MINUTES OF THE MONTHLY BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

SECTOR 2A AT SNOHOMISH CASCADE ASSOCIATION

7:00 PM   WEDNESDAY    June 13, 2007

 

CALL TO ORDER / APPROVAL OF MINUTES

  1. Bill Steenis called the meeting to order at 7:10pm.  Present were Bill Steenis, John Patterson, Steve Yandl, Allen Kerr and Trina Coleman.  Also present was Tom Harris from Gold Creek 1 on behalf of South Sound Little League.  Jan Corbally arrived shortly after the meeting began.
  2. Steve Yandl presented the minutes of the annual association meeting in May.  John Patterson moved to accept the minutes, Bill Steenis seconded and the motion passed 5 – 0.

ELECTION OF NEW OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS

  1. Steve Yandl shared final vote results for Spring election.
    1. William Buchanan     (1)
    2. Trina Coleman     (102)
    3. Shreedhar Dusara     (1)
    4. Lori Eastman     (1)
    5. Frank Furlan     (1)
    6. Allen Kerr     (2)
    7. Ron Lee     (100)
    8. John Patterson     (104)
    9. Rick Sallee     (1)
    10. Bill Steenis     (104)
    11. Jennifer Stout     (107)
    12. Jeff Vale     (1)
    13. Elfriede Vogt     (1)
    14. Robert Wells     (1)
    15. Steve Yandl     (114)
    16. Should the Board investigate the possibility of going in with other neighborhoods to hire a security patrol?

89  ‘yes’     52  ‘no’

    1. Should the Association consider purchasing entrance signs?

53  ‘yes’     85  ‘no’

    1. Should the Association consider restrictions on the use of fireworks?

69  ‘yes’     70  ‘no’

    1. Should the Association set up a fine schedule for those who allow their dogs to soil the common areas, public walkways or neighbor’s yards and then fail to properly clean and dispose of the waste?

102  ‘yes’     37  ‘no’

  1. The top seven vote getters are the new Directors.  Eight of the nine write-ins only got one vote but the Board will consider them if we lose any Directors during the course of the year.  Steve Yandl has emailed the property managers for neighboring associations to find out if their Boards are still interested in the idea of a shared security patrol.
  2. We had a brief discussion about who was willing to fill the various officer positions.  The suggested set would be Bill Steenis as President, John Patterson as Vice President, Jennifer Stout as Secretary and Steve Yandl as Treasurer.  Steve Yandl made the motion to go with the named officers, John Patterson seconded and the motion passed 5 – 0.
  3. Trina Coleman asked that we review committee chair assignments.  Specifically, she was concerned that some potential obligations might make it difficult for her to continue as the chairperson of the Architectural Control Committee.  Bill Steenis said he would investigate possible options in the coming months to get a replacement before Trina got too busy to continue in the job.

MAINTENANCE REPORT

  1. John Patterson introduced Tom Harris who was at the meeting representing the Little League.  John had invited Tom so we could discuss concerns over excess trash in containers as well as trash left around the field and problems possibly caused by younger children not being adequately supervised by parents while their older siblings are involved in baseball games at the boat park field.  Tom explained that with the exception of the league complex, most other fields used don’t have trash receptacles in proximity to the fields so coaches and parents are accustomed to hauling their own trash away.  The Board agreed with Tom’s observation that some other groups were contributing to our overabundance of trash.  Tom assured us that our concerns would be shared with the League and efforts would be made to prevent similar problems in future years.  Trina asked Tom to emphasize to parents and coaches that the youngsters should not be permitted to climb fences to retrieve foul balls without getting homeowner permission first.
  2. We had a discussion on handling trash containers at the park during high volume use.  The suggestion was made that we consider removing the existing containers and force everyone to remove the trash.  We considered the option of a dumpster but were worried too many homeowners and others would bring their home trash once they discovered a dumpster.  Jan Corbally had done some checking and it sounded like we could add a 64 gallon rolling container for a bit over $20 per month extra.  The concern was that we could not anchor such a container and don’t want to be liable should it be damaged or stolen.  Steve Yandl agreed to check with Waste Management on specifics of such an arrangement.  The suggestion was made that we post a sign asking users to haul away garbage but most felt such signs would be ignored.
  3. John reported that current graffiti has been painted over.  He has additional supplies for future incidents, including paint, primer with stain block, brushes and cans.
  4. John sent a letter to a homeowner regarding a newly discovered gate in the common area fence.  It’s anticipated that will be secured/repaired quickly.
  5. John shared bids from Skinner Landscape Service and Landscapes Unlimited to do the clearing required for moving the east border fence of the detention pond in the NW corner of the neighborhood.  John suggested we go with Landscapes Unlimited which was the lower quoted amount  (and a fixed amount rather than an approximation) and that the debris be stacked to decompose naturally rather than incur disposal fees.  John made the motion that we have Landscapes Unlimited do the detention pond tree clearing and also go with Skinner Landscape Service for the second part of his bid which was replacing two faulty sprinkler system controllers for roughly $450.  Trina seconded the motion.  The motion passed, 5 – 0.
  6. Steve Yandl reported that Skinner had a gallon of paint made that is a better blend for the current shade of our common area fence at a cost of just under $30.  Steve suggested that we purchase the gallon of paint to have on hand for future graffiti covering.  Trina moved that we purchase the paint, Bill Steenis seconded and the motion passed 5 – 0.
  7. John indicated that Ron King of A-Bat would again be doing our backflow certifications on the four sprinkler systems as required by Silver Lake Water.  He will be contacting Steve Yandl to get a fax number to forward reports to.

ARCHITECTURAL CONTROL COMMITTEE REPORT

  1. Trina Coleman reminded the Board that the ACC had split the neighborhood into three sectors. 
  2. Trina said she needed to follow up on a deadline situation for a homeowner with a problem driveway that was to have been repaired.  This lot is in her sector.  She could not recall the exact deadline but the work has not been done.
  3. Steve Yandl commented that a letter on landscape maintenance needed to go to the new homeowners of lot 1-0-049.  They’ve already been notified by letter that rentals are not allowed without written permission of the Board.  Even if they don’t occupy the house for some time, maintenance needs to be done by them or by the Association at their expense.  While this lot is in Bob Wells sector, Trina agreed to get a letter sent in the next several days.  Allen Kerr suggested the letter contain a demand for a response within a certain time frame.  Trina indicated that the ACC letters currently demand action by a specific time rather than ask for a written response.
  4. Allen Kerr asked if we had considered a ‘welcome letter’ that served a secondary goal of letting people know about things like the CC&Rs.  Steve Yandl replied that he was doing welcome letters for a while but discontinued the practice.

TREASURER’S REPORT

  1. Steve Yandl distributed copies of the bank statement for the period ending May 31.  An email notice will be sent when the regular financial reports are received from the bookkeeper and posted on the web page.
  2. The ending balance was $69,529.69 which is within $1,000 of prior year to date.  Maintenance and other significant expenses are being kept within budget but we will want to review finances after needed fence repairs (and fence section moving) are complete before we undertake any improvements that are ‘optional’.
  3. Steve reported that the bank statement didn’t reflect the nearly $1000 deposit of money received from the title company after a foreclosure sale that covered all past due amounts on that property.  The paperwork has been done to record a ‘Satisfaction of Lien’ as we assured the Title company we would do.
  4. Steve Yandl reported he has been researching replacement of our locking mailboxes.  The suggestion is that we consider adding replacement cost to the long term capital fund anticipating that our current boxes may not last much more than five to six years.
  5. Steve indicated he planned to convert the operational reserve from CD to market rate checking when the current CD matures in July.  Steve made that a motion, Bill Steenis seconded and it passed 5 – 0.

YARD OF MERIT

  1. Bill Steenis reported that we’ve acquired enough signs for this program and holiday decoration program to be set for a couple of years (accounting for normal loss and breakage).
  2. Bill reports that they can always use more judges.  The ideal situation is to have enough of a rotation that a judge is never needed to judge more than two consecutive months and still have more than a couple of judges making the determination for any given month.
  3. Allen asked why the program was limited to five months out of the year.  Bill responded that the months were there was active involvement in landscape work were the ones chosen.   In the winter months, we have the holiday decoration award but yards are pretty much dormant and people are not maintaining or significantly altering the landscape in most cases.

NEW BUSINESS

  1. Trina expressed concern over an emailed suggestion received by the Board saying that since the vote on fireworks seemed to be going against prohibiting them, residents should be encouraged to discharge fireworks at the boat park rather than near neighbor’s homes.  The entire Board agreed that this was a bad idea for a number of reasons.  John Patterson will be making sure our signs prohibiting their use in the boat park and tot play area on 72nd Dr get placed before July 4.
  2. Steve Yandl reported that he has emailed property managers of Gold Creek 1, The Falls, and Silver Firs to see if there is still interest in sharing a security patrol.  This is in response to our issue vote.
  3. Everyone agreed that despite the majority saying we should have fines for people who don’t clean up dog poop their pets leave on sidewalks or other people’s yards, it will be very difficult to enforce.  Steve Yandl pointed out that if the fines were in place, even if never imposed they would give homeowners a rule to cite if some other resident and their pet(s) were chronic offenders.
  4. We had a discussion over how we plan to evaluate and conduct a bid for landscape services.  Skinner would like to have an agreement by September.  If we consider a company other than Skinner Landscape Service Inc., we need to research them well to make sure we don’t create a plethora of new problems in our efforts to save a little money.  Allen Kerr has some experience with evaluating proposals against a set of requirements and volunteered to take charge of the evaluation process.  Steve Yandl will get copies of our current maintenance contract to Allen as a starting point ASAP.

MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:50 PM