Minutes of the Board of Trustees – Wednesday, May 14, 2008.
Present: President, Bruce Myers; Secretary, Belen Gomez; Evan Long, Bette George and Harold Dozier.
Staff: Manager, Michael Alburn.
It was moved by Harold Dozier, seconded by Belen Gomez, and unanimously carried that the Minutes of the April meeting be approved as mailed.
Following discussion, it was moved by Belen Gomez, seconded by Harold Dozier and unanimously carried that the April Bills be approved and ordered paid with the exception of item 21687 which was a duplicate that had been voided. See: Board Order to disburse funds No. 23, Exhibit I.
It was moved by Bette George, seconded by Harold Dozier and unanimously carried that the May Payroll be approved and ordered paid. See: Board Order to disburse funds No. 24, Exhibit II.
None.
The Manager reported on the following items of operational interest:
Mr. Rico Ball has declined the offer of employment due to family concerns. He appreciated the opportunity but felt it was not the best move for him at this time.
Tulare County LAFCo to form steering committee for Eastern Tulare County Mosquito Abatement, nominations to be made in the near future.
The Manager will be on call for Federal Jury Duty effective May 15.
Parking lot to be repaved over Memorial Day weekend.
The last two house mosquito program workers to come on board May 19. This will bring the total for the program to seven VC Tech I’s.
Currently the lab is running with no additional helpers, Michelle and Katherine (6/9) will arrive just in time. Chad Ellis took another position in the community, May 2.
Sheri completed work at Kings MAD. May 1st was the last time we supplied support in person; phone assistance will be available from time to time.
House Mosquito program in the Visalia Times-Delta front page above the fold today.
Channel 26 will provide coverage tonight.
A check for $557.98 was received from a class action suit against Microsoft.
The Manager reported that 68 dead birds have been reported to date of which 19 have been submitted with 16 reporting negative and 3 still pending.
No mosquitoes, sentinel chickens, equine, or humans have been identified positive for WNv to date.
The Board unanimously authorized the application to the Director of Industrial Relations, State of California for a certificate of consent to self-insure workers’ compensation liabilities. Ms. Kim Ramsey, Notary, witnessed the signing per directive written for the application.
Contact was made with Aerial Services to learn the costs for aerial surveillance of swimming pools as previously reported at last month’s regular meeting. At the time of contact we were told of an opportunity to share ferry costs with Kern MVCD, which would reduce the rate from approximately $3,300 to $2,770. The Manager contacted Bruce Myers, President and sought permission to have the flight ordered even though the activity was not part of the approved budget. After discussion, Bruce agreed with the Managers recommendation as being satisfactory for board approval at the next meeting and authorized the work. Dinuba 10; Exeter 10; Farmersville 7.5 and Visalia 25 square miles were photographed.
The house mosquito program has been tremendously helped with the photos as we have located an incredible number of backyard pools in need of treatment. We do not anticipate another flight, as conditions should not change so much that we would learn of a significant number we do not already know of.
The District will employ a new strategy now that we have such an inclusive list of pools. Beginning the last week of May through the first week of July we will use Altosid 150 day briquettes to treat pools. This will render each pool treated as secured for the remainder of the summer. Effectively reducing our pool list to zero. Following this period, we will again treat pools called in and not from the secured list with Agnique, a surface film, for the remainder of the year. ForclosureRadar.com will be used to identify new foreclosures that come along so we maintain a handle of the swelling list of these properties. We anticipate that we will not reach levels of inventory that will require extending the reinspection times so much that the mosquitoes get away from our ability to control them.
Wellmark International is interested in our work so Yolanda’s lab will perform extensive trapping in the area of these pools we are calling secure and will report the results at the MVCAC conference in a paper. It is quite possible that Wellmark will assist in her attending the AMCA conference for the presentation of the paper provided the data is sufficiently put together. We are developing the data collection methodology with assistance to come from Wellmark, The Manager will provide further details as we learn the details.
The Manager provided detailed information concerning vehicle classes and models to learn the desire of the Board in determining the style of automobile to replace the 1991 Cutlass Supreme. The Board indicated it was willing to consider a vehicle from Toyota, Honda, Nissan or other similar ‘foreign’ brand along with the big three automakers.
The meeting adjourned at 8:15 p.m.
Board Minutes approved on June 11, 2008.
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Michael W. Alburn, Recording Secretary