President Denese Holden called the meeting to order at 1:10 PM. All homeowners were welcomed. The secretary determined a quorum was present so the meeting could continue. Denese shared news about handouts available at the sign-in table. She also discussed accomplishments of WW volunteers, our community decision to raise homeowner fees and the results it’s made on WW.
MINUTES OF LAST
ANNUAL MEETING
Didn’t read minutes of the last annual meeting since homeowners recently received a copy of them in the mail. No one objected. They’re also on the WEB site.
FIRE STATION RECONSTRUCTION
Fire Chief Tony
Corrado and Capt. Lawrence Bettencourt of South Placer Fire Department were our
first meeting topic. Representing the
fire station at Laird and Cavitt-Stallman, they gave an overview of community
service outside our immediate area in addition to this local area. Two topics dominated their time, the 9/11 NY
disaster and construction of a new fire station.
One, this fire district is in the process of doing a fund raising drive down Douglas Blvd. And may have raised $70,000.
Two, the site plan for the new fire station at Laird and Cavitt-Stallman Road was shared. The entire station will be replaced, using portables until the new station is built. The new station will be about 2X the previous size and will have much improved visibility to Auburn-Folsom Rd. Should significantly improve safety when the new access ramp is built.
A few issues forcing redesign are that newer fire trucks don’t fit the current building, underground water problems, and safety issues involving Auburn-Folsom Rd.
Budget for 7/1/01 – 12/31/0 is $6,918. This amount is in the bank and being used to cover operating expenses, common area maintenance, entrance landscaping and PG&E bills. For details see the budget. Copies are here and were also mailed to homeowners recently. Gary shared how the budget was reset to match our calendar year to ease accounting hereafter.
Our biggest expenditure is Common Area improvement. So far a little over $10K was spent and another $1.5K will be during the remainder of this year. Next year it gets $10K more for improvements and maintenance.
Budget questions
and answers followed. One noteworthy
item was the relatively low amount of liability insurance WW has (compared to
recent property values). Currently we
have $1M coverage and are considering raising it to be more in line with potential
losses and typical premiums paid by other communities around us.
ELECTION OF NEW
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Three
2-year term positions are open for board election. Candidates are Gary Grenfell, Gail Sillers, and Owen
Kittredge. No additional candidates were
nominated at the meeting floor.
Bill
Kenney made a motion that we vote for candidates on the ballot. It was seconded. Vote passed, Gary, Gail, and Owen voted in. Board roles will be decided after the
meeting ends
Architectural committee (Bill Kenney):
Board members noted by Bill. Nearly 30 projects submitted and approved. Bill asked that folks give the architectural committee some time to get approvals done by turning them in earlier. Bill stressed importance of homeowners participating in submitting plans and using our current approval process. Questions and answers followed. In other discussion … each year a new architecture committee is created, this holds true for this committee. Carol Kittredge volunteered for this committee. Also, extra CC&R architecture binders are available. If you’re interested in being on this committee please contact Bill.
Footprint committee (Gail Sillers):
Gail gave an update on the status of a proposal to be put before the homeowners on CC+R changes. Their proposal is currently with WW’s lawyer (Adam Brown) for his input. Key among proposed changes is a maximum size home structure scaling according to lot size. Note, this is a committee proposal for revising our CC&Rs. It only becomes effective if/when voted in by homeowners. It was discussed that this type of change requires 2/3rds of the community to approve, it was later checked and found in the CC&Rs that it requires 51%. Stay tuned for more.
Common Area (Bill Furnas):
Bill shared the new map of
our Common area. He spoke to
improvements made and planned. Bill was
especially appreciative of our WW volunteers who put in a lot of time helping
all this come together. 750 hours of
labor went into our Common Area this last year. Bill ran the list of names that rallied to this cause. (see Bill to get specific names, I
couldn’t keep up). It’s a long
list, actually there are two lists.
Especially noted was the Hall’s, most particularly Guy with their war on
poison oak and mapping the Common Area.
The picnic table crew was noted … that was a significant undertaking
since it’s an industrial-strength table (2,400 pounds – yep, no kidding, heavy
huh). Noted also was Jack Arnold (WW
bridge builder extraordinaire). Brian
Holden was noted for his effort bird-dogging contractors work earlier this
year. Denese too was also noted … she
had a habit of always showing up. Chris
McAffee noted for his non-stop being there for projects. Nathen Baker was acknowledged for his
chain-saw work. Peggy Butler, Common
Area secretary, mentioned for she has a way of finding names of contractors and
tending to email lists and contractors details. Frank Miller was the last person mentioned. Frank did a lot of work for the Common Area
a few years ago that laid the ground floor for many ideas now in place. Frank’s
work was used by this team and very much appreciated time and again during the
year.
Handouts from Guy Hall were
provided at the meeting showing our Common Area map. It will be in the center of the phone book at the next printing.
Noted a quarterly report now available on Common Area stuff. Maintenance plan was noted. Marion Faustman and Guy Hall are working on photographing and identifying native plants. These will be on the WW web site. If anyone is interested in native local plants and would like to help, please let Guy know.
Cleared fire fuel for 5 acres … as budgeted and planned for. Cost about $5K. Other improvements noted. Poison oak control cost a little over $1,500 and the Hall’s work was phenomenal. Spent $1,500 on the picnic area. Volunteers saved money elsewhere and used those savings and some impromptu funds from the board to arrange enough to cover this expense. Had no money budgeted for the easement into our Common Area so that’s postponed into next year (beyond what’s currently done).
Question was raised over whether the dues increase was for abatement or improvements. It took awhile but eventually I found notes from last years meeting wherein it was apparent the budget covered many things, most urgent being fire fuel abatement, but there were several other needs planned as well.
Social Committee:
Cindy Fuzie is our social committee chair. Calypte Court is the location of our next
block party. 5PM is the start time. Date is Sept 29 (next Saturday).
Front entrance:
Looking to set aside funds for the front entrance (to replace the signs). Problem short term is property adjacent to this area. That land is currently for sale and affects what we would do. Where our landscaping is now is on county land where we’ve been given the OK to landscape it.
Web Page:
Chris is not here to talk about it so Denese filled
in. Ton’s of stuff now on the web
site. Includes a chat room. Get suggestions to Chris. Also noted was Guy Hall’s electronic
newsletter.
Kevin
Kemper, arborist – Shared information about living in an oak tree forest. Key to success is studying what these trees
need. Their environment above and below
ground is important. Of these two, most
Oak abuse comes from what happens underground.
Arborists look at foliage size, condition and color as well as dead wood and the like. The environment we place around these trees is their largest cause of disease-shortened lifespan. Their lifespan is hundred’s of years when properly cared for … often when left alone in nature (for instance, Folsom Lake State Park). Key to success is mimicking that natural environment as much as possible. Examples for improved care are don’t compact soils if possible, don’t cut roots and don’t over irrigate.
Kevin
then opened it up to questions and answers.
OTHER ITEMS
Oct 13th is garage sale for WW.
Group asphalt coating is available through Advantage Asphalt. Les Walshaw does the negotiating for us … contact him. Goal is to get several lots done at the same time. Kenney’s got their driveway done for $150.
Meeting
adjourned at 4:00P.M.
Respectfully
submitted,
Mike
Stewart
Secretary
(departing)
Walden Woods Homeowners Association