July 2009 Minutes

Minutes for Friends of Sugar Creek July Board Meeting

The July Board Meeting convened at 7 p.m.. on Tuesday, July 7th. Present were Christie Byun, Zach Cain, Marc Hudson, Nate Mullendore, Jim Suren, Beth Swift, and Paul Vasquez.

Old Business

We reviewed recent events, with Nate reporting on his perceptions. Forty three people in ten boats took part in the family float trip in June, which was co-sponsored with NICHES.

Our booth at the Strawberry Festival, shared with the C’ville Parks folk, drew a fair amount of interest. At that booth and our upcoming booth at the County Fair, we are focusing on the fishing in the creek and the fish advisory—to make sure people know what it means and why we have an advisory.

We talked about securing the rights to use illustrations for the fish advisory chart that Nate is preparing. At the Festival folks expressed curiosity about the places where a canoe could be put in—we agreed it would be a good idea to have a hand-out with a list of access points.

Jim thought more detail with mileage figures would be helpful. We discussed the Darlington access point and how more signage there would be helpful. We agreed we should communicate via e-mail to come up with a list of agreed upon access points.

Nate reported on the newsletter which he was working on to finish soon. He would like to get the newsletter to the printers so we could have a folding party on Tuesday evening, July 21st to prepare the next issue for mailing.

Nate reported on the spring/early summer fund drive: a total of $2,466 had thus far been received. He spoke about expectations of Board Members to contribute to our fund raising efforts, and there was a consensus that this was a good idea with members contributing whatever they felt comfortable with. (Earlier, Nate had passed around a hand-out from NICHES about expectations of board members.)

We planned for manning the FSC booth during the County Fair between the 17th and the 24th of July. We agreed it was especially important to cover the week-ends and the evenings, times when attendance is largest. We will be sharing a booth this year with other conservation-related groups, such as the drainage board and Pheasants Forever. We agreed it would be a good idea to raffle off a canoe. We discussed getting a canoe from Clements at cost and wondered if Clements might donate a canoe.

Nate reported on the Nature Park. $24,000 has been received, with Vectren contributing $4,500, with the possibility of contributing more. We discussed the possibility of having the new Nature Park named after Dick Ristine who was such a staunch Friend of Sugar Creek. Zach felt that the Park was too far along, and there might be other drawbacks to naming the park after him. It might be better to work on a future project (another reserve along the Creek?) with the thought of Dick Ristine and his memory in mind. Zach agreed to talk with family to see if they had any ideas of how his memory might be honored. Nate mentioned that Gus Nyberg would like to sit down with us to discuss the common goals of NICHES and FSC. Nate has also been in conversation with the Central Indian Land Trust.

The company in Utah that is doing the Interpretive Signs has not yet finished their work—the designer hadn’t yet reported to the company’s president. At the same time, we are under the gun and need to spend our grant money from the MCCF. Nate will call right away.

New Business

Marc brought up the idea that he and Jim had earlier talked about of having a tour of the creek—by van and/or canoe for board members to share knowledge of the creek, its natural history, and land use issues. There seemed to be some energy for doing this in late October/early November when the leaves are down.

We also discussed the possibility of talking with Cat Burkhart about developing a Sugar Creek exhibit at the Carnegie Museum. Beth will talk with her.

Someone asked about putting signs on the bridges; from a safety perspective it would be a good idea.

Zach reported on a new large-scale hog operation which is being permitted near Sugar Creek in Boone County. Zach (or Nate) will look into and get more information about the operation.

We briefly discussed doing some collaborative outings/projects with other area environmental organization—for instance, with Sycamore Trails (Resource Conservation and Development Council). Paul announced that he has been appointed to the storm water board.

Zach suggested that we review our goals and objectives as an organization.

The meeting adjourned at 8:45.

--Respectfully submitted by Marc Hudson, Secretary to the FSC Board