BOARD02241

• Board Meeting Date: 12/9/1954
• Description: Minutes
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

484

The gist of the action taken by the Colorado Water Conserva-~
ti6n Board was that the advertising campaign should be
carried on within the financial limits of the Upper
Colorado River Commission budget. As a result, the I.
Commission itself had a meeting that same day and it was
unanimously desired to follow the recommendations of the
Colorado Water Conservation Board. The Commission
adopted a policy,consisting of two major points:
(1' That an educational program should be carried. on for,
the purpose of bringing about a little better understanding
not 9nly with the public but particularly with the
Congressmen concerning the merits of the Upper Colorado .
River Storage ~roject Bill and to that end; they appropri~ted
$25,000 for the purpose of carrying. on that type of an
educational program. They were to establish offices in
Washington..apd to enlarge their staff to the extent
permitted by the amount appropriated. '(2) That there
should be se~ed a Grass Roots Committee, consisting of
individuals in the respective states who could work with
the Commission in order to give them the benefit of their
ideas and training for the purpose of determining the best
way of carrying out this edw::ationaL' program because.
obviously the Commissioners themselves are not publicity
men. The Commissioners in the Upper Basin States were
authorized in that, action to designate the Grass Roots
Committees in the respective States. As a result, upon
my return to my home in Gunnison, I went over a list
which I thought was in keeping with the direction of the
Commission. Both the Director and theGovernor approved
the list without any changes. We wrote to all of the
members of the suggested Grass Roots Committee and with
very, very few exceptions, they voluntarily agreed to
participate, to give up their time and effort to this
program, for which, I might say, Mr. Chairman, we are
extremely grateful, There was another meeting of the
Commission on the 30th of October, at which time we went
a little more in detail into the type of program that
should be carried on and who was to carry the program on.

"At that time, the Secretary of the Upper Colorado
River Commission was designated to carry out the wishes '
of the Commission and to try to expedite this program. 1-
We also determined at that time that it was necessary to
appropriate more money than we had previously appropriated
and, to that end, we appropriated an additional amount of
money, making the total amount $39,000 from the funds of
the Upper Colorado River Commission which will be used to
expedite passage of this Bill in Washington. There was a