| Minutes Spring Meadows II Condominium Association April 7, 2011 Board Meeting 2:00 pm Morgan Collins 908 S. George St York PA Ben Glezer presided and called the meeting to order at 2:00 pm. Board members in attendance were: Glezer, Hamberger, Kimball, Kozak, Yingling Ben welcomed two guests who were invited by Phil Kozak and who are Board members of the Spring Meadows Home Owners Association; George Hatchard, President and Kathleen Smith, Secretary. Minutes of the January 11, 2011 Board Meeting as posted on the SM2 website were approved. SM2 & SMHOA Round table SMHOA represents about 160 homes and 80 condominiums; there are 7 remaining lots and 5 condominiums yet to be sold. Both associations maintain websites; the SMHOA website http://springmeadows.ning.com offers members blogs, member lists and personal web pages in addition to association reports. To enroll contact Kathleen Smith nednkat@comcast.net SMHOA publishes a newsletter to all members; news items from SM2 will be solicited before future newsletters are published. Kathleen and Phil will coordinate so that SMHOA has an evergreen current list of SM2 unit owner’s names and addresses. Grass cutting of the Lewisberry Road entrance on the condominium side is being duplicated. The area involved is small; thinking is that it probably would not result in a cost reduction to SMHOA if they were to amend their landscaping contract; SM2 desires to continue to cut all its areas at once; it was decided to err on the side of cutting too much versus too little and leave things as is. SMHOA has reviewed snow removal with the township and removing snow from walks along the common areas of SMHOA is not required; likewise, removing snow from the walks from the common areas of SM2 along Fox Meadow and Fox Tail is not required. SMHOA requires resale certificates when condominium units resell to assure they receive any outstanding balances owed them from the unit; they are to review the necessity of this from SM2 since we do not pay SMHOA fees by unit but as a group. SM2 had asked SMHOA for assistance finding teenagers to shovel snow. SMHOA has decided not to assist home or condominium owners find teen agers to shovel snow for legal/liability reasons. They are very assuring that there are several excellent teen agers in their neighbor who could assist. Recommendations are then for owners to “find your own”. A straightforward way to do so would be to become a member of their website and email members or post a blog. President's Report Ben Glezer thanked Phil Kozak for his efforts in compiling the financial summaries and surveys that were mailed to all unit owners in March. Declarant’s Report No new unit sales to report; one unit continues under contract to close by June. Keith Ahren’s continues to contact unit owners about repairs; doing larger items first. Reserve study costs for several construction items were submitted. Roof Leaks From Snow There were no reported leaks of roofs from snow this past winter. Landscaping Chairperson’s Report A proposal to line Fox Meadow and Fox Tail with 7 maples to match the maples already on the property, plant 6-8 pine trees along the retention pond and plant a weeping cherry near the low wet area of the entrance was presented. The Board was unanimous in the desire to have the Lewisberry entrance look beautiful to enhance property values of the community. Cost was roughly estimated to be around $4000 to $5000; capitalized over 25 years this would be 36 to 45 cents per month of the capital portion of monthly condominium fees. The proposal was approved by the Board. Spring Walk Around The Board will schedule a Spring walk around with W&S to take inventory of shrubs needing replacement, drainage issues and general conditions. Tentatively, it has been scheduled to occur at 10:00 am on April 15. Shrub Replacement Plans are to replace dead shrubs once a year in the spring. Replacement shrubs may or may not be exactly the same type of plant. Attractive shrubs at a reasonable cost and appropriate for the sun and drainage conditions of the plant location will be utilized. Owners are asked to water shrubs during dry periods to help keep our shrub replacement costs low. Summer Watering Last year we had to spend around $2000 to repair sod that did not survive the dry summer; owners are asked to water their shrubs and sodded lawns during dry periods. If you are going to be away for several days, please make arrangements with a neighbor to water in your absence. Water is the single best investment you can make to improve the appearance of the areas adjacent to your unit. Aeration/reseeding In the Fall Board is hoping that repairs from drought are minimal this year and we can use remaining monies to aerate/reseed more areas of the site. Water Drainage Issues Mulch resting against siding or stone work has been pulled back from the buildings. Why now? Over time, mulch decomposes and behaves more and more like soil. Removal of the mulch against the buildings avoids inevitable future moisture issues. Installing trenches in the beds to permit water to move away from buildings will also be done where needed. The mulch removal and trenching work in progress have been contracted not to exceed $2800. Markey has been asked to help pay these costs; Markey has agreed and will review and let us know how much they can help. Drainage between the buildings in the lowest area of Sloane Circle and the area from the Halstead Lane roadway to the retention pond have been pointed out to Markey; Markey will be grading around the new building under construction within the next week or two and will address those areas at that time. Maintaining Common Exterior Appearance and Appearance of Common Elements Per 68 Pa. C. S. §3213 (2) unit owners may not change the appearance of the common elements or the exterior appearance of a unit or any other portion of the condominium without permission of the association. The Board has received some complaints and some requests that deal with common appearance. It was first decided that while the Board is obligated to review all complaints and requests, all complaints and requests are not necessarily worthy of Board action and therefore each complaint and request will be judged on its own merit. Adding Newspaper Boxes To Mail Boxes The Board decided that all mail boxes should be similar; in other words, we either leave the mailboxes as they are or we add a newspaper box to every mailbox. Cost of the newspaper box would be $40.00 per unit. The old side has not installed newspaper boxes. Approximately 40% of SMHOA houses have newspaper boxes. The postman has verbally stated that it is OK to raise each mailbox by 4.5 inches to install newspaper boxes under the mailboxes. One unit owner has volunteered to do the installing; the Board suspects that if the association goes forward with the project, others would also chip in to assist. A survey of unit owners will be included the next time a USPS mailing goes out to all unit owners. Sealing Driveways Survey results so far show 8 Yes, 7 No and 6 Neutral . Based upon the information available and inquiries made by members of the Board, sealing of driveways was deemed to be cosmetic; filling of large cracks however is recommended; the Board therefore decided (1) to not seal driveways and (2) to fill large cracks when they occur. Plantings Around the Base of Mailbox Posts The Board has decided that all mailbox posts should be of similar appearance and have no plantings around them. W&S will be instructed to remove all plantings about all mailbox posts and to plant grass to repair the area. Deviations From The Outside Color Scheme Changes to the sliding door outside color scheme have been reported to the Board. The Board during it’s spring walk around will check to confirm and will then take appropriate action. Reserve Study Markey has provided construction costs of several items which allows compilation of the of reserve requirements to be started. Plans are to have the study complete for the annual association meeting. Secretary/Treasurer Report Budget vs Actual There are no surprises with Budgeted vs Actual spending year to date. Snow removal cost is our least predictable; so far we have spent $4825 of our $8000 budget. Spring Meadows Condos (old side) has agreed to a single payment of $562.50 for grass cutting of the retention pond this year. Delinquencies One unit member is delinquent by $20 and has been notified by mail. Taxes Federal Taxes for 2009 ($3.00) and 2010 ($17.00) have been filed and paid. Annual Meeting Date The annual meeting date will be either Thursday September 15 or within that same week depending on the availability of Johnston Park. Future Management and Banking Changes When the time comes to turn things over to a property management company, SmartStreet, a division of RBC Bank (USA) is a very attractive bank offering ACH automatic payments and websites geared to home owners associations. Three local property management companies utilize SmartStreet:
Bylaw Changes/Auditing The Board approved the recommendation of the Treasurer to form an internal committee to examine the books and records of the association and to submit a report to the association of their findings and recommendations for distribution at each annual meeting of the association; the committee would consist of one or two persons independent of the Board and would include an accountant who is not a Board member; the accountant preferably would be a unit owner. The committee can be formed and get started as soon as bylaw language is drafted and approved by the Board; a June start is anticipated. W&S Contact Person The Board designated Phil Kozak to be the person W&S should funnel all communications through. Snow & Ice Removal Survey So far 21 of 22 replies have circled “0” which indicates that no change to our contracted service level is desired. Leasing a Portion of a Unit Leasing a portion of a unit to a border, formally or informally is not permitted and is a violation of Article IX B of the Declaration of the association. The Board suspects that this may be occurring and may also be resulting in common space parking violations per Article III 3.3 of the Declaration of the association. The Board is observing the situation closely and will react to it’s findings; additionally, township parking fines and vehicle towing are being explored along with changing our common space parking bylaws to be more restrictive. A notification to all unit owners concerning this subject will be included in the next USPS mailing to all unit owners to document that proper, additional, and recent notice has been given to all unit owners. Dog Feces The Board has observed a disgusting situation in the common area adjacent to one of the units, A copy of the township laws concerning pets will be included in the next USPS mailing to all unit owners to document that proper, additional, and recent notice has been given to all unit owners. Shortly thereafter, if the situation is continuing, the Board will call township police to fine the offending unit; township fines for this offense range from $250 to $1000 and up to 30 days in jail for failure to pay. Next Board Meeting 10:00 am Friday May 6, 2011 at Morgan Collins 908 South George St. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 pm. Phil Kozak – Secretary/Treasurer |