LTPOA Meeting Minutes, February 8, 2004

[These minutes have not yet been formally approved by the LTPOA BoD — jmh]

The meeting opened at 7:05 p.m. with the following board members present:

Linda Fulford, Pat Harting, Matt Holloran, Ray Lauer and Ron Sansone. 22 lot owners were present.

The minutes of the January meeting having been posted on the website and passed out at the meeting, President Sansone asked for a motion to accept the minutes, motion made by Matt Holloran, seconded by Ray Lauer, motion passed unanimously.

President Sansone opened the meeting by asking Linda Fulford for the Treasurers Report.

Treasurers Report

Linda reported the following figures for the month of January:
Total revenue 503.60
Total expenses 1,446.59
Beginning balance in Checking account 78.865.00
Debits 7,027.30
Credits 6,169.14
Ending balance 79,723.00
Money market balance 1,016.00 - interest .53 cents
Loan balance 305,053.54
Outstanding assessments 6,865.13

Linda said that she had collected a further $1,600 for assessments in February but we did have two bounced checks.

Linda presented the following check for approval: Matt Holloran -- Salt for the roads - $826.87

President Sansone asked for a motion to pay the check, motion made by Ray Lauer, seconded by Pat Harting, motion passed unanimously.

Linda proceeded to state that the only other expenses were for snow removal, $200 for the first snow and $175 for the second time the roads were plowed. Linda presented the board with both income statements and balance sheets. Ron said that a summary was all that would be needed for the meetings. Ray Lauer questioned the loan balance and Linda reiterated that the amount was $305,000. Linda said that the amortization statement was produced by the bank and it did not include the special assessment money that we are adding and therefore the statement will always be wrong, as we will actually have paid off more than it will show. Linda said that a decision would have to be made as to which vehicles we would be licensing as she had received notification from the Assessors Office and the fees were due March 1st . Matt Holloran said that we would be keeping everything as is and during the summer make a decision on which vehicles would be kept after it was determined if any other parts were salvageable. President Sansone made a motion to accept the Treasurers report as read, motion made by Ray Lauer seconded by Matt Holloran, motion passed unanimously.

Finance Committee

Janet Hirsch reported that the Finance Committee again addressed the problems with the Treasurer's reports. She read the following report from the Committee:

"In January 2004 the Board unanimously passed a motion to accept the Finance Committee recommendations to "Improve financial reporting. Monthly reports were to include YTD spending, budget, variance and explanations in an easy to understand format.

Between January and August 2004, Pat Harting, Charlene Sansone and I spent hundreds of hours setting up the new accounting system and inputting the data to improve the financial reporting. And the system was then turned over to the Treasurer.

This is February 2005 and the Treasurer's report remains inadequate. Monthly income statements do not show:

Assessments collected -- Under revenue it appears that no money is coming in.

Monthly loan principal payments -- These have never been reported.

Special assessment payments applied to the loan -- About $20,000 was applied to the loan in September, but it has never appeared on the reports.

Year-to-date sums -- We are over 6 months into the year, how much have we spent so far?

Comparison to budget amounts -- How do we stand compared to the budgeted amounts?

Beginning and ending balances on all asset and liability accounts, this includes:

  • Bank accounts
  • Loan principal
  • Regular and special assessments for the current and past years

The committee has pointed out these problems to the Treasurer and asked that the reports be prepared so that all these data are included.

The Finance Committee is also working on developing a list of short and long-term planning projects and we have regularly scheduled meetings at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, the week before the LTPOA Board meeting.

President Sansone said that more data was needed. Linda responded that Janet had already accomplished that. She sent a form last night to that would be filled out. She believed that the form would cover everything that Janet had talked about. Janet responded that it would cover the year to dates, the budget numbers were not in the form nor would it cover the beginning and ending balances. Linda responded that these on another form. Assessment information should also be in there. Janet requested that the forms be made available for the next newsletter on February 20th. Janet said that as long as the form was filled out, nothing else would be necessary and this information should be available every month. Linda said that she would send the form to Janet. Linda asked if anything had been done on the project planning. She understood that an assessment schedule would be prepared by the Finance Committee. This schedule would list when the assessment was due, what the late fee will be and at what point it will be turned over to the attorney. We currently do not have such a schedule. Unfortunately this would not be ready for inclusion in the next newsletter. Hopefully this would be available by April 20th , the next deadline for the newsletter. The time frame for when the assessments were due and when they would become overdue would be put in the newsletter. On a question from the floor as to whether the Finance Committee was responsible for putting together the schedule, Linda replied that they had volunteered to do this, but the Board could do it if the Finance Committee did not wish to. President Sansone said that the final list of the overdue assessments should now be turned over to the Attorney. Linda replied that she had the list and there were only 20 assessments that we would not be able to collect. It was not possible to contact some of the property owners therefore the attorney had to be contacted so that eventually liens could be placed on those who did not pay.

Phil Chambers questioned the $9,057.83 general and administrative expense reported in last month's figures and asked what made up this figure. This was explained to be a year end adjustment figure so that the books could be closed for the year. Janet Hirsch said that this pointed out the fact that the treasurer's report should be the actual cash flow and not necessarily accounting adjustments etc. Linda agreed that some of the reports were not accurately reporting cash flow. Janet said that the data from the accounting software needed to be taken and put into another spreadsheet to get the correct reports. Linda said that she would do this manually as the system was not working correctly. Phil further questioned the amount of assessment money being paid toward the loan. He asked if the $87,000 reported under current assets had anything to do with the special assessments. Linda replied that it did not. Ron explained that all monies coming in from the special assessment went directly to the loan. That is why the loan has gone down so much. The loan payment each month is $4,489. Ron said that the special assessment is due in June and the regular assessment is due in August.

Security Director

Ray Lauer read his report.

Ray was questioned as to how far along were we with having new gate passes available. He replied that not everybody had responded. He said that the people who did not respond and those who could not be verified as still being here have been taken out of the system. Tim Schryver asked if stickers would be available for 2005. Ray said that he had some but the dates on them were 2001-2002. Originally the stickers were designed so that the guard could see them when a car came in. It was not a mandate to have them on the car. There is no charge for the stickers, just let Ray know if you need one. Phil Chambers brought up the problem of cars and boats in the summer being down by the clubhouse without stickers. This makes it difficult to tell if they have the right to be there. Ray said that he was looking into having a sign saying "No Trespassing". He was checking with Jefferson County on this because in the city, a car cannot be towed unless a no trespassing sign is displayed stating where it will be towed to and the costs involved.

Building Director

Bev Jost reported on lots K25 and 26. Potential buyers wish to tear down a substantial portion of the existing house but keep one back wall and the foundation and rebuild around it. It will have the same number of bedrooms and they are planning to put in a new septic system. Jefferson County has been contacted and said that they should follow our regulations. There is one small existing tank and the buyers are planning to put in a grinder system and new runs at the back of the house away from the lake. There was considerable concern from the two adjoining houses concerning the proposed septic system that it would conform to all the regulations set forth by the county. Neighbor's letter to board.

Concern was also expressed with regard to inspection, or lack thereof, by the county. It was understood that the minimum distance from a wellhead had to be 100ft. An exact set of plans showing distances from the lot lines was not available. Ron said that Jefferson County needed to be contacted because of the close proximity to the adjoining property wells. Matt Holloran suggested that before the buyers did anything further they were called and told that until they meet the set back requirements they might want to leave the existing sewer and make renovations to it. Once a new system is installed, the old system has to be completely filled in. This new system has to conform to all the distance regulations and it was possible that an acceptable system for the adjoining properties might not be available. We should make sure that things are right with the septic system before the buyers begin building. Phil Chambers offered to talk to them as he has just had a new system installed and was aware of all the problems involved. It was decided not to approve the permit at this time. Chyree De Roode said that she did not see why we should worry about Jefferson County, she said we should be able to have stricter rules than they do. She pointed out that this is now prime property and this will happen again. We have to foresee this happening and we need to protect our lake.

Maintenance Director

Matt Holloran reported that Dale Waller has done a very good snow plowing so far. He said that they continue to have problems with the truck but this will be taken in this coming week for repairs. He has a few bills for the truck and the last snow-plowing bill which have been turned in to the Treasurer for payment. Marilyn Meyer asked if the Board wanted an inventory of the driveways that needed to be black topped so that in the spring when we get the roads repaired the property owners could have an option to use the same contractor. She volunteered to do the north side of the lake. Matt said that he would like to get that implemented prior to the next election that that was what we would like to see done so that it could be voted on at the election. Hopefully we could then make it as mandatory as possible before next winter in an attempt to stop the rock from going onto the roads again. This was not just driveways going to homes but all driveways around the lake.

LTIA

In Gail Lentz' absence, Barb Rhom said that there would be a Trivia Night this coming Saturday at the community house. Tickets would be $10 per person. Raffle tickets would be available and there would be a silent auction for 4 tickets to Busch Gardens.

Ron questioned the amount of the insurance on the building. The actual policy had been given to Dixie Bryant. An invoice for $4,094 had been presented. When the insurance was first discussed, the community house was $1,021 with $335 for the pavilion. Linda Fulford said that she had verified the amounts with the insurance company and they were $670 for liability and $3,2XX for the actual coverage on the building. She said that we had raised the dollar amount of the coverage. Ron said that initially the value of the building was only $80,000 and it was raised up to over $200,000 after the insurance agent had measured the building. The community house has a burglar alarm system installed. Ron will contact the insurance agent and discuss the difference in the amounts with him.

Web Site

Janet Hirsch reported that the web site is still doing very well with the most popular page being the minutes. She said that the deadline for the next newsletter is February 20th .

Old Business

There was no old business to discuss.

New Business

Phil Chambers said that he had come across this piece of information that the lake might find interesting. He said that it was in a court decree for an application to change restrictions at the lake. He said that the total frontage of all lots at the lake was 59,950 ft. whereas the total frontage of all lots required to approve said restrictions was 29,976 ft. He said that this was what the assessments were based on, all the lake and road frontage figures.

President Sansone said that tomorrow night at 7 p.m. there would be a meeting with the board on the sewers. Two ladies one from the Federal Government and one from the State will be there together with Mr. Brunges. This is the first step to get the project of defining our sewer district started. Phil Chambers questioned how the costs would be apportioned to the individual lot owners. Ron said that it will go by the individual users and will have nothing to do with the lots. Only lots with homes on them will initially be connected to the sewer system. Subsequent new homes will still have to have 40,000 sq. ft. of land and they will have to pay the appropriate amount to be connected to the system. Ron said that with the 240 homes that we have here at the moment, that is enough to have a sewer system. Ron then went on to say that the reason the Board would be speaking to the two ladies was that there was a possibility that we could obtain some Federal monies for the sewer system. He said that the cost of the system would be amortized over 20 to 30 years.

There being no further business, Ray Lauer made a motion, seconded by Matt Holloran to adjourn.

The meeting ended at 8:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted

Pat Harting

Secretary