News & Notes October 2001

PACD Announces Schedule for Fall Meeting

The Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts, Inc. has recently announced the schedule for the October PACD Meeting, to be held at the Toftrees Resort in State College, Oct. 24 – 26, 2001.

New to PACD meetings will be the Conservation Issues Forum, a new session focused on current conservation issues, which will highlight issues from the PACD committees. The Forum has been added to the meeting schedule at the recommendation of the PACD Participation Task Force.

The fall meeting will host a number of special events, which will each provide some unique insights to conservation in Pennsylvania.

Highlights of the upcoming meeting include:

• A panel discussion featuring three Pennsylvania County Commissioners; Harry Stokes (Adams County), Dr. Fred Soisson (Cambria County), and John Sughrue (Clearfield County), will address the issue of district relations with county commissioners, and how to improve upon them.
  
  
• The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will host a facilitated session on DEP Environmental Future, allowing conservation district personnel to provide input toward the DEP strategic planning process.
  
  
• The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture will provide an overview of the department and its programs.
  
  
• Staff representing three county conservation districts and PennAg Industries will discuss the Ombudsman Program, which is scheduled to be expanded to include additional conservation districts. The PACD Participation Task Force will present a complete report including it’s final recommendations.
  
  

• The Leadership Development Committee will present a new training session for conservation district directors.

Regular PACD business events will also be held during the meeting, including the PACD Executive Council Meeting, District Managers Meeting, District Operations Committee, PACD Region Directors Meeting, and State Conservation Commission Meeting. Registration forms, directions and the conference schedule-at-a glance are all available on the PACD website, www.pacd.org, and information has been mailed to conservation district and agency personnel.

PACD has recently launched its engineering assistance program, funded by a Growing Greener Technical Assistance Grant. The process to receive engineering assistance is as follows:

1. Each entity seeking engineering assistance must complete an application for an eligible project (application must be from an eligible sponsor).
2. Submit the application to the appropriate NRCS Technical Center for your location, and send a copy to the your local county conservation district office.
3. PACD Conservation Engineer will review the application, estimate time required and present to the Workload Advisory Team.
4. Workload Advisory Team meets to determine workload priorities.
5. Applicant is informed of priority ranking.
6. Engineering assistance is provided according to priority ranking.

Application forms, instructions, and the listing of NRCS Technical Centers are available on the PACD website, www.pacd.org. (The direct link is: http://www.pacd.org/products/tech_asst.htm)

The next scheduled Workload Advisory Team meetings are as follows: October 4: Workload Advisory Team Meeting, Somerset Rural Electric; October 10: Workload Advisory Team Meeting, Lebanon NRCS Technical Center; October 18: Workload Advisory Team Meeting, Clarion NRCS Technical Center; October 29: Workload Advisory Team Meeting, Bloomsburg NRCS Technical Center.

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