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Geauga Soil & Water Conservation District Has Successful Tree Sale Fundraiser for Children Educational Programs 

Geauga Soil & Water Conservation District (GSWCD) Board Meeting - April 14, 2026

Meeting Details: The Geauga Soil & Water Conservation District (GSWCD) met on April 14, 2026 at 7:30 am at the Geauga County Office Building, 12611 Ravenwood Dr. #240, Chardon, OH. 

Board Attendance: Jeff Huntsberger, Board Chair; Robert Lausin, Vice Chair (arrived late); Tracy Engle, Secretary; Mary Slingluff, Treasurer; Dee Belew, Fiscal Agent

Staff Attendance: Carmella Shale, District Director/Engineer; Colleen Sharp, Natural Resources Technician; Lisa Berkheimer, Conservation Technician

Others in Attendance: Julie Parker, District Conservationist, United States Department of Agriculture/Natural Resources Conservation Services (USDA/NRCS); Rebecca O’Neill, Program Specialist, Ohio Department of Agriculture/Division of Soil & Water Conservation

Open Board Meeting- 7:37 a.m.

Pledge of Allegiance

MOTION  Approved April 14, 2026 Board Meeting Agenda

MOTION  Approved March 10, 2026 Board Meeting Minutes- Approved with addition of a couple names and end of meeting time added.

OPEN PUBLIC DISCUSSION This observer is typically the only community member who attends the meeting, so the board routinely checks during open public discussion time to see if there are any comments from this observer. Typically, there are none. During this meeting, Mr. Huntsberger asked what the observer writes about the meeting. It was explained that the League of Women Voters of Geauga (LWVG) has a mission to help communicate to the public what different parts of our government do. This observer takes notes on what they cover in the meetings and highlights all the programs the GSWCD offers to the residents. Ms. Shale advised Mr. Huntsberger that she gets the LWVG Newsletter and reads a copy of the report monthly and noted that the observer even includes links to various events. She told him she would forward a copy of the next report. 

MOTION Accepted- Treasurer’s Reports from previous month (including all deposits and transfers that occurred in addition to previous approved expenditures)

MOTION Approved

• Money transfer in the amount of $25,893.46 from Huntington Savings (Electronic/Stripe Payments through end of March 2025) to Huntington Checking

• Payment for expenditures, purchase orders, vouchers and bills as presented including EFT payments and estimates and Sales Tax EFT payment of $1,594.58 less 3⁄4% discount

• Review previous month mail, bank statements, payroll and minutes – sign/initial/date as applicable

MOTION Approved and acknowledged the following refunds issued via Stripe:

3/7/2026 Teresa Gough $54.44 Accidentally purchase wrong trees 

3/9/2026 Jessica Sneider $51.77 Duplicate charge – clicked twice instead

3/15/2026 Paula Hunt $172.94 Customer realized she wouldn’t be in town to pickup order.

3/17/2026 Susan Festa $244.46 Duplicate charge -clicked twice instead of waiting

3/18/2026 Jennifer Villwock $20.00 Cancelled chainsaw registration

3/26/2026 John Mayher $80.00 He forgot he already received permit

SCHEDULED GUEST: REBECCA O’NEILL, PROGRAM SPECIALIST, Ohio Department of Agriculture-Division of Soil & Water (ODA-DSWC)

Updates: Ms. O’Neill advised that local appropriations are to be deposited by April 30th in order to be considered for state match. They have changed the form, which will be approved at the April 28th Commission meeting. Although the form has changed, all documentation and policy is the same. She advised if GSWCD has a family doing great conservation work and they would like to nominate that  family, the Conservation Farm Family Awards deadline is May 8th. The state-wide H2Ohio pilot program applications are due May 1st. There is $2M available for the first round. There will be another round available in August for an additional $1M. If anyone is already enrolled in H2Ohio and wants to re-enroll, the deadline is April 17th. 

Enviornthon has a lot more schools signed up to attend than years prior. Ms. O’Neill gave the team a “great job” for supporting this effort and getting attendance up. 

Ohio State University created StoryMaps  about conservation practices with interactive maps, photos, and videos.  Ms. O’Neill noted there are things on the site that can be used for outreach on social media.

Board member tip of the month: Topic includes Executive Sessions: Reasons for the board and go into Executive Session and how to do it. Ms. O’Neill advised that they do a great job when they use Executive Sessions and the information is not really needed for this board because they are already doing well, but she was doing her due diligence to let them know the information is available.  

SCHEDULED GUEST: JULIE PARKER, DISTRICT CONSERVATIONIST, U.S. Department of Agriculture/Natural Resources Conservation Services (USDA/NRCS)

Updates:  Local work group meeting last week was attended by Ms. Shale. This group prioritizes communities and natural resource needs and what their program should target. The group wanted to know about getting updated fliers, but Ms. Parker advised her office at the USDA doesn’t have a PR person so she will have to work on creating a flyer for them. 

Area 2 Update: Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is being created for signature. The agreement is basically a summary of how NRCS, ODA, GSWCD  will work together. Ms. Parker has provided Ms. Shale with a draft MOU for board members to review. Ms. Parker encouraged the board to be familiar with the document because once everything is finalized and ready for signature, the timeline will be short. Ms. Shale and Ms. Parker advised the board that one part of the MOU still being developed is Section 3, which outlines their partnership by making sure it gives an accurate reflection of the work they already do together. Ms. Shale noted this is an MOU and not a legally binding document; however, she wants it to reflect what they are already doing accurately and realistically. An example was: Ms. Parker covers three counties and should have three different work group meetings, but she consolidates the three for efficiency. Ms. Shale also noted that the other challenged item  is when there are open work opportunities, the MOU requires they be advertised in the local newspaper.  Ms. Shale wanted to add advertising on their district website and social media; however, due to the old federal statute that requires advertising in newspapers that has not been updated for electronic footprint, that request was apparently rejected. They will continue to post on social media as well as their website, in addition to a newspaper announcement. Another issue Ms. Shale tried to address was that the MOU says that GSWCD will set agenda meetings, but Ms. Parker already does that and it is working for them. However, it appears they can not change the language in this section. There was a discussion with Ms. Shale and Mr. Huntsberger who agreed that when they sign the MOU, they need to put a note next to their signatures that they were advised this was not a legal binding contract and instead an agreement between offices. 

Environmental  Quality Incentives Program  (EQUIP): 479 applications have come in for the farm program in Area 2 (17 counties). The ranking deadline was April 3, but they extended it a couple weeks because they had so many problems with the application system.  Fifty-three applications from Lake and Geauga Counties were received.  Ohio has been allocated $32M for the EQUIP and $16.7M for Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) across the state. 

Ms. Shale mentioned the work group meeting talked about having topic meetings to make sure the public gets information on what programs are available. They have done Woodland Wednesdays, but they may want to consider having additional topics, possibly geared toward pastures, crops, land use and/or bee keeping. 

COLLEEN LAIR, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT- Ms. Lair was on the official agenda to cover Tree and Fish Sales, but by the time this part of the meeting came up, Ms. Lair had left to receive and unload delivery of the Tree Sales at the Burton Fair Grounds. Ms. Shale covered this information in Ms. Lair’s absence .

a. 2026 Tree Sale –

This year’s tree sale had 266 customers order with a total of $39,465.85 in sales. This was a large tree sale. There were a few “snafus” with the sale when one species of tree did not make it through the last freeze, which resulted in the office having to call 50 customers to offer different replacement trees and/or refunds. Unfortunately, this resulted in 45 refunds. Many of the GSWCD staff members were unloading the truck as the meeting unfolded to set up for tree pick up later in the week. Observer Note: During the meeting, this observer asked Ms. Shale about the proceeds from the  GSWCD tree sale. She advised it would be approximately 5% of the sale revenue  or approximately $1,973.29. These funds are used for the Planting the Seed to Read Program, where each child receives education on soil health, pollinators and farming.  Ms. Shale  reported that 209 kids received this education during the first quarter of the year. Each child goes home with a book. Learn more about this and other classroom educational programs here.

b. 2026 Fish Sale – Logistics/Discussion

The Fish Sale is currently open for orders. As of the meeting date, they had received orders from 46 customers with sales totaling $8,427.83. Orders are due May 1st and can be placed online here.  Fish pick up is Friday, May 8, 2026 from 9 am-10:30 am at the Geauga County Fairgrounds Midway by the main grandstand. Observer Note: This is also a fundraiser for the Planting the Seed to Read Program and other educational programs GSWCD offers. Proceeds are approximately 5% of the total fish sale.

LISA BERKHEIMER, CONSERVATION TECHNICIAN

There have been two complaints that Ms. Berkheimer has investigated and reported on: 

MOTION/ACKNOWLEDGED - Ag Pollution Complaint – Schwartz – Thompson Twp on Mosley Road. The neighbor complained about improperly stored manure that has been stockpiled. The neighbor believes it is negatively affecting his pond. An onsite investigation was completed and found that the manure was being deposited into an onsite depression. It did not look like the water was exiting into the pond. They issued a warning letter with recommendations to remove or relocate the pile. The owner advised that he would build up the site to stop any potential overflow.

MOTION/ACKNOWLEDGED – Ag Pollution Complaint – Kangas – Montville Twp on Morgan Road. GSWCD received a call that the landowner owns a commercial dumping business collecting horse manure from customers and dumping it on this property. Area Google Maps show numerous large manure piles on the property. Because this owner is a commercial dump hauling business owner, this complaint was forwarded to the correct authority, which is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Division of Materials and Waste Management. It does not appear that they have animals. This landowner is not enrolled in Current Agricultural Use Value  (CAUV), so this is not a farming situation and does appear to be acting as a dump site. 

COLLEEN SHARP, NATURAL RESOURCES TECHNICIAN

ROLL CALL MOTION Approved– Discussion and approval of Little Punderson Lake Community Lake Erie Commission grant with AquaDoc

AquaDoc met with the board last month to discuss Little Punderson Lake contamination issues and their request to have GSWCD consider being a partner with them to apply for a grant to properly treat the lake to resolve current issues. The board took it under advisement last month in order to gather additional information before deciding if they would agree to partner with them on the grant application. Please see March 2026 GWSD Observer Report for more information.

GSWCD has decided to agree to a partnership with AquaDoc to apply for this grant, making GSWCD the manager of money from the grant. GSWCD will oversee the grading of the ditches leading into Little Punderson. The amount they will apply for will be $229,200. They are almost completed with the grant application, which is due April 30th. Ms. Shale said GSWCD will get some money from the grant for administrative fees. GSWCD will be the fiscal agent for the grant and Aqua Doc will be the primary to complete the grant tasks:

• Adult Program for Septic Maintenance will be completed by GSWCD

• Youth Fishing Day (GSWCD will not be involved with this)

• The reset treatment to lower toxic levels of  phosphorus is considered the most environmentally friendly, is cheaper and will take 2600 lbs of phosphorus out of the water in one day.

• Regrading & Stabilizing of ditches 

CARMELLA SHALE, DISTRICT DIRECTOR/ENGINEER

Confirm and Share - Harvey Webster will be speaker for annual meeting giving a presentation on the bald eagle.  Mr. Webster spoke at the GSWCD Annual Meeting last year and he was well-received. It is anticipated that he will draw another large audience. 

Ms. Shale suggested a donation to the Audubon Society of Greater Cleveland again this year. Last year’s donation was  $150, but was recommended to be increased to $250 this year. The board approved. They will present the check at the meeting. Mr. Engle abstained from voting on this because he sits on the board and felt it was a conflict of interest for him to weigh in on this issue and asked multiple times that it was noted that he abstained.

MOTION Approved and acknowledged final payout for Gerard Ligotti with last day of employment of 3/13/2026 (80 hrs worked (78.5 REG & 1.5 SICK), 26.35 hrs ANNUAL LEAVE, 7.25 hrs of COMP TIME no PERS and 4.75 hrs of COMP TIME)

Update on Technician Position opening and search – schedule follow-up interviews with board

Ms. Shale expressed disappointment with the lack of response to the open technician position. Ms. Shane held initial interviews with six applicants via Microsoft Teams. Applicants who met the job criteria received invitations for an in-person interview. Just one applicant had relevant experience. She chose two candidates for board interviews. It is possible they will re-open the position if the board does not find a qualified candidate.

MOTION – Approved the 2027 Budget for Submission to the Geauga County Commissioners

The budget submission is due on April 24, 2026. This department doesn’t get money for raises, unlike other agencies. Instead, their raises have to be built into the budget. Ms. Shale plans to explain to the Commissioners during the budget hearing on May 5th that they do not do their raises until after the first quarter. There are a series of payroll spreadsheets that have to be submitted to the County Commissioners. This  paperwork requires a full 4 quarters worth of numbers, so this spreadsheet is not reflecting raises starting quarter 2.  Ms. Shale is asking for $660,000 for total revenue, with $360,000 coming from the Commissioners. Last year GSWCD received $345,000, so this is a $15,000 increase. Ms. Shale advised that the remaining money will come from carryover and grants they received this past year. State Match is anticipated to be a little less in July. They will figure out how to cover any potential shortcomings. 

MOTION – 1st Quarter review of 2026 Annual Plan of Work

Summary of some of things GSWCD have completed in the first quarter:

• 209 Kids Seed to Read Program

• 3 Displays in hall

• 60 Social Media Posts

• 78 Plan Reviews

• 1,007 inspections for construction sites

• Horse Manure - finished the surveys

• Billboards found 2 locations to post

• 6 School Programs for 607 kids

• Adult Workshops: 2 Woodland Workshops and 1 Ground Water Workshop 

• Collecting Batteries

• Farmland Preservation- had 0 applications this year.

• 1-Farm & Dairy Article

• Conservation Easement Monitoring is completed

• H2Ohio: first round is completed

• Educational Services Contract with Geauga Solid Waste Department completed 10 programs  reaching 202 kids

Motion Approved-Munson Twp on Autumn Ridge Road, 19,919 acre parcel

This property was purchased by a developer originally. When he built the development above this property, part of the Army Corps Engagement agreement was that he had to donate part of the land to an entity to keep it protected. It was donated to the County Commissioners. Part of the agreement was that the GSWCD would put an easement on the property, meaning it would not be accessible to the public. It has been determined that the easement was never placed on the property. They are having issues with people trespassing by riding 4-wheelers, dirtbikes and other vehicles across the property. On April 21st, the Commissioners put on the agenda to put Trespassing Signs up. GSWCD are working to put the easement into place.

NEXT BOARD MEETING: Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Meeting Adjourned-8:59 a.m.

Observer Note:  Geauga Soil & Water Conservation District website currently is accepting fish sale orders. The Fish order form is available online, with pickup on May 8, 2026, 9:00-10:30 am. Applications are still open for the Summer Educator’s Workshop: The Advanced Wonders of Watershed, being held June 23-25. 

More information available here.

Observer: Wendy Landry

Editor: Harry Rees

Reviewer: Sarah McGlone

Date Submitted: April 23, 2026

The League of Women Voters of Geauga is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan political organization that encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. They do not support or oppose individual candidates or parties. Learn more about the LWVG at www.lwvgeauga.org.