The Buena Vista Water Storage District’s board of directors met on Wednesday, August 15, 2018 at its Buttonwillow headquarters. BVWSD has changed its start time from 8:30 am to 10:30 am. I kind of like the later start. It’s civilized and everyone appears wider awake. The attendance wasn’t as high as usual but that could be for any number of reasons. The cheese and fruit today was excellent; I mean really great. Makes you proud to be from California.
Chairman John Vidovich called the meeting at 10:30 on the dot. The minutes were approved without comment and under public comment I invited everyone to a concert at my house in September; more about that later. Doug Misantoni of Deep Root Irrigation had a moment to invite folks to speak with him after the meeting. More about Deep Root Irrigation later also.
A couple of items from the consent calendar were pulled for later on in the agenda. The board approved the payables and the Treasurer Marybeth Brooks gave the treasurer’s report. Director Terry Chicca asked about the status of BVWSD and its bank account. Attorney Issac St. Lawrence said the bank is working on getting the signatures confirmed and such.
The board voted to remove a drain. Next Vidovich said BV is coming into the 21st Century to get a moveable screen. General Manager Tim Ashlock said the loc
ation “B-1” on the California Aqueduct (if I understood correctly) will be a very big help. A committee was formed to attend to this. Ashlock said BV’s portion of the Isabella Dam will be $7 million to be paid back over 50-years without interest. A contract will be drawn up by the end of the year. Since the Army Corps of Engineers are involved. . .
District Engineer Andrew Bell reported BV still has more than 5,000 a/f available at Lake Isabella. So far BV has lost 13,000 a/f in channel and recharge. He said the pipelines and better management has been helpful in decreasing that number. Belridge Water District signed an agreement yesterday with BV about a connecting a water line. The board approved BV signing.
Director Jeoff Wyrick said there is word the California Water Fix may have hit a bump. It wants the districts to back stop the costs and that didn’t sound popular. They called closed session at 10:52 am and so I’m a bit fuzzy on this.
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 by Don A. Wright No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of DAW.
Buena Vista Water Storage District was organized in 1924 to manage the irrigation, drainage systems and water rights originally held by Miller & Lux. The district controls an average 130,000 a/f of Kern River water and approximately 21,000 a/f of supplies from the State Water Project. BVWSD is its own GSA. Board of Directors meetings are held the 3rd Wednesday of the month at district headquarters located at: 525 North Main Street, Buttonwillow, CA 93206. Phone: 661/324-1101 www.bvh20.com General Manager/Engineer: Tim Ashlock, Engineer Andrew Bell, Controller: Marybeth Brooks, Attorney: Robert Hartsock.
Board-President: John Vidovich, VP: Terry Chicca, Secretary: Jeof Wyrick, John Cauzza, Larry Ritchie
