Minutes: MPCA BOARD MEETING

Monday, March 6^th, 2006

7:30 PM

 

The Board of Directors of the MPCA met on Monday, March 6^th, 2006 at Jeanne Ormrod’s home. Present were Ann Adams, Judi Carr, Darby Johnson, Jeanne Ormrod, Peter Roy, Russ Simon and Jim Fitzpatrick, presiding. Dimitri Chernyshov and Don MacKinnon were absent. Guests included Erin Surprenant of Great North Property Management.

 

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 PM.

 

1.     Minutes of the February 6th MPCA Board meeting:

·      Motion to approve minutes was made by Jeanne Ormrod, seconded by Darby Johnson - approved unanimously.

 

2.     Treasurer’s Report :

• Presented by Russ Simon
• Updated financials through 2/28//06 were reviewed. Overall, Year-to Date MPCA Operating Expenses and Water System Operating Expenses are continuing to run slightly under budget by around $4000.
• Russ Simon and Erin Surprenant suggested that the Board consider moving the Capital Reserve Funds from Southern New Hampshire Bank, where we are earning only 1% interest to either a new money market account or a series of rolling certificates of deposits where we can earn market interest rates in the 3% to 5% range. The Board requested that Don MacKinnon and Erin work on a proposal to accomplish this by the next Board meeting.

 

3.     Committee Reports

 

Water Systems Committee

 

• Presented by Jim Fitzpatrick.
• Our contractor, Waterline Systems, believes the increased testing and maintenance work being done on the Well Pump House equipment has caused the spike in electrical expenses. Once the work is completed this month, they expect electrical usage to return to normal ranges.
• The Water System was shut off the night of March 6^th for about seven hours to successfully replace aged valves.
• A new, sizable water leak was discovered in the Ridge Association’s property the weekend of March 4^th. It appears to be between the main line and the pipes to at least one home and will require portions of a driveway and front walk to be excavated to specifically locate and repair the leak.

 

Environmental Committee:

 

• Nothing new to report.

 

 

Community Life Committee:

 

• Presented by Darby Johnson.
• Lyn Rodger, who has recently redesigned the Moody Point website, has joined the CLC as a member.
• CLC presented an updated Screen House Policy to the Board. After review and discussion, a motion was made by Russ Simon, seconded by Jeanne Ormrod to approve the updated Screen House Policy as recommended by the CLC. The motion was unanimously approved. An updated copy will be provided to the membership for insertion in their copy of the MPCA Policy Manual. Essentially, use of the Screen House will be modestly expanded to include use for MPCA, Associations and CLC sponsored events and also private member events of 20 people or less. All requests for use of the Screen House must be scheduled and approved by CLC in advance. The requestor will be responsible for all clean-up and repairs, if required.
• Policy for use of the MPCA member Broadcast Email address list. It was decided to use the current CLC Bulletin Board Policy (see attached) to guide use of the Broadcast Emails. All requests to notify members of upcoming Community and Town events, whether Social, Charitable or Voting related will have to be submitted to the CLC for approval. CLC will decide if the request will be posted or not and how the approved request will be communicated (physical bulletin board, website bulletin board and/or email distribution). More details on how to communicate requests to CLC will be distributed shortly.
• CLC has decided to collect food for donation to charities at each Quarterly Community Get-Together. Members are asked to bring non-perishable food donations to the Quarterly events going forward.
• The next Quarterly Community Get-Together is scheduled for April 1^st from 5 to 7 PM, at the home of Paul Ossenbruggen & Cathy Burns. Please bring non-perishable food donations for charity as well as food and drink to share with neighbors.
• The 1^st “Ladies Night Out” event arranged by Peg Goddard at her home on 2/15/06 was well attended and a great success. Based on the positive feedback, a 2^nd “Ladies Night Out” is scheduled for May 10^th at Peg Goddard’s starting at 6 PM.
• The 2nd Timely Topic session on “Understanding Memory and Aging” was held on February 26^th at Chernyshov’s home. Attendance was about 30 people. Many thanks to the presenter, Dr. Spencer Amesbury and the hosts for this successful event.
• The remaining Timely Topic sessions are:

 

* All sessions will begin at 7:00 pm.

 

March 26, 06 Topics: “The History of Newmarket”

Speaker: Sylvia Getchell, Curator, Newmarket Historical Society

Host: Kay McTigue – 15 Osprey Lane

 

April 30, 06 Topic: “The 60’s – How They Changed Us”

Speaker: Harvard Sitkoff, UNH Professor of History, Moody Point

resident, published author

Host: Val Shelton and Diane Morin – 124 Cushing Rd.

 

 

 

4.     MPCA Managers Report:

 

• Presented by Erin Surprenant.
• Items in the report were covered in other sections of the minutes.

 

 

5.     MPCA Policies & By-Laws - Fineable Violations

 

• A motion was made by Jeanne Ormrod, seconded by Jim Fitzpatrick to take from the table the motion made at the previous Board meeting on Fineable Violations. The motion to take from the table was approved unanimously.
• After some additional discussion the Board decided the following:
• Initially keep the list of fines short and simple.
• Notify the membership on the fineable offences prior to implementation.
• Update and distribute the revision to fineable violations in the MPCA Policy Manual.

• A vote was called on the previous motion made by Russ Simon, seconded by Jim Fitzpatrick to:
• Adopt three fineable violations on the leash law for pets, illegal use of the dumpster and littering (including pet waste removal).
• Have members report violations to the MPCA property manager, Great North. Great North will then notify the violator of the violation and the fine, if appropriate, keeping the anonymity of the person reporting the violation.
• The fine policy would be to issue a warning for the 1^st offence, charge a fine of $25 for the 2^nd offence, $50 for the 3^rd, $100 for the 4^th and $100 thereafter. This will be implemented for each type of violation.
• Unpaid Fines would be subject to the same MPCA late charges and delinquency interest policies currently in place for all MPCA billings.
• The violation could be appealed to the Board only after the fine was paid.
• The motion to adopt the new Finable Violations Policy was unanimously approved.
• An additional issue was raised on the posting of signs (political or otherwise) at Moody Point and whether this policy should also be considered for inclusion in the Fineable Violations. It was decided that the Board needed clarification on the issue and that Jim Fitzpatrick would review the By-Laws, Warranty Deeds and MPCA Policies and then educate the Board on what the current governing documents stated on prohibitions, prior to any additional discussion.

 

 

7. Other Business

 

• Hill Mailboxes: A motion was made by Jeanne Ormrod, seconded by Judi Carr to have the MPCA pay 100% of the cost of the prior repaving done by the Hill at the mailboxes located near Lubberland Circle. Previously the Board had voted to reimburse the Hill, after the fact, for the reasonable cost of repaving. After discussion, a motion was made by Russ Simon, seconded by Jim Fitzpatrick to table the motion until we could get an estimate of what the repaving should have cost. The motion to table was approved unanimously.

 

8. Status and Discussion on the Drainage Issues and Wetlands Permit Applications

 

§        Ann Adams began a discussion by asking for a decision by the Board on the attached proposal made by Mr. Cheney via email two hours before the Board meeting. The Board reviewed the proposal and requested Ann to get clarification from Mr. Cheney on whether his proposal meant a study of a comprehensive new drainage plan for Moody Point or just a study of the small section of Moody Point that the UNH proposal covered. The Board is awaiting clarification on this point, prior to discussing Mr. Cheney’s proposal further.

 

§        Ms. Adams informed the Board that Mr. Cheney does not accept that the copy of the drainage plan recorded at the NH-DES is the ‘final’ plan. That issue will be decided by the State. Several members of the Board noted, however, that in his attempts to discredit the drainage plan found by both the MPCA and NH-DES with his opinions, Mr. Cheney has provided nothing to show any subsequent drainage plan alternative, approved or unapproved.

 

§        The Board discussed the State DES requirement to both register and update drainage plans as noted in their letter of January 7^th, 1987.

 

§        At this point in the meeting, Ann Adams asked “What did the Board want? – What was its position?” Jim Fitzpatrick provided the following bullet point summary prepared as a follow up to the recent MPCA member open house meeting on drainage on March 2^nd:

:

 

• Our goal is to have a comprehensive, functional, and effective drainage system.

 

• We believe the present implementation is seriously flawed.

 

• We have already paid for a system in the purchase of our properties and believe any additional costs should be born by the Developer and/or the Town.

 

• We should not have to negotiate or give anything for what we have a right to expect.

 

• No additional building should occur in impacted areas until the drainage is fixed.

 

• The Developer needs to get resolution on both his wetlands application and any site compliance issues before we take any further action.

 

 

The Board Meeting was adjourned at 10:10 PM.

 

The Next Regular MPCA Board Meeting will be held at Darby Johnson’s home on Monday, April 3^rd at 7:30 PM.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Russ Simon

Secretary