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OID Approves Annexation List
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A revised list of parcels for agricultural annexation was approved by the Oakdale Irrigation District Board of Directors at its Feb. 19 regular meeting. The approval was for a total of 812.1 acres, owned by seven applicants, to be annexed. This item had been tabled at the prior OID meeting.

Due to the OID’s flushing out of “fringe” parcels that were not formally in district boundaries and the subsequent applications received to annex said fringe parcels, the district had 386 acres worth of irrigation water left over, as only 330 acres had applications submitted of the 716 acres eligible to be annexed under fringe parcel terms. With the additional water freed up, OID offered Ag annexation for parcels that met certain guidelines. Only up to 386 acres were to be annexed but the board decided to also allow a 430-acre parcel that met the criteria to be annexed. If the board hadn’t upped the acreage allowable, it would have had to choose between either the six parcels together or the one other parcel. The water “account” that the additional acreage will require will be pulled from the OID’s water transfers (sales) surplus, which is approximately 16,000 acre feet of water. OID General Manager Steve Knell said that about 1,600 acre feet of additional water will satisfy the annexation list.

The seven applicants are comprised of five landowners on the north side of the district, Paul Dole, John Brichetto, Randy Paddack, Holly Moore, and Wendell Naraghi for 353.5 acres and two landowners on the south side of the district, Robert T. Gilbert and Hoekstra Dairy for 458.6 acres.

These parcels will be annexed under similar terms to the Trinitas Annexation, which are still being negotiated. The annexation process will commence, once the terms are finalized and signed by the applicants.

In other business, the board also approved a funding request for the Oakdale Joint Unified School District’s fourth grade salmon project for 2013, in the amount of $2,200. The cost is to cover bussing for the district’s approximately 400 fourth graders to the Knights Ferry Recreation Area to conduct their Chinook salmon studies field day.

In discussion, the staff and board talked about preparations for the start of the 2013 irrigation season. Knell said that the season will likely start in early March if there isn’t a good amount of precipitation in the meantime.

“It’s dry out there,” he said, later adding, “January 6 was the last effective precipitation here.”

Knell reported that on Feb. 14, inflow to New Melones Reservoir was at 91 percent of normal but as of the Feb. 19 meeting, that number had changed to 89 percent of normal. The matter of when to start the water season will come before the board at the March 5 meeting.

The next regular meeting of the OID Board of Directors will be at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, March 5 in the OID boardroom, 1205 East F. The next regular joint board meeting of the Tri-Dam Project will be at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 21, also in the OID boardroom.