Meeting commenced at 4:02PM
In attendance: Dom Aleardi, Mike Pincus, Jay Harter, Sandy Ogletree, Judy Jurgan and Janet Burgess
Reading of June 14th minutes waived.
President’s Report: The Master Association’s meeting notes are on the internet.
Republic Trash: They are still dropping oil in our village when they collect trash. Dom called Ed Mc Falls and the MA and neither has gotten back to him with any information. Janet suggested having a rep from Republic come to meet with us at the village. She will send an email asking for an on site meeting with a rep. Republic covers all the villages. After their truck left Franklin they went to Princeton and left oil and green paint on the roadway there.
The lighting on Mill Road from Chandler to Franklin has been out for over 2 weeks. We don’t know if it’s related to the outage of lights from 521 to 526 in Franklin. Ed McFalls notified Janet that the lighting problem on Mill was turned over to Steve Converse who is the MA electrician. We also have 2 lights that are leaning. That was included in the message Janet sent to Ed.
Dom sent the proposal for the walking trail to Ed McFalls and we have not heard from him. They were in a hurry to get started on the trail but they have not gotten back to us.
Financial: Jay reported that the gutter cleaning charge, $2268, was booked to the wrong account. It should have gone to gutter cleaning. The $1640 for signage was for moving the sign on Mill Rd. near the North Gate. We had money in the reserve for new signage but I don’t think it will cover for the restoration. We have a $24,000 budget for landscaping and we haven’t spent anything yet but $1000. He had one tree vendor come in with prices: we had another 2 that didn’t show up and one more coming next week. The tree removal may come to over $10K but that still leaves us with money. Dom said we will have limb-up to do and planting.
HML gave him a price of $5600 for some of the tree removal, those deemed to be the most dangerous. There’s another $1500 to limb up some of the trees and for some other landscaping issues. We’re waiting for Jay’s tree proposals so we can move forward.
Regarding the Capital increase some villages are proposing. If times get a little tough, we’re asking people to put up $5000 before they even buy a house. Janet reported that you can go up to a years worth of quarterly fees. Most villages charge 2 quarters and we charge one. The Mill charge is around $2300. Everyone thought it was a good idea to raise the Capital increase. Janet suggested doing it in January. We should send out a notice about the increase. It becomes a negotiable item between seller and buyer.
No one thought it would negatively affect sales. The vote was 4 to 1 for raising the quarterly contribution fee to 2 months effective 1/1/2022.
Architectural: Sandy advised a resident wants to paint her storm door. Dom looked at the door and it is in bad shape. She was willing to pay Curt to paint it. Curt has done doors in the past and they look nice. As long as the doors are painted professionally, it should be allowed. The architectural committee will have to insure the architectural request form is within the guidelines and advise the resident if so. Everyone voted in favor of approving.
A resident wants a patio enclosure in a new color that matches the siding. Going forward Architectural will only approve colors that match the siding as close as possible. The deck cannot exceed the property’s metes and bounds. Motion to approve the new color was made and seconded.
The Architectural Committee is considering privacy screens. Council wants to allow this on a case to case basis. The resident should have samples of the material being used when they present their architectural request.
The Committee is looking at less expensive requirements for windows and doors. If we allow vinyl or composite materials, it would be a lot less expensive. This should determined on a case by case basis which puts the onus on the homeowner to get the information and then the committee can review the architectural request form info to see if it meets quality specs, matches our style and is the proper color. This item is tabled for further investigation.
When a committee sends a list of things that residents must do and they don’t comply, the issues are sent to council for disposition.
A resident wants to replace the rotted railroad ties along the edge of their patio. It forms a bank and it needs to be replaced. We should get an estimate on the cost from Curt. If the estimate over $500, Council should review and vote on it.
Landscaping: We were notified by HML on 2 occasions that many residents have ground cover growing into their shrubs and trees. This will have a negative effect on the shrubs and trees, eventually killing them. A letter will be sent to homeowners who have groundcover growing up to shrubs and trees advising they must remove the groundcover. One unit has ivy growing up onto the garage. They have to cut it back from the shrubs and trees. If they fail to comply by the end of August, we will have HML do it and send them the bill. They will be directed to call Dom Aleardi if they don’t understand this directive.
Welcome committee: Patti George advised 561 went to settlement on 7/15. The new owner is Patricia Uphoffss. Unit 539 – 2 ladies are moving in. Margaret Dolan and Mary Curran
Pool Committee: The weather has been better for swimming and the exercise classes. The volunteers and the pool company are doing a good job.
Dom requested that anyone sending information to him regarding unit/s should send separate emails for each address since they are stored in different folders.
New Business: Proposal for the spring walkabout: $5600 estimate received for the work HML proposes to do. This is for limbing up trees, removing dead branches, cleaning around the pool, trimming things that are hanging over the roadways.
The tree proposal is for taking down: A White Pine behind 556 and grinding the stump, a Norway spruce located down the first cul de sac from Mill, and a Maple tree on the left side of the Norway spruce should come down but 583 residents are asking us to leave it. HML will only cut down the dead branches. On the other side of the street, 593 has a Spruce tree and the roots are pulling up, creating a water issue for the unit, so we will take that down instead of the Maple at 583. We are waiting for Jay’s tree proposals on all of this work to see if they are comparable to HML’s.
In the fall we will do another walk-around to see what other trees should come down. There is a tree between 596 and 598. 598 would like to have it taken down and will pay 50% of the cost.
Termite Inspection: $4600 – The vendor walked around the village and did not notify anyone they were going to do the inspections. $4600 seems to be exorbitant. They never went into the houses. Moyer always went into the basements before. This time they came around outside, no one knew they were even there. All they did was check around the outside with a screwdriver. Janet said they would only check exteriors and if there was no infestation evidence they would not go inside. Back in 2019 it was made the responsibility of the homeowner to pay for termite inspection if they wanted one. Then it was decided that the homeowner pays one year and the village the next year.
Signs: The $1600 bill was for Curt to move the sign on Mill Rd further down towards Franklin Way so it was more visible. Goshen Signs gave Dom a price of $45 each to paint the 4 privacy/speed limit signs for our entrances. The 3 signs denoting the units located in each cul de sac are $45 each to paint, and $85 each for the new section of the signs which will be reflective and more visible.
Work Orders Log: Contractor contacted on 5/6 for weed whacker damage by HML to unit 604. This was fixed. Regarding 550, the flagstone issue, Janet found a mason who will do the work but he is behind in his schedule. He was the only person she found who would do the work. This is a big safety issue. Someone could easily fall off the slab. She will try to get back in touch to see how soon he can get to it.
570 had a grading issue in the rear. Water was getting onto her patio from the roof. Leroy installed a diverter on the roof and the problem appears to be resolved
601 had a roof leak in the bedroom. Leroy said he was caught up so this should have been taken care of. Dom will check.
Insurance: Three units have not complied with submitting their insurance certificates to CSK. Letters will be sent advising that they will be fined if the certificates are not received within 10 days of the date of the letter.
Next council meeting 8/9/21
Janet will set up our next meeting at Sullivan House in the dining room.
Meeting adjourned at 5:20PM
