BOARD00191

• Board Meeting Date: 3/21/2002
• Description: WSP Section - Agricultural Water Policy Discussion
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

, ,

DRAFT

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46

Harold Miskel- I know we need some time to discuss and deliberate among ourselves.
How many people want to address us now? Four? We probably need to be seeking more
input from people that are not here,

.

Eric Wilkinson. - This is a significant issue that ~e are discussing, We have meetings
scheduled in May in Sterling and Gunnison in July, It might be beneficial to have
additional workshop so people in those regions can come in and give public input.
Perhaps it would be good to have meetings with other Boards, Also, we meet in Alamosa
in September,

Ray Wright - I'm not sure if a hard and fast policy is going to come out of this, I'm not
sure we were involved enough with growth or th~ Governor's open space issue, This
bothers me, because through that whole process Ag was considered a valuable amenity,
rather than in its own right. Some of these presentations today were great. I like the
technology that puts the information into an understandable perspective, We have been
unduly absent from some of these discussions that would help the decisionmakers
evaluate what they're doing. We should be at the table when these discussions are
occumng.

Harold Miskel- what do you want to do? Go tQ public comment, have the staff put
together information, take more time with this, 2!or 3 meetings?

Don Schwindt - I think a summary of the information would be helpful, but how can
this Board be useful in making policy? Setting Ag loan rates, is one. Oppose changes in
Ag right? We need more discussion, These are good ideas, what else should we
consider, in the policy statement? Policy might be a structured process on deciding
where we want to go, I think we can still come to agreement. We can identify 4 or 5
broad areas, then go into specifics, Staff needs to get some kind of direction on how to
, I
bulld on these words,

.

Greg Hoskin - This is a huge discussion, We lfeed to undertake it within the statutory
responsibilities of what our Board does.

Harold Miskel- a lot of what we heard today falls outside our authority. Most of it is
growth management. But growth management i,hvolves water,
!
Rod Kuharich - This is a huge issue, There ar~ many areas in which we need direction
from the Board, In some areas we feel comfort~ble in suggesting policy because it was
us vs, them, Now its us v us, that's why we felt We needed direction from the Board.

Harold Miskel- Staff, tell me, Rod, Dan, how do you see us proceeding from here?

Rod Kuharich - we can certainly scribe the key points made, comments, and categorize
them into space issues, growth, land use, and fo~us on Ag and water issues, Hopefully
we can filter the others as side issues after we'vb dealt with water policy.

.

16