A. Water Conservation Notifications: With the drought conditions in Oregon and the need to conserve water, the District is asking the Arch Cape community to refrain from activities such as watering lawns and washing cars.

As water conservation status changes, it would be great to be able to notify rate payers immediately and directly. To do that we need your email address.

Please click here to send Teri Fladstol an email asking her to add you to the District’s email distribution list — and this list will only be used for District business.

B. Proposed Updated Policy: Clarifying ratepayer responsibility for excess water consumption from leak: The existing leak policy, dating from February of 2017, does not set clear expectations for if / when / how much ratepayers will be charged for excess water consumption in the case of a leak.  This proposed updated policy provides standard and consistent guidance and encourages ratepayers to fix a leak as soon as possible after they become aware of / are notified by the District.

Please provide any comments on this proposed updated Leak Policy by clicking here to send your comments in an email.

C. Deferred Maintenance – Asbury Creek 2nd Pump Installed: During the summer months, our drinking water is pumped out of Asbury creek. The system is designed for 2 pumps to share that workload. However, since one of the pumps broke 6-7 years ago, the system has been operating with only one pump. Matt ordered a new pump and he and Logan installed it.

A. Extensive Road Work Assessment: The extensive network of roads that criss-cross the Watershed need signifiant engineering work to ensure safety, access for fire protection and to protect the quality of our drinking water. Ben Hayes, our Forester, has completed a thorough analysis of what needs to be done to each / all of the roads. The Forest Management Committee is reviewing Ben’s report. The next step is for a roads engineer to confirm the engineering requirements, bid out the work and oversee its completion over the next couple of years. A Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Roads Contract Manager has been drafted and approved by the Board and will be funded by the ARPA grant to the District. The RFP will be distributed to interested firms/people.

B. Project Management: The District received over $5 million of federal grants to purchase the Watershed, to develop a series of plans, policies and protocols for managing it, to determine how to pay for its ongoing operations and to fix the roads. In addition to doing all this work, the District is obligated to provide ongoing status and financial reports to the grantor organizations. To date, the management of these activities has been spread across at least four people. Some of the requisite activities have fallen through the cracks. Moving forward, these management responsibilities will ideally be consolidated under a single project manager. A Request for Proposal (RFP) for that Project Manager has been drafted and approved by the board and will be funded by the ARPA grant to the District. The RFP will be distributed to interested firms/people.

C. Financial Plan: The Finance Committee, in concert with the Forest Management Committee, has begun the work to update the 2 year old long-range financial plan. Given the significant change in the economy, this plan will reflect more realistic assumptions about Watershed operational costs and likely revenue streams. In addition, the Finance Committee is modeling alternative funding scenarios for review and consideration by the community prior to making recommendations to the Board. The current intent is to have a preliminary set of materials for review by the community towards the end of September.

D. Public Access & Recreation Policy: The community survey closes on Friday August 18th. Results will be compiled and distributed to the community. These results will form the basis of a Public Access & Recreation Policy which will be considered, refined and approved by the Board at their September or October meeting. The policy will then be submitted to the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) per our contractual requirement with the Forest Legacy Program (which granted us $3.5 million for the purchase of the Watershed).

E. Relationship with NCLC: Discussion / Understanding between Tevis Dooley (Water District Board member) – Jon Wickersham (NCLC)

1. Usage of Roads: NCLC anticipates that their primary use of Arch Cape Watershed property roads will be the most direct access pathway from the from the Hug Point entry gate to NCLC’s Rainforest Reserve. Access across the other Arch Cape Watershed property roads was specified in the easement in case the most direct access roads become impassable for whatever reason.

Usage of the roads will be for research in the Reserve along with property monitoring, maintenance, and use by contractors. e.g., for thinning.  NCLC does not plan nor foresee any reason for NCLC visitors or contractors to stop or park on the Arch Cape Watershed property or roads.  

2. Monitoring road use to determine sharing of maintenance costs. The easement granted to NCLC (article 7 below) calls for an allocation of roads maintenance costs based upon the respective use of the roads by NCLC and Arch Cape Water District.

Currently there is an established protocol for managing key access by NCLC and all landowners adjoining the Arch Cape Watershed property.  However, as yet there is no system in place for recording vehicular usage of the Arch Cape Watershed property roads. Tracking of usage by all vehicles (NCLC, Arch Cape and others) and pedestrians via camera or other process that isn’t cumbersome to NCLC would be reasonable to do.

3. Logging. At the current time, there are no plans for logging of NCLC’s Rainforest Reserve. Pre-commercial thinning is ongoing.

4. Public access and trails:  NCLC has no plans to link Neahkahnie, Oswald West, Angora and Onion Peak with established trails and they have no plans to advertise/encourage use of the Rainforest Reserve by the public.

5. Invasive species mitigation. NCLC would prefer not to use herbicides within the Rainforest Reserve but they are not opposed to doing so.