Annual Meeting

September 2010

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
			1	2	3	4

5	6	7	8	9	10	11
	Office closed
12	13	14	15	16	17	18

19	20	21	22	23	24	25
				Board Meeting
26	27	28	29	30

2010 General Election Held

This year’s Conservation Farm Family is Wollin Farms, Inc. which includes the Darrell and Dennis Wollin families. Darrell and wife, Sandy have one son, Josh. Dennis and Theresa have four children: David (wife Tracy), Chrissy (husband Bob Tighe), Anna, and Michael. Dennis and Theresa also have two grandchildren, Dennis Wollin and Jonathan Tighe.

Darrell and Dennis have been farming together since 1970. Their conservation practices include: 23.3 acres of Quail Buffer, 2 ponds totaling 1.5 acres, 9.8 acres of waterways, 11.3 acres of filter strip, 1060 feet of diversion, 8 structures, and 483.6 acres of conservation tillage.

Darrell and Dennis are also very active in the community. Darrell serves on the FS and Farm Bureau boards, and is currently a Trustee at the St. Peter Lutheran Church. Dennis served as a director on the Fayette County Soil & Water Conservation District board and has held many positions at the St. Peter Lutheran Church. The kids have been active in 4H and the FFA.

The conservation ethic must be an inherited trait. Their dad, Alvin Wollin, won the Conservation Farm Family award in 1972.

The Wollins received a plaque and a two-sided sign to proudly hang at the farm. The Conservation Farm Family Award is sponsored by the First National Bank of Vandalia.

Every year county schools participate in a local Envirothon competition. Each school brings five member teams to the event and they are tested on five subjects dealing with the environment. The Fayette County Soil & Water Conservation District provides each student participating from Fayette County with a teeshirt. The shirts this year were donated by Cumberland Trail Quail Unlimited Chapter. The district is responsible for putting a unique county logo on the back of the shirts. We come up with that logo each year by having a design competition in the vocational art department at Vandalia High School. This year’s winner, and winner of a $100 Savings Bond, is Erin Meseke, daughter of Wade and Loretta Meseke.

Every year the Fayette County Soil & Water Conservation District holds a poster contest for all the 4^th grade students in the county. A theme for the contest is set by the National Association of Conservation Districts. This year’s theme was “Conservation Habits = Healthy Habitats”. The idea behind the theme is we all can do a lot of little things to help create or improve wildlife habitat in our backyard and our communities. The students get a presentation on the theme, a poster board, and a deadline to have their posters completed. The district board, employees, and several volunteers then judge the posters and decide on a first, second, and third place. The winners get an engraved trophy and a Savings bond ($100, $75, and $50 for 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd, respectively). The First National Bank of Brownstown sponsors the event every year, providing the poster boards, the trophies and the Savings Bonds. I think Jerry Reed, President of the bank gets as big a kick out of it as the kids.

This year’s winners were: 1^st place, Audrey Myers from Christian Academy, daughter of Rick & Dana Myers of Shobonier, 2nd place, Olivia Marquardt, daughter of Todd & Meg Marquardt of Vandalia, and, 3^rd place, Sydney Austin, daughter of Chad & Mandy Austin, also from Vandalia. Olivia and Sydney both attend Vandalia Elementary.

301 South Third Street
Vandalia, IL 62471
618-283-1095 ext. 3
Karen Sanders - fayettecountyswcd@att.net
Tony Pals - tony.pals@il.nacdnet.net