Colorado Association of Stormwater and Floodplain Managers
GENERAL MEETING MINUTES

Held at URS Offices, Glenwood Springs
May 1, 2009
 

 

Meeting Attendees

Officers:

            Chair – Kevin Houck, Colorado Water Conservation Board

            Vice Chair – David Mallory, UDFCD

            Secretary – Robert Krehbiel, Matrix Design Group

            Treasurer – Shea Thomas, UDFCD

            Metro Regional Rep. – Deb Ohlinger, Olsson Associates

           

Committee Chairs:

Dave Bennetts, UDFCD – Conference Program

Ken MacKenzie, UDFCD – Outreach

Stuart Gardner, CDOT - Website

 

Members:

Georgia Simpson, City of Arvada

John Sikora, URS

Eric Mende, 5-2-1 Drainage Authority

Betsy Suerth, Town of Silt

Jeff Simonson, SGM

David Kotz, SGM

Craig Ullmann, Applegate Group

Jim Hancock, Town of Gypsum

Gale Carmoney, Town of Silt

Brian Murphy, CDM

 

 

The following is a summary of the interactions, comments and items discussed. While this summary is not intended to represent a complete or comprehensive account of the meeting, it is intended to reflect the salient points raised and issues for further consideration. Should the attendees believe that anything might be misrepresented or misleading, please bring this to the attention of Robert Krehbiel, CASFM Secretary.

 

1)      Secretary Report

The minutes for the March 19, 2009 general meeting were distributed. A few typographical errors were noted. The minutes as amended were approved by a motion and vote.  A quorum of officers and regional representatives was present. 

 

2)      Treasurer Report

Account balances and expenditures were reviewed.  Savings account holds $20,945.01 and the checking account holds $41,937.83. To-date, expenditures for 2009 have been $6,476.73 while the annual budget remaining is $135,598.27. The Treasurer Report was approved by a motion and a vote.  The CASFM tax return is due May 15 and is being worked on.


 

3)      Regional Representatives’ Reports

a)   Denver Metro – Deb Ohlinger reported on the last social on April 14 at Rock Bottom Brewery (north of Park Meadows Mall). Mark Glidden and Alan Taylor discussed South Boulder Creek. The next social is June 10 at Chad’s near 6th & Union in Lakewood. Brian Murphy is the guest speaker and will be discussing arid region hydrology in Jordon near the Red Sea. Options were discussed for the August social that could be held at the Morrison Inn to hear about flood hazard preparedness on Bear Creek. The December social may include a presentation by Tom Browning on Chatfield Reservoir.

b)   Northeast – Brian Varella is looking for a site for a field trip in late summer.

c)   Southeast – Liz Staten had nothing to report.

d)   Northwest – John Kornfeld had nothing to report.

e)   Southwest – Victoria Schmitt had nothing to report.

 

4)           Committee Reports

a)   Floodplain/CFM – UDFCD held a review and exam April 1 & 2 and had 15 people take the CFM exam. The next CFM exam is May 27 and 28 in Longmont. The next CASFM CFM exam will be at the conference September 16. The format for the review course has been recently modified and a discussion was held about the change. There are over 315 CFM in Colorado now. An Elevation Certificate workshop was held April 30th (see CRS below). 

b)   Stormwater Quality – A field trip is scheduled for June 16th to visit stormwater BMPs around the southeast metro area. Contech will be buying lunch at the stop in Greenwood Village. The participation fee is $25 to cover the cost of the bus. The bus will meet at the Urban Drainage District. RSVP is needed due to limited bus space.

c)   Outreach – Brandon Luster, HDR, is revamping the CASFM brochure and a DRAFT copy was distributed for comment. The next step is to email the brochure to the general membership for comment. This new brochure will be distributed in June at the CML conference in Vail. Ken Cecil may be the CASFM representative at the CML conference. CASFM should attend to educate elected officials on stormwater and floodplain issues. There is an opportunity to develop an education and training session at CML. It may be effective to present at next year’s conference. Annual dues are $600 for CML.

The APA (Americal Planning Association) conference held in Estes Park will be held on October 7. CASFM’s outreach committee has been invited to conduct a 2 ½ hour workshop session on stormwater from 1:00 to 5:15 to educate planners about stormwater. In turn, APA will put on a session for CASFM in Estes Park. Alternatively, APA could be invited to the CASFM annual conference if there is facility room.

d)   Scholarship – Walt Pennington was not available to report. The group assumed that interviews have been conducted with the scholarship applicants.

e)   Membership – Kevin Gingery reported via email that CASFM has 670 active members so far in 2009.  As of the end of March, those that have not renewed their membership have been removed from the mailing list.


 

f)    Training – 115 responded to the short training survey. Below are the top 6 topics of interest for training:

(1)   Stormwater Quality Hydrology

(2)   LID – design of bioretention, filtration and infiltration

(3)   Hydrologic methods

(4)   Ecological stream restoration

(5)   Project permitting

(6)   CLOMR/LOMR FEMA submittals

 

At least 10 people must attend to make the training worthwhile. There is a shift from 3-day courses to 1 or 2 day classes. CASFM could host a 1 day training session on Tuesday immediately prior to the conference.

The proposed “Barstool Series” is a short course, a couple hours in length, followed by a social. These could be combined with regional socials if the representatives would be interested in the concept, especially for the socials outside of the Metro area. Fees for attending the training courses will be around $30. Continuing education credits are being applied for from ASFPM. Bill DeGroot may present at the first session on the MIP (Map Information Platform). A meeting will be held next week by the training committee to discuss the barstool series. The first workshop will likely be held in the Metro region. The goal is to eventually carry these around the state to help CFM’s around the state get their credits.

g)   Website – Stuart attended some sessions on Cvent and believes this will help on conference registration. It may not be worth it for low cost (<$25) workshop registration. We will try it for the conference first and then may apply it to training registration.

h)   Community Rating System – An elevation certificate workshop was held in Aurora April 30th and had 80 attend. The next CRS workshop will in Grand Junction on June 30.

 

5)      Newsletter Update

David Mallory is putting together the newsletter and it is out to print. A draft copy will be circulated next week among the officers.

David will be attending the ASFPM conference June 10. He will also be attending the chapter meetings and will share relevant information to CASFM.

David Mallory circulated draft letterhead with the 20th year anniversary logo. A WORD template will be developed for use. The four officers will be shown with their contact information on the bottom or left side. The website will also be listed on the letterhead.

 

6)      2009 Conference

The conference will be September 16-18 in Crested Butte and will be the 20th Anniversary of the Conference.

Calendars could be distributed at the conference. They could include pictures of past Grand Award winning projects or simply good drainage and floodplain photographs. David Mallory is researching calendar options to compile the photographs. Out contract newsletter editor may prepare and publish the calendar.

Dave Bennetts has investigated possible speakers. Potential Keynote Speakers are Gerry Galloway or Mike Grimm.

The Plenary Session theme looking back may include 4 previous Grand Award winners showcasing slides of their projects now. Each speaker would get 15 minutes, and 30 minutes would remain for a question and answer period.

 

Robert Krehbiel reported that 44 paper abstracts have been received by the April 30 cutoff date. To avoid rushing the speakers, only 36 presentations will be accepted this year. Mallory, Shea and Bennetts will help with selection process. There was a discussion about offering a poster session during the social hours for those technical papers that could not be fit into the regular technical session.

There was a general discussion about the Friday field trips. We will hold to the format developed last year and not offer technical presentations on Friday. Potential Field Trips may include:

-          Rich Ommert – Bike tour and trail restoration work.

-          Chris Butler – Boat tour

-          Alan Taylor – Fly fishing clinic

-          (Available) - Walking Tour of the History of Crested Butte

-          Chris Pletcher - Adventure (Horse or ATV)

-          John Sikora – URS has a mine reclamation project in Gothic.

 

Tuesday could be an opportunity for two workshops by the Training Committee as well as the CFM review course workshop. CASFM could charge for workshops to cover speaker registration.

Kevin Houck would like to have 30 minutes at the opening for remarks.

 

7)      Elections

The call for nominations will be sent out via email the end of May. Kevin Houck will not be running next year and will organize the election.

 

8)      Other Business

Craig Fugate is seeking letters of nomination for confirmation for Federal Insurance Administrator or the head Mitigation Manager. He is currently, Director, Florida Division of Emergency Management. CASFM could support the nomination.

Based upon the attendance of 18 CASFM members at this meeting, Glenwood Springs appeared to be a popular location for future west slope general meetings.

Stuart is researching and negotiating terms for a contract with Snowmass for the 2010 annual conference.

 

 

 

 

home