Present
Rachel Dretzin, Susan Krim, Miri Navasky, Alfred Souza, Eva Thaddeus
Fiberoptic update
The plans to install fiberoptic cable are moving forward. The Consolidated rep said they would aim for the second week of September, by the 21st at latest. (That date could be delayed if the back and forth on the contracts drags out.) Bruno is designated our community monitor and will be able to supervise the work if needed.
A motion is made to allow Consolidated access to the community property and seconded. Unanimous vote in favor by all five board members.
Note : Consolidated is keeping the copper landline but if something should happen to it its not realistic for them to fix it for only one person. Eva is aware her landline may be a casualty of this process and is fine if it stops working. Bruno thinks they are legally compelled to repair it. Susan suggests Bruno check with Todd Wolfarth on the town board. [Note from Bruno: I have confirmed with Todd that they are legally required to maintain landlines for individuals who don’t want to switch over.]
Financial Report
Susan reports that we have 16,500k in the bank but owe 1600 to Carmen, so in reality have only $14,900. We also have a savings account which is our rainy day fund capital account and there is $2400 in that.
There’s a clear trend of overspending, and last year we overspent a lot between the tennis court and the road. Now that our buffer is only $2000 we have to be very careful about overspending.
Recycling costs have exponentially increased. Susan thinks people are throwing stuff away that doesn’t belong in recycling, like Styrofoam. It’s suggested that it may be worth having Bruno and Annie recirculate the requirements and try putting a notice on the side of the bins where they might be less vulnerable to the elements, or having the camp kids make a wooden sign with a plastic sleeve we can replace. [Note from Bruno: If someone can forward me the requirements I will post on the website.]
Dues: A raise in the dues will be discussed at the next meeting. The last raise was in 2014. Any raise has to be approved by ¾ of the community.
Snow Plowing and Tree Planting
Snowplowing: There has been some unhappiness with Carmen and some concern about his age and whether he will be able to continue plowing for much longer. Susan got another estimate which was a lot higher than we are paying Carmen. The consensus is to get some more estimates and have a couple of options in our back pocket in case Carmen drops out.
Trees at the pond: The original estimate—5k to plant two trees- seemed really high. A motion is made to approve 3k to spend on tree-planting around the pond and to have Eva and Rachel manage the project. The priority is shade and fast growing trees.
Alfred and Eva ask Susan if there’s a way to go to 4k, and Susan says we probably could by delaying a payment to Carmen and then having to delay it till Jan but she needs to take a closer look at our spending.
Trimming and Removal of Trees
Wendy has been seeing the trees grow and block her view. We agree to invite Wendy to attend our next board meeting so we can talk about it more specifically.
Unbuilt Lots
Eva has a friend who is very serious about purchasing one of the remaining lots and building a small house on it. There are three remaining lots: one is allotted to Debbie, one to Jane Rose, and one to the community. The community-owned lot is not ideal: it has no road access, is very close to Alfred’s, and is close to the dumpsters. Eva’s friend prefers Debbie’s lot to Jane’s, but Debbie can’t sell her membership if she wants to continue renting. Miri suggests buying the third lot from the community and then moving it, which costs 2-3K according to Annie. Eva asks about Jane Rose and Debbie swapping lots, which Susan discourages. Alfred suggests one other option: Debbie buys the lot next to him and then sells hers to Eva’s friend.
Barn
We have now shown the barn to several builders and the consensus is that in order to “save the barn,” we are going to have to take the structure down, and then rebuild it with new materials incorporating as much of the old barn material as can be saved. The structural beams, which are the most important part of the barn, would be saved as well as any pieces that can be saved from the outside.
We have one bid in and are getting at least one or two more in the coming weeks.
Lukas Schwartz has given us a bid for approximately $140k.
Eva has completed her community survey. A majority of the community wants to preserve the barn and is willing to contribute but it is not a strong majority. There are some people who feel that saving the barn is not a good use of money, so we have a spectrum.
The results are:
- if people contributed a lump sum and did it with cash we have $94k.
- if we got a loan the lump sum would go down to $84k. Total yearly contributions to loan would be $5500 annually, probably for ten years.
The plan is to complete the process of getting bids in the next few weeks and to get a range of bids, including one that would not involve financing. Rachel and Miri will put together a summary of the bids and a proposal for what the end product of saving the barn would look like. They’ll circulate the proposal to the board before sending it out to the whole community.
Schedule
It is resolved that we do another meeting before the end of the year. Once the bids for the barn come in and we have business to discuss, we can set a date.
The meeting was held remotely by video. Minutes courtesy of Rachel Dretzin.