SUNLAND DIVISION 17 OWNERS ASSOCIATION
Board of Directors Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Location: Sunland’s “The Gathering Place,” Ground Floor Meeting Room
Homeowner Forum/Comment Period
There were 21 Homeowners plus 4 board members in attendance. The following topics were discussed during the homeowner comment period: Telephone area code overlay, irrigation connections, Pet Violation and Kudos to landscaper for pruning and mulch.
Call to Order
The regular meeting of the Sunland Division 17 Owners Association board of directors was called to order by Board Chair at 2:30 PM and confirmed a quorum with four members of the board present: Gary Fortmann (president), David Walp (secretary), John Lewis member-at-large, and Jim Hammond member-at-large. Jim Jones (treasurer) was excused.
Review/Approval of Board meeting Minutes
David Walp, secretary, recommended approval of the draft meeting minutes from March 8, 2017. John Lewis noted a change in the addresses of units being painted this year.
Gary Fortmann moved for acceptance and Jim Hammond seconded the motion. The revised draft meeting minutes were unanimously accepted as presented. Secretary was directed to provide website coordinator the final minutes for posting.
Old Business
- RV Lot west/south tree cutting – Board President Gary Fortmann reported that there was no activity regarding pruning the fir trees and arbor vitae since the March SLOA meeting. John Lewis did receive the requested bid from the SLOA office and the board reviewed the document during a working meeting on April 7. At that time the board decided to take a wait and see approach with the issue. It is the board’s intent to continue monitoring future action by SLOA regarding this issue.
- Division 17 policy for securing propane tanks and HVAC units – John Lewis Member-at-large and Exterior Maintenance Coordinator presented the draft policy for propane Tank/HVAC unit anchoring for final review and approval. The policy was discussed at length. An addition to the policy to caution home owners with leased tanks that moving the tanks needs to be done by or under the supervision by the leaser. John Lewis made a motion to accept the draft as revised and have the policy added to the Division 17 By-Laws was seconded by Jim Hammond and unanimously approved by the board.
- Approval of Financial Management section of By-Laws – Updated Financial Management section of the By-Laws was brought up for final review of comments – there were no comments from the board or owners. David Walp made a motion to have the revised section inserted into the by-laws in place of the old section and have the revisions published in the hardcopy and online documents. The motion was seconded by Gary Fortmann and unanimously approved by the board. Cindy Rhodes was requested to perform the upgrades and work with Barbra Brooner to publish online
- CAU Insurance Renewal – Lindsay Busch reviewed the Insurance committee recommendation for approval of the Division 17 Owner Association Insurance renewal for the May 2017 through April 2018 period. The insurance renewal is for the current 115 units at a rate of $46,613 for the period not including earth quake or flood A motion for approval of the recommendation and authorization to execute the renewal was made Jim Hammond, seconded by Gary Fortmann and unanimously approved by the board.
New Business
- Division 17 maintenance trailer /storage solution status – John Lewis reported that the trailer had been relocated to the common space west of and adjacent to the RV lot after the March SLOA meeting as requested by the SLOA Board. Division 17 returned the RV Lot key received the key deposit and residual 9 month RV Lot space rental fee. John Lewis is working on a proposal to acquire a storage shed to replace the trailer including planning for location of the shed and adding a budget line item for the 2018 budget to cover the cost of acquisition and installation of the storage
- Policy section to be included in the CCR/By-Laws/Rules and Regulations – The board discussed the need to include a policies and motions/approvals in the CCR/By- Laws/Rules and Regulations. Cindy Rhodes as the coordinator for the documentation upgrades and publishing agreed to do a pilot project reviewing the first year of policies and motions from the records to determine the scope and effort required to capture these items for all years up to the present. Cindy will report back to the board at the May board meeting.
- Board Structure for the remainder of 2017 – The board discussed the current board structure. At issue is naming a position for new member John Lewis. In addition, there was a discussion regarding the requirement for a vice president position. The board determined that the vice president position was not required and elected to finish the remainder of this board’s tenure without a vice president position. John Lewis was appointed to the position of member-at-large #1 to satisfy the insurance concerns. David Walp made a motion to approve the new structure, seconded by Gary Fortmann and unanimously approved by the board.
- Nominating Committee – Board discussed the need to appoint a nominating committee chairman for the board positions up for election at the Division 17 Annual Meeting. Fritz Field agreed to continue as the Nominating committee chair for the upcoming election cycle. Fritz will recruit additional committee members as required.
- Annual meeting Planning – David Walp agreed to check with Sunland Golf and Country Club for available dates in September for using the club house space for the annual meeting and report back at the may meeting. Cindy Rhodes will send the Annual Meeting planning activity timeline to the board for reference.
OFFICER, COMMITTEE, AND COORDINATOR 2015-16 SUMMARIES
President – Nothing additional to report.
Secretary – I have received new or updated owner information from two owners this past month. If anyone has any owner information forms please forward to me so I can add them to the master hardcopy file.
Our community continues to grow. Lot 51, units 141 and 151, lot 58, units 281 and 291 and 64, units 130 and 140 on Mt Baker Drive are well along in construction. Real Estate activity since March 8, 2017:
Current active listings in Sunland North: No resale properties currently on the market
Currently Under Contract (seller has accepted an offer).
40 Cascadia Loop Pending
180 Cascadia Loop Pending
241 Cascadia Loop Pending
161 Mount Baker Pending
Units sold/closed/occupied since March 2017
371 Blakely Boulevard Thomas and Colleen Weston
60 Mendel Drive Patti and David Paul
Treasurer – Jim Jones provided written monthly financial summary for March that was accepted as written. The monthly financial status reports are also posted to the Div 17 Website.
Member at Large #1 – John Lewis appointed to the board to serve the remaining term for Jim Voorhies who resigned. John has not received the Document book for the position.
Member at Large #2 – (Jim Hammond) Based on discussions with Richard Helmenstine I was advised that the existing security fixtures were getting very weathered, worn and subject to failing. He advised me that the replacements were extremely hard to find and expensive if you could even find them. It was also apparent that changing the older lamps to LED’s as the older lamps failed left a mismatching color of lamps which is somewhat distracting. There were also some concerns voiced by owners that the lighting from the globes was somewhat offensive as the fixtures cast a brilliant surrounding light which in some cases shines into bedrooms at night disrupting sleep.
As a result of these considerations I made an analysis of the costs to retrofit the existing fixtures to include LED lamps. This cost analysis includes fixtures, lamps, ballasts, cost of scrapping old units, and an estimate of labor to accomplish the task. The total budget estimate at the time was $18,000. That is the number I used for the 2018 budget. This is based on a total project of 95 units and not a piece meal deal.
Insurance Committee – Lindsay Busch Recommend the board approve the insurance renewal. Next year the 2018-2020 planning will include bids from current plus additional insurance underwriters to get competitive coverage position.
Architecture Control Committee – (Barbara Ross) Nothing to report.
Developed Landscape – (Valerie Holland) Nothing to report.
Exterior Maintenance & Inspection – (John Lewis) The moss treatment and gutter cleaning program is planned to start in the first week of May, subject to weather conditions. As of now 26 units have been identified for treatment. As the contractor reviews more units and the spring inspection reports are reviewed it is expected that an additional 10 units will be treated.
The painting program is set and is expected to start in June, again subject to weather.
Owners of units for moss treatment or painting will be given as much notice as possible.
The semi-annual inspections are progressing very well with the three volunteer teams. Two teams have been completed their inspections and the third may have also completed. The challenge for me will be to review all of the reports for consistency and then compile and prioritize repair work orders. The six volunteers are to be congratulated for their efforts.
Our minor maintenance contractor continues to complete assigned work orders and has the current list down to about a dozen. (The results of the inspections will push that number up again.)
I am happy to report that two of our members have volunteered to be the street light repair team. Last month we replaced three worn-out sensors that is an ongoing need. The team will also be able to change out and convert bulbs to LEDs as needed. This will save us about $150 per change out by not having to get an electrical contractor to do the work. There will still be a need for electrical contractors for more difficult problems such as finding underground cable faults and fixing them.
Settled and major cracks in driveway and patio slabs are a major cost we face. Once again we are checking to see if using a slab jacking contractor is more cost effect than replacement. Apparently this approach was checked some time ago but was not cost effective but with changing conditions and increased scope of work it may offset the contractor’s travel expense.
Greenbelt – (Tom Steffen) Jim Rossi, the mower, will attempt the first mowing around April 20 depending on conditions. This is just a few days after last year’s first mowing.
Newsletter – Nothing to report.
Welcome Committee – (Barbra Gruner) One welcome visit was made to new residents at 60 Mendel Dr. (David and Patti Paul). A welcome packet, including the Division 17 Owner Contact Form was given to renter at 280 Blakely.
Website – (Barbara Brooner) For the month of March, the Div 17 website had 175 visits (called “sessions”), of which 125 originated from Washington IP addresses. As always, most of the sessions originated from Sequim IPs, of which 40 were from new users during the month and 59 were return visits during the same month. “Sequim users” averaged 6 1/4 pages viewed per session. Interesting additional visits were a dozen sessions originating from Seattle IPs, three from Federal Way, two from Bellevue and one from Pullman, all averaging 12-13 pages per session, while other sources were only 2-4 pages. There were particular peaks in the number of sessions originating from Washington state IPs in the first ten days of March (63 of the 125) and again March 24 (10 sessions) and March 31 (10 sessions). Barbara also reminded those in attendance that the Div 17 board posts their meeting agenda, approved meeting minutes and financial status reports on the Website each month.
Sunland Water District – Gary Fortmann reported that next meeting is Tuesday next week and wished to award “kudos” to the District Water Commissioner for performance of job managing the Sunland Water and Sewer district.
Homeowner Forum/Comments
There were further comments on RV lot tree cutting, cooperation with SLOA, flood insurance and mulch.
ADJOURNED AT 4:15 PM, by consensus.
Submitted by David Walp, Secretary of the Board of Directors