Minutes: MPCA BOARD MEETING

Monday, October 1^st, 2007

7:30 PM

The Board of Directors of the MPCA met on Monday, October 1^st at Jim Fitzpatrick’s home. Present were Dave Contarino (the new Lubberland representative, replacing Dimitri Chernyshov), Don MacKinnon (the new Meadows representative appointed by Walter Cheney replacing Fred England), Cari Moorhead (the Ridge representative), Dick Ormrod (the Hill representative), Peter Roy (member-at-large), Russ Simon (the Waterfront representative), and Jim Fitzpatrick (member-at-large), presiding. Guests included Erin Surprenant of Great North Property Management and Walter Cheney, the Moody Point Developer and representing the Moody Point Company.

A brief MPCA Board meeting was held on 9/8/07, just after the close of the MPCA’s Annual Members Meeting. The purpose of this meeting was to elect MPCA officers for the 2007-2008 fiscal year. The officers elected, all unanimously, were Jim Fitzpatrick — President, Don MacKinnon — Treasurer and Russ Simon — Secretary.

The Board wishes to thank Fred England for 13 months of service on the MPCA’s Board as the Moody Point Company’s Meadows representative. We appreciated his active involvement as well as his assistance in reviewing the Insurance Policies of the MPCA.

Many thanks also to Dimitri Chernyshov for his 2 years of service on the MPCA Board, as Lubberland’s representative. His numerous contributions, including his active involvement and leadership in many maintenance and improvement projects throughout the Community as well as his role as liaison to the Environmental Committee, will be missed.

The Board welcomes its four new members: Dave Contarino, Don Mackinnon (in his additional role as Meadows representative), Cari Moorhead and Dick Ormrod.

The meeting was called to order at 7:32 PM.

1. Minutes of the August 13^th, 2007 MPCA Board meeting:

• Motion to approve the minutes was made by Don MacKinnon, seconded by Peter Roy - approved unanimously.

2. Request by Walter Cheney to Address the Board

• Walter Cheney initially addressed the Board and made the following statements:

• He wanted to speak with the Board because there were so many new members.
• He is fed up with DES and won’t provide them any more information, including the information, calculations and final drainage improvement plan they requested by 9/30. They haven’t responded to his letters challenging their authority or meeting with him to prove they have the appropriate authority.
• He wants DES to either relieve him of all drainage responsibility or issue a formal Letter of Deficiency so he can proceed with legal action against DES.
• He believes DES has no jurisdictional authority and will never do the drainage fixes ordered by them voluntarily.
• Once he proves to DES that he is right, he will seek approval to build on his wetlands lots at Moody Point and he will win that approval eventually because they are low value wetlands and man-made.
• He said he “heard through the grapevine” that DES will not meet with him because the meeting would not change their position or request to make drainage improvements at Moody Point. He expects and wants them to issue a formal Letter of Deficiency because he is dying to see what they will actually charge him with.
• He stated: So why waste more money on both sides — let’s be realistic. Why don’t you accept my old offer of $50,000 to be put into an account and the monies would be first used by me to cover all the expenses related to my gaining wetlands building permits approvals with the support letter from the MPCA. Once the permits were secured, any money remaining from the $50,000 would be used by the MPCA to fix their drainage problems. Or make a counter offer.
• He was then questioned, primarily by the new Board members — Cari Moorhead and Dave Contarino.
• Cheney was asked where the approved drainage plan was since he still believes DES does not have the final plan. He said “no one ever has a final plan because changes are always made at the last minute no one really ever has final plans. And that all the copies of the “final plan” he had were provided to contractors and others during construction and he didn’t keep any copies or the original final plan. Dave Contarino said it is not only practice to have and file final plans, but if Cheney wanted to see his for his house he would show them to Cheney.
• Cheney was questioned by Cari as to why he connected the wetlands lot building permits to fixing the drainage — they were totally separate issues. No answer was provided.
• Both Cari and Dave asked what about his responsibilities as a Developer to implement an approved drainage plan. Cheney stated that he did implement the drainage plan showing a black & white aerial photo from the late 1980”s) and this proves it. In addition, he sold his development rights to another developer in the 1990’s and that any drainage problems we have are either due to lack of maintenance by the MPCA and Town of Newmarket or were caused by the builder or sub-developer — not him.
• Cheney was asked why his legal action against DES would cost the MPCA more money. He said that he expected the MPCA would continue to fight him.
• As a possible counter proposal, Cheney was asked whether he would consider making a fixed dollar offer to fix the drainage, without any conditions. Cheney responded that he would never make or accept an unconditional proposal to fix the drainage. ( Note: though this unconditional offer is what he promised to all the MPCA members in our June 2006 Special Meeting and then withdrew, after much work had been done with him on the drainage improvement plan, in late August 2006 — he then replaced this offer with the conditional wetlands permits offer just prior to our September 2006 Annual MPCA Meeting).
• Cheney stated that he had all the information to prove his case with DES and if anybody wanted to see it and meet with him they could. Cari said she would follow-up with Cheney for a possible meeting with him as an individual.
• Jim Fitzpatrick asked if there were any more questions — there were none. He asked if Cheney had anything else he wanted to say to the Board — he said no.
• Walter Cheney then left the meeting.

3. Treasurer’s Report

• Presented by Don MacKinnon
• Year-to-date expenses were running as planned. There are sufficient operating savings to cover our first two months expenses so that short-term borrowing from Capital Reserves to cover our initial operating expenses, until annual member fees are received, will not be required.
• The annual member fee bills were not sent out in a timely manner in September by Great North. As a result, annual fee bills will go out immediately and late charges will not take effect until November. An announcement will go out to all members on the delayed billing.

4. Committee Reports

Water Systems Committee

• Presented by Jim Fitzpatrick.
• The WSC plans to purchase the new water monitoring system and will finalize go/no-go decision at their 10/11 meeting.
• Regular maintenance continues as planned.

Environmental Committee:

• Presented by Jim Fitzpatrick
• Trish Simon was elected Chairperson of the Environmental Committee.
• Due to Walter Cheney’s request to address the Board, a planned EC update to the Board on all current projects, as an agenda item, was postponed until the next MPCA Board Meeting.
• A request was made by the EC to prune and limb around the Screenhouse to maintain a healthy and safe environment. Volunteer work did a portion of the pruning but professional work was required for the limbing. A motion was made by Don MacKinnon, seconded by Cari Moorhead to authorize up to $1500 for this work, passed unanimously. Large cut limbs will be used to shore-up the shore line underneath the Screen house to reduce erosion.
• The semi-annual Shoreline Cleanup has been scheduled for Saturday, October 13^th at 9 AM at the Screenhouse. Volunteers are always welcome. More information will distributed shortly.

 Community Life Committee:

• No formal report was presented.
• The Quarterly Moody Point Get Together is planned for October 6^th at the Screen house from 4 PM to 6:30 PM. The theme will be to celebrate National Mad Hatter’s Day and attendees are requested to wear hats, the stranger the better. Prizes for best hats will be awarded. More info to follow.
• The 1^st Timely Topic session is planned for October 17^th at 7 PM at Gisela von Hanstein’s home. The topic will be Global Warming presented by Dr. Paul Hamilton.
• The Summer Friday Night Happy Hours (5 PM to 7PM) continue at the Screenhouse every Friday through October. Weekly attendance has been great — usually ranging between 10 and 30 people. All members are invited to attend and enjoy the serenity and each others company.

Drainage Issue Report and Update

• Presented by Russ Simon.
• As a placeholder, to insure our rights were protected, the MPCA filed for reconsideration on 9/18/07 with DES on their drainage improvement request letter to Walter Cheney dated 8/28/07.
• Based on the information provided by Walter Cheney at this meeting, we will be contacting DES to determine their next steps as a result of Cheney’s decision not to provide DES with the information and plan they requested by 9/30/07.

Fire Pond Dredging Committee

• Presented by Peter Roy
• Rick Malasky, Fire Chief of Newmarket, provided the committee with a letter supporting the dredging of the Fire Pond and its importance for fighting fires. This was required as part of DES approval process. Rick Malasky suggested the dredging be postponed until early spring in order to have a better chance for a faster pond refilling recovery.
• The committee has interviewed 4 contractors. They are putting together a more detailed RFP and will be presenting this to the two top contractors for final bids in the next few weeks.
• The expected process will have two major phases: 1^st to dredge the pond and pile the dredged material near the pond to allow it to dry. The 2^nd phase will be either the spreading of the dredged material around Moody Point in areas approved by DES and/or removal offsite.

5. MPCA Managers Report:

• Presented by Erin Surprenant
• The floating dock will be removed and stored on the shoreline around the end of October.
• Kayaks and Canoes can be stored in the Screenhouse for the winter months starting November 1^st, on a first come, first served basis. Boats should be stored so that they don’t block the door entrance and leave a path of access around the inside perimeter of the Screenhouse.
• The Irrigation System turn-off dates scheduled are 10/16 and 10/25. Please coordinate your availability with Days Irrigation.

6. Other Business

• The Board liaison position to the Environmental Committee is still open and needs to be filled at the next meeting.

The Board Meeting was adjourned at 9:33 PM.

The next regular MPCA Board Meeting will be held at Don MacKinnon’s home on Monday, November 5^th starting at 7:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Russ Simon

Secretary