Minutes: MPCA BOARD MEETING

Monday, December 4^th, 2006

7:30 PM

The Board of Directors of the MPCA met on Monday, December 4^th, 2006 at Don MacKinnon’s home. Present were Dimitri Chernyshov, Fred England, Darby Johnson, Don MacKinnon, Peter Roy, Russ Simon and Jim Fitzpatrick, presiding. Frank Sokol was absent. Guests included Erin Surprenant of Great North Property Management.

The meeting was called to order at 7:35 PM.

1. Minutes of the November 6^th MPCA Board meeting:

• Change to the November 6^th Minutes requested by Fred England:
• From - Fred England wanted to clarify his position that he now feels he would not be liable for any Board decisions made in his absence, but if he was requested to leave by the Board during drainage discussions, he would still not leave.
• To – Fred England clarified his position that he feels he would not be liable for any Board decisions made in his absence and that he has no conflict of interest.

• Motion to approve minutes as amended was made by Fred England, seconded by Jim Fitzpatrick - approved unanimously.

2. Treasurer’s Report

• Presented by Don MacKinnon
• The Board reviewed the November 30th financials. Year to date expenses are as expected. Though our year-to-date Operating expenses show us to be about $21,000 over our year-to-date budget, the budget does not include the funds collected from the Special Assessment in June. Including the Special Assessment funds, we are under the year-to-date budget by about $2,000.
• Don MacKinnon wanted to remind all members that if they are having any problems with making the Annual Dues or Special Assessment payments they should contact Don, Erin at Great North or Jim Fitzpatrick as soon as possible.
• There were several critical repairs to the Sewer Lift Station that required the replacement of a 3 Way Valve and Electrical Control Panel. The Board discussed that these items should be paid out of our Capital funds, not our Operating funds. As a result, a motion was made by Don MacKinnon, seconded by Fred England to approve the use of Capital Funds to pay for this replacement of equipment in the Sewer Lift Station - approved unanimously.

3. Committee Reports

Water Systems Committee

• Presented by Jim Fitzpatrick.
• Regular maintenance and repairs continue to be done.
• During the recent road repaving, the Town accidentally paved over a water system shut-off valve. This was corrected by the Town in November.
• As requested by the Board, the WSC has been investing a lot of time in reviewing and developing the short and long term Capital Requirements for the Water and Sewer Systems. The WSC will be presenting their findings on Capital Requirements and a Capital Budget to the MPCA Board in January.

Environmental Committee:

• Presented by Jim Fitzpatrick.
• The Floating Dock has been removed and stored appropriately on the shore for the Winter, avoiding the endangered plant species growing on the shoreline.
• The broken culvert on the west side of the Trail has been replaced. Many thanks to Debbie Grubbs for preparing and gaining the appropriate municipal approvals for the dredge and fill permit required to do the work and to Debbie and Dimitri Chernyshov for actually completing the work themselves. Not only was this project successful, but it has given us the process to use to repair culverts going forward.

Community Life Committee:

• Presented by Darby Johnson.
• The Holiday Party (the 4^th Quarter Community Get-Together) is scheduled for Saturday, December 9^th 2006 from 5 to 9 PM at the Bouthot’s.
• Women’s Night Out program will resume in February. Date is TBD.
• “Timely Topics” program for 2007:
• January 21: Colleen Fitzpatrick: Pandemic Planning (Chernyshov’s)
• February 18: Dr. Larry Kane: Medical Trip to Haiti (McTigue’s)
• March 18: Tod Rodger: Lewis & Clark Expedition. (Location TBD)
• April 15: Karen Brammer: Sustainability (Chernyshov’s)

• For the above, the CLC will provide cups, napkins and seltzer beginning at 6:30; the lectures will begin at 7:00. Thanks to Peg Goddard for a great line-up!

• The CLC has received many requests for the continuation of this summer’s screen house BYO Casual Happy Hour Friday Night parties.  Many are sad that this fun and easy way to socialize has ended for the season. So, CLC is going to try to bring the same format to the winter stage beginning with the month of January.  If this is successful, CLC will extend the Winter BYOs.  The format will be exactly the same as the BYO summer events except that each week CLC will need to have someone volunteer to open their home between 5 and 7pm on a Friday night.  As it was at the screen house each person should Bring Your Own: including glasses, napkins and anything you might want to consume. Basically the host will do NOTHING but provide the location!

• The schedule for January will be:

• January 5 - Gisela von Hanstein’s new home – 141 Cushing/The Meadow (this is a location change from the Badger’s).
• January 12 - Russ & Trish Simon - 510 Cushing/The Waterfront
• January 19 - Jim and Colleen Fitzpatrick - 9 Osprey Lane/The Meadow
• January 26 - Dick & Jeanne Ormrod -10 Eagle Drive/The Hill

• A special thank you to our location hosts...please also remember that what you carry in you should carry out, just like the screen house.  See you Friday, Jan 5

4. MPCA Managers Report:

• Presented by Erin Surprenant
• A request by the Audubon Society to continue its annual bird population counting from our nature trail on December 16^th was approved by the Board.
• Great North will review the need for “child-proof” grates to block the egress to our large culvert pipes at various locations around the property.
• A one-time Christmas tree disposal will be arranged for our residents as in prior years. Trees will be picked up at curbside early on the morning of Tuesday, January 9^th. Trees should be placed at the curbside (like recycling) no earlier than Sunday, January 7^th and no later than 7 AM on January 9^th.

5. Drainage Issue Report and Update

• Presented by Russ Simon.
• We are still waiting to receive DES’s response to the Moody Point Company’s (MPC) Drainage Fix Plan and our comments on the MPC’s plan, to correct the drainage deficiencies identified by DES. Based on a brief conversation with DES, we expect their decision on what work needs to be done by the MPC to be issued within the next month.

6. Other Business

· In order to better coordinate the annual View Maintenance project on Lot #4 and reduce consultant expense, a motion was made by Russ Simon, seconded by Darby Johnson to approve the proposal for the formation of an Ad Hoc Board Committee for coordinating View Maintenance as per the attached proposal submitted by Lynn Badger and Trish Simon with the concurrence of the Environmental Committee. The motion was unanimously approved. This new View Maintenance Committee will begin operations in early spring.

· At the request of our By-Laws Committee (Roger Salava & Val Shelton) the Board re-reviewed the sections on Membership definitions and fees based on the Special Assessment challenge made by Walter Cheney. The Board now agrees that a member is defined in our By-Laws as an entity or person that owns one lot or structure and has one vote. As a result, those people or entities that own more than one lot or structure, have multiple memberships and are required to pay an annual fee or special assessment for each membership/vote they have. The Board was incorrect in initially accepting Mr. Cheney’s challenge. New letters will go out to those who have multiple memberships informing them that they owe a fee per membership as originally billed. As a result of this change, late fees will not be assessed on Special Assessment fees paid by 12/31/06.

The Board Meeting was adjourned at 9:10 PM.

The next Regular MPCA Board Meeting will be held again at Russ Simon’s home on Monday, January 8^th, 2007 at 7:30 PM. 

Respectfully submitted,

Russ Simon

Secretary