DATE: March 3, 2007
TO: John Beebe
Paul Romere
Larry Phelps
Debbie Guanci
Jon Robison
FROM: Terry Beebe, Acting Secretary for Sue Ann Gaherty
CC: Bill Swapp, Architectural Review Committee Chairperson
Terry Beebe, Welcome Committee Chairperson
Owners: All with e-mail addresses
RE: Minutes of the DeerValley Board of Directors’ Meeting on February 28, 2007
The Board of Directors’ meeting was brought to order at 6:37 PM on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 at the home of Bill and Mary Swapp. Directors present were John Beebe, Paul Romere, Larry Phelps, Debbie Guanci, and Jon Robison. Also present were Committee chairpersons Bill Swapp and Terry Beebe and guests Bob Deitz, Sandy Robison, Betsy Romere, and hostess Mary Swapp. Sue Ann Gaherty (Secretary) was out of town.
MINUTES
The minutes from the January meeting were submitted. One correction was noted that the Davidson’s (Lot 14) were given until the end of April to complete the exterior of their home. The published minutes indicated April 1st. Larry Phelps made a motion to accept the corrected minutes; Paul Romere seconded the motion and the minutes were approved.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Debbie Guanci talked to Eric Raburn at State Farm Insurance about the liability to the Association from volunteer workdays. Attorney’s fees would be covered if an individual sued the Association. If we hire someone outside the Development and they don’t have insurance and they started a wildfire, we would be covered for everything. Someone would actually have to go to court and sue the Association to collect. Bill Swapp said that if someone were hired as our agent, they would likely be covered, but it would be expected they would have their own insurance. If we rent equipment, there would not be coverage for damage to the equipment. Directors are well covered. If a volunteer owner gets hurt working for the Association, their medical bills could be covered up to $5,000. If for some reason the Association were found negligent in the volunteer’s injury, our liability would be covered by our policy.
The Owner who hit the gate and broke the bottom roller has been billed and has promptly paid for the cost of the new roller. John Beebe & Paul Romere recently replaced the broken roller.
Lot 10 currently owes $3,979 in back dues and penalties. Paul Romere recently contacted him via email and he replied that he intends to pay soon.
Lot 41 - Debbie filed a lien on this property for $278.22 and talked to the CountyTreasurer about whether we would ever get paid since the property is in foreclosure. He said likely not. Bill Swapp said if the property sold for more than is owed, we may get paid. He also said our lien may survive a foreclosure sale.
Expenditures – Debbie paid the $10 to the State for Colorado incorporation by renewing online versus the $100 if done in hard copy. We paid $263 in legal fees for the fencing issues. John authorized Debbie to buy 10 more gate transmitters for $315 to sell to owners. Debbie paid federal taxes of $89. She reported that the checking account now stands at $29,825. She also reported that $3,019 has been paid so far this season for snow removal which excludes plowing for the most recent snowfall.
John said that we have a problem at Troutman’s driveway with the culvert being frozen and the water running into the road from the recent melt. He will try to unplug the culvert when weather permits.
ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW COMMITTEE REPORT
Bill Swapp paid Larry Phelps a compliment as he had helped Scott Davidson install about half of the remaining siding on the front of his home. The Davidsons hope to complete the siding within the next 2 weeks. He also reported he had received plans for the Davidsons to build a 2-car garage.
WELCOME COMMITTEE
-Terry Beebe reported that there has been no activity but plans are being made to visit several new residents. After a discussion about how much difficulty the Committee has had getting together to make visits to new residents, two new members volunteered for the Committee – Betsy Romere and Sandy Robison.
OLD BUSINESS
NEW PARCEL BOXES
-Debbie Guanci has been talking to Melinda, who is the new postmaster in Bayfield, and reported she has not been very responsive. We have 63 regular mail boxes now and we will need another 16 boxes (minimum) that will cost $1,500 for just the boxes, not the posts. She suggested placing them at the end nearest the road and she feels there is room to put another group of parcel boxes on the opposite end. We may have to widen the driveway a little depending on the dimensions. Debbie had not gotten information on additional parcel boxes. Terry Beebe said that she would send Debbie two websites with information on mail and parcel box alternatives. Larry said they put a lot of new boxes in at ForestLakes and he would check to see where they obtained them. Paul Romere said that when we put the boxes in originally (then provided by USPS) we knew we would have to add at least one more set when the number of new residents justified it.
Larry said he felt we should consider modifying the mailbox area by combining the mail and paper boxes including putting a roof over it. He said he has some ideas on totally revamping the gate entrance area so the keypad would also not cause drivers to be on the wrong side of the entrance. He will continue to develop his ideas. Larry feels that we should be prepared to ask the membership for a commitment for money at the Annual Meeting.
PERIMETER FENCING
-John Beebe reported that he has finally gotten BP to give him direction on how to proceed with the fencing project concerning their pipeline and easement on the Fusco property. All we need to do is call for a “locate” a few days before we want to start working on the fence. John has left several messages for the Fuscos to discuss the fencing project, but has not had a response. John indicated that he might have to ask Pam Roach to see about getting in touch with them on the Association’s behalf. John also said that on a recent trip through Arizona, he observed that the fencing along the highways was very sturdy and that we may want to consider something similar for our perimeter fence. He also talked to Mike Atterbury at the lodge near the entrance and asked where he had gotten the pipe he used for his fence. Mike said there was a guy who sold used pipe for about $1 per foot on highway 140. Mike said he advertised in the Thrifty Nickel. Bill Swapp said the easiest way to do the fence bracing was with wood posts. After a discussion and Bill sharing that he had built a lot of fence, John asked him to help with the planning and installation process to which Bill agreed. Bill suggested we go to Blue Line Special and buy 100 flags to layout the fence. John said that some of the fence line is very steep with a lot of brush. He indicated that we would likely have to remove some trees. Larry suggested we should set aside a day in April and get the H braces in where they need to be which will make the rest of the project go quickly. Paul reminded the group that the Association owns a T post driver. Larry asked how we plan to pay for the fence move. Debbie said we were planning to take it out of the reserve fund if we didn’t have enough money left from the roadwork.
Status of conflict resolution committee. Les Kole could not attend the meeting, but reported to John that Paul Duggan had agreed to serve on the Committee.
Status of covenants aMENdments - Jon Robison reported that he has been sick for most of the past month and also has had difficulty with his computer; therefore, little has been done. John Beebe referenced his draft about a revised outside burning Covenant and reported Les Kole, from a Fire Wise perspective, had only commented about the last sentence.
Follow up on volunteerism - John said he talked to Terry about providing the meals for volunteer workdays. Debbie said we had talked about providing lunch for a big project like the fencing project. Paul said that we typically get 4-6 volunteers for workday. Bill said maybe we should change our thinking about workdays. Maybe we should have workdays less often and do special projects instead of a specific day each month. Larry reminded everyone that the point was to entice more people to volunteer by providing lunch and a little social time. It was decided that we would plan to provide lunch for big projects such as the fence and see how that is received.
Discussion of septic lagoon and well maintenance
Debbie Guanci researched a number of sources about septic and lagoon maintenance. She talked to Chad Englehart at San Juan Basin Health and was told that lagoons have to be fenced and they recommend vegetation around then to prevent erosion. He told her that if you maintain your septic properly, you should never have to add product to control odors. All of her research pointed to proper septic tank maintenance as the key to proper lagoon odor control. She learned from all her sources that septic tanks should be pumped every 4-5 years to ensure that solids do not flow into both lagoons and leach fields. (Attached is a complete report on her findings.) John said that lagoons should be fenced per the Covenants and Paul said some of our properties were grandfathered in before the county implemented the new requirement. Larry suggested that from a safety standpoint, all lagoons should be fenced and related that the County banned lagoons following a child drowning in one a few years ago.
Debbie also reported that she got information from Terrie Troutman on how to disinfect your water well. The information is from the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment and is also reproduced below as an attachment to the minutes.
It was agreed that this information should be placed on the Association website, included in the next newsletter, given to new residents by the Welcome Committee and handed out at the Annual Meeting. The Board also agreed that neighbors should approach neighbors whose lagoons smell as a first step for enforcement of Covenant 5.5.
Follow-up to proposed Owner Firewise meeting in april or may – Les Kole has someone lined up to speak at a meeting with our owners to get them thinking about cleaning up their lots before fire season. Discussion led the group to the conclusion that we will look for a public place to have a meeting and consider combining a presentation on the Forest Service Environmental Assessment (due in May) for more fire mitigation around the Development with the Firewise presentation. Debbie suggested that we put Firewise information in the upcoming newsletter.
Knox Box Sysem Revisited - John added an old piece of business to the agenda. Back in October when we discussed the Knox Box request for our gate entrance from the fire department, John emailed Chief Graeber that the Board had voted not to install the Box. John had failed to share with the Board the Chief’s reply and wanted the Board to know of it. John read the reply as follows:
Date: October 20, 2006
Hi John and thank you for your reply. I can appreciate the position of the Board and as the gate and entry system was installed years ago we are not able to enforce the installation. The addition of the Knox Box entry system in no way lessens security to the gate system and only enhances our ability to make entry during a fire or medical emergency. Please consider this reply our acknowledgment of DeerValley’s decision not to install the Knox access system. Please also note that this document will be kept on record here and in the event of a code failure or change that delays our access and response to a fire or medical emergency the Upper Pine River FPD will have to forward inquires and concerns regarding that delay to the Deer Valley Board of Directors. Rich
After further discussion about the implied liability to the Association in the event of delays for emergency personnel, it was decided that Bob Deitz and Paul Romere would revisit the cost of attaching the Knox Box to the existing keypad. John recalled that the Knox Box cost was fairly reasonable. It was concluded that the Association should do all it could to assistance emergency personnel including this requested access mechanism. Even with the Knox Box, we will still have to maintain the #0911 code for sheriff’s department personnel, animal control, etc. It was recognized that we have tried on several occasions to get fire department personnel to come learn how to open the gate manually and no one has responded. Bill agreed to draft a letter back to Chief Graeber concerning the need for personnel to know how to operate the gate manually along with our intent to install the Knox Box system.
NEW BUSINESS
Review board goals for the year
John had reviewed the Board goals for the year and determined that we are on track with two exceptions:
Succession Planning for Board –John reminded the Board that Debbie and Jon had taken responsibility for succession planning for the Board in light of the fact that three Board positions will become vacant this year. He also indicated that he has not decided whether he will run for the Board, but if he did, he will not serve as President since he will be gone for a couple of months in 2008 including during the Annual Meeting. Both Paul and Larry were non-committal as to their intentions to run, but all three indicated that if other owners would run they likely would not. None of them wanted to see a vacancy unfilled. Debbie also acknowledged that Sue Ann Gaherty would not be serving as secretary next year. The Board concluded that members need to be talking with other Owners about considering serving in these capacities.
Entrance Gate Planning – Jon Robison and Bob Dietz need to visit about gate alternatives and may need to visit with Larry about redesigning the whole gate area. John said the reason it was on a timetable this year was because we do not know how long the gate will continue to function properly. It has been doing fine this winter with the exception of the icing of the electric eye on cold mornings causing the gate to remain open until it thaws. Bob said we could go to a 1 HP motor for about $350. John said we need a plan for how we will replace the gate and/or operator when the time comes that either becomes too expensive to repair. We should be considering whether or not we would have a lift arm style or replace the roller gate. John said he understood that BP had replaced all of its roller gates with the lift arm style.
2007 road contract process - John observed that we have found some potential opportunities for securing mag. chloride or similar dust retardant and perhaps contract to buy the product direct and save money. There are 6 or more trees around the roads that appear to be dying and it’s obvious something is killing them - likely the mag. chloride. These trees are really too close to the roads anyway, but a more environmentally friendly dust controller would be more desirable. It was agreed that Larry would be the primary contact for our roadwork this year and should get with Bruce Neils soon to start the process. Bill Swapp agreed to talk with Desert Mountain Corporation, Paul Bessy, to explore mag. chloride alternatives. Debbie also reminded the Board that Rusty Chance in Aztec is a possible source for dust control materials.
Bob Deitz said that ElkValley is muddy this year since we added gravel last year. Larry said we really need a vibrating compacter after the gravel is put down. It also rained right after we put the mag. chloride down last year washing some of it off before soaking in. Larry has talked to several of his contacts and feels that we will not be able to get the same quantity/quality of materials in the future. The oil fields are demanding more and more materials and causing prices to rise.
April newsletter content discussion
It was agreed that we should have information in the April Newsletter about the following subjects:
- Firewise information for individual lot fire mitigation – Les Kole
- Water well & lagoon maintenance – already written
- 3 upcoming vacancies on the board and the need for a new secretary – Jon/Debbie