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The Middle Trinity Groundwater
Conservation District met in regular session, Thursday, January 3,
with Directors Ed Dittfurth, Jerry Hinshaw, George Bingham, Jerry
Fronterhouse and Fred Parker present.
Bingham presided due to the absence of
Chairman Rodney Stephens.
Also present were MTGCD staff members Joe
Cooper, general manager; Sharon Mainord, administrative assistant, and
Wes Burris, field technician. There were three audience members,
including two members of the media. There were no participants for the
Public Comments section of the agenda.
The discussion regarding part-time help
for data entry was one of the more thoroughly discussed items during
the meeting.
“We do have a back-log,” Cooper said,
“and the information needs to go in the data base.”
Cooper went on to say that if the
District had an achilles heel this would be it.
“We’ve always deferred to the concerns of
accuracy,” Cooper said, adding that being able to judge whether
well-permitting applications are administratively complete is
“Something you can’t just learn overnight.”
“For that reason,” Cooper said, “we’ve
always been reluctant to let just anybody get in there and start
typing information into our databases. Sharon (Mainord) and I have
talked about it, and she feels like it’s kind of an albatross hanging
over her head, and has for a long time.”
Cooper went on to add that Mainord’s
recent health issues (surgery, and subsequent recovery time) had
contributed somewhat to the data entry backlog.
“I’ll leave this up to the Board,” Cooper
said. “We haven’t budgeted for that type of work at this point and
time, but I think we can work within our budget if we need to do
something like this. I would love for Sharon to give some input
because it most directly impacts her.”
Mainord said that getting a part-time
employee, who would do their work on a laptop computer, “would be very
helpful in this situation.”
“If we had a laptop that we could
strictly put the database on,” Mainord said, “we could download it
into the main-frame, which is my computer, once it’s done. The problem
with it now, is that it’s all on my computer. If there’s any work that
has to be done on the computer, we cannot get someone in there and it
be very efficient, because there’s nothing else for them to be working
on at the time.”
After a bit more information from Mainord,
including how long the part-time position would be necessary
(approximately six months), and the particulars about how the data is
routinely backed-up, Director Ed Dittfurth said, “I would like to see
us purchase a good laptop, to increase the efficiency of the office.”
Dittfurth then briefly discussed ways the
part-time person might be useful, before adding, “We have a whole list
of things that have to be done, but the responsibilities of the office
are ever increasing and so this (data entry) always gets pushed to the
back. And there’s going to be a day when we’re called upon to answer
questions about why we’re making certain decisions, and we can’t share
that without poring over hours and hours of the manual files. But if
we had that entered, we could run reports and do some things, and I
think it could be set up to meet the objectives of the District once
we get that data in there. Without that data in there, it’s like
steering in the dark.”
Dittfurth went on to say that the data
entry should be a priority, and talked briefly about the possibility
of getting interns from the hydrology department from Tarleton
involved, before eventually saying, “I would encourage my fellow Board
members to get a motion on the table and let us get this done.”
After still more discussion, during which
it was noted that overtime pay had already been budgeted for Mainord
and that those funds would be available for part-time help, Board
members voted to hire a part-time employee for data entry, with the
position to last approximately six months.
In other business, Directors:
• Approved the annual lease renewal, at
$750 per month, for the MTGCD Erath County Office at Town and Country
Bank in Stephenville.
• Approved the annual lease renewal at
$300 per month, up from $275, for the Comanche County office at 107 S.
Austin in Comanche.
• Approved payment of the bills.
• Reviewed the Income/Expense Comparison
report in which Cooper noted that the District is balanced as far as
total expenditures. He then noted that the District ended the year at
72 percent of the budget.
• Approved entering into an Interlocal
Agreement between member Districts of Groundwater Management Area #8.
The former agreement expired at the end of September 2007.
• Approved the payment of a pro-rata
share of expenses associated with a revised contract with hydrology
firm Turner, Collie and Braden, for additional work performed for
Groundwater Management Area #8.
• Agreed to look elsewhere for a future
building site (or building) after learning that Erath County will not
sell property located near the Erath County Courthouse Annex in
Dublin.
• Reviewed the Quarterly Financial Report
on Investment of Public Funds.
• Approved a resolution to confirm the
annual review and the continuance of the MTGCD investment policy.
Cooper noted that the resolution and related investment information
was available for the public to review, and anyone interested in doing
so, should contact his office.
• Tabled an agenda item related to the
adoption of an amendment to the District’s Personnel Policy regarding
time off for special or extenuating circumstances, pending review by
the district’s legal counsel.
• Reviewed the annual report on the
attainment of management plan objectives for 2007, in which Cooper
noted that “they were all 100 percent” except “public talks” which was
300 percent, 1,200 percent on well plugging, and 200 percent on
District attendance at Brazos G River Authority planning meetings.
“All objectives were met or exceeded,”
Cooper said.
During his report on the Quarterly
Drought Assessment, Cooper noted that the Palmer Drought Severity
Index showed “very wet conditions” and the National Oceanic
Atmospheric Association (NOAA) report indicated there are no drought
conditions expected at least through March of 2008 for our area.
Prior to the regular meeting, one well
operating permit was approved during a brief permit hearing. |
