding back to grass, water infrastructure, etc.
Winnett ACES Inc. now has non-profit status with the State of Montana. Official affiliation with RSA is on hold as the group does more checking on the issues to get their own IRS non-profit status. Chris has talked to 3 different lawyers about the process, still waiting for details from the last contact but all seem to think it should be doable for ACES. Brent talked to accountant Mickey McMillan who would help the group get set up from the accounting perspective. They would do this free of charge with negotiated fees for later accounting help.
Nothing new on the Mentoring, Brent will work on it.
The new Conservation Committee has had two meetings; the first was a presentation from RSA on what works, what doesn’t, and sharing of their paperwork used for the conservation projects in their area. The second meeting started the process of what would work here and a “to do” list of tasks for committee members and Brent. The Committee will ask for project proposals in Sept. with possible late 2019 delivery but more likely 2020 for project implementation. Aug. 28th is the next meeting.
Other:
Bill’s monitoring group is working on a data management template that would handle range monitoring, (including remote analysis) soil carbon, and bird survey info. The bird surveys have been a struggle this year with Levi Morgan gone. 15 producers are in the pilot project and they continue to move forward on a complicated process.
Emily with Extension is looking at putting an “ag for urban” tour together sometime in the future.
Andrew with WWF stated that a Capacity Building/Ranching Workshop will be held in Rapid City, S.D. on Sept. 12 and 13th. 6 owner led groups will be invited with travel and lodging paid. They are doing a survey for the agenda and he will send that to Brent to distribute on.
Andrew is also working on the Beef Pilot program and has scheduled a meeting on July 17th in the Winnett area from 12:00 p.m. until 3:00. Lunch will be provided and more details will follow.
Skip and Sig are going to do a Pasture Golf tourney on Aug. 17th as a “fun” raiser for ACES. More details to follow.
Brent is working on a trifold brochure for ACES in hopes of having them ready to hand out at the all-school reunion in July.
Diane reported having attended the Western Working Lands for Wildlife conference in Twin Falls. It was focused on partnerships and accomplishments from those partnerships. A tour showed thousands of acres treated for conifer encroachment and ranchers working with partners on best management practices. Diane was impressed with the positive attitude towards ranching and landowners.
Dan Casey with Northern Great Plains Joint Venture, and a small committee including ACES members are putting together a Grassland Policy Tour with national, state, and local representatives invited. Committee conference calls have produced an invite list and draft agenda with focus on policy issues that affect this area, partnerships, and projects. Early attendees will be invited to the Musselshell Watershed Coalition meeting in Roundup on Aug.On the 14th, the buses will leave Billings with the first stop being the Milton Ranch. Bill suggested having one of the young grazers and Gary there to do a presentation on the grassbank project. Then on to Winnett for a catered lunch, tour in the area, and back to Flatwillow Hall for a BBQ dinner. Details are being worked out and will follow. On Aug. 15th there will be a roundtable discussion of what was learned and what policy issues could be of benefit. The NGPJV is generously paying for this tour. It was done in South Dakota last year and was very productive and informative.Dan is in this area to do bird surveys and introduced Bob Ford from the USFWS office in Washington D.C. Bob is helping with the surveys and observing projects in the Eastern Mt. area. When asked about his impression of the area, Bob stated that ranching is very important to keeping habitat available and in good condition. They are focused on keeping core wildlife populations, such as sage grouse, strong and could see funding from the Wetlands Conservation Act being of benefit here and including uplands projects. Funding can go to a landowner or a region but requires a lot accountability and deliverables. He is enjoying his time here.
Other business included discussion of the draft BLM Resource Management Plan that is open for comments until mid Aug. BLM has scheduled a public meeting for July 8th at Winnett and have stated that they would also meet with a group of interested landowners in the area if needed. This group will plan a meeting in mid or later July for that discussion and to get comments prepared.
Next meeting will be Sept 25th. ACES meetings will be scheduled for the last Wed. of each quarter if possible. Meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m.
By Diane Ahlgren
ACES Sec.
*Additional notes and updates from Sue McKenna with the Petroleum County Community Center Committee:
We have now completed the purchase of five lots for our center. Paperwork is finalized or being finalized with Sylvia Gussick family on the last two lots.
Our lot is being "landscaped" this summer under the direction of Luann Knutson. She is making sure it is mowed and groomed. We have hired locally for mowing.
Our 'future site' banner has been put up on the lot and accented with some of Jess Hoge's community flowers.
We have rented a 10 x 30 tent for the reunion. It will be set up on Friday and lawn furniture and some games will be added. Just a place for folks to rest, visit, and enjoy some shade during the event. Our brochures will be available.
Brochures have been placed in the courthouse and will also be available around town.
Lions Club breakfast with the assistance of PCCC will be Saturday morning of reunion at the Methodist Church. Proceeds go to PCCC.
Contract between the County and the Architectural Firm Slate have been signed and all parties have copies.
Planning grant in the amount of $35000 will pay for the work that Slate is performing. Target date for a detail design is reunion.
We are obligated to hold two more public meetings. We hope to have one in July and finalize our building plans this fall.
All required papers have been sent to the Department of Commerce (DOC) for our planning grant. We have one issue and that is the lack of an affadavit of Publication for our bid process last Nov. We have email confirmation from the Roundup Record Trib that it would be published in the Nov 7th and 14th issues, but it was not. Kathy Bailey is in communication with the DOC to see what can be done to meet this requirement of our planning grant. The County Commissioners have been informed. We will keep you updated.
501(C)3 status: We have spoken with Brandon Bantz regarding this issue and discussed going out on our own or being umbrella-ed under your status. We have decided to go with the later, although we understand it is in the hands of the IRS as to what your status will be and whether or not we would even qualify. As far as our donations, we have permission from the Central MT Endowment Foundation and the Petroleum Co. Endowment fund to run these funds through them for the time being and that gives the donors the tax deduction for their contributions.
Construction timeline: We are always at the mercy of the State and when their grant windows open, but we are optimistic in the fact that we could possibly begin construction in the spring of 2022. This date is dependent upon many factors.
We have our PCCC page on your ACES website and have requested Delight Iverson to add a 'paypal' button to our page.
Board members have been voted on and elected as follows: Luann Knutson and Sue McKenna are co-chair, Brandi Hughes Lang is our Secretary, Gari King is our Treasurer, and Brenda Brady is our communication specialist (something like that :)