DRUM POINT VILLAGE
WEST HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION
MINUTES OF THE BOARD MEETING
February 26, 2003
Board Members
Present: Paula Groppe, Ed Kocher, Gene-Ann Pesano,
Dolores Tappert.
Covenant
Committee Members Present:
Gladys Pfeiffer
Homeowners
Present: Lynn Monteiro,
Herb Armstrong, John Casper, Helen Bertch, Denise Wujciak, Sharon Grigor
Ed Kocher called
the meeting to order on February 26, 2003 at 8:17 p.m.
Ed Kocher made a
motion to approve the minutes of the January 2003 meeting of the Board of
Trustees. Gene-Ann seconded the motion. All were in favor. Unanimously
approved.
Gene-Ann made a
motion to wave the reading of the Actions of the Board. Ed Kocher seconds that
motion. Ed Kocher also made a motion to add the Actions of the Board to the
minutes. Paula Groppe seconded the motion. All were in favor. Unanimously
approved.
Actions of the
Board
January 9,
2003 to February 26, 2003
v
Landscaping
Ø
Final
winter leaf removal performed for entire property
Ø
Additional
leaf removal was done on one unit that could not be done properly before
because of the Township equipment and crew being at that unit on the same day
as the original leaf removal
Ø
Winter
fertilizer applied to all lawn areas
Ø
Proposals
requested from landscapers for the FY2004-2005 seasons. Two landscapers replied
(including our current landscaper).
Ø
Managed
snow removal process after the President’s Day storm
v
Siding
Ø
Certainteed
was here on 1/22/03 to inspect all siding for manufacturing defects. No manufacturing defects were found; all
problems appear to be installation problems.
Ø
Letter
received from manufacturer detailing the nature of the problems found with the
siding installation
Ø
Gutter
replacement project scheduled for Mignatti units. Originally scheduled to be
completed by end of January, but weather conditions have precluded this from
being done on schedule.
v
Drainage Project
Ø
Letters
sent to all homeowners and tenants regarding “mold” issues and inspection
findings for 56 White Swan Way.
Ø
Letter
received from Township regarding the status of the drainage project
Ø
Summary report received from the township re second
inspection of 56 WSW. This inspection included air samples and vacuum samples
from the floors within the unit. Summary indicates that no “marker” spores
(markers include black mold) were found within the unit during this second
inspection.
v
Chimney Caps
Ø
All
County Aluminum contracted to replace chimney caps on Miller units. Originally
scheduled to be completed by end of January, but weather conditions precluded
this from being done on schedule. Installation completed on 2/25/03.
v
Covenants Committee
Ø
Letters
sent to specific owners regarding continuing violation of keeping garbage cans
outside of the units
Ø
Daily
inspections are being done on 2 units that are in continuing violation and are
being fined daily for these violations.
Ø
Only
one unit remains in violation.
v
Pool Removal
Ø
New
law firm sent demand letter to Mignatti warning of imminent law suit
Ø
All
correspondence requested from Don Steel’s (former Association attorney) file to
be forwarded to current attorney
v
Miscellaneous
Ø
Advised
All County Aluminum of 4 roof repairs needed and front porch post repair from
flag pole bracket.
Ø
Newsletter
distributed to all homeowners and tenants
Ø
Response
forms distributed to all owners regarding proposed new rules (pet and garbage
cans).
Ø
Transcribed
minutes from the January Board meeting
Ø
Located
contractor to remove large snow drifts from the roofs of the units prior to
expected heavy rains and set priorities for the roof snow removal process
Ø
Responded
to 20 phone calls from various homeowners
Ø
Responded
to 13 phone calls from various outside parties
Ø
Read
or responded to many different faxes and e-mails from homeowners and outside
parties
Ø
Interviewed
attorney to represent the Association as general counsel in light of Mike
Sicola moving out of state.
Ø
ADR
mediator advised us that a homeowner requesting ADR was non-cooperative in the
process. The ADR mediator advised the homeowner and the State that, in light of
the homeowner’s non-cooperation, the ADR file was being closed.
Ø
State
DCA advised Association to provide one last opportunity to homeowner requesting
ADR, using date certain termination of ADR if homeowner did not cooperate with
ADR process by February 7, 2003. Subsequently, the homeowner scheduled the ADR
session for March 20, 2003. Homeowner advised by DCA that further delays by the
homeowner would no longer be acceptable.
v
Web Site
Ø
Added
latest Actions of the Board to the home page and moved old Actions of the Board
to the archives page
Ø
Added
February newsletter and moved old newsletter to the archives page
Ø
Changed
date/location for next board meeting
Ø
Added
announcement for Annual meeting to the home page, created nomination form and
added a link to the nomination form
Ø
Added
proposed rule changes to the home page
Ø
Added
latest financial report to the Financial Info page
Ø
Added
proposed FY2004 budget (including pie graphic) to the Financials page
Ø
Added
fax cancellation announcement to the home page
Ø
Updated
water restrictions on the home page
v
Financial
Ø
Demand
letter sent by collection attorney to homeowner whose is account is
substantially past due. No response received from that homeowner
Ø
Instructed
collection attorney to file lawsuit against the substantially past due
homeowner seeking all past due balances, one year in advance, and all costs of
collections including attorney fees.
Ø
FY2004
budget proposal prepared for presentation to the Board
Ø
Homeowners
advised via newsletter of potential monthly increase for FY2004
v
Annual Meeting
Ø
Initial
announcement letter and Trustee nomination forms sent to all owners. To date no
nominations have been received.
Ø
Meeting
space finalized
Ø
Advised
township to have a representative at the annual meeting to address drainage
project / mold questions and concerns
Ed Kocher received
a letter from the Township that he read at the meeting.
For the record Ed
Kocher stated that he will not be including the letters from Mrs. Bertch as an
attachment to this letter. Just the
letter itself is being part of the
minutes. Ed Kocher stated that he would like to note that first of all as far
as the first piece that the more substantial and more expensive, we've made
that clear in the letter, or at least in a phone conversation, that with all
due respect, cost is not our issue, that is the Township's issue. As far as the
crawl space inspections, Ed Kocher spoke to Mr. Priolo on Wednesday the 19th,
and Mr. Priolo stated that although he will be on vacation this week (current
week we are in now), the beginning of next week he will get back to Ed Kocher a
list of times and dates that his team of people will be available to make inspections.
Ed Kocher made a suggestion to Mr. Priolo to give him dates and times allowing
for breaks, allowing for appropriate amounts of times to do visual inspections
in the crawl space. Mr. Priolo would then give those to the Board and then we
would go door to door and get people to
fill in names for those times and then pass that list back to him. Ed Kocher
assumes that at or about the same time we will be getting a "permission
slip" from the Township as far as the homeowner giving the Township the right
to enter their unit to do those inspections. They are going to start with
visual inspections and based on their visual inspections they will then be
doing more further detailed inspections potentially such as the type that was
done to Mrs. Bertch's unit on an as needed basis. Ed Kocher stated that was about all the information we have for the drainage project at this time.
Ed Kocher believes that push come to shove they will execute the remediation
plan at their cost. Paula Groppe stated that she has a "little pool"
in her crawl space from after the snow. The Township did do damage to the
sprinkler system at the rear of building 1 and 6 in the amount of $537.95. We
had that repaired. The Township has agreed to pay it. In fact, in the mail that
Ed Kocher just got there is actually a statement to sign and they are then
going to send us a check for the $537.95.
Gene-Ann stated
that the representative from Certainteed was here with 2 people from All County
(Brooke & Mararello). The Board now has a letter detailing what they found
but the summary is that they found no manufacturing defect. They did find quite
a few installation defects and he has outlined exactly what they were and what
building they saw them on and depending on what the installation problem was
and what the results are that you see. All County did make a comment to him
while he was here that all he needed was a work order from us and they will fix
it. In Gene-Ann's follow-up
conversation with him on the phone, she asked him that once a piece of siding
is bent it will never be straight again so with that being said she stated that
the siding would have to be replaced and asked if the pieces of siding would
match and he told her that they probably never would. In figuring out what we
want to do about this, we need to take that into consideration as well. In some
instances the color mismatch might look worse than a little bit of waving and
the color mismatch we would have to live with. Ed Kocher would like to speak to
Fred Weintraub and Ed Kocher thinks that in the immediate future, any further
conversations about our relationship with Certainteed and with All County
regarding this specific issue should be done in closed sessions only because he
thinks we are going somewhere with this and he doesn’t think that should be
done in a public fashion based on the fact of potential litigation. Gene-Ann
wanted to mention that Fred Weintraub spent several hours with her on Sunday
before the inspection, taking her around and showing her what to look for and
what not and she would like to thank him for his help. Ed Kocher stated that
just for the record, when you said you talked to him on the phone afterwards
you were talking about the Certainteed representative. Gene-Ann stated that
this was correct.
Ed Kocher stated
that he sent an e-mail out to everyone that has e-mail and when we do the Board
mailing in the next couple days he will be sending out a letter to all
homeowners advising them that our fax services have been shut off because they
wanted $10. per month to continue the fax service. The reason for that is
because we've exceeded what they consider to be an acceptable monthly average
for their free service. They consider 20 pages a month to be acceptable. The
letter stated that a single homeowner sent us 485 pages of faxes in a period
from May of 2002 to the beginning of February and everybody else combined was
approximately 170 pages. Without that homeowner doing what they did we would
not be having the problem but Ed Kocher does not feel that it is appropriate to
spend the money on fax services when we get so little faxes and a lot of the
faxes that we do get from people other than that homeowner are not an immediate
need and if we really had an immediate need for vendor we can give them an
individual number for either the fax machine at work or at a private home. Ed
Kocher must also note while this homeowner may disagree with him, many if not
all of the faxes received during that period were not of an urgent nature which
didn't require them to be faxed.
Ed Kocher sent all
of the Board Members a proposal that he would like the Board to sponsor. Ed Kocher
made a motion that the Board sponsor the proposal on the proxy statement.
Gene-Ann seconded the motion. All were in favor. Unanimously approved. Ed
Kocher stated that the Board is sponsoring the snow removal amendment to be on
the proxy statement as a board sponsored and recommended proposal.
The Board received
about 3 or 4 specific complaints from homeowners about the snow removal. Ed
Kocher estimated that 13 to 15 had very positive comments about it. Our streets
were kept clear for emergency vehicles at all times which is the most important
thing that we told Mr. Morano that he had to do. In fact on Monday during the
snowstorm, the Fire Department had to get in here and they were in fact able to
access the neighborhood. There was a gas leak in a unit and they were able to
get in here. On Tuesday an ambulance had to get in and they did safely. Within
twelve hours after it stopped snowing, everyone's driveway was cleared enough
so that they could get their car in and out. Everyone's walkway was cleared
enough and at least has a 3-foot wide path so they could get in and out of
their unit. Within two days after the end of the storm, we had all the cars
that were buried in street dug out. Within three days from the end of the
snowstorm the streets were cleaned curb to curb. The Police Department noted
that we are the only Condominium Association that was cleared curb to curb that
quickly and they thanked us for that. There was damage to three different cars by
the snow crew. As far as Ed Kocher knows, Mr. Morano has stated that he will
have those cars repaired and apologized for that damage. Gene-Ann stated that a
couple of hours before the meeting she drove around Brick and noted that Drum
Point Village West is still the only Condominium Association that is cleared
curb to curb. Gene-Ann found one other development located on Herbertsville
Road that are very large single family homes that was cleared but a private
contractor definitely did that. Gene-Ann stated that the Board is hearing a lot
of criticism that we are not fast enough in getting the snow picked up. One of
the things that Gene-Ann believes that the homeowners did not know is that the
Township pulled all plows off the road all night Monday night. Three Townships
did that: Brick, Lakewood and Toms River. If there was more accumulation that
people were not satisfied with, that is why. The Township would not allow it.
Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority came by here at 4:00 Friday
afternoon to dig out our fire hydrants and Gladys and Gene-Ann saw them. Ed
Kocher stated that the Association is not required to dig out fire hydrants.
Gene-Ann stated that in the Asbury Park Press she was reading about the number
of different Senior Citizen Associations that were not dug out. There were 115
roof collapses in Ocean County. The fact that Ed was able to get a roofer to
come in here Friday was astonishing. Ed Kocher stated that for the record there
were a lot of people that told him about tabs from shingles that they found
that basically got torn off the roof. Ed Kocher suspected much was going to
happen and he spoke to Brooke at All County before they did the job and they
agreed that if there was a small concentrated area that had a lot of damage,
that they would rip out those entire shingles and leave new shingles or just
individual tabs. By the time it rained on Saturday all the roofs were cleared
and as far as Ed Kocher is concerned, there was not a single leak due to the
rain. All in all, Ed Kocher stated that he believed they did a good job and it
is a fact that we fared much better than almost any other private community and
a lot of public streets in the Town and the County. It costs us a bundle
though. It costs us almost $20,000. 00 for that storm including the roof. Ed
Kocher stated that it was an estimate + or - $2,000.00. As of January 31st we
had spent $9,000.00 on snow removal which was just slightly over our budget on
snow removal for the whole year. Since that time we have spent another $30,000.00
on snow removal.
On February 11,
2003, Dennis Drasko (Attorney that the Board hired as special council for the
pool removal), mailed Steve McKenna of Mignatti companies a letter that
basically said that their standing offer that has never changed over the last
year and a half of $70,000.00 is still unacceptable. They've never given us a
basis for it. We want that basis or we are going to file suit and he gave them
a date certain when we would file suit. Three days later, Mignatti companies
sent a letter back that basically said, In their letter dated August 23rd to
us, he said he wanted to detail explaining what had transpired with the
previous Boards and the amount being offered. In Ed Kocher's opinion he did that
to some degree but not the degree that we wanted. We also disagreed with his
basis in that letter. He said that
there is no question in his mind to the correctness of the amount he offered
which we disagree with and while he said we are free to take this matter to
court, he would rather meet with us before we file to discuss it face to face.
Unless anyone has an objection, Ed Kocher is going to ask Mr. Drasko to make
arrangements for that meeting and then coordinate it with all the other Board
Members and as many of us that can go would go. Now the problem is ,it will
either be in Roseland or it will be out North of Philadelphia. No matter what
we do, it's going to be a trek but we have to have it. It's the first time that
Mr. McKenna has actually done something other than shove his fist at us. That
is the only thing that Ed Kocher has on the pool removal.
Ed Kocher said
there is a letter from Scott Mac Fadden of the Township that is evidently being
sent to all homeowner associations. Ed Kocher read the letter at the meeting.
Ed Kocher takes it
that the Township is going to then compile this info and give it to contractors
to say if you go into this Community you may not do this until you do that until
you contact or get permission.
The financials were
passed out to the Board Members and the homeowners. The Board members also
received a detailed list of those unit owners that are in arrears and those
unit owners that have paid in advance. Just as a point of notice we talked
about snow removal costs. The snow removal you see in here of $9,121.00 is of
January 31, 2003. It does not include anything from February. Also note that at
the bottom of the second page on the bottom of the operating fund column, is
says excess of revenues over expenses without our snow problems we are in
budget. We have $2,178.00 remaining. We would have had very small surplus
estimating between $1,000.00 and $3,000.00 would've been our surplus at the end
of the year if mother nature had not played this trick on us. Other than that
there are no real biggies that are in here. They are pretty much the same stuff
that we've had every month. A unit owner made a note that the trees and
landscape were damaged by the snow and they need to be repaired. Gene-Ann stated that it is hard to tell until the
snow goes away because it is amazing how some of the landscape and trees will
come back. Ed Kocher stated that some of the trees that are broken will be
replaced and others should be able to be tied together if they are just bent.
Ed Kocher stated that there is no guarantee on our budget. Ed Kocher stated
that we have spent money on the lawns to get them going and hopefully the
precipitation will continue through the spring. The reservoir should go online
next Fall. This summer will hopefully be the last that we would run into the
typical summertime Brick problems. If there is a statewide drought of course
they can say that you can’t water. Ed Kocher stated that we have $5,000.00
sitting but he doesn't really see it happening. And even if we did have our own
well, that wouldn't guarantee us that we can water.
The budget
proposals were handed out. The right-hand column shows our estimated expenses
that he estimated as of today what he thinks they will be in approximately 40
days from now which is the end of our fiscal year. The middle column is what we
actually budgeted for this year and with the exception of insurance and snow
removal, we are at or under budget for almost everything here. The one
exception being water , which we are way under budget for obvious reasons
because we didn't use any water, we have said that the $5,000.00 that was left
in there we would chalk up to putting seed in the lawns. Re-seeding the lawns
cost approximately $10,000.00 and we said okay half of it will come from there.
So without the snow removal we are in pretty good shape with exception of
insurance. The $14,300.00 was not just a pie in the sky budget figure. That was
our cost of our prior years policy with 5% added on for inflation. The policies
that expired in October of 2002 were $14,300.00 give or take $100.00. The
policies that expire October 2003 now are $23,800.00 and the latter portion of
the next fiscal year Ed Kocher expects another increase. People are telling him
somewhere between 20% and 40%. Average consensus is 30%. So even at the $10.00
per month increase, we're still under budgeting insurance. Legal fees we overspent
and we are getting into another period where we are going to be using attorneys
more than we would like to. Bookkeeping and auditing fees were left the same.
The $7,600.00 that's in this year is less than the $8,100.00 and Ed Kocher
can't remember why but he believes it had something to do with the amount you
told me about that we put into the books. He closes the books March 31st and
puts in what he expects his fee to be and his fee came out to be less than what
he expected it to be. The Insurance went through the roof as everyone can see.
Irrigation maintenance we overspent on. The $5251 will be reduced by the
$500.00 so we will be at $4700 and change once we get that money back from the
Township and Ed Kocher budgeted $4,000.00. In the Spring, much of any damage we
find during the turn on is going to be the Township's responsibility as well.
Ed Kocher added in more than what was budgeted for this year with the lawn and
landscape because we have another 4 months of that $10,000.00 to pay off for
the remediation. As John pointed out, we are probably going to have to do other
things so Ed Kocher anticipated some of that when he did this. Tax and
Registration Fees are expected to be the same - $35.00 unless the state doubles
the fee from the $15.00 that it was last time. The electric isn't expected to
change. Ed Kocher is just taking the standard water usage and adding the water
increase that came up to $2,000.00. As far as replacements, Ed Kocher is not
changing anything except for the general reserve. We now have approximately
$50,000.00 in the general reserve account. If we get pinched for something then
we have to deal with it. It is what it is. All the other reserve accounts were
things that we know about that we are going to have to do in X X number of
years. Those amounts should cover 80,90 or 100% of the cost of roof
replacement, siding replacement, fencing replacement and painting if we keep
funding at that level so Ed Kocher did not want to reduce those. Ed Kocher made
this clear in the letter that he sent to everybody in the newsletter last
month. Other than that, we are basically going from $142,500.00 to $153,900.00
in revenues. That represents $10.00 more per unit per month. That is the 1st
increase (other than the special assessments for siding, etc.) in about 4 1/2
years. Regarding insurance, it appears that individual homeownership insurance
coverage doesn’t appear increased very much. Ed Kocher received a phone call
from a disgruntled homeowner from another condominium complex in Northern New Jersey.
His developer is still in control. He had run for one of the seats on the Board
and wasn't successful. He wanted to know from Ed how much our Insurance rates
went up because their’s went from $60,000.00 to $200,000.00. It is a much
larger complex, it's senior citizen, they have a lot of slip and falls. Ed
finally got him to realize that they grew by about 50% plus the 100% increase.
Ed Kocher has spoken to property managers here in Brick and other condo
associations and again everyone went up from between 55% to 125%. For the record, the Township does not plow
snow if it is under 4" of snowfall.
Ed Kocher made a motion to accept the proposed budget as the actual budget
for the Fiscal Year 2004 beginning April 1, 2003 and ending March 31, 2004.
Dolores Tappert seconded the motion. All were in favor. Unanimously approved.
Garbage Cans - The reason why a rule is being proposed with the garbage cans is because it seems that in order to get 100% compliance we are going to have to have specifics written out that we can then enforce. The proposed rule is as follows:
Garbage cans and recycle bins are to be stored in the garage of the unit accept on the night before and day of collection. Failure to comply with this rule will result in the following:
· On the first instance of failure to comply the owner and, where applicable, the tenant, will receive a reminder letter informing them of their non-compliance and be given 10 days in which to comply.
· On the second instance of failure to comply, the owner will be assessed an immediate fine of $5.00. No additional notice of non-compliance shall be required to be given
· On the third instance of failure to comply, the owner will be assessed an immediate fine of $10.00. No additional notice of non-compliance shall be required to be given
· On
the fourth and all subsequent instances of failure to comply, the owner will be
assessed an immediate fine of $15.00. No additional notice of non-compliance
shall be required to be given. Each additional day in which the violation
persists shall be considered a separate violation for which the owner will be
assessed a fine of $15.00.
It was noted that a
good idea would be to write your unit number on your garbage can. A unit owner
asked who would be in charge for issuing the fines and it would decided that
that this would probably be the Covenant's Committee. Gene-Ann made a motion
that we except the garbage can proposed rule as read. Dolores Tappert seconded
the motion. All were in favor. Unanimously approved.
Proper Pet
Procedure - The Board has gotten countless complaints from homeowners who come
out and find dog poo on their driveways, on their lawn and walking down the
street. Quite frankly over the last week when the dog walking areas were not
available, you would find 3 or 4 piles of poo just on White Swan Way.
Gene-Ann's assumption is that homeowners don't pick up after their pets on the
street and probably don't pick up after them in the dog walk area either. Last
summer before the drought, at the mailboxes on Black Fox Trail, there were
maybe 20-30 brown, burned spots in the grass which is from dog urine. Gene-Ann
contacted the County Board of Health because cleaning up after your dog is
really a County Health Ordinance. The County e-mailed a letter back that stated
the following:
The Ocean County
Ordinance 95-1 adapted the public health code for all Municipalities in the
County. This code states that it is unlawful to maintain on your property any
accumulation of garbage, refuse, manor or animal or vegetable matter which may
attract flies and to which flies may have access. The Ordinance is enforced by
this agency. The fine structure is not less than $5.00 per day or more than
$500.00 per day. As an Association, if it was determined that you were
responsible for maintenance and upkeep of local areas, the Association will be
a party of responsibility pertaining to this ordinance. Basically if the Health
Department comes through the Association and finds dog poop on the streets,
then the Association gets fined. It is Gene-Ann's assumption that the fines
start at $5.00 per day and then moves up to $500.00. Gene-Ann also went online
to different condo associations and downloaded some of their rules and regulations
for their pet rules and what we're composing here is very typical.
Domestic pets are allowed to be kept by unit owners. Other than dogs, all pets are to be kept indoors.
For the maintenance of visual harmony and quality of life of all residents, the following rules apply to all dogs:
· Dogs may not be left outside unattended. If outside of the unit, the dog must be accompanied by the owner or the owner’s designee at all times.
· Dogs are not to be permitted to bark excessively.
· If outside of the unit, dogs are to be leashed or tethered at all times.
· Dogs are not to be permitted to urinate or defecate on the Limited Common Elements or Common Elements – this includes patios, walkways, streets, driveways, lawns, etc. There are two designated areas provided for walking dogs:
1) The undeveloped strip of land directly east of the Association’s property. This is to the far right of the entrance sign and shall be accessed from Drum Point Road.
2) The undeveloped area behind the mailboxes on Black Fox Trail beyond the landscaped area.
· Owners must pick up after their dogs immediately.
Failure to comply with the above rules shall result in a fine to the unit owner involved. For each instance of failure to comply, the owner and, where applicable, the tenant, will be assessed an immediate fine of $15. No notice of non-compliance shall be required to be given.
Ed Kocher stated that it has gotten so bad this week that he has found huge piles of dog poop smack in the middle of homeowner's driveways that don't even own dogs. Gladys Pfeiffer stated that she believes the pet rule needs to be revised because it is impossible as a pet owner to only let your dog relieve itself in certain areas. A suggestion was made to reword the pet rule by stating, Do Not Permit Your Dog to go onto a driveway or onto somebody else's property or common elements. Ed Kocher believes that we should write a background statement which basically states do whatever you can to make your pet not do this and this and this and then write a rule that is enforceable. Ed Kocher's personal pet peeve is when his son waits for the bus, he wants to play and there is dog crap on every square foot up by the front sign. Helen Bertch stated that she is not a dog or pet owner but she agrees with the fact that dogs cannot be controlled where they defecate, but she also agrees that it is disgusting. Helen Bertch stated that she is tired of taking dog poop off of her lawn, however, she feels that there could be some kind of equitable way that everyone can work together if you try to find a way. She feels that if everyone works together it can be fairly reasonable and get an area that is lit. Mrs. Bertch knows from experience at another Association that they have 2 dog walking areas and also have a dispenser that gives out bags should you find that you didn’t have one and your dog relieves himself. In addition to a trash can that they can then deposit it in. That is reasonable. Mrs. Bertch stated that it can be simple to conform, but Drum Point Village West makes it difficult for everybody. Helen Bertch believes that if we simplify it and you give them an area that is clean and well lit, they will go along with it because there are so many people here that are tired of walking in dog poop that they will make sure they do. Helen Bertch stated that this was her proposal instead of all this other nonsense. Ed Kocher stated that for the record on the East side of the property, a homeowner at their expense is providing clean-up tools and a trash receptacle to put dog poop in which is clearly there and has told every homeowner that has a dog and no one uses it. Ed Kocher said that he doesn't disagree with Mrs. Bertch's proposal it is the fact that it is already here and no one uses it. Gene-Ann stated that she owned, trained and bred over 30 dogs in her life and she can tell everyone that you can train dogs to go where you want them to go. Absolutely, without a doubt and it is not hard. It is not the dogs that we have to worry about training, it is the homeowners.
This discussion was opened up to all members present. Everyone felt that something must be done about this problem of homeowners negligence in picking up after their dogs and that it is unfortunate that rules need to be adopted for this type of situation .
The members had a variety of thoughts and suggestions pertaining to a viable and agreeable way to handle this for the betterment of our community. The fairest way the Board could think of was to appoint a committee of 2 dog owners and 2 non-dog owners
The Board will be asking for 4 people to work up a solution.
Ed Kocher nominated
Bob Martin for the Board and was seconded by Gene-Ann
Pesano. All were in
favor. Unanimously approved to be voted
on by the members at the General Meeting April 4, 2003
Gene-Ann Pesano
nominated Dolores Tappert for the Board and was seconded by ED Kocher. All were
in favor. Unanimously approved to be voted on by the members at the General
Meeting April 4, 2003.
Ed Kocher made a
motion to call the meeting closed. Gene-Ann seconded the motion. All were in
favor. Unanimously approved.
Ed Kocher duly
adjourned the meeting at 10:05 p.m.