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Toledo Bend BI State Alliance
Meeting Minutes
August 28, 2000
The meeting was opened by Larry Kelly.
Maurice Patterson lead the group in prayer.
The meeting minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved as read.
The treasurers report was presented. Current balance is $2077.96. There are 24 paid organizations and 19 paid associates. A motion was made, seconded and approved to accept the report as read.
East Texas Regional Water Planning Group Report.
The draft of the final report has been completed. A copy of the draft is in the Sabine County Clerks office and at the Pineland Library. Public meetings are scheduled for September 26th in Tyler at 6PM at the Holiday Inn Southeast Crossing, September 27th at the Holiday Inn in Nacogdoches at 6PM, and September 28th in Beaumont at the Beaumont Hilton at 6PM. The public will be given the opportunity to make comments about the report at these meetings. This is the opportunity to make the recreation side of the issue heard. At this point no consideration is given to recreation in the development of strategies. The only new reservoir the group considered as a primary strategy was Lake Eastex which is planned for Cherokee county.
DETDA Report
The DETDA meeting scheduled for October 13 will be held at the Crown Colony Country Club in Lufkin. The meeting will focus on education.
Jim Hull of the Texas Forest Service recommended that a means to track the economics of the Texas forests is essential. At this time no such capability exists.
A report on ground water is available from the Texas Forest Industries Council, box 1647, Lufkin, Texas 75902 or by calling 936-634-7444. The report issued by the Texas House Research Organization concludes that the days of relative plenty when an entity could drill a well or build a nearby lake to meet its needs have mostly passed.
The Sabine River Authority of Texas and the U. S. Forest Service have signed an agreement for the SRA to take over operations and maintenance of six USFS parks on the Texas shoreline of Toledo Bend. The parks include Haley's Ferry, Ragtown, Patroon, Indian Mounds, Lakeview, and Willow Oak.
Lake Level Project
Larry Kelly attended a meeting of the SRALA The representative from Entergy was there and made a presentation indicating that they were willing to renegotiate their contract with the SRAs. Also presented was a plan to have Highway I 69 go through Logansport where a recreational area would be developed adjacent to Toledo Bend. The SRALA was supportive of the effort and the presenter indicated that the SRATX was also very interested. Also during the discussions it was pointed out that in 1999 700,000 bass fingerlings had been introduced into the lake.
SRA of LA is planning to build a hatchery to provide additional fish. The funding of this hatchery is included in their existing bond issues.
It appears that the new board is working in the directions which are supportive of recreation and economic development.
The FERC sent a letter to the SRAs to indicate to them how the meetings with the stake holders should be conducted. The FERC letter was in response to the TBBSA letter expressing dissatisfaction with the approach that had been presented by the SRAs. The new approach requires an initial public meeting, The following meetings are to have representatives from each of the interested stakeholders attend. The final comment in the letter was a reminder that lacking mutual agreement the FERC has the right to exercise its authority to direct the SRAs to operate the lake in a specific manner.
A discussion was held about the Atlanta Office Meeting on the Emergency Action Plan. Notification of the public was inadequate. Because of the poor notification the public could not attend. As a result a letter was prepared indicating that a public meeting on the subject is necessary to present the purpose of the Emergency Action Plan. The SRAs were told to prepare a modification to the plan by November 1 2000 and to conduct a functional test by Dec 31, 2000. The SRAs sent a letter back indicating that due to 30 lawsuits pending they could not have meetings now. Part of the plan is to install a NOAA weather station to get information from the agency.
Larry again stressed the need to prepare our case and to get ready for the next legislative session. A group headed by Larry will begin planning and rewriting suggestions for modification of the lake level legislation. The first meeting of the group will be Sept 6, at 2pm at the Toledo Bend Community Club building at the south end of the lake.
The SRALA will have a workshop in Baton Rouge in October. It was moved, seconded and approved that Larry Kelly be funded up to $400. To attend the meetings.
The Chamber of Commerce of Sabine County is sponsoring a DeerFest October 28 at the Youth Center next to the VFW. It may be possible for the TBBSA to have a booth there to acquaint people with the purpose of the organization. Harry Johnson will check on this.
Highland Lakes Group is an organization in the Austin area which is also trying to encourage management of lake resources to encourage recreation. They have expressed a willingness to explore the possibility of mutual interest. One of their representatives may be coming to East Texas in the near future. They have a website at WWW. HLGRP.org.
The River Keepers organization is interested in joining the TBBSA. They are interested in working on cleaning up our streams and rivers.
The motion was made seconded and approved that the meeting be adjourned.
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