Doan Brook Watershed Partnership

“A copy of the federal form 990 was given to the full board prior to filing.”

“A conflict of interest policy and disclosure statement were adopted on october 25, 2012. Board members sign the disclosure statement at the december board meeting each year.”

“Salary levels for executive directors at similar organizations were reviewed. Salary changes are based on annual performance evaluations and salary adjustments at member organizations.”

“Consistent with the requirements of the internal revenue code section 6104 (d) and the regulations thereunder, the organization's federal form 990 and governing documents shall be made available upon request, in a timely maner subject to the charges permitted by law to any individual who request it.”

“The mission of the doan brook watershed partnership is to: 1)facilitate and support conservation and restoration projects within the watershed -- with an eye towards environmental justice -- and document those efforts through a watershed information network. 2) dynamically increase public engagement and awareness of the watershed, and serve as a collective voice for the doan brook and its constituencies. 3) develop a solid organizational infrastructure in order to work toward all goals.”

“In addition to the all volunteer board that donates a significant amount of time and resources to the organization, doan brook watershed partnership volunteers primarily help to plan and carry out program events, as well as providing some assistance with all organizational functions. Volunteers also planted trees, removed invasive species, maintained gardens, led programming, staffed events, provided administrative assistance, collected trash, collected native seeds and stenciled storm drains.”

“Organizational management -dbwp continued to work with a contractor to run the saint luke's grant. We contracted with marcia hood of see you at the top, an organization that gets urban students outside and experiencing new activities. In 2019, ms. Hood could not work for several months. The grant funding, which accumulated by not paying see you at the top, was used to hire consultant, christopher heitmann. He conducted a park user analysis of sections of doan brook that border the saint luke's neighborhoods of buckeye, woodhill, and shaker/mt pleasant. Michelle gregorczyk, our bookkeeper is a great addition to the organization. In addition to accounting, she supports new budget development. Curt witchey relieved laura gooch as treasurer of dbwp. Laura gooch relieved jane goodman of her secretary duties. Jane goodman remains on the board, but leaves the executive committee.”

“Public programs and stewardship: andrew klooster's contribution to dbwp grew in 2019. Like last year, andrew met all deadlines, fulfilled all workplan goals and executed every event and stewardship activity with autonomy, stellar attendance and affection from the community and partners. He created our new website, wrote a new watershed action plan and managed the cuyahoga arts and culture grant (in addition to several smaller grants). A highlight roll of dbwp's 2019 programming is: - 4 clean-ups, - 2 tree plantings, - 7 storm drain stenciling outings = over 570 storm drains stenciled - 2 rain garden workshops - 3 rain barrel workshops - 26 presentations - 38 stewardship days - 28 hikes - stenciled 570 storm drains in the doan brook, dugway brook, and nine mile brook watersheds of cleveland, cleveland heights, and shaker heights with the message "lake erie starts here."”

“Green infrastructure: the northeast ohio regional sewer district funded over 300k to design and install a 1.25 acre bio-retention basin at fairhill partners. The new basin is designed to manage 12.3 inches of stormwater each year, which translates to 417,497 gal/year. Dbwp managed the entire process from issuing the rfp, then hiring and managing the consultant design and construction. In addition to writing the initial grant, we wrote a grant to the william bingham foundation to fund the trees that were needed for the design. Regular technical advisory committee meetings were critical in winnowing to an appropriate design for the campus. The biggest hurdle, aside from a rainy spring, was determining the true infiltration rate of the site's sub-soils. It was critical to add testing and ultimately determine that the swale required an under-drain. On june 5th, the site received 1.5" of rainfall, but experienced no issue draining down. Neorsd and our partners at fairhill partners were very happy with the end result. The project benefits doan brook but reducing the amount of stormwater reaching the cso section of our sewer system.”

“Restoration: the estuary study was the most complex project of 2019. Our many project partners often had divergent goals or issues, and volumes of data were collected and synthesized. Ultimately, it was determined that an exciting ecological uplift for doan brook's confluence with lake erie is feasible at gordon park north. The concept, developed by enviroscience, can be scaled up or down in size-depending on what the cleveland metroparks deems manageable. The biggest concern was for the impact to water quality to the harbor to the west of cleveland lakefront nature preserve, however the consultants designed the estuary concept so that lake erie is the primary influencer of estuary water level. The level of brook influence is up to whoever manages the gate between the doan brook culvert and the new habitat. The amount and timing of brook's influence is flexible, but the majority of the water entering the estuary and controlling its depth will be coming from the lake. The final report contains the following: an environmental review, geotechnical borings, hydraulic and hydrologic modeling, sediment and turbidity, ice flow & trash evaluations, biological conditions - current and future, water quality, location of utilities, structural stability of existing infrastructure, impact of the doan valley interceptor tunnel, navigation/boating impacts, benefits to wildlife and plants, and construction and maintenance estimates. The sustain our great lakes funding was utilized on the first phase of the debris rack project at mlk and fairhill blvds. Again, dbwp managed partners, permitting and consultant schedules to meet the 6/30 deadline. The second phase to build a new rack is on track to be completed this year. The board was instrumental in preventing this project from stalling again. The city of cleveland's commitment to pay large construction bills and seek reimbursement (through dbwp) from neorsd allowed the project to be completed in 2019.”

“Contract services 400,742 0 0”