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The resignation of Director Boyd Waggoner
was one of the items addressed at the most recent Middle Trinity
Groundwater Conservation District meeting in Dublin, Thursday, April
5, 2007.
“We have a letter here from Boyd Waggoner
asking for his resignation,” Board Chairman Rodney Stephens said, “and
we need to take action on it.” The board then voted unanimously,
without discussion, to accept Waggoner’s resignation.
“I now need to appoint a nominating
committee for Boyd’s vacancy,” Stephens said. He then appointed a
committee of Fred Parker and Jerry Henshaw, the two remaining Erath
County directors, along with Joe Cooper, MTGCD general manager, who
will assist in the search in a non-voting capacity.
Director Jerry Henshaw was absent. In
addition to Stephens, directors Fred Parker, George Bingham and Jerry
Fronterhouse were present.
In addition to Cooper, Sharon Mainord,
MTGCD administrative assistant, and Wes Burris, field technician,
participated.
There were no citizen comments during the
brief meeting, with fewer than five people in the audience, and
Cooper’s “manager’s report” was one of the few agenda items
discussed.
“Our field technician, Wes, is doing a
great job of monitoring our wells,” Cooper said, adding that in many
cases the well levels had gone up, or were static, and that very few
had decreased.
“It appears, at this point and
time,” Cooper said, “that according to our observations, and those of
the Texas Water Development Board, that the aquifer is sustaining and
recharging. That’s good information. It’s nice to be able to say it,
and to have data to look at.”
Cooper also discussed the on-going effort
to alert district residents to the help available to them for plugging
abandoned wells. “The majority of this board has stated that we feel
like these (unplugged, abandoned wells) are the biggest threat to
water quality within in our district,” Cooper said.
He also noted that the MTGCD would have a
booth at the Comanche County Farm, Ranch and Dairy Days in Comanche,
April 13 and 14, offering assistance with well-plugging. “Hopefully,
that will stimulate some more interest in wells being plugged,” he
said.
Cooper also touched briefly on the
results of an annual audit.
“Boucher, Morgan and Young has
completed our annual audit and delivered it to the district” Cooper
said. “I’ll be calling a meeting of our finance committee to review
the audit. It was a good one...with no material weaknesses in our
accounting.”
In other business, Directors:
• Approved payment of bills.
• Approved minutes from the March
meeting, permit hearings and rules hearing.
• Heard an update from Cooper on the
income and expense comparison report, where he noted that the district
budget was “balanced to the penny.”
Cooper also presented the quarterly
drought assessment, according to the Palmer Drought Severity Index,
wherein he noted, “We’re near normal conditions for a change. The
prior three quarters have been severe drought, severe drought and
moderate drought respectively...we’re improving and that’s a good
thing. Additionally, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration updated its drought outlook on March 15, and the
prediction is for on-going drought with some improvement through June
of 2007. And we’ve certainly gotten that ‘some improvement’ and I
look forward to the next update.” |
