“Effective September 12, 2008, all financial contributions to the Dry Creek Valley Association will be fully tax-deductible”, stated Ed Wilson, President of the Association.  The Board of Directors held their September meeting at Passalaqua Winery on September 11, at which time Ed informed the Board that, once the paperwork was mailed the following day, the Association would immediately qualify for IRS 501(c)(3) status.

Also during this meeting, committee chairs updated the Board on the issues they had been working on during the past month. Some reports were advisory and required no action, and other reports included recommendations that the Board take action.

Planning & Zoning. Charlee Schanzer reported:

• The committee recommended that the DCVA publish on its website all pending applications for business use permits within the Dry Creek Watershed as well as any official action taken thereon by the DCVA. Motion proposed and approved.
• The committee recommended that all existing wineries/tasting rooms in the Valley be listed on the DCVA website along with their use permit parameters. Motion proposed and approved.
• A new use permit application for a proposed winery at 4553 Dry Creek Road has been submitted to the County, but the committee has not yet reviewed this application.

Natural Resources. Judith Olney reported:

• Members of the Clean Water Coalition, including the DCVA, are meeting regularly in order to develop a coordinated challenge to Sonoma County’s proposal for disposing of its wastewater in the valleys of Dry Creek and Russian River.  The Coalition will rebut the County’s position that there are no environmental impacts associated with the disposal of partially treated wastewater on agricultural lands.
• Don Wallace stated that, to date, the public has only read about the benefits associated with the County’s proposed wastewater disposal plan. Randy Poole, spokesman for the Sonoma County Water Agency, has been the only person interviewed about the proposed project, and his glowing presentations make no mention of the potentially negative impacts of the plan.  Don argued that it was high time for the DCVA to publicly criticize the wastewater disposal proposal, and he suggested that it would be appropriate for Fred Corson to do so.  Judith indicated that the Clean Water Coalition has created messages and an Op Ed piece is being prepared and edited for release by Fred Corson. 

• The Coalition expects that the County’s final Environmental Impact Report ( EIR) on the wastewater delivery project will be released in early November.  Once this Report is released, Coalition members will have to act swiftly in order to analyze the Report’s findings and develop a formal response.
• There will be a hearing Tuesday, September 16 in front of the Board of Supervisors to hear Syar Industries’ request to continue gravel mining in the terraces/aquifer along the Russian River despite the fact that the law must be amended to allow continued terrace mining.

Events & Scholarship.

• “A magnificent event” is how Ed described DCVA’s Annual Picnic as he congratulated Yael Bernier and Lisa Henson for coordinating the successful event.
• Marci Cook reported that “almost $1000” was collected for the Scholarship Fund.
• Yael Bernier reported that the final numbers were not yet available, but that the picnic raised approximately $3000.00 from ticket sales.
• Charlee reported that an “End of the Harvest” social is now scheduled for October 17, 2008.  The gathering will be held at Timber Crest Farms.  It will be a joint event with the Winegrowers of Dry Creek.

Governance Procedures

A portion of the Board of Directors Meeting was devoted to procedural matters.  Previously, members had discussed a problem that manifested itself when the Board was forced to take action quickly on a matter that couldn’t be postponed until the next meeting, or when it was impossible to get a quorum of the full Board together for a special meeting.  After some discussion, Board members concluded that a practical solution to this problem would be to create an Executive Committee, which would be empowered to take action on behalf of the Association subject to certain conditions and only when time constraints required it.  The proposed Executive Committee would consist of five members: the current President, two Vice Presidents, the Chair of Natural Resources, and the Chair of Planning and Zoning. In the event that one individual simultaneously held two of these five positions, then a past president of the DCVA would be asked to step in and be the fifth member of the Executive Committee.  Because Charlee Schanzer serves both as Vice-President and Chair of Planning and Zoning, the Board then named Fred Corson (a former DCVA president) to serve on the new Executive Committee. The Board also created the new position of Second Vice President and then elected Don Wallace to the position.

Report by Richard Conrad