New leader announced for reservoir project

New Southern Iowa Resource Conservation and Development Executive Director David Beck will be partnering with Clarke County Reservoir Commission and other local officials to head up work for the proposed reservoir project.

Beck will be in charge of “facilitating the planning, construction and completion of the CCRC water development project.” His facilitating will include the areas of obtaining a funding package, assisting with negotiations for land acquisition and developing a plan of work.

Beck said his hope is to develop a plan of work, which will highlight major steps of the project and a proposed time line, to present to the CCRC in February.

The CCRC signed a three-year contract with Beck, Thursday during their monthly commission meeting.

Rob Lundquist, chairman of the SIRC&D Board told the commisison the Clarke County project will be Beck’s number one priority.

“We will tell you from our board, this is his focus, to get this done,” said Lundquist. “We have some other things we would like him to work on, but those are going to take second stage to working on this project because we deem that this is the most important thing to get completed. You folks (CCRC) have been very patient with us.”

History

The reservoir project, which came about as a result of a need for a larger water supply in the County and has been in the works for several years, came to a standstill last spring after the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act funding was cut from the 2011 federal budget. The program was funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service.

According to Beck, staff members in this NRCS office were reassigned to other areas, while others retired when funding was cut for this particular program, so the local water development project was left without a leader.

About Beck

Beck, who took his position as executive director last week, worked with the NRCS in various locations for 37 years. In his most recent position, he served as a planning leader for the water resources staff in northeast Iowa.

Beck said he hadn’t thought about retiring from NRCS but then SIRC&D made the effort to contact him about this opening..