Woodland Wednesdays Continue on December 3rd
Geauga Soil & Water Conservation District Board Meeting - November 12, 2025
Meeting Details: The Geauga Soil & Water Conservation District (Geauga SWCD) met on November 12, 2025 at 7:34 am at the Geauga County Office Building, 12611 Ravenwood Dr. #240, Chardon, OH.
Board Attendance: Jeff Huntsberger, Board Chair; Robert Lausin, Vice Chair; Tracy Engle, Secretary; Mary Slingluff, Treasurer; Dee Belew, Fiscal Agent.
Staff Attendance: Carmella Shale, District Director/Engineer; Gail Prunty, Education/Communications Specialist; Colleen Lair, Administrative Assistant
Others in Attendance: Due to the Government Shutdown, no others were in attendance. Typically, Julie Parker with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) attends the meetings and provides information; however, with the shutdown, she was unable to attend.
The meeting was opened at 7:38 am, and the Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Open Board Meeting
Tracy Engle and Jeff Huntsberger were congratulated on their reelection to a 3-yr term on the Board starting January 1, 2026!
MOTION Approved: November 12, 2025 Board Meeting Agenda
MOTION Approved: October 14, 2025 Board Meeting Minutes as corrected
MOTION Approved: October 29, 2025 Special Board Meeting Minutes
OPEN PUBLIC DISCUSSION- LWV Observer Wendy Landry commended Ms. Shale and her team on the well run annual meeting/dinner and guest speaker. The board acknowledged they have received a lot of positive feedback on the speaker. Observer Note: Visit here to read the Annual Meeting Wrap Up.
MOTIONS Approved:
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Approve payment of Ohio Federation Soil Water Conservation District (OFSWCD) dues of $4,005.00 for 2026. This was explained as an organization that acts like their lobbyist in Columbus to ensure funding.
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Approve payment for expenditures, purchase orders, vouchers and bills as presented including Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) payments and estimates and sales tax EFT payment of $157.66 less 3⁄4% discount
Date Name Amount Reason Method
10/13/2025 Michael Franklin $80.00 Permit fee not required Stripe
SCHEDULED GUEST: REBECCA O’NEILL, PROGRAM SPECIALIST, Ohio Department of Agriculture-Division of Soil & Water (ODA-DSWC) PROGRAM SPECIALIST
Ms. O’Neill was on the agenda to provide updates; however, she was unable to attend the meeting. She did email a written summary of updates that included calendared events that Ms. Shale forwarded to the board.
GAIL PRUNTY, EDUCATION/COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST
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Rain Barrel Yard Art Results - The Rain Barrel Yard Art Bids are in and now the barrels just need to be picked up by their prospective winners. This annual fundraiser raises money for the Education Fund that provides programs to both children and adults. This year, the Rain Barrel Yard Art raised $2,240, with topsellers “Peace” selling for $575 and “Pause at the Water’s Edge” selling for $580. This year bids were collected through three different avenues: bids were received at the Annual Meeting, the lobby of the county office building, and online. Data was provided showing the growth of this fundraiser from 2008-2025. During this time period, $30,374.94 has been raised. Each barrel has an average sale price of $448.
MOTION Approved to deposit all proceeds ($2,240) into the District Fund – Education Fund
Program Updates- Ms. Prunty said that they have received funds from the Western Reserve Enbridge Grant in the amount of $1,500 and have procured the soil erosion simulator, soil test kits and rain gauges with grant money. The simulator will be used at events like the county fair and other educational events.
Ms. Prunty passed out thank you letters to the board to review that were authored by the children who attended vampire bat classes.
The Soil “FUN”dementals class at the library is being held the same night as this meeting and has 36 people registered.
Two Upcoming Events:
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November 19, 2025, 6 PM, Virtual Event: Woodland Wednesdays- Your Forest, Your Future: Crafting a Management Plan. Register Here
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December 3, 2025, 6 PM, Virtual Event: Woodland Wednesdays - Don't Leaf Your Woodlands to Chance: Conservation, Planning & Tax Considerations. Register Here
CARMELLA SHALE, DIRECTOR/ENGINEER
The 2026 Annual Meeting was held October 6th (Tuesday) at Veterans Legacy Woods: 5:30 pm-6:30 pm for voting and 6:30 pm for dinner and program.
Area 2 Winter Meeting – December 3 in Medina Three employees will be attending this all day meeting. This meeting provides agency updates. They have a new person filling the District Technician position that was posted in September. The new employee will be starting Monday, November 17, 2025, so this will also give him an opportunity to meet everyone.
MOTION Approved money transfer of $565 from proceeds of raffle ticket sales at Annual Meeting to the Education Fund.
MOTION Approved money transfer of $509.85 from the net proceeds of Fall Fish Sale - 26 people participated in the fall fish sale. All proceeds for this sale go into the Education Fund. The next sale will be in the spring on May 8th, 9:30 am-11 am. Ms. Shale and Ms. Lair said that spring is a larger outreach, averaging about 90 customers picking up fish.
MOTION Approved for 3rd Quarter Review of 2025 Annual Plan of Work
Summary of 3rd Quarter Activities included:
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Storm Sewer Outfall- Good Systems - Reviewer note: See information here.
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111 Plan Reviews Reviewer note: See information about Plans here.
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All Public Schools participated in Envirothon
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10 Adult Programs Delivered
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201 Basin Inspection with the Summer Intern. Over 600 water basins in the county were inspected. HOAs (Homeowners Association) have been sending in photos of people maintaining the basins.
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Community Communication: Three Constant Contact emails sent, 10 News Articles, Fair Booths, two displays in the county building hallway, 61 posts on social media reaching 9,641 people
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Billboards are up
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$15,000 in grant money was received in order to send out Horse Manure Survey Postcards. Every household will be sent a postcard for an anonymous survey in order to collect more information on how much horse manure there is in Geauga County and how residents are managing the manure. $7,800 will be spent to print and distribute the postcards. They will have money left to run ads.
Observer Note: To fill out the Manure Survey, you can go to the website here.
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Beehive user group: They are done with the two billboards.
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Updated the education flyer
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Hope Farm Application- Money has been allotted. Closing Documents to be signed to purchase the farm..
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There is still money left from the Forestry Grant they received, so they plan on doing two more chainsaw safety courses in the spring.
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Received the Western Reserve Enbridge Grant (see above)
EXECUTIVE SESSION: For the purpose of discussing Employee Performance Evaluation and Compensation per ORC 121.22 G-1 at 8:30 am
Observer Note: It was stated that there would be no action after the Executive Session. This observer did not stay for the official adjournment after the Executive Session.
NEXT REGULAR BOARD MEETING: Tuesday, December 9, 2025, 7:30am – Geauga County Administrative Building: Geauga SWCD Office – 12611 Ravenwood Drive, Suite 240, Chardon, OH 44024
More information available here.
Observer: Wendy Landry
Editor: Sarah McGlone
Reviewer: Gail Roussey
Date Submitted: 11/25/25
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.