Deer Springs Ranch Board Meeting

April 8, 2011, 4:00 PM at Kane County Search & Rescue Bldg., Kanab

DSROA Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
Friday, APRIL 8, 2011 at 4 PM
in the Search and Rescue Building at the Kanab Airport


1. Welcome – Dirk Clayson
Prayer – Shawna Cox
Board Members in attendance; Dirk Clayson, Shawna Cox, Dale Clarkson, Ben Clarkson, Kathy Duvall, Dave Turley by Telephone for the first half and arrived for the second half.
Others in attendance; Linda Alderman Secretary/Reservation Clerk, Paul and Nancy Brayton Ranch Managers, Patsy Clarkson, Lynette Foster, Robert Allan.

2. Approval of March Board Meeting Minutes – diverted to next month to give them time to review.

3. Areas of Responsibility:
(1) New board member appointment: Toward the end of March the Board of Directors were saddened to receive a letter of Resignation from Board Member Brent Fullmer. It was deemed necessary to fill his position on the Board with and by Appointment. Dale Clarkson recommended Phil Hall. Several members were nominated and contacted to see if they would be interested in serving on the Board. In the end Jodi Akers stood out at the top of the list. There was a discussion.
Ben Clarkson made a Motion to appoint Jodi Akers to fulfill Brent Fullmer’s position for the final 4 months of his term.
Dale Clarkson 2nd the motion.
Vote:
Yes – Dale Clarkson, Dirk Clayson, Ben Clarkson & Kathy Duvall.
No – Shawna Cox.
Abstain – Dave Turley.
Vote Carries 4 to 1 in favor of Jodi Akers.

Review of board member assignments.
A. Roads and Fire Protection - ______________
B. Ranch Activities, Finance - Shawna Cox
C. Water Resources and Management - Dale Clarkson
D. Agricultural ad Wildlife - Dirk Clayson
E. Facilities, Cabin Maintenance - Kathy Duvall
F. Legal and Public Safety - Ben Clarkson
G. Ranch Communications and Reservations, Web development - David Turley

4. Financial Report: Linda Alderman
A concerned was posed by Linda Alderman. The quarterly statements went out with Finance Charges in March. Many payments came in without the finance charge added to it. There was a discussion.
Dirk Clayson made a motion to accept the money as is and write off those that don’t have the finance charge until April 30. After that, bill them again.
Ben Clarkson seconded the motion
The vote was unanimous.

5. Roads and Fire Protection –
A. Ranch road maintenance
1. Culvert placement project. Lee Bellar, Bob Becker and Robert Allen fixed a washout in Podunk using culverts we purchased in the fall. Dale Clarkson suggested we should clean out those culverts that are already in place. Paul Brayton said he has been.
2. Reestablish ditch around lower cabins to Polliwog Ponds.
3. Repair the minor amount of road damage along the roads. Larry Clarkson has been authorized to work on the ranch to within $2000.00-$3000.00. Funds were budgeted for contract labor on the Ranch. Paul will still be responsible for the grading of the roads when the weather and moisture content of the Ranch roads are at their peak.

6. ATV road that parallels the ranch road. To be used by ATVs, Mountain Bikes and Snowmobiles. Brent Fullmer is still working on the ATV Trail. We appreciate his help on this.

7. Ranch Activities - Shawna Cox
A. Summer event schedule. A Frisby Golf area is planned for the ranch this summer. The Annual DSROA Olympics Activity Day will also happen again this year. They want to have name tags for this day. There is available to the membership, Volley Ball, Tether Ball, Fishing Poles and many other possibilities. Just ask at headquarters.
B. Activities posted? It was suggested that the activities be posted on the website. Linda Alderman suggested that would be fine for folks to plan, before they got to the ranch, but that the guide books that are in the cabins and the bulletin board at Headquarters was the best place to have a list of activities. All agreed and in a discussion following it was determined that the Bulletin Board would stay where it has been.
Nancy Brayton suggested a Tumble weed round-up to bring in Revenue.




8. Update on water issues - Dale Clarkson
A. Leaf Springs
B. Water System expansion, vault.
1. Well field irrigation well. Consult with Alma Fletcher on this and Leaf Spring and Cabin Spring.
C. Irrigation Management - references
1. Water Management of Polliwog Ponds
2. Red Reservoir is full to near the fence. There are 3 or 4 Springs flowing now. The water on Red Reservoir does not be to be redirected. Dale shared the vision of the Pioneers who originally built the dikes and canals on Deer Spring Ranch. Many of the old ditches are not being utilized as they could and should be. He said that the Pioneers studied the water movement on DSR and built the finest canal system in Kane County on DSR. Kathy Duvall asked Dale if he would give a presentation on the Water movement at DSR. Shawna Cox, Kathy Duvall and others expressed an interest to see and know how the water feeds from the Red Reservoir down through the rest of the Ranch.
3. Water Management of Half Moon. A ditch was built past the diversion on the west side. Larry Clarkson worked on the dam and above the dam with a back hoe. It was over flowing into the New Half Moon below. (We now have a “Full Moon”) This water needs to be directed to the well field.
4. Water Management of Hidden Reservoir should be full at present.
5. Water Management of fish ponds – The Engineer wants to know if Clarkson was still involved in the Spring Engineering at Meadow Canyon. Dale wishes to resign from the Meadow Canyon Project and later clarified that he was not however resigning from the water committee.
D. Water run off management. Dave Turley expressed a concern that there is a large erosion cut in the well field that widens as it passes the Garden Cabin. It is caused by the summer monsoons. Dave Turley stated he feels the Garden Cabin is being threatened by this ditch. Paul said that the work done by Taylor Button a couple of years ago helped to alleviate that situation, but further work needs to be done to fill or divert the gap. It was suggested by Dirk Clayson that this might be a good place to put the old cement culverts that are cluttering the headquarters yard. All agreed.

ACTION ITEM: Move old cement culverts into the cut to stop the erosion
#1 Priority, near the Garden Cabin
#2 Priority in the well field.
It was also suggested that willows/trees or vegetation would help to slow the damage done by the Monsoons.
E. Report from the committee to write a business plan for the Meadow Canyon Springs Project.
Paul Brayton offered and asked to be involved with the work that Dale and Larry are doing in water management. He wants to be educated and learn. He said he’s there at the ranch and would like them to come get him when they are working. Dirk said they will get together and work something out.

9. Agricultural and Wildlife - Dirk Clayson
A. Willow mowing – get it done.
B. Seeding efforts – The Seed purchased in March, Wild Rye and Turnip will be broadcast in the fields soon. The mechanism to do so is now fixed.
Discussions with Doug Hunt have been ongoing to bring more head of cattle up on the ranch and have the Ranch deal exclusively with one cattle operator. Doug said he will range cows all he can when they are not seeding. Dirk Clayson reported that they are having discussions about paying a flat fee to graze rather than a Per Anum (Per head) fee. There will be more discussion on this at a later time.

10. Facilities, Cabin Maintenance - Kathy Duvall
A. DSROA Clean-up Weekends April 8-9-10 May 13-14-15
Kathy Duvall was sad to report that due to severe weather this weekend’s clean-up had to be canceled. She is looking forward to our May Clean-up and hopes many will put it on their calendar and plan to be there.
Kathy Reported that the Headquarters looks phenomenal and the Comfort Stop is coming along Great. Kathy would like to find someone to be a Caretaker for the Bulletin Board at the ranch.

11. Legal and Public Safety - Ben Clarkson
A. Update on county zoning
B. Record deed restriction to allow 2 cabins per lot.
Done
C. McLellan’s want to know if they can put a For Sale sign on their lot? – Yes.

12. Ranch Communications and Reservations, Web development - David Turley
A. Members - Thank you for sending in cabin usage surveys. Dave Turley will compile results of the surveys and report at the next meeting. Linda Alderman said there will probably be more.
B. Pavilion construction will begin in the new location and will be ready for usage this year.

13. Ranch Manager's report - Paul Brayton
A. Fencing / cattle guards
Water System
Paul told Dave Turley - The South end of the Comfort Stop needs a roof.
Upper Spring needs a new spring box. It will receive attention and Taylor Button will be fencing it this year. Dale felt it needed new tanks but it was explained the tanks that are not in compliance are up there for fire fighting and there is a 10,000 tank that is drinking water quality.

14. Dale Clarkson asked for an easement to run a private pipeline from the NE corner of Lot #161 north out of the trees and following the tree line along the west edge of the wet meadow to the area near the upper pond, using the current DSROA roadway in to Lot # 111.
A motion was made by Dirk Clayson that a 20’ easement be granted for a water line from the NE corner of lot 161 going north along the fence line to the meadow area and then running in a southeasterly direction along the west edge of the meadow to the area west of the fish ponds and then along DSR existing roadways to lot 111 to be appurtenant to the lots with the stipulation that the area be returned to it’s original condition so far as possible. The easement shall be put into a legal description and documents prepared to be executed and recorded in the county recorders office.
Shawna Cox seconded the motion.
Discussion followed: Dirk stated that every member is entitled to a certain amount of water rights and Dale’s wanting to put a pipeline in along a road way that we already have is appropriate to the entitlements that all members have in this case the water rights being used are personally, the easement just facilitates this use. Paul Brayton expressed concern over future development in the area in regard to depth of the pipe . Vance Green wanted to know the DSROA responsibility in the Future. Ben Clarkson answered – None.
Vote : Unanimous

Dirk Clayson further said the Board should extend to the Jodi Akers group the same permission that is being extended to Dale Clarkson with a chaviot that the Aker’s Group recognize that the association has the same right to usage. DSROA rights being senior to their rights and needs to be considered and respected.

Motion by Dirk Clayson to allow the Jodi Akers group to have a 20 ft wide easement across association property to leaf spring with the permission to develop leaf spring to use their water rights. The development of leaf spring should be done to use care to not negatively affect the flow of this spring. Documents can be prepared for execution and recording. The spring must be developed in accordance to Dept of Water Quality standards.
Seconded by Ben Clarkson
Vote: Unanimous.

Our next meeting will be May 13 at the Ranch.

ACTION ITEM – Culvert Field Trip – consisting of Paul and the Whole Board. To decide what culverts need to be cleaned out and where others need to be placed.

Kathy Duvall recognized Linda Alderman for the improvements to her Reports over the last few months and for her hard work.

Ben Clarkson motioned to adjourn and go into Executive Session.
Shawna Cox Seconded the motion.
The Vote was Unanimous.

Meeting adjourned.

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