November Minutes

These Minutes are APPROVED

Board Meeting Minutes

Meeting date: November 18, 2008

Present: Amira, Cindy, Tricia, Erika

Guest Issues to be addressed at next meeting; first 30 minutes (maximum):

None

Approve Minutes of last meeting; October

 

Motion to approve:	Cindy
Second:	Amira
Motion carried.	Meeting adjourned.

Current Business:

1. Treasurer’s Report.
1. No report since we just spent the last 3½ hours preparing the budget proposal.

 

1. 09/17/08; The shingles on the two roofs that Gary did do not go all the way over the edge of the roof into the gutter – no overhanging to usher the water off the roof.  Gary was going to fix this.  Cindy will follow up with him.
1. 10/21/08; Cindy talked to him about the gap between the gutter and the roof (which Gary has now fixed), but they did not discuss the shingles issue.  Cindy will talk to Gary again.
2. 11/18/08; Larry Thorpe came to assess water in Fred’s bathroom and looked at the roof (to see if there was a leak leading to Fred’s bathroom problem) and he said that the roof appears to be done well and is solid.  The space between the roof and the gutter is fine and the shingles are good.  Issue closed.

1. 09/17/08; There’s a bit of the casing around his entry door that has lost its paint (during a cleaning of the front of the house).  Yvon will try to track down the paint (there has to be paint around) or buy a quart and then paint the patch.
1. 10/21/08; no update, Cindy will check.
2. 11/18/08; Tricia saw him working on it…let’s call it done.

 

1. 09/17/08; The Board is planning to move the dumpster on Woodbridge to the right, to get it out of the way of the snow plow.  We’ll try it in this location for a year and see how it works.  If it works okay then we’ll leave it there and build a fence around it.
1. 10/21/08; Cindy called J&R to see if it’s okay to move it, but they haven’t called her back, she’ll keep trying.
2. 11/18/08; done.

1. Tricia would like to suggest that the Board get together for an administrative planning retreat; a time to develop plans and procedures for things like a grievance structure (when owners have an issue with the way a project gets completed or with a contractor’s work), a way of tracking projects and work orders, and other administrative items like that.  Most seem to be in agreement, we just have to find a time.
1. 10/21/08; we’ll table this until Tricia can be here
2. 11/18/08; tentatively set for Friday 28th at 9:00 AM, at Tricia’s. (for four hours, about)

 

1. Craig Kansky wants to know if he is going to get the $50 for water used on the gardens.  The Board remembers Cindy Dodds saying that she didn’t do any watering.  Erika will touch base Cindy to find out what watering was done.
1. 10/21/08; Craig should be paid (if he hasn’t been already).
2. 11/18/08; done

1. 10/21/08; Judy Brown has some rotting around the window sill next to the front door.  We already have an open work order with Gary to repair the rotting sills.  He offered that while he has the wall open to repair the sills he could also replace the window if Judy wants a new window.  Cindy talked to Judy who is considering the idea.  Gary won’t replace the sill until Judy makes a call on the window.
1. 11/18/08; Judy and Gary are in communication with each other.  This issue is out of our hands until the work starts.

 

1. 10/21/08; Judy’s gutter downspout has broken off.  Cindy will have Gary look at it.
1. 11/18/08; Gary will fix this when he comes to fix Judy’s window

1. 10/21/08; the street light by Joan goes off and on.  Cindy thinks she knows someone who can fix it; she’ll talk to him and ask for an estimate to fix this.
1. 11/18/08; the guy Cindy was thinking of didn’t get back to her.  Cindy will check with Terry.

 

1. 10/21/08; Gap in the foundation between Harambasic and Horlacher units.  No particular issue at the moment, but would like seal the gap to prevent animals and stuff from getting in there.  Cindy will add this to the Gary list for estimating.
1. 11/18/08; Gary came and looked at it.  He can’t do anything about it other than plugging up the space, which he will do.

1. 10/21/08; Cindy brought the quote from Fiske for snow plowing this year.  $100 for each complete plowing.
1. 11/18/08; Fiske has the job.

 

Ongoing Business:

1. TABLED UNTIL APRIL - Amira: their basement has begun flooding again, apparently from the same crack.
1. 02/19/08; Cindy Carswell checked it out.  We need to have Gary Scott come out to look at all (probably the three on that end of the building) the units in that building to see if they have the same problem.  Gary can help us make a decision on how to move forward to achieve a final resolution to the wet basement issues.  Cindy Carswell will call him.
2. 03/11/08; Cindy met with Gary who did an inspection of the basement.  Gary wants to remove the framing, remove the old patch and do a new patch including one along the floor.  His estimate for this work is $389.50.  Flooding occurred again and a contractor friend of Cindy’s said that we needed to run a perimeter drain (like on Ledgewood Court).
1. Cindy motions to accept Gary’s proposal.  Tricia seconds the motion.  Motion carried.  Cindy will communicate with Gary, who plans to come out the week of March 18th to do the work.
3. 04/08/08; everyone is going to contact whoever they can think of to try to figure out what to do next.  The basement is leaking worse than ever now.  We will regroup on this next month and compare our findings.  We are looking for almost anything that is less costly and involved than running perimeter drains along the back of the building.
4. 05/20/08; the basement is still wet.  Cindy has a list of contractors she contacted and from whom she received some recommendations.  One recommendation is to run a perimeter drain along the front and back (like Ledgewood) and waterproof-painting the foundation’s exterior… the “perfect fix”.  Part of this repair would be to run underground drainage to the ditch.  Other contractors have the same recommendation.  The overall feeling is that the ground is so saturated with water that the hydrostatic pressure is pressing moisture into the basements.  It was further found (in Tricia’s unit) that the foundation appears to be thinner than what would typically be expected in a foundation.  Another option suggested was to cut a hole in a basement and add another sump pump in that row of units.  Another suggestion was to add a two inch slab with a “gutter” around the perimeter of the room where any water will go, leading to a sump pump in a corner.  The raised room stays dry and the perimeter can be wet…like a gutter around the room.  It is also suggested that we hire an engineer (rather than a contractor) to assess the situation before we move on any further expensive steps to get a final determination of the problem and possible fixes.  Joan had said that she would contact the town to see if they had an engineer that could help.  Erika will double check with her on that.  Fred will give the number of an engineer with whom he spoke on this subject a couple of years ago, to someone one the Board and we’ll contact this person to find out what he would charge to assess this issue.
5. 06/17/08; still wet.  Proposals have come in from excavators to estimate perimeter drains outside the building.  Cindy called the engineer that Fred recommended (Richard Dall, McFarland Johnson Engineering Co.).  He can get us on his agenda, but couldn’t even call back until August.  It would cost $5-600 just to have him come out – not counting any research.  Phone advice from Mr. Dall, recommended talking to a waterproofing contractor.  Tom Bodette’s bid for sump pump installation in Amira’s basement, piping to outside, concrete patch between floor and wall; $2,175.  We also talked to Paquette who has some other ideas, but hasn’t done a proposal. He’ll come back out to discuss his other ideas.  Cota estimated for a perimeter drain at $25,530.  A perimeter drain will always be a terribly expensive option because the decks have to all be removed, and there’s lots of digging involved.  Gary’s proposal to seal the wall and install a sump pump is $1,248.  Before we jump to the expensive options it seems wise to seek the counsel of the “waterproofing contractors” to see what they recommend.  Cindy will make some calls and see what she can find out.
6. 08/19/08; see below notes about the basement.  Amira is open to one more inexpensive try.
1. Dave Aubut from Advanced Basement Technologies joins this meeting to help us understand the wet basement issues, in particular, for the Harambasic’s unit.  He shared the system that his company provides, which is guaranteed.  It involves “trenching” around the perimeter of the basement with a “pipe” that routes the water around the perimeter to a pump station, which removes the water from the basement.  The price for this complete system would $5,178 per his quote for the work on Amira’s unit.  An installation on Amira’s unit would take about one day.
1. Recap: Fred reports that the foot/wall joint in Amira’s unit has never been sealed with polyurethane caulking for concrete, and claims that this would fix the problem (product has a 50 year life).
2. Will Yetter could do the work that Fred is suggesting.  Fred will talk to Will Yetter to ask him to estimate the cost.
1. 09/16/08; Gary has finished.  Now we wait and see.
7. 10/21/08; with this rain her basement is dry…so far.

 

1. TABLED UNTIL APRIL: MaryLou's unit –warped siding under the window.
1. 11/20/07; Cindy will ask Gary to check it out.
2. 12/18/07; Joan will ask Gary to take a look at it, while he’s there working on her place
3. 02/19/08; Cindy will talk to Gary when she calls about some other issues.
4. 03/11/08; Gary said that when he comes to work on Mirzet’s basement he can work on this.
5. 04/08/08; scheduled
6. 05/20/08; unknown
7. 06/17/08; Gary doesn’t know what needs to be done, he can’t see a problem.  Amira will ask Mary Lou what the issue is and see if we can get it resolved.
8. 08/19/08; we still don’t know about this.
9. 09/16/08; Mary Lou’s siding is composite (cardboard) and is rotting.  Gary has proposed to replace the siding with a similar product (they don’t make this same stuff any more) for $46.

1. TABLED UNTIL APRIL: 06/17/08; On the parking space in front of Amira’s (where the Town had to patch the parking lot after the main break) the patch is “sinking”.  Erika will call the Town to find out if they can come and repair this.
1. 08/19/08; Erika isn’t getting anywhere with the town.  She’ll keep trying.
2. 09/16/08; Erika isn’t getting anywhere with the town.  She’ll keep trying.
3. 10/21/08; Cindy called and they said that they have it on their list of things to address.  Cindy had called to address the water shutoff heads being broken.  The town will add that to their list as well.

 

1. TABLED UNTIL APRIL: 08/19/08; Dean Messner: sidewalk to his entrance, which was one of the ones replaced, has stones showing on the surface, which he would like to have fixed by redoing the sidewalk.  Also, when the steps were repaired it created another problem resulting in an uneven portion of the deck; this also needs to be repaired.  Basically, all the sidewalks, except Fred’s (which only needs an expansion joint), would need to be replaced.
1. 09/16/08; A home visit team will go by and look at the sidewalk to see if they can see any breaking up.  It is the Board’s plan to wait until spring to see how the walk winters.

 

1. TABLED UNTIL APRIL: Gary has a proposal to put on gutter downspout extensions – 11 total.  $28.15 each x 11.  There is some concern that just replacing these gutters again will result in them getting mowed over again.  Erika suggests an automatic rolling downspout to see if this would solve the problem.  She will order one and we’ll test it.  http://www.improvementscatalog.com/product/code/112292.do?cm_mmc=NEXTAG-_-Gutters%20Accessories-_-2008-_-112292&code-macs=MP8NEXTAG&code=MP8NEXTAG or http://www.guttersupply.com/p-Rain-Drain.gstml
1. 10/21/08; Erika brought it with her and left it with Cindy C for installation.  Now we wait and see if it works.

Other/New Business:

1. 11/18/08; Dumpster issues.  People are still dumping recycle boxes during non-pick up weeks and putting out garbage on the road (rather than IN the dumpster).  How do we encouarage people to be more appropriate with their garbage?  Erika will put something in the newsletter (Tricia will send the schedule).

 

1. 11/18/08; Tricia isn’t getting any feedback from people who are in arrears.  communication w/ treasurer/bookkeeper/board about money woes.  We’ll talk about it more at the retreat.

1. 11/18/08; Fred has moisture in the wall of his bathroom, behind the sheetrock.  Larry Thorpe came to assess the situation and his feeling is that we should wait until spring.  He can’t find a clear place where the water would be leaking in or a clear cause for the problem.  In the spring he can hose the area and see if he can recreate the problem.

 

Erika will forward the Word template for the WBA to send letter to John Delucco regarding cats.
Erika will forward annual meeting mailing materials to Amira for print and prep.

1. Annual Meeting: Tentative date is Sunday January 18th.  2:00 – 4:00.  Tentative location St. Stephens Church in Middlebury.

 

Close meeting:

Motion to adjourn:	Tricia
Second:	Amira
Motion carried.	Meeting adjourned.

NEXT BOARD MEETING: December 16, 2008