LVPOA Board of Directors

Transcription

1 LVPOA Board of Directors Monthly Meeting Minutes Date: February 6, :30 p.m. Members Present: Jerry Roper, President Patsy Hunt-Durkin, Treasurer Melody Silverberg, Secretary Bud Hopkins, Security Ron Penn, Technology Vice President Jim Rose, Facilitator Guests: Old Business: Topic: January Meeting Minutes Discussion: January meeting minutes were approved. Action: Bud will post hard copy on bulletin boards Follow-up: Next month Topic: Board Strategies Discussion: Jim Rose facilitated a discussion of the Board Strategic Plan, and updated the plan based on the following: By-Laws Update: Melody reported that to date she has had two volunteers to help with the By- Laws revision (Ron Penn and Dennis Silverberg). Lou Charette has agreed to serve as a resource person to give a historical perspective on past efforts to update the by-laws. Melody has also asked one other person to help with this project and is waiting on a response. William Arthur has agreed to review some documents and make some observations/suggestions, but cannot serve as a full member of the committee. When she receives the responses she will set up a meeting. The committee may consult the attorney to assure any proposed changes are consistent with applicable laws, rules and regulations. Jerry reported on the progress of the bulletin board project. Jerry drew some plans, and submitted them to some contractors. Only one submitted a bid, but it was extremely expensive. Patsy suggested organizing a community work day with refreshments for the volunteers. All the Board members agreed to assist in the project. A date will be set in the future to complete the work. Recycling / Compactor area upgrade: New recycling bins will be brought next time the vendor collects the contents. We get the paper and aluminum bins for free, and we pay for the cardboard bin. A larger cardboard bin will allow us to have more available volume. The cost will 1

2 increase by a small amount per month. This should help to reduce the amount of cardboard that is left lying on the ground near the bin. The Board approved the installation of the larger cardboard bin. The compactor vendor met with Patsy and Jerry about the compactor maintenance. It only needs to be serviced (inspected) once per year, with oil changes every two-three years. Patsy will arrange for the inspection to be done in the spring this year. Patsy will post contact information for the vendor in the Board meeting area, and it is also available in the contacts on the computer. Annual Meeting Preparation: o Confirmed the meeting will be held at the Heritage Center. The dinner will be held at the Barn Event Center. o The Social Committee is on track to get the menu established for the dinner. The elections for the Board will be held at the annual meeting. o The Social Committee will organize the refreshments at the Annual Meeting. o We need biographical information from potential Board of Directors candidates by no later than May 1, so the information can be included in the annual dues mailing. o The content of the mailing will be determined at the May 8 meeting. o A document will be developed which describes the voting and proxy process. It will be ready for the April meeting. o The management company will collate the information and do the actual mailing for us. o The management company will also collect dues, reservations for the dinner, and count the ballots (if needed), and develop the list of proxies submitted. o Secretarial services for the Annual Meeting Minutes will be provided by the management company. o Melody will follow-up with the Parliamentarian to secure the date. o The agenda will be developed at the June Board meeting, and suggestions from the membership will be solicited in the mailing. o Any handouts to be distributed at the meeting will be determined at the June meeting. Final copies of the handouts must be ready by July 5 to assure distribution. Action: Strategies updated at the meeting. Follow-up: Next meeting. Topic: Potential New Board Members/Committee Members Discussion: Several members of the Board have approached individuals who would be willing to serve on the Board. Some are willing to serve in the future, but no one has volunteered at this time. Several people have indicated they would work on a Committee, but no one has made a commitment yet. We continue to advertise our needs, through the meeting minutes and the Echoes, along with personal contacts. Action: Board will continue to seek new Board Members. For the present, Ron Penn will be the Vice President. Follow-up: Report progress next meeting. 2

3 Topic: Pest Control Services Discussion: The gate house will be treated in the spring for the carpenter bees. The vendor is Pest Tech and the technician will report any damage he sees. Action: Patsy will monitor the services. Follow-up: Report as necessary. Topic: Financial Report Discussion: Due to the early scheduling of the meeting, the January report was not available for this meeting. Patsy will forward the reports when they are available. There are 14 current liens. One individual who had a lien did submit a payment. There are seven lots which will be auctioned for taxes in March. We do not expect to receive any money from this process. It may be necessary to write off the delinquencies as bad debt against our taxes. Delinquencies in dues lead to an on-going financial loss for the Association each year. This year it amounted to approximately $11,000 of lost revenue. The Board discussed various ways to ameliorate the impact of the delinquencies on the annual budget. No decision on a specific strategy was made at this time. The annual budget submissions for each project or committee should be submitted to Patsy by the March meeting. Action: Patsy continues to follow this carefully. Follow-up: Report next month. Topic: Social / Welcoming Committee Discussion: The Committees are working together to assure new residents in the community are made to feel welcome. A basket is prepared and delivered to the new residents, along with information about Laurel Valley and Townsend. Action: Report monthly Follow-up: March meeting Topic: Security Committee Report Discussion: The changes to the back gate are apparently helping to reduce the number of adverse property incidents in the community. The cameras are working at the compactor / recycling site. The cameras will allow us to identify who is inappropriately dumping at this site. A notice was included in the Echoes about this matter. It has also been reported for several months in the meeting minutes. 3

4 Action: Bud will be viewing the recordings from the cameras, and identifying the individuals who are inappropriately dumping. Those individuals will receive an assessment for the cost of having their discarded belongings hauled away. Follow-up: Bud will report monthly. Topic: Bearly Rustic Cabins Discussion: The run-off from the culvert continues to be a concern of the property owners. The culvert pre-dates the building of the rental cabins. The ditch can be cleaned to facilitate the water going downhill. The culvert could be blocked to prevent water running through, and redirect the water down the ditch to the bottom of Country Club Drive. Action: Jerry will talk to George McCampbell about this. Follow-up: March meeting New Business: Topic: Paving Requests Discussion: A request was made that the Board authorize paving of some currently unpaved roads in Laurel Valley. If a road is currently not paved, the costs to do the paving will have to be shared 50% each by the affected homeowners and the Association. This has been the practice for many years when existing gravel roads have been paved. Recent examples of this practice are Christy Lane and Hawk View Drive. Action: Bud will respond to the requestors. Follow-up: Next meeting. Topic: Request for an easement / deed of property Discussion: A homeowner recently had his property surveyed and discovered that his driveway crossed common property owned by the Association. He requested the Board give him a deed to that portion of the common property. The Board reviewed the plat map and identified the common property in question. Patsy went to the county website and pulled up the plat map on-line. The driveway does not appear to impact a significant portion of the common property. If the property owner is willing to pay for the associated fees, the Board is agreed to grant an easement for the driveway. Another question arose regarding the property boundaries at the back gate near the church. The plat map is not clear as to the boundary. Action: Bud will discuss with the owner. Follow-up: March meeting 4

5 Topic: Technology Committee Discussion: The installation of the cameras at the compactor/recycling site went very well. No further news to report. Action: None at this time. Follow-up: March meeting. Topic: Cades Cove Village (CCV) Septic System Discussion: A property owner in the Cades Cove Village section responded to the letter from the Board to the owners regarding the septic system. Jerry informed the owner the Board would discuss this at the February meeting. The Board reviewed the documents provided by the property owner, as well as documents maintained by the Board and identified the following issues. The property which contains the septic system includes common property previously owned by the property developer. Historically, the homeowners did not maintain the septic system, causing sewage spills onto the golf course, which the LVPOA Board was expected to clean up. It appears the intent of the CCV homeowners was to deed that common property to the LVPOA. However, the documents seem to state the common area actually is owned by the Cades Cove Village homeowners, with each homeowner owning 1/18 th of the common property. It appears that many years ago an agreement was entered into between the Board and the homeowners that the Board would assume responsibility for the system due to the history of non-responsibility by the CCV homeowners. This change was never included in the by-laws, and was never communicated to the POA members at large. The owners in CCV pay the Board for the associated expenses, up to a set amount identified in the documents. These funds are maintained in an escrow account by the Treasurer. The escrow account must continuously contain that set amount. Once a bill is paid, it must be replaced by the CCV homeowners. If this means billing monthly or quarterly, it will be an additional expense to the Board to conduct this billing. Previously the Board paid expenses out of the escrow account, but only billed residents of CCV annually. Environmental regulations require that maintenance and repair services be performed by qualified vendors. Vendors with these credentials may not perform the services within the current minimum amount in the escrow account. This may require an increase in the escrow account to cover expenses. Due to the history of documented sewage spills onto the golf course, there is a question as to whether the existing drain field is actually functioning. If it is not functioning properly, there may be significant environmental implications. The agreement purportedly releases the LVPOA Board from liability for any problems resulting from repairs or maintenance the Board initiates. However, if the Board were found liable for any adverse event, the funds to pay for liability expenses would have to come from dues paid by all other members of the LVPOA. The Board continues to maintain the position that this is not an appropriate responsibility for the LVPOA Board to maintain the system. 5

6 Action: The Board is seeking legal review of the documents. No action will be taken until the legal review is complete. Follow-up: March meeting. A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the meeting at 9:00 p.m. The motion was approved and the meeting was adjourned. The next meeting will be March 13, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. 6