Oakwoods Homeowners Association of Bloomington, Inc



Oakwoods Homeowners Association of Bloomington, Inc. (OHA)

Board of Director’s Meeting Minutes

Meeting Date:  November 15th, 2007

Meeting Time: 6:00 p.m.

Held at: 2308 Timberview

ITEM #1: Call to Order

ITEM #2: Roll Call

Attendees:

Board Members: April Jackson, Jeff Stromberger, Cory Schummer, Hope Chubb, and

Terry Jackson

Other Members: Tamara Deterts

Absent: Board Members: Nichole Britnell & Debbie Gaines

ITEM #3: Appointments – None

ITEM #4: Consent Agenda

All items under the consent agenda are considered to be routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a director or citizen so requests, in which event, the item will be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered on the Regular Agenda, which is another item. The board of directors, through work sessions, email correspondence and/or other means of communication, has been made aware of all pertinent information regarding items appearing on the consent agenda prior to the Directors Board Meeting.

A. Board of Directors Minutes of October 25, 2007 (Recommend that the reading of the minutes of the above mentioned meetings be dispensed with and the minutes approved as printed.)

B. Reports – 2 submitted (Recommend that the reports be placed on file and made a matter of record.)

C. Record Email Votes on Cold Patch for Roads (all seven directors voted yes) and No outlet sign on Woodhavens/Persimmon (everyone voted yes except Cory who voted no)

Resolution: Motion made my April to approve all consent agenda items. Motion seconded by Jeff. All members present voted yes.

ITEM #5: Committee Reports

A. Finance Committee: Report made by Cory Schummer

• Working with Accounting Firm on final 2006-2007 numbers.  Should be done fairly soon and hope to make those numbers available during the next board meeting if not sooner.

• Received an OHA Disk from Franco on Sunday, Nov 11th.  This will help us with our ability to report numbers to our accounting firm and to address liens etc.

• Finance Committee has been holding some discussions (via email) regarding the resurfacing of our roads in the upcoming year.   The only thing we have discussed thus far is the possibility of financing and how it would impact our association. At this time the common consensus of the committee is to avoid financing if possible.  However, the committee is keeping an open mind and will reconsider financing once the time is right. 

• Franco is working on removing liens on the following properties since they have recently paid their dues in full:

o (name and address removed for privacy, details in official secretary notes)

o (name and address removed for privacy, details in official secretary notes)

o (name and address removed for privacy, details in official secretary notes)

• The cost of cold patching our roads was way under budget.  We expected the expense to be around $80 to $100 based on conversations with McLean County Asphalt (MCA).  The actual expense was $33.28!  We are extremely thankful to MCA for graciously letting us use their truck for free.  We should publicly thank them in our next OHA Newsletter.

• Completed the paper work to allow OHA to have access to the McLean County Assessor's website.  Not sure if this is needed since Jeff showed me how to access the lien information on the assessor's website.

• I will not be able to attend the December board meeting as I am clearing my calendar for various family and school related events due to the upcoming Holiday Season.

B. Road Committee Report – Report made by Jeff Stromberg

The road committee received a call from Rowe in regards to resurfacing our roads. They said they cannot get close to the bid that we received from McLean County Asphalt. Their bid was around $500,000 and they will provide us with a detailed bid at a later date. It will be an approximate figure since we can’t lock in for something we will possibly be doing next year. The road committee, along with some of the board members, met with McLean County Asphalt last week. After the meeting, Jeff called Randy from MCA to clarify the bids that we received. Option A was for complete resurfacing and Option B was for a 16” strip down the center of the roads. Randy indicated that for the long term, Option A would be better for us to do. Jeff & Cory completed cold patching the areas that were in need last weekend.

Discussion: Hope asked what the figure was from MCA to completely resurface the roads. She had originally heard it would be around $700,000 from looking at past figures. Jeff and April said that the figure is around $364,000 for all roads to be resurfaced. Tamara asked what all that included. April said it included milling, cleaning, prep work and asphalt – so basically everything. Tamara asked if the milling was side to side because she thought you shouldn’t have more than 2 layers of asphalt on each surface. Jeff explained that MCA didn’t agree with that. They said that the more you have, the stronger the roads will be and they will last longer. The milling would be on the sides because of driveways and also around storm drains.

C. Welcome Committee Report – Report made by April Jackson for Kendra Harvey (from e-mail)

I'm pleased to report that the welcoming committee has done a terrific job of identifying AND welcoming our neighbors who have moved in to our community in the last 9 months!

Highlights for this month:

1. We've distributed 11 welcome packages - bringing us completely current.

2. We are watching 1 home that sold in August but is undergoing remodeling. They are expected to take possession sometime after the first of the year. At that time we'll be meeting them officially. (Special thanks to Hope Chubb for letting us know of that situation).

3. Two homes have been taken off the market, both on Yew Court.

4. The neighborhood has 5 homes currently for sale.

5. The neighborhood has 1 home that sold earlier this month that has not closed.

Much thanks to Kathy and Julie who had the majority of homes to contact in their respective areas!

D. Block Captain Report – Report made by Hope Chubb

Hope and Nichole had previously divided the association into 36 blocks. After delivering the newsletters and seeing how fast it went, they decided to change it to only 30 blocks, making some of the blocks larger. We previously had 6 block captains in place and since the first newsletter went out, we are up to 16. We still need to find 14 more people willing to help out.

Discussion: Tamara said that she has picked up 5 or 6 newsletters when she’s been out walking and asked how our block captains are distributing the newsletters. Hope said that she put them inside the front screen doors of homes and thought most people did the same thing. If they did not have a screen door, they were placed under an object on the front porch (a welcome mat, lawn chair, etc.) April said that she and Terry and Debbie taped them to the front door to be sure they didn’t blow away. They thought this would be the best way to distribute from now on.

Action Item: Hope will email the block captains before the next newsletter is delivered to let them know to tape them to the door or rubber band them to the handle to prevent them from blowing away.

ITEM #6: Assignment Reports

Insurance Report – by Hope Chubb (from e-mail)

I talked to Mike Rave, our State Farm agent, on Friday. The following is what we discussed:

Property Insurance – We currently have replacement coverage on the park pavilion for $8,500, the Oakwoods sign for $3,800 and the playground equipment for $23,900. I questioned whether the $8500 would be enough to replace and he said he thought it would. We may need to discuss raising these as this coverage is very cheap. It’s only $68 for all of that.

Business Personal Property – We have excluded that from our policy as we have no business personal property.

Business Liability - $1 million for general liability with a $2 million aggregate. This covers anything that the subdivision would be liable for.

Medical Payments - $10,000 – This coverage is basically to pay medical bills for someone that gets hurt and we are not liable. Mike said that usually if someone gets hurt, like playing basketball at the park, their own health insurance will cover it. If that person is uninsured, they may file a claim against Oakwoods even though they are not liable so that is when the Med. Pay would pay.

Completed Products & Operations - $1 million – Mike said this comes standard with our policy. It cannot be excluded. He said this would cover anything the subdivision would make and sell, such as having a bake sale or something like that.

Umbrella - $1 million – This policy covers all of the other underlying policies that we have. I asked if he thought this was sufficient coverage and he said that it was.

Employee Dishonesty - $25,000 – This covers anyone that handles money for the subdivision. If the money goes missing, State Farm will pay it back to us, then they will follow up with the punishment of the crime, including contacting the police.

Directors & Officers - $1 million – This covers the board members for any decisions they make or actions that they take. An example that Mike gave me was one subdivision had a common area with a concrete floor. The board decided to redecorate the area and painted the concrete. Apparently painted concrete is very slick when there is moisture. So, someone slipped and fell. They sued the subdivision for being liable, then they sued the board for making a stupid decision.

Tree Debris Removal – Our policy covers the removal of fallen trees if there is damage to a structure that we insure. So, if a tree falls on playground equipment and damages it, they will fix the equipment then pay to have the tree removed. It does not cover trees in the outlots. He said there is an exception to that though it is looked at on a case by case basis. If he is notified that a tree is dead and is a danger to a structure, they may go ahead and remove it.

On a side note, I talked with him about the tree issues that we have here. He said that I was correct about the falling trees. If my tree falls on someone’s house, their homeowner’s insurance takes care of it. It is not my responsibility. The exception to that is: if they came to my house and told me that my tree was hanging over their property and it looked like it was dead and that I should have it removed, then I would be liable because they discussed it with me.

Boat Lot – I asked Mike if we have any liability in the boat lot. He said that you can’t insure something that you don’t own. The association does not own any of the vehicles out there, so no extra insurance can be purchased for that. He said that each owner should carry their own insurance. He did say that our liability covers people back there if they get hurt and we are in some way negligent. If we know there are dead batteries out there and someone falls over one, we are liable.

Streets – I asked Mike about the water on the streets and the possibility of an accident when it freezes. Mike said that anyone driving a car in the winter should be watching for and anticipating patches of ice so our liability is not anymore than that of anyone else’s. He said even though we know there are water issues, we aren’t responsible for drivers on the streets.

Mike said we currently are getting a 20% discount because we have had few claims and nice curb appeal. He said we had 1 claim last year that involved them removing a tree because it had the potential to fall on someone’s house and it had been damaged by lightning.

After talking with Mike, I forwarded our current policy information to Joe Kenworthy, from Old National Insurance. He is consulting on this and obtaining quotes for us. He is doing the consulting at no charge.

Discussion: The board talked about our insurance for the Oakwoods sign. Hope asked if the park pavilion had enough insurance and everyone agreed that the building could not be replaced for $8,500.

Action Item: Hope will call Mike Rave to see what the cost is for raising the building cost to $17,000.

Freedom of Information Act Report by April Jackson for Debbie Gaines

Debbie said we haven’t made much progress on this. She has submitted the information but was told that it needed to be sent somewhere else.

Water Leak on Woodhavens & Timberview Report by April Jackson

April said she has checked the leak several times in the past few weeks and it appears to be dry.

Mowing Bids Report by Cory Schummer

Cory said he will be obtaining bids in the next few months for our mowing services.

ITEM #7: Regular Agenda

A. Progress on State Farm Good Neighbor Grant

Cory said that he checked into this grant and we are not eligible. You must be tax exempt and classified as a charitable organization.

B. Homeowners Directory

Hope said she was contacted by a block captain in regards to a homeowner’s directory. A resident had thought it would be a good idea. They stated it would be easier for the block captains to make contact with their block if they had phone numbers and email addresses. They also thought it would be good to have the directory so they would have phone numbers for neighbors and for their children’s friends, etc. Cory expressed concern over the cost of the directory because it’s not in the current budget and would have to be taken from other funds, most likely the road funds. Jeff thought that a directory would be hard to keep updated. Hope had previously offered to make the directory, have it printed and keep it updated when new people move into the neighborhood. Other members expressed concern over privacy issues – we would have to give homeowners the option to not be put into the directory.

Corey made a motion to table this discussion for another meeting. He then withdrew his motion.

Jeff made a motion to “not create a directory”. Terry seconded the motion. Yes Votes: April, Jeff, and Terry.

No Votes: Hope. Abstain: Cory. Motion passed by majority of members present.

C. Violation Report on 12 Edgewood

April reported that the board received a violation report on a vehicle parked in front of 12 Edgewood. The vehicle had been wrecked, probably totaled, and had been on the road for more than 2 weeks (if front of a fire hydrant). That is not a violation of our covenants but is a violation of city code. It is not the board’s responsibility to take care of matters like this, but the report was sent anonymously so we had no one to contact. The board ended up calling the police to have the vehicle tagged for towing. The police came and the vehicle was moved, only to end up in front of someone else’s house on Edgewood. April suggested that we need to change to reporting from on the website so that people understand that the board only gets involved if there is a covenant violation. The board agreed to add a disclaimer notice on the reporting from and also to ask for a covenant number when they report a violation.

Action Item: April will follow up with Erik Larson to have that added to our website.

D. Liability Waiver

Hope asked our insurance agent, Mike Rave, about a waiver of liability for homeowners that offer to cut down trees in the out lots. He said that a waiver won’t hold up in court so there is no point in having one signed. He said if a resident volunteers to help out by cutting down a tree and we let him, and if he cuts it down and it falls on another resident’s property – that resident’s homeowners will pay his damages but then will subrogate against the Association. He said if we let non-licensed, non-insured people volunteer for these types of things, we have to assume their liability. The board agreed that we should not let people volunteer to do these types of things anymore. We can’t protect ourselves. All board members agreed. Tamara said that she noticed that a tree had fallen onto the road at the end of Palm Court and it was too heavy for her to move.

Action Item: April will check on the fallen tree to see what needs to be done.

E. Legal Retainer

April said she talked to Attorney Jon D. McLaughlin from Dunn, Willard, Arkell, Bugg & Patterson, LLP and he has looked over our covenants. She said that he would like for us to sign a legal retainer with him. He said that it would take about 5 hours to work on our covenants and approve changes that we want to make. He said he would only charge us half of his normal price and that would amount to $375. April made a motion that the board approves this $375 fee. There was a need for further discussion so April removed her motion. Hope asked if an attorney is necessary at this point for the covenants. April said that we will have to have an attorney because of the legal aspects and language of the covenants. Hope asked if the $375 is a flat rate or if that is the retainer amount and we could possibly end up owing more after he has finished. April was not sure.

Action Item: April will follow up with McLaughlin to find out if the retainer fee of $375 is the total amount we will owe.

F. Guardrail on Clearbrook

Terry received an estimate from Rowe to have a guardrail put up on Clearbrook. The estimate was for $750. April said that she called Lowe’s and we can purchase a 2X12 board and it would cost about $25 + the cost of bolts. Hope expressed concern over the appearance and safety of using the wooden board. Because there is another guardrail there, they would not look the same and possibly not be as safe. April, Jeff and Terry said they had seen guardrails with wood before and they are used like that in a lot of places. Terry said that maybe we could look into doing a board in the back and one over the top so that it would be safer and without the sharp edges that were a concern for children.

Action Item: April is going to look for some wooden rails to see what structure they used for building them and so other board members can look at them to see what their opinion is.

G. Dues, Late Fees, Liens w/Regards to Recent Homeowner Situation

There was much discussion over the past week in regards to a homeowner on Edgewood and the annual dues. At the last board meeting, a homeowner came to discuss a letter he had received stating that his voting rights had been suspended because of non-payment of dues. Cory said he would look into the issue and get in touch with him. After investigating, Cory determined that the house in question was purchased on May 12th so the current homeowner is responsible for the annual dues, the late fees and the lien fees. It was discovered that the past board had sent the statement to the old homeowner and it was returned to our post office box. The resident stated that he never received a statement, which was true because Cory had the returned letter. The homeowner does not feel that he should pay the fees because he said he wasn’t aware that we had dues or when they were due.

Many ideas were tossed around in regards to this matter. Jeff brought up the point that the dues are listed on the MLS sheet when you purchase a home so the homeowner should have been made aware of the dues. In addition, when this particular house was purchased from the bank the homeowner should have been made aware that a lien was being released from previous non-payment of dues. After all this discussion, the covenants were reviewed. It essentially came down to the fact that the board does not have the authority to waive any of the fees. In addition, there are several houses with liens and the board cannot make an exception for one home without considering it for all the homes. The board members were sympathetic to this particular case. But, it is stated in the covenants that all homeowners are liable for dues, even if they claim to not be aware of them.

Terry made a motion that we charge the homeowner the full amount due, not waiving any portion of the late fees or lien fees. Cory seconded the motion. Yes Votes: April, Jeff, Cory, Hope, Terry.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Item #8: Directors Discussion

Partial Dues Payments – April said she got a call from a homeowner because we returned her check of $300 and wanted to know why. Apparently, in the past, the homeowners association would not accept partial payments. Hope made a motion to accept partial payments of not less than $120 but then she withdrew the motion. Further discussion was needed. Cory said he also had a check from a resident for $120 but was not sure that we could cash it because it was not payment in full. Cory said there are currently about 15 homes with liens on them with some dues being as far in arrears at $2,000. The board feels that we should try to accept partial payments to try and recoup some of the money that is owed. Tamara asked about our accounting firm and if they can do partial payments. She asked if we would need an amortization schedule. Hope said she didn’t think that would be necessary.

Action Item: Cory will check with our accounting firm to see if it would be possible to accept partial payments as long as they are not less than the dues of $120.

Nature Scape Estimate - Cory received an early renewal notice from Nature Scape.  They are the company chosen by the previous board to treat the grass in Oakwood's Park.  If we renew by Dec 31st, we will save $25.00 which will mean our total expense for 2008 will be $334.00 instead of $359.00.  This provides us with 5 treatments throughout the spring, summer, and fall of 2008.  Our 2008 budget set aside $300.00 for this budget line.  Jeff questioned whether or not we actually needed 5 treatments. April said she talked with 2 residents that live by the park and they said they have not noticed a difference since the treatments were started. Hope said the park is important to many residents that have children and we should continue to maintain. Jeff said that maybe we can cut down on the number of treatments and still receive the same result.

Action Item: Cory will check with Nature Scape on the cost of 2 treatments instead of 5 treatments.

City of Bloomington & Roads – April reported that Terry talked to his brother, who works as a city planner in another state, about our association. He is going to put together some information for us about what we can do with our roads. He has known about a lot of other associations that were like ours and said that all of them were eventually taken over by the city in which they were located. One thing that is needed is some type of “game plan” to take to the city. We need to find out how much of our tax money goes toward maintaining our roads and how much they have collected from residents here over the years. We also need to have several residents involved in talking to the city, not just the board members. Terry’s brother also said that this process may take several years. He is also unaware of any road grants that are available to associations like ours.

Jeff said he and Cory were looking into the cost if the city took over our roads, since they currently have taken over everything else. They used a rough estimate of 3 miles of roads and then took that by the cost of putting in roads, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, etc. The number they came up with was around $7.3 million. This is in no way a real estimate, just taking some rough figures to see what kind of money may be involved. Tamara asked how much yard each homeowner would have to give up if the city were to take over. Someone said that a previous board member had estimated that it would be about 10 ft. but we have no real numbers on that.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

ITEM #9: Items From The Floor – NONE

ITEM #10: Adjournment – 8:20 p.m.

NEXT SCHEDULED MEETING: December 20th, 2007 @ 6:00 p.m. @ 11 Spiria

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