Red Fox Hills TownhouseAssociation

Annual Meeting

September 15, 2015

The2015AnnualMeetingoftheRedFoxHillsTownhouseAssociationwascalledtoorderbyPresident Karin Stolz on September 15, 2016 at7:00.

The President welcomed all to the meeting and noted that the main reasons for meeting is to inform RFH owners of the business conducted by the various committees this past year and of their plans for the upcoming year; to present the budget for next year and to elect two Board members.

President Stolz welcomed everyone who attended. She introduced current board members and explained their duties. Karin also asked all volunteers to stand and there was a round of applause as appreciation for all those standing. Karen also thanked Randy Goldsmith and the social committee for preparing the refreshments.

Motion was made to dispense with the reading of the minutes from prior Annual Meeting. It was seconded and carried with a unanimous vote and so approved.

Committee chairs gave reports on what they had accomplished this year.

AttendanceReport:

There were 43 residents attending the meeting. They represented 37 units which then added to the 23 unit proxies totaled a voting number of 60 which was lacking the quorum of 64 required to pass on motions relating to Section 3 and section 5 of the CC&R’s but was not necessary as no ballot vote was taken on these issues. See note below under “Ballotresults”.

CommitteeReports:

Architecture Review Committee(ARC):

Report was given by Steve Greer. He reminded everyone that all exterior alterations must be submitted to the Committee that meets the first Monday of every month. That Committee will work on the siding replacement and new paint colors.

Landscape:

The Committee Chair Sheila Hibbard presented thereport for the Committee along with the Plan Fact Sheet for the Master Grounds project which is included below.

RFH Landscape Committee AnnualPresentation

Introduce Committee Members: Myself, Deb Emmerich, Joe Dahl, David Lewis, Janet Kennedy and Rosemary Trierweiler. Teri McCulloh has left as a result of moving away from RFH.

Responsibilities: The Committee is responsible for all plant life outside of your unit, patio and porch. This is referred to as the Common Area.

Wealsohaveadualresponsibilitytohelpensuretheplantsandirrigationdon’tdodamagetotheexteriorsof thebuildings.

Accomplishments

Trees

  • In the last year, Joe Dahl and Collier have trimmed 80 trees away from roofs, gutters, buildings and patios and have also removed 8 dying or diseased trees. This is but a fraction of the trees on the property.

With warmer temperatures and shifts in weather conditions, Collier tells us that different bugs and

diseases are beginning to take root in our state. Some trees that are no longer being planted in either Oregon or WA included the Incense Cedars and Weeping Alaskan Cedars.

The last time there had been a major tree clean-up was in 2011-12. We are hoping that next year,

tree trimming can be kept to a minimum.

  • Lawns

We’ve heard from a number of you that you are pleased by the changes in the lawn maintenance and we’re glad to hear it. This is primarily as a result of moving our maintenance contract to Willamette.

At the beginning of our last fiscal, we reviewed our contract. We received 6 bids and Willamette stood out primarily because of its Rain Bird irrigation expertise and overall maintenance.

  • Pruning

Willamette has also been busy pruning throughout the year so we could get the plants – primarily those around our windows and in the beds back into shape. We should be in a much better situation come next Spring so the level of pruning should not be as severe.

  • Insect Spraying

Throughout the year, we have to spray the Rhodies and azaleas to protect them from disease. Over this last year, we were able to create an email notification system to give residents a couple of days’ notice prior to the spraying. If you are interested in being on that list, simply email

  • Irrigation

For those who are new to Red Fox Hills, our irrigation is a patchwork quilt of different types of systems. The biggest problem we have is the irrigation of the lawns and beds are connected. This means we can’t do a very good job of irrigated either.

We do, however, have a very sophisticated irrigation controller called Rain Bird. It is driven by the weather and calculates everything having to do with evaporation, weather, soil type, plant types, etc. By using such a system, we are able to save significant amounts of water and therefore cost.

One of our goals for this year was to bring our irrigation water consumption back down to 2010 and 2011 levels. We will be over that goal, but only by a little. As of the most recent billing – August 17th – we’ve managed to bring the cost down by 36% or $6,000.

We’ve also discovered that the newly installed drip systems are not UV protected. This means that exposure to the sun will degrade these systems faster than is necessary. These systems are designed to be under mulch or dirt and this has not been the case since they were installed several years ago.

  • Plants

With the extended heat waves, a number of plants became stressed and were lost. We will be addressing replacements once the Master Plan is completed.

  • Pesky Moles

The moles seemed less interested in some of the complex than the previous year. They have focused their efforts in front of buildings M, N and along the park side of L and K.

  • Budget

Our budget for next year will remain as it has been for the past several years, which is $79.5. Primary differences will be:

  • There will be less tree trimming.
  • A 2% increase in the Landscape Maintenance controls beginning in March of 2016.
  • Monies for new plants – With the Master Plan, we hope to address some of the eye sores around the complex.
  • Adding mulch to beds that are not next to buildings, drains or crawl spaces. One reason is we will be able to protect some of the newly installed drip systems. Second reason is the mulch will help retain moisture around some of the plants. Mulch also helps to make the beds look better and mulch costs as much as compost but last three times longer.
  • The Grounds Plan

In addition to the Maintenance RFP, we also issued an RFP for help in creating a Master Grounds Plan at the request of the Board.

From 6 bids, we selected LandCurrent to execute this plan. They have been busy since mid-June. They have executed interviews, site mapping and analysis, survey along with several workshops and fielding questions and issues after each workshop. The last input workshop was held September 3rd. The deadline for the Plan to be finalized is October 12th.

The Landscape Committee wants to thank all who participated in the LandCurrent tours, the survey and the workshops. We feel it has been a pretty exhaustive process in contrasts to previous processes surrounding landscape.

The net result will be a plan that will help both Landscape and Maintenance finally address some of the chronic problems we contend with year after year and presented to you back in June. Ultimately, it will allow us to decrease our water and maintenance costs.

Once we receive the final plan, a number of things will happen.

  1. Landscape will be contacting Clackamas County about possible grants and resources we can tap to implement the plan and defray our out of pocket costs. We’ve already been contacted by a representative from Tryon Creek about grant monies for ivy removal. We will be looking for more such opportunities.
  1. We will also be contacting the City of Lake Oswego regarding grants bio-swells and regarding its tree requirements.
  1. Landscape will be sitting down with Willamette to see how it can be involved in the process. Most likely, we will need to contact other outside resources for implementation costs.
  1. Landscape and Maintenance will sit down together to see which pieces we can strategically address to produce the quickest positive results.

You may have heard some mis-information about this Plan. We’ve put together a little fact sheet to address the issues we’ve heard about and I and the other Committee members are happy to answer whatever questions you may have about it.

How can you help? If you are aware of any grants concerning storm water, drains, bioswales, green landscapes, ivy removal, etc. please share that information with either me or Janet Kennedy.

The other way you can help is to keep an open mind about the Plan and about the proposed changes. This hasn’t been a haphazard effort. It has been professional and we believe the company selected has the experience and knowledge to help us achieve our goals.

Master Grounds Plan Fact Sheet

  • This Plan will require our HOA dues to rise or it will require an additional assessment. This is not true. Rather, this plan will help us spend our existing monies smarter while adding value to the complex. No one on either Committee or the Board embarked on this effort because we want to subject ourselves or other residents to higher HOA dues or to an assessment.
  • This is a gardening project. This is not a gardening project. Far from it. It is much more about figuring out how to keep crawl spaces from flooding, how to address some of the chronic drainage issues that plague certain areas of the complex, cut down on costly mutilation of trees around the buildings, reduce our need for costly water and lawn maintenance, address lighting (finally) and much more. Plants are a small part of this plan.
  • The Plan will remove the lawns. The lawns will remain. Rather, the Plan proposes replacing traditional grass with eco-grass alternatives that require less maintenance and less water. It is estimated that such grasses can save approximately 20% to 40% in maintenance and water costs. This would represent a lot of money to RFH.
  • The Plan will take away my privacy. No, privacy will not be taken away. If anything, privacy will be enhanced as the sidewalks will be much further away from units’ windows and there will be plant buffers on both sides of the walks – shielding you from the street as well as from passersby.

Feel free to send any additional questions or issues about this Plan to .

BuildingRepresentative:

The Committee Representative Vicci Martinazzi the report.

Each of our 15 residential buildings has an owner who acts as a representative for association needs. We want to thank all our Building Reps for serving their building residents so well. As you know, the responsibilities of the Building Rep are to welcome and orient new residents. In addition, if asked, they contact owners prior to vendor services and serve as conduits for Emergency Committee, contacting owners when needed. The roster lists the names of all BuildingReps.

Representatives met twice inthe last fiscal year. They met with Linda Folkestad who digitalized the formsincludedinthenewowners"move-in"packet;theymetwithDianeSchoenfeldoftheEmergency CommitteetodiscussprocedurestofollowinemergencysituationsandtheymetwithMarjorieLarson who explained their responsibilities to alert residents whose buildings are scheduled for pest inspection/treatment.RuthBaker,ourBoardLiaison,attendedourmeetings.

This year, our representatives met with ten new residents; they provided them with written information explainingregulations and procedures for interacting in our community (the new owners "move-in"packet); they assisted the insurance committee by asking residents about the electric and plumbing status of their respective unit and they contacted residents to help arrange for termite and pest inspections andspraying.

We had four outgoing representatives this year, Shirley Wizer, Eileen KaIberg, MarkOlsen and Marjorie Larson. Our current representatives are: Sue Coburn, Bonnie Klees,, CynthiaPapke, Aneta Englund, Linda Flynn, Christine Caton, Joe Calpin, Laraine Durham, Jane Lee,

Victoria Bramley, RitaKazmierski, AnnRansmeier,George Veto, Cheryl Perko and Louie Porte.

Thenewownersare:RosemaryTrierweiler,PatriciaHerron,AliceDechant,MarkWhiteandJanet Kennedy,KarinConklinCorriganandPatrickCorrigan,JaneHamilton,HowardGile,RachaelValdez, Arthur Martin and the Worthamfamily.

Social:

Social Committee members are: Ritz Kazmierski, Vicci Martinazzi, Tom and Jo McNamara and Chair Randy Goldsmith. Our board liason is Michelle Beaumont-Ash.

The Social Committee sponsors two major events a year: A winter holiday party and a summer event.

This year, the winter party was held on January 11th with the theme of “Chili Fest”. The committee provided chili and hot dogs and residents provided salad and dessert dishes.

The summer party is scheduled for this Sunday, September 20th, at 5:00pm. We are hosting a pizza and salad potluck for the third consecutive year. The committee will provide pizza and dessert with residents providing a potluck salad dish. Last year’s turnout was greater than expected so we are encouraging residents to RSVP by tomorrow so we can order the proper amount of pizza.

We are also featuring our RFH History Display at Sunday’s party. This collection was assembled in 2010 for our 40th Anniversary Party and features brochures, articles and photos from the development of RFH, and the preservation of neighboring land that would become Tryon Creek State Park.

Insurance:

The Committee Chair Deb Emmerich presented the report.

Responsibilities:

1.Researchandrecommendinsurancecompanycoverageforassociationpropertyandliability,and present it to theBoard.

2.Verify and record insurance coverage in place for all vendors/contractors used by RFH. This is being handled by Treasurer Ruth Baker.

3.Act as conduit between owners and the insurer.

The RFH Association Insurance coverage is currently written with Community Association Underwriters of America, Inc., which is part of the QBE InsuranceCorporation.

This policy renews in February. At that time we will be working with our association insurance agent to explorethemarketsavailablefortownhomeassociationstogetthebestcoverageatthebestprice.

Every January unit-owners receive an updated Certificate of Insurance evidencing all the insurance that is in place through the association, to protect your property and assets. This generally comes to you with a bill for your portion of the associationpremium.

Red Fox Hills Townhouse Association insurance program changed dramatically at the last renewal when the insurance market we had been insured with for years (Community Association Underwriters) made an underwriting decision to no longer insure properties with galvanized pipes. Since many RFH units still have galvanized pipes, our property was no longer eligible for their market. As a result of losing that market, we also lost our inexpensive earthquake coverage. Our insurance agent was able to find other options, but they came at about twice the cost of the coverage we had in the past.

As before, our current insurance carrier provides liability and property coverage for all common property, the buildings and everything inside the building that is permanently attached. We also carry earthquake coverage on the buildings.

You should all have received a Certificate of Insurance evidencing our current coverage last January. New owners should have received a copy from their realtors. Copies are available this evening on the table for those of you who need one.

After about seven or eight years as your insurance chair, I tendered my resignation to the board effective July 1, 2015. Jeri Riggs has stepped up and agreed to be your new insurance committee chair.

For the same number of years, John Fowlks spent many hours collecting evidence that our contractors and vendors carried adequate insurance. Many thanks to John for his time and tenacity; Ruth Baker will now provide this service.

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Maintenance:

Skip Baker presented the Maintenance Committee information. He talked about the siding and color changes proposed for RFH. There was discussion and some questions. Karin called for a vote and it passed by an overwhelming margin. See below for details and questions pertaining to the Siding project.

As a reminder, there are two ways of reporting job requests to ourcommittee:

1.Report your request online at R

2.Complete a paper request form (located in the plastic file container outside the East door of the Clubhouse. You can place your completed forms in the RFHTA mailbox (3000 Bonniebrae) and they will be forwarded to our committee. Please, no phone calls as many of us still work regular businesshours.

The Maintenance Committee is charged with maintenance of the common areas and exteriors of buildings. The “Area of Responsibility” document defines owner and HOA responsibilities.

We meet most first Wednesdays of the month at 6:30 PM in the Clubhouse. All are welcome.

The log at and paper forms are the best way to communicate with us. We always need new volunteers to help with research, planning, project management, IT, etc.