·        Second Order of Business - Questions & Comments (Alternative Drainage Plan - Miller Homeowners)

Ken Bertch stated that he doesn't feel that this will [progress?] anything because the water will freeze on the driveway. Ken Bertch stated that the units on the opposite side [of the street] never have that problem because there is always sun. Ed Kocher stated that it is not that the other units don’t have the problem, it is just not to the same degree as those units that face North. Fred Weintraub stated that at least he was able to walk to his car with out having to go ice-skating.

Fred Weintraub also stated that he knows the Township's games and he wants the most effective remediation plan for the water intrusion and its consequences such as mold and mildew in the crawl space, with the least injury to the appearance of the units in the development that would precipitate the valuation of the property.

Fred Weintraub presented a drawing regarding the crawl space vent supports and the BOCA code that requires that they be “so far” away from the vent opening. Fred provided the drawing to Ed Kocher to be forwarded to the Township.

Fred stated that when he talked to Ed Kocher about this [prior to the meeting], Fred went outside and knew exactly what Ed was talking about [regarding the plan currently being offered by the Township]. Fred stated that in his opinion, for people that don’t have a background of what is going on, there are things that are going on now that did not conform to the architectural plans, did not conform to code, [The Township] got caught and that is why they are doing this – they have done other work for us before. The consequences of what is happening to our buildings is because of things that people have done years ago. Unfortunately, but that was then and this is now. The Township has stepped up to fix these problems.

Fred Weintraub had asked and he thinks that the Township has a responsibility to submit to us, the alternative possibilities for this repair. If the repair of these buildings means the tearing up of certain things, and the repairing of certain things, to keep us the way we look now, then Fred Weintraub stated that he doesn’t care what it costs. Fred Weintraub stated that he thinks we need to get the Township on paper, if they say this is the only way to fix it, [Fred] will find out. It needs to be put to [The Township] directly.

Ed Kocher stated that the only other alternative that [The Township] gave him was to attempt to do the same thing in the front as they did in the back. Originally they didn’t propose anything for the fronts and Ed Kocher knows from his unit, he has a water problem in the front. What they originally talked about doing was the backs only and Ed Kocher explained to Tom Respos of Birdsall Engineering in a conversation that they had about 2 years ago, [Tom] told Ed Kocher that they only have a plan to remediate the rear of the buildings. Ed Kocher made it very clear to [Tom] that that would not suffice and a plan had to be come up with for the fronts. When we finally got the actual drawing of the plans (which were presented to the homeowners at a Board Meeting some months ago), that plan only had the rear on it and we made it very clear that this would not be an acceptable solution. Ed also stated that he had advised the Township that, until they did something with the fronts, we would not consider our liability waived. Ed explained that we did offer The Township a waiver of liability for future problems related to the construction of the Miller units if the Township would get the foundation repairs done with a 10-year warranty on it ([those repairs] are obviously failing but that is another subject for another day), and if the Township did some kind of drainage remediation.

Ed stated that the real question is: [referring to the originally proposed plan for the fronts of the units] are we willing to pay the price down the road when these drainage pipes need to be replaced. Replacement won’t be cheap even if they are only 1 inch [below grade], it won't be cheap to replace them and as the pear trees get older more and more pipes will be damaged. If a pipe gets damaged and broken and clogged, instead of having water at least flowing into some area by the front of the door, it's just going to bubble out of that pipe and it will be worse than it is right now. So, that was the Township’s first proposal and then they came out and did the fieldwork. During that fieldwork they found out that, because of the grading, the pipes would be very shallow. So they came up with this plan [being presented tonight] as an alternative.

Fred Weintraub stated that he does not know that much about drainage, however he does know that to divert water it needs to go through a system. You can’t take all the water we have and flood it underneath a street because it will erode it. Fred feels that if you run a pipe down further, you have to create a different drainage system for it – deeper. Ed Kocher stated that it is the Township's problem to correct and he does not care if the Township only set aside $50,000.00 for this project. Ed Kocher also stated that if we go about this plan [currently being proposed by Fred], [the Township] will have to dig up everything. Fred Weintraub feels that for starters, take a quick trip to the store and pick up a nice [leader] pipe, don't attach it to the building, but it will show us the effect of the [Township’s current] plan.

Tony Lucante stated that when he first bought his unit, he had serious problems with water in his crawlspace and that it was not completely fixed by Miller’s men and that the smell was horrible. Tony stated that he had to replace all of the insulation in the crawlspace at his expense and it cost him several thousand dollars. He stated that when Miller fixed a problem with his toilet, that Miller’s men cut into the sewer pipe and did not fix that damage either.

A homeowner asked what is causing the problems – why do we need this drainage plan? Ed Kocher replied that it is his opinion, and not absolutely fact, that Miller and/or his partner and the building code inspectors for the Township of Brick, at the time they may have been working together, he feels that some form of gratitude may have changed hands, and an entire course of foundation is missing out of these buildings. While it appears that Drum Point Village East's foundations were done correctly (anyone who wants to can go to DPVE and take a look at the appearance of their foundations around the garages, ours are false foundations where the front of the garage has little bit of cement at the bottom. That's false foundation [wonder board]. That was so we could put up vinyl siding and to try to protect the sill plates and studs that are actually behind [the wonder board]. [DPVE] has real foundations. [DPVE] was built first. When Miller came in  and built DPVW, obviously corners were cut – by who, Ed was not willing to say and he doesn’t know for a fact, who cut the corners. Ed continued by stating As Fred was saying, the Township "got caught." They got caught because of what they did here, they got caught because of other things that were going on. They knew that the problems were much more widespread than they initially appeared to be on the surface. Then they saw what happened here when we brought it to their attention – and Fred and other homeowner's brought it to their attention years ago. Ed Kocher feels that the reason the Township [is willing to work with us] now is because they don’t want any more publicity of what went on during the mid and late 80's. Ed Kocher stated he was very pleasantly surprised when the Township basically for the most part, rolled over and said OK this is what we are going to do. Ed Kocher feels that if we go back to the Township, then we give them another proposal or ask them for additional proposals. If they don’t want to play the game our way then we will show up at the Town Council Meeting, it will be in the Township paper, you won't like that, the mayor won’t like that, the town council won’t like that, the building department won’t like that, the state of New Jersey won’t like that. So as long as we are not asking for something that is really unreasonable, Ed Kocher thinks that, in time, [the Township] will do what we ask them to do [regarding the drainage problem] as long as the request is reasonable.

Fred Weintraub stated that there are some units that are in such bad shape that the Township needs to step up and clean those [crawlspaces] out now – they can do the other stuff whenever they want. Fred stated that you can paint your walls after you sheet rock them but there are certain things you need to do to make it livable. We have a situation where there is a questionable health hazard in certain units, Fred doesn't know all of them. Fred went in his crawlspace and he knows exactly what the conditions are in his unit. He feels that there are some units that need immediate attention to them. Ed Kocher stated that he would take that to Scott Mac Fadden. Fred Weintraub made a suggestion to send a letter to Scott Mac Fadden that [states] right now we are overwhelmed by 40-some homeowners for an extended period of time and they themselves are just thoroughly amazed that the Township of Brick, all these people that are going to do the right things have not yet put in writing that they will take care of the remediation including the cleaning of the crawl spaces. I want it in writing to show the homeowners because they are refusing to put stuff on paper. Ed Kocher stated that Fred Weintraub is probably right on the assumption of it, but he hasn't asked them to specifically put it in writing yet. Fred stated that he believes we need it in writing.

Ed Kocher stated that all of the suggestions that were made by the homeowners were good ones, but it is still up to the Township to come up with a plan.

Arlene Lucante wanted to mention that the biggest problem that we are having is in the front. Ed Kocher stated that he believes some of the problems she was having some years ago (the smell) was caused by the broken sewer pipe down in the crawl, that was part of her problems.

Ed Kocher wants to make it clear though that to expand on what Fred was stating before, you don't know how well this is known, but it was a matter of litigation, and it was reported to our insurance company did all of this business; A homeowner sued us approximately 2 years ago, in which the gutter came down on their side of the garage and the ice was very thick. He notified us and we came and put salt and magnesium all over it. The homeowner started tracking all of this into his house so he then took a hose and washed it all off. The homeowner sued us because ice was there and he fell on it. Ed stated that Fred Weintraub made a suggestion [to move the leader pipes to the middle of the garages] (after the homeowner sued us and the insurance company took care of the matter and settled it). The same homeowner made the same suggestion, and at the time the Board decided that having the gutters in the center was the lesser of the evils. That is why we put the gutters in the middle between each garages. We know that it is not convenient but at least it is less of an impact on everyone vs. a very large impact on half of the unit owners.

Lori Gaynor stated that she also had an incident at another [condominium that has an almost identical situation] where she had to walk on the driveway and slid all the way to the bottom because they had thrown rock salt on the ice, the ice then melted and the water had no where to go and then formed into black ice.

Ed Kocher stating that, assuming that [the drainage solution] ends up being an underground solution where there is physically a pipe running under the street, if the Township wasn't willing to do it, we could then talk about the additional expense of cutting the driveway and installing a pipe to connect to [the Township’s] pipe and have the Township do it at the same time and then we will talk about dollars with the Township. We try to get them to do it first, but Ed Kocher doesn’t believe that it will fly because it is not directly related to the drainage problem.

Herb Armstrong made a suggestion to run a pipe under the sidewalk instead of running a leader pipe along the side of the building. Ed Kocher stated that, either way, we need to get that pipe to the street. Ed also stated that some units have pitched grading in the front, and some are rather flat. This would not allow the Township to run shallow pipes without having the pipes at, or very close to, the surface. Problems with foundations aside, last year we replaced 16 sidewalks because of the condition of their surfaces. Ed Kocher stated that he doesn’t believe that the maintenance of the [shallow pipe] system is going to be a non-expense and that is why he is concerned with putting shallow pipes below the ground. Bob Martin said that Herb Armstrong had an idea of letting them offer us a combination of roof drains where the pitches are proper and possibly drain into the street and gutter if the pitch is there for it and can be buried deep enough under the lawn.

·        Third Order of Business - Non-binding Vote

Ed Kocher asked to take a vote to see if there is any unit owners in favor of pursuing the “shallow pipe plan.” By show of hands, no one was in favor of the “leader pipe plan” [the pland currently being offered by the Township]. Two homeowners were in favor of the “shallow pipe plan.” Ed Kocher thinks that we have a consensus as far as what we want to do and what our next step is: that we will go to the Township and say, so far, neither of their proposals are acceptable . None of the homeowners were in favor of the “leader pipe plan” and less than 5 % of the people attending the meeting were in favor of the "shallow pipe plan" and we need the township to provide more options that are viable. Paula Groppe asked if we could ask the Township for underground pipes. Ed Kocher stated that we should let the Township come up with alternatives like Fred Weintraub suggested earlier. Ed Kocher stated that we are in a unique situation because of the type of problem we have; we are not the first set of condominiums that the Township has done remediation work to correct problems that were allowed to be made during construction.

Ed Kocher stated that we have been here almost an hour and we should move on to the next item on the agenda. There was no objection.

Note:   Although the homeowners were told that they could stay for the rest of the meeting, at this point, all homeowners left the meeting.

·        Fourth Order of Business - Trustee Voting

o       Ed Kocher made a motion to retain Mr. Arthur Raymond as special council to the Association. The purpose of Mr. Raymond is for performing collection actions against homeowner's that are delinquent on their accounts. His fee is 1/3 of the amount collected – that is added on to the amount that is due. The attorney will add his fee, which is 1/3 of the collection of the amount that is owed onto the amount that is owed prior to the collection act being taken. While in theory this shouldn’t cost us anything, in fact, it will cost us 11% of the original amount due from the homeowner. Ed Kocher said it took him a while to figure this out but, if the unit owner owes us $1,000.00, if you add $333.00 onto it, the attorney collects $1,333.00 and he keeps 1/3 of it, then we only get to keep $889.00. The judgment is $1,333.00, if the person pays $1,333.00, the judgment is satisfied and we can’t go back to them for the other hundred and eleven dollars. Gene Ann seconded the motion. All were in favor. Unanimously approved.

o       Ed Kocher made a motion to retain Mr. Dennis Drasco as special council to the Association, for any litigation that may come up and for any negotiation prior to that for recovery of pool monies. Ed Kocher doesn't have a rate from him but he assumes that his rates will be similar to that of Mike Sicola. Dennis would just be picking up from where Mike left off. Mr. Drasco is a construction attorney that has dealt with condominiums, often construction defects of condominiums. He is senior to Michael by several years. Bob Martin seconded the motion. All were in favor. Unanimously approved.

o       Ed Kocher made a motion to appropriate up to $12,000.00 from the roofing reserve account for the purpose of replacing the chimney caps on the Miller units and to award the chimney caps contract to All County Aluminum. Ed stated that we have 2 bids so far, both around the $11,000.00 range. The two bids were only $3 or $4 apart on a per unit basis. The other bidder was Acere Enterprise. Between All County Aluminum and Acere, Ed Kocher's personal opinion is to go with All County because we know them and we already have a relationship with them. Paula Groppe seconded the motion. All were in favor. Unanimously approved.

o       Ed Kocher made a motion to have Drum Point Village West join the Community Associations Institute. The cost is $195.00 for 1 year. Gene Ann stated that they do have a lot to offer because we would be having member benefits. Dolores Tappert seconded the motion. All were in favor. Unanimously approved.

o       Ed Kocher explained that our accountant, although he has not finished our audit, one of the things that he is going to put in the footnotes is the fact that we have more than $100,000.00 in a single banking institution and anything above $100,000.00 is not FDIC insured. Ed also stated that we get whacked with monthly fees that range from $5.00-20.00 a month. Ed Kocher spoke with a manager of the Brick branch of Ocean First Bank, and she said that she would do whatever it takes to get our business. Ed stated that he wanted a corporate account with no monthly charges and they told Ed that they have that product. Ed Kocher made a the motion to:

§         Open two accounts at Ocean First Bank (a Small Business Checking Account, and a Business Money Market Account)

§         Close our commercial checking account at Sovereign Bank

Bob Martin seconded the motion. All were in favor. Unanimously approved.

·        Fifth Order of Business – Selection of General Council

Bob Martin stated that he deals with a lawyer who has done a few closings for him and he also handles condominiums. Bob Martin asked for permission from the Board to approach him to see if he will give us a presentation as a permanent council because we are going to need one. His name is Jim Morris and he has an office in Red Bank but also works out of Brick. Ed Kocher says that if Michael works with us, we should stay with him. Paula Groppe and Bob Martin think that Michael hasn't done much for us and we should start looking around. Ed Kocher seconded Bob’s motion. All were in favor. Unanimously approved.

Bob Martin made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Paula Groppe seconded. All were in favor.

The meeting was duly adjourned by Bob Martin at 9:00 p.m.