Minutes: MPCA BOARD MEETING

Monday, February 14th, 2005

7:00 PM

The Board of Directors of the MPCA met on Monday, February 14^th 2005 at Val Shelton’s home. Present were Fern Bouthot, Judi Carr, Val Shelton, Russ Simon and Jim Fitzpatrick, presiding. Jeanne Ormrod and Darby Johnson were excused. Guests included MJ Searfoorce of Great North Property Management and Don MacKinnon, recently elected Treasurer of the MPCA. Many thanks to Don for joining the team in this important role.

.

The meeting was called to order at 7:03 PM.

1. Minutes of the January 10^th, 2005 MPCA Board meeting:

· Motion to approve minutes as written was made by Judi Carr, seconded by Fern Bouthot - approved unanimously.

2. Treasurer’s Report :

• The Board welcomed Don MacKinnon to his new role as MPCA Treasurer.
• Don suggested that that we review the process of being notified of newly built homes being sold & closed so that pro-rata MPCA annual fees would be charged in a timely manner. All agreed and Don will follow up with Great North, Association presidents & AMB to ensure timely notification.
• It was noted that almost all of the delinquent fees and late charges have been collected to date as a result of follow-up and the notification of the amnesty period through 2/28/05.
• From March 1^st, 2005 on, late charges and interest will be charged on delinquent balances as per the MPCA By-laws.
• Great North was directed to make the appropriate adjustments to eliminate those previous late charges that were in error or had previously approved waivers.
• Great North was directed to update the accounting on all the due to and due from accounts by the next financial reporting date.
• Great North and Don will investigate the increased year-to-date electric cost of running the pump house to determine whether it is a one time cost due to the upgrading and testing of the new equipment or an increase in our running costs.

3. Committee Reports

Water Systems Committee

• Presented by Jim Fitzpatrick.

• The WSC completed an operating and procedures manual for operating the lift station. Many thanks to Chuck Dennehy for developing and Colleen Fitzpatrick for documenting this critical process.
• Progress continues on finalizing the testing and recommendations for solving our water capacity issue. Expect that the final recommendations will be ready for Board Review and decision making by the end of March.
• MJ Searfoorce presented a letter detailing the improvements to the lift station recommended by the WSC and costs negotiated for Board approval. The improvements were budgeted and MJ did a great job in negotiating the costs down 20% from the original estimate (kudos to MJ!!). Motion to approve the lift station upgrades and costs as presented was made by Val Shelton, seconded by Jim Fitzpatrick - approved unanimously.

Environmental Committee:

• Presented by Fern Bouthot.
• The Environmental reviewed the Culvert report as requested by the Board to identify priorities for repair and to determine which culverts was the responsibility of the town of Newmarket to repair and which culverts was Moody Point’s responsibility.
• The EC met with Rick Malaski, Fire Chief and Director of Public Works for Newmarket. It was agreed that there were seven culverts that the town was responsible to maintain and that regular maintenance and repairs would be done during the June to August 2005 period. Regular meetings between the EC & Rick Malaski will continue on a going forward basis to ensure good communications.
• The EC identified two culverts on the Lot 4 trails that were high priority to repair as soon as weather permits.
• In addition, the EC has suggested that we need to raise the trail level in certain locations to reduce damage to culverts. This will need further investigation and analysis which should be done prior to preparing the MPCA budget for 2005-2006.
• EC will be working with the Board on developing an overall plan for Lot 4, 6, 9A & 11 maintenance and improvements, combining the existing Environmental Management Plan and the various reports provided Earle Chase over the past year. This will be critical for developing the ongoing requirements and associated realistic costs of maintaining our common grounds for our future budgeting.

Community Life Committee:

• Presented by Jim Fitzpatrick.

• Great feedback and attendance on the “Timely Topics” discussion on Islam facilitated by Jerry Goddard.
• The next “Timely Topics” discussion will be held on February 27^th on Polio Eradication, facilitated by Dr. Drew Remignanti.
• The CLC is reviewing the current policies on use of the Screen House and will be presenting an updated policy recommendation to the Board by April.

By-Laws Review Committee:

• Presented by Val Shelton.

• The committee is organized and has begun to review the By-laws for required updates and possible changes.

4. MPCA Managers Report:

• Presented by MJ Searfoorce – included report on delinquencies and lift station improvements discussed previously in these minutes.

5. Expanded Water System Capacity Project Funding :

• The Board discussed, on a preliminary basis, how to fund the costs of expanding the water capacity, though the decision on funding will have to wait until a final set of recommendations and costs are determined.
• The Board felt that the funding could come from existing “water capacity expansion reserves” (including future new building water hook-up fees), supplemented, if necessary, by existing general capital reserves. This approach, if it works out to be viable, will allow us to expand our water capacity to meet all current and future needs, without requiring a special assessment. Much work still has to be done prior to reaching any conclusion, but we wanted to share this funding possibility with the membership.

6. MPCA Survey and Priorities Questionnaire:

• Status presented by Jim Fitzpatrick
• Surveys have been collected and work has begun by the survey team in compiling the results. Many thanks to the survey team (Jim Fitzpatrick, Peter Roy, Russ Simon and Ray Steventon) and Colleen Fitzpatrick (data compiler extraordinaire) for the many hours of work to date and additional work required over the next month to compile the responses and report the results.
• And a huge Thank You to all our members!!!! Though a few surveys are still trickling in, to date we have received over 80 surveys back, making our participation rate over 60%! And it appears that most of you not only answered the questions, but took the time to write in your additional comments!!
• We will also be developing a plan on how to share the survey results with all of you and get your feedback. Stay tuned.

7. Other Business

Boathouse:

• The decision to remove the old, small boathouse (an eyesore) located in Lot 4 in the Lubberland area has been deferred for further study. Though we can remove the boathouse, we have been informed by the town that the existing boathouse provides us with a grandfathered water access to Great Bay, which we would lose forever, if we chose just to remove it. We have decided to have a team of Moody Pointers look at the options we have to remove or replace the existing structure, perhaps giving us an additional Great Bay water access point.

The Meeting was adjourned at 9:10PM.

The Next Board Meeting will be on 3/14/05 at Fern Bouthot’s home.

Respectfully submitted,

Russ Simon

Secretary