Minutes from board of directors' meeting, Nov. 28

SGSTA board of directors meeting

November 28, 2007

In attendance: Art Carter (president), Steve Edgar (treasurer), Alex Witze (secretary), Debbie Edgerly

Location: #7519 (Witze’s house)



Art called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm.

The minutes for the prior meeting were read and approved.

Steve provided a treasurer’s update. Not all expense receipts have been received for the work on the mailboxes, and he requested that all outstanding receipts be submitted as soon as possible. When dues notifications go out for the first quarter of 2008, Steve will include a note to the effect that they are due upon receipt and that late fees of 6 percent per annum may be assessed as specified in the bylaws and discussed at the last BOD meeting. The association continues to be in the red for the year, primarily due to the expense of hiring the appraiser Hal Gearhart but also for other expenses such as the mailbox repairs.

Alex provided an update on the ICC. As discussed at the previous meeting she is in discussions with a lawyer who deals with eminent domain issues about representing SGSTA at the board of property review (which has not yet been rescheduled). She has also talked with the State Highway Administration appraiser who signed off on the state appraisal done on our property. In short, the SHA told her that we should be happy with the $102,000 evaluation as it was more generous than many other properties got.

There was some discussion of the surveys of the interiors of residences that the state is coordinating. Steve has already conducted his with a representative from the seismic company; others have not heard back yet regarding scheduling.

Debbie read the EPB update provided by Melissa. A second walk-around was performed on Nov. 10 to inspect all the homes. There were six homes that had still not complied with the findings from the first walk-around. Letters and pictures were mailed via certified mail to the owners and renters in those cases. In addition, five residents received letters regarding additional violations noted during the spot check. The date for compliance for all fixes is March 15, 2008.

Melissa has been talking to other townhome associations in Derwood regarding other potential landscaping companies. Some that have been recommended are Chapel Valley Landscaping and McFall & Berry Landscape Management. The Capitol contract is up in December each year and so it was decided to have presentations in the September time frame for 2008, as there is not time left this year to consider other contracts.

Steve has spoken with Bart of Capitol Landscaping regarding their service. There has been one leaf pickup this year, and fewer mows than usual. Steve will look into trying to get credit for the unused two leaf pickups, and any credit for the unused mows. Debbie mentioned issues surrounding tree trimming in the neighborhood; there are both small jobs such as dangling branches, and major prunings, which are covered under different parts of the Capitol contract. Such trimmings need to be spaced out properly with Capitol or else done through another tree-trimming services in order to save money, she recommended.

The board next discussed parking proposals. Alex re-proposed the plan she brought up at the last BOD meeting. This would mean giving every unit two hangtags to be placed in their vehicles. The hangtags would need to be displayed at all times, and any vehicle parked on Weatherby Dr. without a hangtag would be towed. Signs to this effect would be posted at the entrance to the community and at the end of the cul-de-sac. Towing would be enforced by an independent towing company such as Stronghold Towing; there would be no charge to the community other than the cost of the signs ($30 each) and hangtags. There was discussion as to whether this should be enforced 24/7 or only during the evening hours. Some residents have complained that parking is tight during the day as well as in the evening.

Art put forth an alternative proposal, in which each unit would be issued one visitor pass. The first vehicle belonging to the unit would be parked in the unit’s reserved spot, and the visitor pass would have to be displayed for any vehicle in an unreserved spot. Any vehicle parked in an unreserved spot without a visitor pass would be towed. The cars parked in the reserved spots would be described in a vehicle registration database with information on the owner’s name, make and model of the car. In addition, Art proposed allocating the final two parking spaces (the two left over after 31 units get 2 spaces each – there are 64 spaces total in the lot) to the most senior resident owners in the neighborhood.

Discussion ensued. Alex noted that a towing company would be unable to discriminate between reserved and unreserved parking spaces (since the numbers are painted only on the curb in front of each space) and therefore would be unable to tell which cars they ought to be towing. It was mentioned that perhaps there should be one ‘reserved’ hangtag and one ‘visitor’ hangtag for each unit instead. Alex is personally unsure why this is superior to having two hangtags with neither marked as ‘reserved’ or ‘visitor’. It is expected that residents will continue to informally monitor whether anyone is parked in their unit’s reserved space, and if a car is there that is not supposed to be there, either leave a note or go find the owner to make them move out of the reserved space.

The parking discussion did not result in any vote being taken, but a decision was made to table the vote until the next BOD meeting or until the annual neighborhood meeting. In the meantime Debbie noted that parking problems continue, with multiple units parking far more than two cars per unit. Alex will draft up letters to warn the regular offenders again and give them to Art to sign.

The next BOD meeting will be January 30.

The neighborhood annual meeting was scheduled for Sunday evening, Feb. 10, at a location to be determined.

The meeting was adjourned.