May 10, 2022

Sierra Los Pinos Property Owners' Association
Board of Directors Meeting
May 10, 2022, 6:35 P.M.

The meeting was called to order by the President Paul Lisko with the following members present: Keith Rigney, Cindy Hines, Ann Cooke, John Hines, Josh Toennis, Kristi Cross and Jeremy Oepping. Paul Rightley and David Stuedell were not present.

Guests: Mary Moore, Suzanne Star, Barbara Van Ruyckevelt, Sumner Dean and Holly Gould.

Approval of Agenda: Jeremy Oepping made a motion to approve the agenda; seconded by Josh Toennis, motion carried.

Approval of Minutes: Keith Rigney moved to approve the minutes of the April 12, 2022 meeting; seconded by Jeremy Oepping; motion carried.

OFFICER REPORTS:
PRESIDENT (Paul Lisko):

As you’re all aware of the Cerro Pelado fire taking off on April 22nd, I’m a member of the Volunteer Fire Department, so I actually was assigned to get into a Fire Department truck and drive through the subdivision. I started at one end of Aspen Grove and Chief Lee Taylor started at the other end, and we stopped at every residence along the way and told people they needed to evacuate. That fire was a monster when it was first blowing up. I was a Wildland Firefighter from 1981 to 1994, and that was the scariest fire I had ever seen get that close. I mean, it was intense and it was moving really fast. So it was good to tell people to evacuate. After I got done with Aspen Grove, I went on Hovenweep and started telling people to evacuate from Hovenweep.

It was really kind of funny, I had this one gentleman, that I pulled up into his yard, and I said, “You need to evacuate,” and he said, “Do you really think it’s necessary?” And he had the fire towards his back and I pointed to it and I said, “What do you think?” He was like, on my God, and then he decided to pack up and leave.
Even so, there were a handful of people that stayed in Sierra Los Pinos and I don’t think that was a good thing to do. People want to go ahead and think that they can protect their structures better than the fire department, but it actually could put a drain on resources. One of the things that did happen was that the water tanks actually drained out. So I’m thinking that the next time around, and I’m sure there’s going to be a next time where people are going to have to evacuate, I almost think it would be worthwhile to go ahead and shut off the water so that people are encouraged to evacuate the subdivision. Anyway, that’s my two cents’ worth.

I did speak with Chief Taylor on the 25th of April and he advised me that the Fire Department had only pulled 3600 gallons of water for fire suppression activities.

I was at the community meeting at the Baptist Church on the 26th, and I spoke with the Acting District Forester, Lawrence Crane. If you’re familiar with the Forester that was there, Todd Haines, he has retired. Lawrence Crane is the Acting. He was a Timber Management Officer in charge of thinning, and he still is. When Chris Romo was here, who was the Fire Management Officer and has since moved on to greener pastures in Angel Fire, I asked him about the fire triage assessment, which was initiated in Sierra Los Pinos, that basically gives a breakdown of how well people have protected their properties, with the intent that information will be passed on to wildland fire crews who only have a limited number of resources to dedicate to protecting structures. What the thinking is, is that if you have a person who works very diligently to protect their home and their property, as opposed to somebody who has done little to nothing, then the fire management team is going to dedicate more resources to save the home that’s already that much further ahead, as opposed to the guy who has done nothing. Since Chris is no longer going to be around, I asked him what was going to be done about that, and what he informed me was that southeastern area red team that was the incident management team that came from the southeast, they were adding to the triage assessment as they were going around Sierra Los Pinos. They were including some current triage assessments in that. Lawrence Crane advised me they were going to be hiring a new FMO, who will continue completing those triage assessment, initially for SLP and then, hopefully, for other communities here in the eastern Jemez.

The next thing on my list was the law office of Scott Turner had inquired about the execution of the road maintenance agreement on April 26th. As you know, the road maintenance agreement was drafted in conjunction with the Board, and it basically extended to these four properties that this new potential buyer wanted to get off of Unit 6, Lots 1 and 2 and 4 and 5. What it does is it’s beneficial to both of us. The Association doesn’t have to maintain High Road and the people that buy it do not have to pay assessment for water that they are not receiving through the Association. So, the guy that’s the potential buyer has been a little bit of a stickler. One of the things he was trying to do was get his way with constructing a gate across High Road. And I told him, no, you can’t do that. So, at that point the road maintenance agreement kind of fell by the wayside. When the law office contacted me, they wanted to make sure that it was being executed to protect the interest of the Association.

I didn’t know where it was at, at that point, so I contacted the title company, who, in turn, contacted the realtor and the buyer, and basically they think they’re just going to ignore it and not execute that agreement. So when I went to the attorney and I told him, hey, they had no intention of executing this agreement, he said, well, then we need to persuade him to do that. And what he suggested happen was from the point in time that Jemez Mountain Development LLC joined the Association in November of 2020, all of those assessments for those properties were going to be waived once the new owners bought into it and then they would start paying assessments from that point forward. What the attorney suggested was to kind of persuade them to sign the road maintenance agreement, that we go ahead and place a lien on the properties based upon those old amounts that were outstanding from when Jemez Mountain Development joined the Association. Altogether, it is just under $6,000. HOAMCO was going to tell the realtor about the intent to file a lien. All of this, however, gets dropped once the road maintenance agreement is signed.

Does anybody have any questions about that?

Keith Rigney: Should that action be voted on by the Board?

Paul: Well, the Board voted to enact the road maintenance agreement, so that’s where it’s at. So, again, we still want the road maintenance agreement, the Board acted on that. What the attorney advised me was if the road maintenance agreement, which is what the Board wanted, doesn’t come through, then the way to convince the people is to file the lien. He made it sound like it had to be done ASAP.

Keith: I know the Board voted on the road maintenance agreement, but the Board did not vote on putting a lien on this property. I think that’s important for all of us to get our two cents in. Whether it’s now or later, I don’t think it matters, because I think that is a driving factor to when the property closes, and I don’t think it has the ability to close without that paperwork on our end, or us agreeing to something.

Paul: Are you saying it can’t close without the road maintenance agreement?

Keith: I’m saying there’s got to be something in the HOA that we do not allow the property to sell under stipulations, other than the road maintenance agreement, or it is the road maintenance agreement. I don’t know, but I don’t think it needs to be done now. I think, personally, we need to vote if we think that’s okay that we throw a $6,000 lien on property under stipulations, and we need to make sure that’s communicated accordingly to the buyer. On top of that – I don’t know. I just think there’s a lot there that we need to discuss, rather than just assuming, because I haven’t seen any email traffic on this. The first thing I hear about is, oh, we’re throwing a lien on something. Well, right, I don’t know if that unsettles anyone else, but it unsettles me.

Paul: The Board member I’ve been keeping in the loop on this is Jeremy. Maybe he has some input he would like to give.

Jeremy: I don’t have an issue with the thing. The understanding was there was a road maintenance agreement in effect and, if they don’t want to sign it, then we can’t let the properties close. I don’t know that anyone else is going to stop it, it’ll just happen, and then they’ll be there, and there we are. So based on the circumstances, to me the lien is very appropriate under the circumstances. I don’t think we have any other way to lead into this, other than that. I think it would close otherwise, and we would just be out, you know, and then there would be no reason for them to sign.

Paul: That’s absolutely right, and that’s why I acted on that, because the Board had already approved the road maintenance agreement. We have to look out for the best interest of the Association; and, according to the attorney, the only way we could prevent that, like Jeremy was saying, if they don’t sign the road maintenance agreement, they can close on the property and then we’re SOL; we can’t do anything about that. So, the attorney advised that the only way that we can stop them from closing on the property is to file the lien which, again, is going to persuade them. I’m not interested in trying to collect any more money from these folks, but I am interested in getting them to sign the road maintenance agreement.

Keith: I thought there was some stipulation somewhere that would not allow the property to close, so we could push that out indefinitely; but, with that being said, that we don’t have anything in line, other than the lien, then that is fine with me and I completely agree.

Paul: The only other thing I have is I’m going to request reimbursement. The amount is actually $108.22. Last time there was the postage that was not effected at that time, so it’s carried over; it’s $2.32 for postage; $30.41 for board to replace on picnic table in Black Bear Park; $75.49 100-foot contractor’s hose.

Cindy Hines: I make a motion to reimburse Paul $108.22; the motion was seconded by Kristi Cross; motion carried.

Suzanne Star: I want to go back and ask you, I want to clarify something on your lien on the property. The property apparently hasn’t sold yet, and the lawyer is suggesting that in order to push them to sign, that there’s going to be a lien placed on the property before they buy and, if they want to buy, then they would have to shell out another $6,000 for past dues. Is that how I understand you’re going to try to encourage them to sign?

Paul: Execute the road maintenance agreement, yes. So if they sign the road maintenance agreement, then the liens will be released. That’s the only thing the liens are in place for is to get them to sign the road maintenance agreement.

Suzanne Star: If you place the lien on the properties, and if they pay the extra $6,000, and they don’t go ahead and execute the RMA, what are you guys going to do; what’s the Board’s Plan B?

Paul: Well, the next step after that, according to the bylaws, each unit can have its own annual assessment, which is one of the reasons why we can get away with only charging $580 to these people up in Unit 6, because we’re not providing water to them. That’s why they get that reduced rate of $580, instead of the $996 that everybody else pays. However, the reverse of that is if they do not sign the RMA and it comes down to the Association having to deal with the maintenance on High Road, then what we can do is we can bring in another contractor who can say, yes, I can go ahead and do this work for you on High Road, but it’s going to cost you $10,000. Well, okay, then what happens is you have those five lots on High Road, and then the annual assessment for those five lots will then be $2,000 each to cover that cost.

Keith: Doesn’t the bylaws state everyone in Unit 6 has to have the same thing, so you would punish everyone in Unit 6, not just those five lots; is that correct?

Paul: Well, we’re going to – I don’t want to do that, and I don’t think we’re going to have to do that. So, the only thing I can tell you there, Keith, is we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. There’s got to be a way that we can work that out. But I don’t think right now that these folks are going to be wanting to pay that extra $6,000. I just don’t think it’s going to happen.
So I don’t think we’re going to have to worry about this. Any other comments?

VICE PRESIDENT (Keith Rigney):

I only have one thing on my agenda today, and that’s Facebook posts in the SLP page. The only post I have made since now and that last meeting was an evacuation post. I literally said “Evacuating SLP on April 22.” Paul asked me to make that post since I still had internet throughout the process. So when I was out the door, and me and my family were safe, I made the post.

Paul: Thank you for that; a lot of people got that information very quickly.

SECRETARY (Kristi Cross):

Two of my items are already taken care of. I sent out the minutes last night and they were approved, so I will send them to the Webmaster to get them uploaded.

Paul, I sent you also last night the updated list of services, if you want to add the people that you were talking about. What I did, basically, was took the list that was on Jemez Chat, that’s been updated as of 2021, added some individuals to that from other lists that we had been given and sent those to you for review.

The third thing I had was the Welcome Packet. I’m still waiting on some water information and I’ll have that ready to finalize and send that to everybody to review.

TREASURER (Jeremy Oepping):

The balance in accounts as of April 30, 2022:

◦ Operating Account: $165,829.25
◦ Reserve Account: $102,470.84

• As of April 20th, we have 21 delinquent accounts. That total is $25,664.12. This is a decrease of $1,654.23 from last month. The April amount of $666.67 was transferred to Reserves during the month. We also had expenditures of $28,290.42 for water system repairs that have been paid this calendar year, and that has resulted in a reduced balance in the Reserve account from prior months.

• There were two changes in property ownership in April. We welcome:

Philip Babicz and Mana Selan, Lots 24 and 25, Unit 1, at 62 Chaco Road.

The only other thing I have for the treasurer’s report is referencing back to a conversation that we had as a Board, back at the January Board meeting, where we talked about actually following the Association process for liens on properties that were delinquent, accounts exceeding $500. So I will work with Paul, the Association President, to draft and send reminders to those delinquent property owners no later than the 1st of June. All questions on any of those will be directed back to myself, as the treasurer, and then I will, again, follow the Association policy to work with the attorney and HOAMCO to have liens filed per the lien policy on any accounts exceeding $500 after July 1st. So we will walk through that process this year. Thank you.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Water (John Hines):

Water Maintenance: We finished replacing the 400 feet of 4-inch water line at the end of Los Griegos and got those customers back with water.

I discussed the well meters with the State Engineer’s Office, and it appears to be that we have been getting charged for more water than what we’ve been pumping – or not charged, but recorded, due to a multiplier. When I read the meter and turn it into the State, they’ve been adding the multiplier, although I had already applied the multiplier. So we’re going back quite a few years. I’m trying to round up all the information I can on how far back that goes as to how much water they have been crediting us to pumping versus what we have actually pumped. That’s still in discussion.

Mountain Pacific Meter Company was requested to calibrate our master meters, and they were supposed to be up the beginning of this month, but that might change due to the issues.

I met with Scott Christensen with Harold and Paul, with the hydrologist for testing our wells to see how we are doing, and actually, fortunately, our drawn-down and everything, we’ve actually increased for our water table versus the rest of the state that’s dropped. So we are in good shape there.

I responded to a “no water” call up on upper Los Griegos and I think what eventually happened was we got an air lock because when the power was out during the fire, we drained our tanks and we got an air lock, and so they couldn’t get water, but that was repaired and now they have existing water.

I noticed in mid-April that our tanks were dropping quite considerably on System 1. So I went and read the meters mid-month, besides reading at the first of the month, and found a homeowner was using considerably a lot of water. So I responded to that and he had a major leak on Aztec. I did a sonic leak location, shut his meter off until he could get it repaired. He was just using the meter – turning it on just to fill his toilet and things – and then would shut it back off. He is in the process of repairing that right now.

While I was on vacation, there was the fire evacuation and the tanks were drained due to the power being out. I had notified Paul and Shawn Weary when I was gone that if some emergency should happen, and so Shawn got the generator going and hooked up Hovenweep to get water pumping again so the fire station could have water. After he got it going, power was restored and the tanks began to refill.

I met with Fred Black from Rural Water on 4/18 and discussed locating leaks, and on Thursday of this week at 9:00, I’m meeting with David Romero from Rural Water to begin discussing the leaks and locating those.

I read the meters on May 1st. As far as our water usage goes, it went pretty well. Obviously, because people were evacuated, there wasn’t a lot of water used.

System 1:

• Pumped 641,000 gallons, which was less than last month
• Used: 323,775 gallons; minus leak on Aztec, 226,000 gallons
• Average Household Usage; 87.09 gallons per day
• Lost: 317,000 gallons; leakage rate of 58%, taking away Aztec
• Leak Flags – 10, with nine of those being repeats
• Users over 7,000 gallons – Eight, and six with leak flags

System 2:

• Pumped 168,840 gallons
• Used: 120,419 gallons.
• Average Household Usage: 64 gallons per day
• Lost: 48,421 gallons; leakage rate of 7%
• Leak Flags – 7, with three being repeats
• Users over 7,000 gallons – One

As far as water compliance goes, the State couldn’t get up here until the end of April to do our test, but on April 30th, they did our test. On System 2, we had absent coliform and e-coli, with a disinfection residual of 0.09 mpl
System 1 was absent of coliform and e-coli, with a disinfection residual of 0.11.

Other than that, that’s all I have, unless somebody has questions.

Paul Lisko: I’ve got a couple of comments on your maintenance report, John. When Scott Christensen was up here, I was not present when he did that, so it was you and Harold and somebody else, but it wasn’t me.

John: I’m sorry.

Paul: And then when you mentioned about David Romero coming out Thursday at 9 a.m., are you guys meeting at the firehouse?

John: Yes.

Paul: I will stop by that morning and we can figure out what he wants to do. When I initially spoke with him, he kind of indicated that we would need volunteers to shut the valves and open them again. Is he going to start leak detection that morning or is just coming up to scope it out.

John: I think he’s coming up to scope it out and kind of lay us out on where we want to start and where we want to look at first. I actually have a couple of spots that I’d like to check out first, that I’m suspicious of.

Paul Lisko: It doesn’t look like David Stuedell is here. We’ll see if he shows up a little bit later.

Legal (Paul Rightley):

Paul Lisko: Paul Rightley sent me an email earlier today and indicated he would not be here. Again, I was asking him about the vacation rental permit for 66 Ashley Lane. He was dealing with that gentleman before. The gentleman gave him a verbal commitment that he was no long going to be listing that property. I said if he’s not listing the property, then he doesn’t need to fill out the vacation rental property permit. So, prior to coming into this meeting, I asked Paul what the status of that was. Well, Paul went onto the VRBO website and the guy still has the property listed there. Paul will find out what’s going on with the guy and notify the VRBO and Air B&B that he has not completed the permitting process and is not meeting the policies of the HOA.

Firewise (Ann Cooke):

I had been in contact with Southwest Fire Defense prior to all of the fire activity and asked them to estimate what it would take to thin the seedlings out of Black Bear Park, the smaller trees. There is one snag in there, and it’s a big one. It would take large equipment to get it out and I don’t see any real need for that at this time. My priority is all of the younger trees that have come in since last thinning. They basically feel they can get it done with one day’s work, and even if it took half a day’s work, they would still charge us one day’s work. So, I would like to make the motion to approve one day’s work of Southwest Fire Defense to thin seedlings, and I have extra work for them over in the cul-de-sac on Chaco if it takes less than one day to get that done. Can I have a second?

Paul Lisko: A motion is on the floor now to assign $2500 to pay Southwest Fire Defense for thinning out some of those smaller seedlings in Black Bear Park, one day’s work; and, if it takes less than a day, she’s got another project for them. Cindy Hines seconded the motion; motion carried.

Ann: And I would like to conclude that we don’t know a day, a time. Obviously, the forest is closed and they restrict chain saws, so we will pick a time when we can maximize effort. It’s not happening anytime soon.

Paul Lisko: Do you know anything more about the funding available for thinning projects through that Cuba Soil and Water Conservation Grant from New Mexico Forestry?

Ann: The last information I had was at our emergency planning day at the Jemez Mountain Baptist Church in early April, and the advice is to keep submitting applications. They probably are filled up, but if there’s an opening, they will work their way down and they would like to make this long-term. So more applicants means we have a need for it.

Paul Lisko: I had an opportunity to listen to Lawrence Crane at that community meeting on the 26th, and he indicated that if there is a group of, let’s say, four or five neighbors, if they all want to get this done, if they submit a group request, that that’s more likely to get funded than just an individual landowner submitting a request. So I just want to make people aware of that. Do you have anything to add about the Firewise Association meeting on May 12th?

Ann: There is one, and right now I’m kind of on the road. I intend to make that. It’s going to be a Zoom meeting, and I can’t even remember what time it was. Do you know, Paul?

Paul Lisko: It’s at 6:30 p.m.

Architectural (Josh Toennis):

I have been in contact with the owners at 145 Hovenweep about fencing that was installed. They have sent me the form, but have not been able to get pictures taken yet, due to the fire and everything else going on. So I told them that that was fine, and that we would get this finished when the time allows.

The next point on the agenda is potential requests for solar panels. I have not received an official request yet for that, and that leads into my third item, which I believe the architectural email might not be working, because a week and a half or two weeks ago, I sent a test email to it, and I did not receive anything from the architectural one at slppoa.org forwarded to me.
I don’t know who is running our website or server or email addresses, but if we could have someone look into that, just to make sure that it’s still forwarding or what’s going on with that.

Cindy Hines: Josh, it’s something that I actually know how to do, so I will take a look at it for you.

Josh: Perfect; thank you very much. That’s all the items I have unless anyone has questions.

Parks (Cindy Hines):

The first item you mentioned, the broken bench on the picnic table at Black Bear Park, and it just looked like somebody had stood on the table and then jumped down onto the bench and broke it in half. We got the board from you, Paul, and John fixed it for us yesterday, so that’s done.

The only other thing I want to do at the park is I did some painting last year on the playground equipment, the metal parts, and I ran out of paint, so I have the new paint now and I’m going to finish doing that, just so that it looks nice.

John and I are going to start driving around and start putting up some of the traffic signs and the road signs that we already have posts for, and get those up.

I wondered if anybody had anything specific they want me to put in the upcoming newsletter. I didn’t do one in March because I just didn’t know of anything that really needed to be communicated. I’ll go back and see what we did a year ago and see if there’s anything that comes to mind as to what we typically tell people this time of the year. But, if you’ve got anything, maybe fire preparedness or something like that, I can definitely include that. So, if you think of anything, just send me a quick email and I’ll include it.

The slppoa.org website, I’ve been in contact with our webmaster, Mike Schacht and I had told him that I would be happy to help with some of the postings on the website, because I know it takes a long time for him to get to things for us. Unfortunately, that website was built with a program that I know absolutely nothing about. It’s called Drupal. I’m familiar with the name, but I’ve never used it. I have used other content management systems and have built websites before, so I do know a little bit about it, but he indicated that this is something that pretty intense web designers use. So, for someone like me to go in and make changes to it is probably going to be problematic. He gave me authority to get in there and look at it, so I am happy to look. I don’t know if I’m going to get anywhere with it.

So that brings to mind that maybe what we want to do is build a much more simple website. I think he said that at the time they built that one the Board, or whoever he was working with at the time, really wanted this website to have a lot of really complicated functionality. I don’t know that that’s all that necessary, other than the people being able to look up their water information. So what he suggested is maybe we have just a basic website and then keep the section of the current website with the water information, so that people could still access that, which I thought was a good compromise. A volunteer can still go in and update the simple things on a basic website, like when we change Board members and that needs to be updated, or if we just want to post something that’s coming up. It’s simple for somebody to go into a WordPress site, which I could definitely do. So, anyway, I just wanted you to know that I’m kind of working on that with him. We started on it, and then things kind of got crazy with the fire, and then that got put on hold. So I am hoping that over the summer we will be able to come up with something. He said he would even be willing to build us a quick template for a basic WordPress site, and then I could go in and actually design it and add the content to it.

If anybody has any thoughts or opinions about that, please feel free to ask or let me know, or if you know someone that would want to volunteer to do a website, that’s great too. I take no ownership of it, other than I’m willing to help.

Jeremy Oepping: Thank you, Cindy, for working with Mike. I was working with him last fall to try to get financials and those certain things posted there. He explained to me that it’s a very complicated site, so I agree with you that simplifying that, making it easy so that anyone with administrative rights can go out there and get stuff posted, that would be good. Thank you for working on that.

Paul Lisko: David Stuedell has joined the meeting, and I postponed your report on roads until the very end, and you made it just in time, David.

Roads (David Stuedell):

I apologize; I hope I didn’t miss anything important.

Jonathan would like to construct a three-sided shed around the cinders and he’s basically only asking for materials. I’d like someone to make a motion to approve the ability for him to purchase those materials. I don’t have an estimate on it, but I think we could set a limit. I think he also wants to put a ramp up so he can load the cinders easier, like an earthen ramp. What are your thoughts, anybody’s thoughts on this?

Paul Lisko: My initial thought on this, David, is I think that the Board needs to be responsive. We’re always making sure that people are completing the architectural form and submitting it. I think that ought to happen here, as well, so that we’re not just randomly saying, yeah, go ahead. I think there ought to be a site plan, a list of materials, follow everything there, go through the process of the architectural approval. If we’re not going to do it for ourselves, then we can’t really, honestly, have anybody else do it as well. Do you know what I’m saying?

David: We are the Board, so we can make our own rules, but having said that…

Paul Lisko: I think we stick by the rules that we have.

David: Jonathan recommended $500 for the sale of the old spreader/sander. I have no real clue on what its real value is. We paid $6,000 for the new one. The old one is pretty tattered, but it’s got a good box. It’s probably worth $500 in materials. My thought here is I’ll list it on Craig’s list for $500 and they pick it up, with some other information about it and we see if we can sell it and I give the money to the Board, or do we want to do it some other way?

Jeremy Oepping: David, I think we just sell it for whatever we can, then get me the money and I will make sure that it gets deposited into the accounts and I will make note of it at the following Board meeting.

David: Because this is a Board asset, is this something we need to vote on?

Jeremy Oepping: I will say it is not an asset. It has already been depreciated and I think it’s well past its useful or typical life. It is not actually on our list.

Paul Lisko: David has made a motion to list the old spreader/sander on Craig’s list for $500; is there a second? Ann Cooke seconded the motion; motion carried.

The last thing you have on your agenda, you had mentioned to me about wanting to establish a protocol for removal of any downed trees blocking the road in SLP.

David: Yes. The other day a tree fell. It was like a 12-inch tree. I went up and chopped it up and it wasn’t any big deal. Actually, I think I need to go up there and chop up some more, but the issue is, and I think this is more of a discussion item, or how we want to work it, but a large tree, say it was a two-foot tree that fell, those are dangerous to cut up and a lot of work. So I would like to form a team to handle this. This is going to happen again. If it’s a small tree, and I have the time, I don’t mind, but if it’s something significant, we need a team.

Paul Lisko: If I’m around, David, I’m happy to help. I have a couple of chain saws and, as you know, I used to work as a logger, so I do have some experience with running a saw. I would be happy to help if there’s something really huge like that, that happens to fall down.

Josh Toennis: I’m happy to help, as well, if it’s needed.

Cindy Hines: Why don’t we suggest that if one of us, as a Board member, notices it, or someone contacts us, just send out a quick email to the rest of the Board. I think enough of us know neighbors that would help, as well, so we can just kind of informally put something together.

David: That sounds good. Other than that, I’ve already contacted Tug Leeder about grading our roads in August and submitting a proposal. Other than that, I don’t have anything else.

OLD BUSINESS:

Suzanne Star: I’d like to bring up one point here for John Hines. He might be able to answer this for us.

Paul Lisko: Sure, go ahead.

Suzanne: Last month John mentioned that he would not be using the existing co-mingle to deliver water from System 1 to System 2, because it would be non-chlorinated water and it’s against State regulations. I just wanted to ask, in a time of emergency it would appear that non-chlorinated water would be better than no water, and why couldn’t we consider issuing a boil-water alert if that would ever be the case? Maybe John can answer that.

John Hines: That would be up to the State allowing us to do that if you really wanted to go that route. Of course, obviously, if it’s an emergency, we could do it, but I would not want to do that unless it was an emergency.

Suzanne: Right. I was just wondering if that might be something – I mean, we wouldn’t be opening it up if it wasn’t an emergency anyway, I wouldn’t expect, but if that’s the case, then we might have to be prepared to go ahead and issue a boil water alert immediately to the System 1 people that are going to be receiving the water from System 2.

John: Yeah, I guess so.

Paul Lisko: Go ahead, Mary.

Mary Moore: It’s an old business item, also. Paul, is it your understanding that the Forest Service has cleaned up the lots on the top of Forest Road 10?

Paul Lisko: I know that they were working on those. They may have gotten interrupted by the Cerro Pelado fire. I know that they were working on them. I haven’t been up there to inspect what they’ve done. Have you been up to look?

Mary: They did some work near the houses on the one that’s on the left side, but there still is an awful lot of downed snags, and I would like to know if they ever have intention of cleaning that up or not.

Paul Lisko: Well, they do. They were scheduled to get out there and do that, but then the fire happened. So their resources were taken to the fire, which is much more important, but I know that is on their radar and I will be dealing with Brian Riley again soon, so I can mention that to him, as well, and see if he has any time line on when they may get that completed.

Mary: I appreciate that; thanks, Paul.

ACTION ITEMS:

Paul Lisko: I addressed Brian Riley, the Ranger in Jemez, about what they were going to do about completing that alternate evacuation route. As you all know, they did a pretty good job with opening up old Forest Road 4AM to serve as that evacuation route. The things I had taken issue with, with Ranger Riley, was that both ends of that road, where it comes down and access can be made to Highway 4, there’s an arroyo that kind of needs to be filled in, put a culvert in there, and then that gate, it’s really kind of messed up, and they need to put something else in there that’s more substantial. So, I did talk to him about that, you know, last year, or a year-and-a-half ago. The one main thing that I said was that turn from High Road onto Forest Road 4AM, it’s not very maneuverable. If you’re going through there with a pickup truck, it’s going to take at least a three-point turn to get through there.

Riley addressed the folks that were there at the meeting. He explained what it was all about. He said he was really glad that SLP had this alternate evacuation route, and he said they have a crew that’s going to be here in May, so I’m going to follow up with him on that. He said that some of the jobs they’re going to do is actually to clean up the road a little bit more, knock down some of those high-water bars that are on there. Even though he did say that if a resident in SLP wanted to use that, they should consider either using a four-wheel-drive vehicle with high clearance or a UTV or something of that nature. He did say that he’s going to work on engineering each end of the road to make it more passable. Also, he did say that their road crew was going to get up here, and he actually talked about bringing in a dozer to fix that turn from High Road into 4AM. So I’m going to follow up with him again.

I talked about the delivery and installation of the Intel water tanks to Station 52 in SLP that would be solely dedicated to fire suppression. County Fire Marshal Eric Masterson was a little bit put off by the fact that I was asking this question, and he didn’t even want me to ask the question. He said right now it’s a matter of transportation logistics, that he and a couple of people from Public Works with the County, and Chief Lee Taylor went out there to Intel to look at whether or not the Public Works Department could make this transport, and they determined they could not. He did mention that Intel had a crane onsite that they were willing to use to facilitate the loading of the tanks, but they currently had no truck available to do that. If you remember, there was a group called Masthead that was being approached about actually moving these tanks, and again, I reminded Chief Masterson that I had reached out to the Colonel with the NM National Guard, and the Colonel said if they were given a mission number, that they could effect this transport. So, Chief Masterson is aware of this. They are trying to work out how to get those tanks up to SLP, and then eventually they’re going to need a crane to unload the tanks once they are here, which I also think – again, I need to talk with the Colonel but I think that they would have a way to unload those tanks better than anybody else that may be available.

The other thing that has to happen with this, is there has to be a concrete pad that’s going to have to be constructed to receive these tanks, plus all the infrastructure that’s going to be involved with being able to have the fire trucks load water for fire suppression from these tanks. Does anybody have any questions about either of those?

If there’s nothing else, our next regular board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 14, 2022 at 1830 hours.

Jeremy Oepping moved to adjourn the meeting; Cindy Hines seconded, motion carried and the meeting adjourned at 7:45pm.