Attendees:

Douglas McEver, Town of Lansing

Carolyn Grigorov, Town of Ithaca

Sylvia Hurlbut, Town of Ledyard

Sharon Anderson, Alternate, Tompkins County

Daniel M. Winch, Tompkins County

Chuck Howell, Town of Scipio

Bill Dugan III, Supervisor, Town of Ledyard

David Morehouse, Town of Ledyard

George Kennedy, Town of Ulysses

Deb Grantham, Town of Dryden

Karin Harjes, EPPOC

The meeting was called to order at 7:10 PM at the Town of Ledyard town hall.

Motion by Dave Morehouse and seconded by George Kennedy to approve the

minutes from the November and January meetings.

There was much discussion concerning funding for the IO to implement the Restoration and Protection Plan for the Cayuga Lake Watershed. Deb Grantham, the chair of the IO, submitted a grant for implementation of part of the RPP recommendations to the Great Lakes Restoration Program through the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.

Sylvia Hurlbut stressed the need for funding to help bring all municipalities on board to implement the RPP. She suggested sponsoring a brunch or breakfast for all the Legislative representatives in the watershed and invite all the groups or agencies that would be involved with the implementation of the RPP. Sylvia will look into a place and sponsors for the event. Deb will contact a legislator to find the time to schedule this event that would get the most attendance. It was also suggested that we invite the news media to this event.

Financial Report:

Deb Grantham, the chair, gave the financial report of the balance of the IO account-$29,650.80. She had received the $5,000 funding

from the Tompkins County Health Department. We owe Central New York Regional Planning Board,$2500 for the matching funds for Sue Seneca Project. There was discussion concerning the IO members and the dues for the year. Dave Morehouse is concerned that some of the municipalities have not put in funding for this year. Deb said that she would send out vouchers to all the municipalities within the watershed. It was pointed out that Town and Village time frames for their budgets were different. This has not been a problem before.

WorkPlan for implementation of the RPP:

Sylvia Hurlbut presented a beginning workplan for the IO and committees. She pointed out that it was a beginning and very small in

scope. We need to get working on implementing the RPP she pointed out. A lot of money was spent on the RPP and now we need to get busy implementing the Plan.

Technical Committee:

George Kennedy reported on their visit to the NASA RACNE center in Auburn, NY. Deb Grantham had a concern that this group was asking for information and research from us in relation to watersheds, but would only produce information on a large scale for the Owasco Watershed. She has concerns for us doing the research and getting no information for the Cayuga Lake Watershed. Deb also pointed out that a lot of the material that was shown to the group was purchased from a vendor and none appeared to be developed by RACNE. One buys the software and then customizes it for your area. She stressed that if we were to get involved we should get a product for the Cayuga Lake Watershed.

George also reported that a conference on "Monitoring in the

Watershed" is scheduled for March 19, 2002 at Wells College. There will be approximately 12 presentations on "what and where is monitoring within the watershed". There will also be a look at where are the gaps in monitoring within the watershed.

Education Committee:

Karen Harjes, chairman of the education committee, reported that a speaker bureau list has been compiled and they are working on press releases about the watershed activities. Tompkins County league of

women voters would be the first event. She also reported that they are

looking into a "floating classroom" to educate the community and the area school children. She suggested that maybe a college classroom could do some Public Service Announcements for the watershed.

Joint IO/Network:

Deb Grantham, reported on the meeting with the chair of the Network, Janet Hawkes concerning the IO piggy backing with the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network. The discussion ended up with Janet Hawkes requesting Deb do research on several issues. Deb was concerned about putting a lot of time into research while not being sure that the Network Board is interested in the potential merger. Janet Hawkes was concerned about her Board having to re-look at their 5013C classification, given the amount of work it took. Deb did point out that Janet did not distribute the report from Sue Seneca to the Network Board of Directors. Some of the Network's concerns were the liability from the IO to the Network and the independence of both organizations. The Network's treasurer, Bill Shaw, is concerned about the legal ramifications. During meetings with Sue Senecah, the IO heard from Dave Watson who worked with Sue Seneca says there would be no legal difficulties. Dave has been asked to call Bill Shaw and he has not done so yet. Sharon Anderson, Deb Grantham and Sylvia Hurlbut were going to all contact Dave Watson to call Bill Shaw and discuss the legal ramifications of the merger of the two groups. All the above issues were all laid out in Sue Seneca's Report and there may be enough there to get started.

The IO agreed that it is important to have discussions about the joint IO/Network merger in a committee setting and would like the IO representatives from the current Joint IO/Network committee to continue (Chuck Howell, Deb Grantham, Jackie Cassaniti, Dave Morehouse and Sylvia Hurlbut).

Sylvia Hurlbut reported on the February Cayuga County WQMA meeting. Cayuga County is beginning to put together legislation to eliminate "septage " spreading in Cayuga County. The DEC representative from the Cortland area said that Cortland County is looking to do the same legislation. Sylvia pointed out that this is good news for the watershed.

March Meeting: March 27, 2002 in the Ithaca area.

Meeting Adjourned: 9:00 PM

Submitted by: Sylvia Hurlbut