FOBHL
Board meeting minutes
Bighorn Federal meeting room
January 8, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Lovell
Call to order and Welcome – Bob C
Approval of Nov email minutes (Dec 11 meeting canceled) Motion by Ken, second by Margaret
Report from John Keck plus follow up from our BICA tour (see last page)
1. New dock (144’) for HSBend ramp was discussed at length. Samples of dock bumper types were available plus we discussed wood verses aluminum decking for the dock. We prefer the aluminum for safety, nicer looking and much less annual maintenance. The free board of the dock was also discussed. The standard free board is 25” but we suggest using the lower being 22” which matches more boats using BHLake. The dock needs to be well below the top edge of your boat to work properly. A nice dock encourages frequent boater usage since it protects the boater and their boat. The Wyoming Motor boat access funding will be applied for to fund this dock.
2. The new well at HSBend is on hold as the SBA checks out the low bidder’s references. Should this bid be rejected the process would have to be redone again(for a 3rd time).
3. BICA has agreed to provide $25,000 of the $100,000+ needed by the USBR to study the current silt problems in the south end of Bighorn Lake.
4. John said they would be more competitive in applying for internal road monies within BICA if more visitor walking trails were developed. They will address this issue in the coming months. Eg: a bird watchers walking trail system, etc.
5. The commercial use permit for a one year concessionaire for HSB marina is being prepared presently.
6. In checking with Wyo DEQ office in Cheyenne, John found DEQ did not have specific regulations regarding a design that had to be followed, so the gas system in place could be used with some upgrades and maintenance making gas available at the courtesy docks this year. There are some basic issues to comply with which will be checked out.
7. The HSB campground rehab project is coming along nicely. The crew is doing a nice professional job in a colder than usual winter season.
8. Congress has passed a 2008 budget, now NPS is in the process of determining how much each area will be allowed. This allocation process will take 3 to 4 weeks normally.
9. We are clear to work with BICA on the upcoming driftwood stacking project in the next 2 months. Bob will meet with Jeff to work out the details.
10. John is meeting with his BICA staff in Lovell this week to discuss upcoming maintenance projects and to determine how to best accomplish them. We will be advised as to how we can be of service as VIP’s.
John will also be at the USBR meeting in Billings next Thursday with us. We expressed a big THANKS to John for all he is doing then excused him as we continued with Board only items.
The Great Outdoors Sports Show Jan 18, 19, 20 was reviewed, all is in order for the event.
The new Directors discussion continued. Several possible additional directors were approved with a motion by Ken and a second by HD. These folks will be invited to join us by the assigned board members. We are anxious to have more directors serving. The invitations and responses need to be done by Jan 22.
Bylaws – we will continue to review and modify them. They are coming along with only a few adjustments left to consider. There is hope we can complete them by next month’s meeting.
Ongoing items for comment or questions:
USBR-MTAO Long Term Issues Grp Meeting in MT Jan 17 Who can go?
Driftwood stack and burn project plans
Install day boards at the south end – contact Mike D.
TV ads are contracted for the spring and summer of 2008 with Bresnan
BHLake promo DVD going well on our website
Wyoming Tourism web site
BICA tour with Chris Davidson of TCTWEST went well. He will provide us info on the future of telecom services in the BHLake area.
USBR corrected HSB boat launch level to 3617’ on their web site
Am Colloid - highway and railroad crossing issues out there
Wyoming Motor Boat Access Funding
Our next Board meeting will be February 12 at 6:30pm in Lovell at the Bighorn Federal meeting room.
BICA & FOBHL tour-meeting
December 11, 2007
1:00pm
At the November FOBHL Board meeting with John Keck an extensive list of BICA planning considerations was reviewed. It was agreed upon that an on site tour would be the best way to get a handle on these items. So a tour was scheduled for Dec 11 at 1pm at BICA. (see the Nov meeting minutes for the list)
Those in attendance were John Keck- Assistant Superintendent BICA, Mike Durtsche – South End Maintenance, Ric Lasko – Natural Resources, FOBHL members – Bill Terry, Ken Grant and Bob Croft
John Keck reported:
Budget for 2008 not yet approved by the US Congress
New well bids have been received but not awarded as yet
FOBHL directors can work with south end BICA professionals on upcoming VIP projects
BICA and Wyoming Game & Fish are working together on the use of the Motorboat Access Tax money available for boat access items.
John visited in Montana last week the USBR-MTAO; Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks; plus Montana’s Congressional delegation staffers. They were informed of BICA needs for a full lake for year round recreation and the Trans park Highway issue.
The tour began at Horseshoe Bend boat ramp area then to the camp ground upgrade project. We were then off to the Yellowtail Mgmt Unit going from highway 37 to Abercrombie, Jim Creek and Mormon Point areas. For here we drove to the causeway checking the south causeway and the Kane boat ramp areas. The group continued north on the John Blue Canyon road to the park boundary and returned to highway 14AE, on back to the visitor center. It was a very productive 4 hours spent.
At 6:30pm John meet with Ken and Bob for a review and wrap up of the tour. John will be at our next meeting here in Lovell on January 8. John then met with Bighorn County Commissioner President, Keith Grant concerning some ongoing lake issues.