December 13, 2016

MINUTES
SIERRA LOS PINOS PROPERTY OWNERS’ ASSOCIATION (SLPPOA)
BOARD MEETING
December 13, 2016

1. CALL TO ORDER: The President, Judy Kilburg called the meeting of the Sierra Los Pinos Property Owners’ Association to order at 7:17 p.m. at the La Cueva Fire Station.

2. ROLL CALL: (P-Present, E-excused, A-Absent without notification)

Pres - Judy Kilburg P
Water – Peter Veverka P
Firewise – Eleni Fredlund P
VP - Harold Corn P
Roads – Terry Vergamini P
Parks/Architectural – Max Otero P
Sec/Treasurer - Lorraine Otero P
Legal – John Fredlund P

GUEST: Mr. Stan Bennett, Mr. Joe Brophy and Ms. Suzanne Star

3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Ms. Kilburg asked if the Board had reviewed the agenda and if there were any additions or changes. There were none. Mr. Veverka made a motion to approve the agenda and Mr. Otero seconded the motion. There were no oppositions.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES: Ms. Kilburg asked if the Board had reviewed the 2nd draft of the December 13, 2016 meeting minutes and if there were any other changes. There were none. Ms. Fredlund made the motion to approve the meeting minutes. Mr. Corn seconded the motion. There were no oppositions.

5. STANDING OFFICER REPORTS:

President – Ms. Kilburg had nothing to report.

Vice President – Mr. Corn had three items he wanted to present. 1) He and Ms. Kilburg discussed electronic archiving and whether or not we should do it. If so, how? Right now various people have documents on their own PCs. Do we archive in the Cloud? Possibly Mr. Fredlund would be interested in helping us with this. Mr. Veverka commented that it’s especially important that we have some type of permanent record storage that can be backed up since Board members come and go. 2) Mr. Corn would like to get our water maps up to date and electronically copied as well; and 3) At some point, Mr. Corn wants to offer the Board a water systems overview. He wants to break it down as to what all the systems are comprised of and what it takes to run these systems. There are meters, pipes, software, hardware, computers and lots of parts and pieces, LevelCon monitoring, etc. Mr. Fredlund suggested Google Drive which is what the Fire Department uses. It can be set up so that it mirrors the files on the computers. It is inexpensive if not free. Mr. Corn said further investigation is needed. It can be set up so that volunteers that come forward to help can have access to only certain folders for updating information, such as Mr. Mark Stanley. Ms. Kilburg suggested this be discussed further in a separate meeting.

Secretary/Treasurer - Ms. Otero provided the Treasurer’s Report as of November 30, 2016.
 
The balance in accounts as of November 30th are:
Operating Account:  $73,174.71
Reserve Account:  $ 82,989.56
Special Assessment Account: $5,218.16
 

Past due accounts:
There are seven Past Due Accounts in the amount of $9,079.64. Three of these accounts in the amount of $8,468.86 are considered uncollectable. One is in escrow. The remaining three accounts in the amount of $460.78 are collectable. Two are making payments and one owes late interest only and I haven’t been able to contact them yet.

Legal costs incurred for the law suit remain at $31,412.55.

Sandoval County Taxes were paid in the amount of $131.66.

The Martin Crane contract for snow removal was paid in the amount of $8,682.19.

Ms. Kilburg said the uncollectable accounts are foreclosures. Also, there is another property that may land up as a foreclosure. Our attorney reminded us that they are considered uncollectable because when they under foreclosure or bankruptcy it is rare that we are first on the list to collect. To date, we’ve been very fortunate.

Ms. Kilburg also mentioned that the financial statements from HOAMCO are very detailed. They have top of the line financial software that we don’t have for these type of reports. The basic ones are the P&L and Balance Sheet which will tell you everything.

6. STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS:
a. Water Committee – Mr. Veverka said as far as maintenance not much happened this month. He shut the water from a few properties that were vacant. If anyone else has knowledge of any other property that needs to be shut off please let him know.

b. Water Compliance – Mr. Corn reported the following:

Water System:
No water outages for the month (knock on wood!)
Corn turned water service off for one vacant home at the owners request to prevent a pipe burst
Veverka turned on one water service for a realtor
Schmitt has gotten the new Sys 1 Levelcon completely operational with upper & lower limits & history set (monthly charge should drop!)
Corn has been granted list server access
Corn verified the well/booster house heaters are activated
Water system electronic map was successfully delivered to Carlos Gallegos for the Reserve Study

Water Usage:
System 1
Wells Pumped 672,199 (719,339) gals
Leakage 66.8 (62.7)%. 10.4 (10.1) gpm (The rate for October and November is the lowest ever observed since the System 1 leakage rate was first measured in 2009).
Leak Flags Identified = 15 (13)
Users > 10,000 gals = 3 (4)
System 2
Wells Pumped 151,550 (162,560) gals
Leakage 17.0 (17.0)%
Leak Flags Identified = 7 (6)
Users > 10,000 gals = 1 (1)

Mr. Veverka also mentioned that another meter loop test should probably be conducted.

Mr. Veverka would like the members to learn how to turn their own water on and off. It’s imperative with the cold weather. Especially those members that come and go during the cold season.
Mr. Otero said he has tried to contact Mr. Shawn Weary to ask him if he would be interested in doing the water compliance for the community.

c. Roads – Mr. Terry Vergamini said he talked to Martin Crane. Mr. Crane said he didn’t plow Redondo Vista because it was too rutted and hazardous and didn’t want to damage his equipment. As a result Mr. Rich Kilburg had to plow Redondo Vista and another area on Los Griegos. He found that it was rutted only on one spot but as long as you drive close to the bank it’s not that bad. Ms. Kilburg drove in her vehicle and found that it was not that bad. Mr. Otero mentioned that Mr. Crane has not plowed the road at the end of Los Griegos and that people who are clearing the foreclosed property need to have road access. Mr. Crane is independently deciding what roads he needs to plow. Mr. Vergamini will let him know he has to plow all the roads within the community. Mr. Crane needs to sand all the hills not just the few he is doing. Ms. Kilburg said sanding will need to be added as an addendum to the contract and that it was intended to be included in the contract amount. It was also mentioned that Mr. Crane has been using our sander to lay sand in other communities such as La Cueva. Ms. Kilburg said we will set up a meeting to discuss this issue in January.

d. Legal – Mr. John Fredlund said the attorney is working on a property that we asked him to work on. He is being optimistic that we might get paid on that one.

Ms. Kilburg said that we had the law suit hearing yesterday. The judge ruled in the defendant’s favor in the motion for reconsideration and the Findings and Conclusions. The judge approved the attorney’s draft judgement, so that the plaintiffs’ signatures are not necessary. The attorney will draft a document requiring the plaintiffs’ signature and we will go from there. Ms. Fredlund suggested a letter go out to the Association informing them of the outcome of the law suit. Ms. Kilburg said that was a good idea and she will do that.

Mr. Otero said a buyer is interested in a property on Redondo Vista. The buyer is asking if a 20’x10’ treehouse is permissible on the lot and may possibly use the treehouse for an Airbnb. Mr. Otero said he contacted the County and the buyer would need a permit before erecting the treehouse. Also, are the trees adequate to support such a structure? There are many variables to discuss. We have to be clear with this decision because this may set a precedent. That’s why Ms. Kilburg recommended we get a legal opinion. There is also a second interested buyer in this property so this may be a moot point. Mr. Fredlund will send an email to the attorney.

e. Firewise – Ms. Fredlund said Ron Gallegos, PIO Jemez District FS said there were limited resources in the winter to complete the Vallecitos prescribed burn. They’ve completed over half of the 130 acres. Currently the FS is working on the 20 acre Ojitos prescribed pile burn located NE of Rancho Del Chaparral Girl Scout Camp in the Cuba District, and when complete, weather permitting, will burn the Joaquin piles 3-4 miles NW from Gilman Tunnels.

At the Jan 4th fire department meeting Ms. Fredlund wants to talk to Chief Taylor about the people that live here in the community and how volunteer fire fighters could be of assistance to individuals that have been targeted for health issues. If the power goes out something can be done to assist these individuals. More will come at the next meeting.

Mr. Veverka said there is a tremendous amount of piles set up for burning under the canopies. Ms. Fredlund said that Ron Gallegos stated the only way they will burn these piles is if there is snow on the ground.

f. Parks/Architectural Changes – Mr. Otero has no activities to report.

7. SPECIAL COMMITTEE REPORTS:
a. Annual Meeting Minutes – Ms. Otero said she sent the draft of the Annual Meeting Minutes to the two non-Board individuals that offered to review the minutes and provide comments. One is working on her comments. She has not been able to contact the other individual.

8. OLD BUSINESS:
a. Reserve Study – Ms. Kilburg asked if anyone has heard anything. The company has not asked for any further information. Mr. Corn asked the company for a timeframe but heard no response. Ms. Kilburg will call the company to inquire on status.

9. ACTION ITEMS:
a. Road markers (Vergamini) – Mr. Vergamini said he talked with the phone company, the co-op and Mr. Crane. Due to how late it is in the season, the stakes and reflectors can’t be placed in the ground because the ground is solid. Other methods will need to be sought as soon as possible to avoid problems when Mr. Crane plows the roads.
b. Residential Water Leak flags & excess usage policy (notification & surcharge) (Corn) – it was decided that everyone with a leak flag should get an email. The hard part is getting good email addresses. Ms. Kilburg recommended a message on the list server requesting members provide current email addresses to the Board. Ms. Fredlund will contact Jan Studebaker, administrator for the list server, to request member email addresses.
c. Draft Policies (Kilburg) – Protection of Member Information (Need to Know). All comments have been incorporated and the policy was revised. Ms. Kilburg will send the policy to the attorney for his review.
d. List Server Authorization: Ms. Kilburg said Mr. Corn now has list server authorization access.

10. NEW BUSINESS:
a. Next newsletter should include a firewise request that people call dispatch when they want to have a fire that does not require a burn permit (less than 3 x 3 ft) so that dispatch knows not to send the fire department out. Additionally, call Chief Taylor for a burn permit for larger fires.
b. What to do when phones are dead (J. Fredlund) – Mr. Fredlund has a several recommendations: 1) purchase Spot, which is a GPS with a satellite transceiver. In an emergency, you can hit a button and people know where you are at and they dispatch a first responder. However, Spot can be pricey;
2) put your scanner on CB Channel 9 so that other people on the same channel can hear you if you need help; 3) get a cell phone booster with a battery backup; 4) find someone close to you that can take you to the fire department where you can make a call.

11. NEXT MEETING:
The next Board meeting will be January 10, 2017.

12. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting adjourned at 8:46 p.m.

EXECUTIVE SESSION: Meeting commenced at 8:46 p.m. and adjourned at 9:10 p.m.

Submitted by: Lorraine Otero