02-27-10 Meeting Minutes

The following minutes summarize a meeting held February 27, 2010 where we learned that there already exists a Flood Control Zone District for Lewis County. The district may be the way to address the mitigation needs of the Upper Cowlitz.
Gary McCarty

___________________

CMZ MEETING

February 27, 2010

Attendees:
Roger Johnson; Meagen Johnson; Lenny LeSarge; Mike Claus; John Anderson; Lee Grose; Gary McCarty

The meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) was called on short notice and many of the members of the committee were unable to attend. Another meeting will be scheduled in a couple of weeks.

FLOOD CONTROL ZONE DISTRICT – Lee Grose opened the meeting by explaining that a Flood Control Zone District (FCZD) already exists in Lewis County. Lee and the other commissioners were unaware of the FCZD which had been formed in August of 1997. It was intended to address problems with the Chehalis, Cowlitz and some other Lewis County rivers. This has the potential address the mitigation efforts on the upper Cowlitz.

The FCDZ was intended to operate as follows:

• A Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) is formed consisting of:
• Fifteen people from around the County.
• Non-voting representatives from:
• Chehalis, Centralia, Toledo, Winlock, Mossyrock, Vader, Morton, Pe Ell, and Napavine
• Non-voting County staff members
• The Director of Public Service
• The County Enginee
• The Flood Control Zone Coordinator
• The committee members gather input from the citizens in their area, assess that input, develop action steps and recommend those actions to the County Flood Control Board, which is actually the Board of County Commissioners acting as a Flood Control Board.
•  The Flood Control Board then makes an official recommendation to the County Commissioners who acting in that capacity makes the final decisions.
•  Funding for the FCDZ is via “Lewis County Flood Control District Fund No. 125. The money that was available for that fund has been spent but the County Commissioners have the ability to authorize taxes to support the FCDZ.
• The FCDZ provides the vehicle to go after grants that would fund mitigation efforts. Most of the potential grants require some seed money.

 NEXT STEPS  

• Lee Grose will further define the scope of the FCDZ and report back at the next CMZ TAC meeting.
• Lee asked the group to provide a list of people willing to serve on the FCDZ Citizens Advisory Committee suggesting that representatives of Timberline, High Valley, Cispus should be represented on that list. Five persons from the Upper Cowlitz would probably be on the CAC.