Idaho Bulletin 300-8-12

November 26, 2007

SUBJECT:  LTP - Payment Schedule - Data Collection

TO:   All Employees, NRCS, Idaho

Purpose. To provide guidance for collecting cost data to support Idaho’s Program Payment Schedule

Expiration Date.  September 30, 2008

Action Required by:  November 1, 2008

Actual cost data, for a representative number of jobs for all applicable cost-shared practices, is required to develop the payment schedule. The following instructions are provided to facilitate collection of cost data for establishing the payment schedule for FY09/FY10.

It is expected that program sign-up and ranking will begin early summer. Recent contracting decisions will require this change. For FY 2009, the majority of payment schedule listings from 2008 will be indexed to current prices.  Data being gathered this construction season will be the basis for developing the 2010 payment schedule.

Each Field Office will review bills to determine the unit cost for practices installed and certified for payment in their work area. It is not required that you collect bills for every practice installed. Select bills from projects that are deemed as typical or average for your work area. When available, two sets of bills should be reviewed for each practice installed. To ensure the practice costs are as current as possible, review bills beginning March 1, 2008. You are not required to maintain the bills in your field office. It is recommended that they be sent to Denis Feichtinger along with your completed LTP-155.

A summary of the actual cost of installation is to be recorded on the Idaho NRCS-LTP-155. Costs are to be developed by practice, not for a system. The Idaho NRCS-LTP-155 uses drop down menus for practice names and units. A column is provided to describe the practices, such as full acre center pivot or wheel line, four strand barbwire fence or single strand electric fence, and 1,200 gallon steel watering tank are examples. Do not change the formatting of the spreadsheet. Cost data supplied from each field office will be merged in to one spreadsheet and averaged for the state.

Two files are attached for your use. LTP-155_Example.xls shows how cost data should be recorded. LTP-155_CostData.xls is a blank template for your use.

An electronic copy of your completed LTP-155 is to be sent to Denis Feichtinger by November 1, 2008. Field staff will have the opportunity to review the cost list before it is posted.

/s/
RICHARD SIMS
STATE CONSERVATIONIST     

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