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Toledo Bend Bi-State Alliance
Minutes September 23, 2002
The meeting was called to order by Larry Kelly.
J. B. Meyers lead the group in the opening prayer.
Larry Kelly asked members and visitors in attendance to introduce themselves and state where they are from.
Minutes of the August 26, 2002 meeting were approved and accepted as read.
Due to the absence of Janna Lehman and Margene Boudreaux, there was no Treasurer’s Report given.
Old Business:
DETDA Report: Charles English
Several items were addressed at the last DETDA meeting: 1) Lawmakers are opposing the construction of the Marvin Nichols Lake in the Texarkana area because Dallas, who proposed the lake, has not made adequate conservation plans. Charles felt this was a positive sign. 2) Texas Forestry Association is opposing the construction and funding of new lakes in East Texas that would take away the forests and the associated jobs. 3) Charles read an article about “Who Has Water Priority?”. After four years Texas water regulators are still unsure whether municipal water users or non-native fish are more deserving of the water stored in Canyon Lake north of San Antonio. The TNRCC has recently deferred a decision on a request from the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority to increase the diversion of water from 50,000 to 90,000 AF/Year. The State Office of Administrative Hearings has been asked to determine if a fishery below Canyon Lake Dam would be adversely affected.
4) The Mississippi Director of Retirement, Diane O’Toole, will be speaking at the September 27th meeting for DETDA’s Economic Development Retirees Committee. Larry asked Charles to remind the group of the date and time in December when the meeting will be held where all the legislators are present. Cards were distributed for Robin Moore, a candidate running against Wayne Christian. Stan Verret said he talked with her about 30 minutes, and she knows nothing about our organization. Larry will try to reach her about attending one of our meetings. Also, Newton County will have a new candidate running for Ron Lewis’ position, and a new Senator candidate.
East Texas Regional Water Planning Committee Report: Bill Heugel
There was no meeting this month, but Bill received a letter from the National Wildlife Federation and Sierra Club complaining about the water planning done last year, and suggested better conservation ways instead of building reservoirs. They applauded San Antonio for doing the best job of planning for conservation. Larry asked about getting a copy of the letter.
Charles English brought to the attention of the group another meeting of interest. DETCOG, East Texas Council of Government, and the Southeast Texas Regional Planning Commission are sponsoring a 2-Day summit on Regionalism. The “Regionalism is Focus for October Meeting” will feature speakers U.S. Senator Kay B. Hutchinson, TX Governor Rick Perry, U.S. Congressmen Jim Turner, Nick Lampson, Mike Sandlin, State Senators David Bernsen, David Cain, and Todd Staples.
Some 15 counties and 56 cities have been invited to the meeting. Charles has offered to call about an invitation to attend.
The meeting will be held in Nacogdoches on October 20th -22nd. Larry noted that copies of the letters to the FERC have been sent to several of the legislators and at least their staff members are aware of our requests for their support in our efforts.
New Business:
Lake Level: Larry Kelly
FERC- The Letter Writing Campaign has progressed with about 2000 letters being posted on the FERC website. To view the letters, go to the new FERIS site, on the first page go to sub-section, click on “Search”, click on “Hydro”, type in P-2305 and put 200 hits on a page. The Citizens Advisory Committee has done a terrific job of getting letters posted regarding the “No Flood Control” for the Toledo Bend Reservoir. Larry’s letter to the FERC included a copy of the Mayhall Report and can be downloaded at the website. The FERC may be getting very close to making a decision, and we now need to be prepared for future plans that will include the legislative sessions coming up in the next year, as well as including Conservation and Ground Water in our goals.
SRA-LA: The Complaint filed by Larry with the Sabine Parish D.A. has not progressed as he had hoped. Interviews with some of the Board members are just now being scheduled. Although the decision cannot be overturned, hopefully this complaint will cause the SRA Board to keep records of the Executive meetings and follow the Open Meeting Law of Louisiana.
SRA-TX: The petitions for scheduling a SRA Board meeting in the Hemphill area are being collected. It was suggested the deadline for turning in the petitions be changed from October 15th to Oct. 28th, the date of our next meeting. That would give folks at the Deer Fest on October 26th time to sign petitions. Larry agreed to that change and will talk with Joe Goodson about it.
TBCAC Guests: Diane Lampman of the Toledo Bend Citizens Advisory Committee addressed the TBBSA group, explaining the goals of the organization and inviting members to join their group. She passed out membership applications and invited new members to a Fish Fry at the Lions Club on Hwy 191 near Toledo Town on November 9th at 1:00 p.m.
The new TBCAC with membership totaling 706 is also planning to request membership in TBBSA. Jim Sparks of TBCAC said they would like to see the same type organization started in Texas. Don Driscoll noted the membership application did not specify any particular state represented, so it would seem Texans could join their organization. The TBCAC members agreed.
Approval of New Members: TBCAC membership pending.
Approve Payment of Outstanding Bills: Reimbursement to Larry Kelly for postage and printing supplies was approved.
Next Meeting Date: October 28, 2002
The next meeting of the LA- SRA Board of Directors was reported to be Wednesday, Sept. 25th at 1:00 p.m.
Meeting Adjourned
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