RIO VISTA MAHWAH HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC. BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING December 18, 2014 4:30 P.M. Those in attendance were Ron Columbo, Dave Kopp, Tom Limberg, Phil Lipper, George Soto, Myra Dulberger, Bonnie Berens and Lisa Hogrefe. The meeting began at 4:45 p.m. APPROVAL OF AGENDA RC made a motion to approve the Agenda as amended. DK seconded. All Trustees present voted in favor of the motion. APPROVAL OF THE NOVEMBER 12, 2014 BOARD MEETING MINUTES RC made a motion to approve the November 12, 2014 Board meeting minutes. GS seconded. DK abstained as he was not present at that meeting. ISSUES REQUIRING VOTE OF TRUSTEES STAFF RESIGNATION MD stated that BB had officially submitted her resignation effective January 15, 2015. PL, TL, GS and Dave D Anna interviewed two candidates. One of the candidates, Catherine Abbott, possessed the necessary skills and had a good knowledge base for the position. However, she would not be able to start until February. MD will provide PL and DK with the number of hours per week the job requires, salary, benefits, etc. PL and DK will pursue. DW SMITH Based on the recommendation from the DW Smith Report, the annual contribution to Replacement Reserves will be lowered by $1,366 per year from $95,849 to $94,483. MD will revise the Budget. PL made a motion to approve DW Smith s recommendation for $94,483 to be put in Replacement Reserves. TL seconded. All Trustees present voted in favor of the motion. MD will adjust the 2014 and 2015 Budgets accordingly. Excess amounts will be evenly distributed between the Capital Improvement Reserves and the Deferred Maintenance Reserves. UNIVERSAL POOL BB received the contract from Universal Pool for the 2015 season. There was a $1,029 price increase from 2014. BB will review the contract and confirm all prices. DOGS IN FORMAL GARDEN An email was sent to Roy Steinwolf, Walsh Hall Board President, requesting that he discuss with his Board the common areas where dogs were allowed to be walked and the use of all dumpsters in Rio Vista to dispose of dog waste. Roy agreed with the areas where dogs could be walked but had some concerns about the use of Walsh Hall dumpsters to dispose of waste. MD will send out an email blast to all residents and put an article in the next newsletter outlining the areas where dogs can be walked but will not mention the Walsh Hall dumpsters due to RS s concerns. 1
The No Dog Walking signs were moved to the inner border of the pachysandra at both the entrances and to the back of the Formal Garden. The grassy area behind the Formal Garden will be open to dogs as well as all gravel paths outside the Formal Garden WALSH HALL PARKING An email was sent to Wendy Weissman, Walsh Hall property manager, stating the Board s decision to allow Walsh Hall residents to park in the Rio Vista upper parking lot from December, 2014 to April, 2015 pending certain stipulations were met and for a $25 monthly fee. There has been no response. HVAC Whalen & Ives replaced the inducer motor assembly package in furnace number one for approximately $1,000 for parts and labor. A second inducer motor assembly package was also purchased for around $900 to have on hand in case another inducer motor needs to be replaced in one of the other three furnaces. In addition, they replaced a fuse in furnace number three that had blown out during the recent power outage. POWER OUTAGE The electric pole that split and fell on the corner of Campgaw and Seminary on November 24, 2014 which resulted in a community wide power outage was not caused by a car accident as first assumed. Therefore, there was no insurance claim. Rockland Electric temporarily repaired the pole quickly, but will need to come back and repair completely. The power will be turned off while they make the necessary repairs. BB will contact Village Green Landscaping to discuss replacing the boxwoods at the Campgaw entrance which were damaged when the pole fell. MD did an email blast at the time of the outage. PLATE READERS It was calculated that the police go through approximately 192 batteries annually to keep the two plate readers working. The batteries need to be changed more frequently when the weather is cold. The Board recommended that the Association make a $500 donation to the police department to cover the cost of the batteries. BB will contact Police Chief Batelli to find out where he would like the check sent. FACEBOOK Rio Vista will not be getting a Facebook page at this time. FENCING TL, DK, GS, TL unanimously approved via email the plans submitted by resident #173 to install a partial chain link fence around one-quarter of his pool which will be concealed by year-round greenery in the spring. In addition, they approved plans to install a shed which also will be hidden from the street by year-round greenery which will be planted in the spring. PL had concerns regarding how close to a neighbor s property line the shed could be placed. MD stated that this fell within the Township of Mahwah s jurisdiction and a permit from the town was probably issued. XTREME SNOW PROS CONTRACT MD stated The Association was in the third year of a three-year contract with Extreme Snow Pros. The Board will discuss renewing the contract after the winter season. ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES NEXT BOARD MEETING The next Board meeting was scheduled for Thursday, January 15, 2015 at 4:30 p.m. NEWSLETTER MD will begin working on the newsletter and will include information about dog walking restrictions. FINANCIAL COMMITTEE REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS Each Trustee received a Balance Sheet and Income Statement for November 2014, Check Register, Lots/Houses Sold, Flip Fees and Reserve Accounts Activity spreadsheet for November 2014, plus the Vacation Usage spreadsheet, the 2014 Landscaping spreadsheets, all prepared as usual by MD, plus 2
BB s Trustee Follow-up List. CHECK REGISTER After reviewing the sixty-eight item check register, the Trustees were satisfied. CLOSINGS There were twenty-two closings to date. Fourteen Flip Fees were budgeted for 2014. One more sale was to close the day of the Board meeting. SHORT SALE There was one short sale still pending, resident #053. AGED RECEIVABLES MD will start invoicing in late December 2014 or early January 2015. She also reported that there were nine liens at present. RESERVES - MD will complete the forth quarter financing for the reserves based on the D.W. Smith report. COVENANTS REPORT SOLAR PANELS MD spoke to resident #150 regarding the solar panels installed at the property of resident #163. Although disappointed, he seemed satisfied with MDs explanation that resident #163 had complied with the Rio Vista rules regarding solar panels. The Association had no authority to request that resident #163 remove the solar panels. Resident #150 said he would take other measures to remedy the situation. EMPTY LOT - Sewer pipes have been installed on the empty lot owned by resident #040. The property has an easement from Rio Vista for the County. In addition, #040 said he will be building a home on the lot shortly. PROPERTY MAINTENANCE A covenants letter was sent to resident #193 regarding the peeling paint on the exterior of their house. LH will follow up to see what their plans are to improve the house. Per the Board, if they do not respond with a plan by January 2015, a second letter will be sent to them with fines. TREE ISSUE A covenants letter would be sent to resident #030 via regular and certified r.r.r. mail regarding the status of the two hundred plus trees they cut down on the property of resident #031. If there is no response another letter will be sent with fines A letter would also be written to resident #031 asking when they expected the property would be restored to a satisfactory condition. The letter would not be sent but would be a letter to file to protect the Association. (Subsequent to the Board meeting, it was reported that resident #030 was indicted for his actions). ATV USE The administrative office obtained a copy of a Mahwah police incident report from December 10, 2014 in which the police questioned resident #095 regarding a complaint received from resident #096 about damage done to the streetlight near 38 Walsh Drive. At that time, the police officer observed an ATV parked in the garage bay and questioned #095 s son about its use. The son was warned that if he was caught driving it on Mahwah roads he would be ticketed. LH will send a covenants letter to resident #095 including fines about the unlawful use of ATVs in Rio Vista and cite the police incident report. (End of tape 1, side 1) DAMAGED FENCE A complaint was received about the dented chain link fence on the property of resident #244 and the dead arborvitae trees which were planted to conceal the fence. The owners were called and they will replace the trees in the spring and possibly also the fence. ELECTRICAL POLE Resident #045 was called about the unauthorized use of the Association s Rockland electrical pole for their lighting and deer repellent equipment supply boxes. #045 stated she will have them removed immediately. 3
HOLIDAY PARTY GUESTS A letter will be sent to resident #045DV about his bringing a number of non- Association members to the Holiday Party. LANDSCAPING REPORT LANDSCAPE DYNAMIX BB reported that the she would be following up with Landscape Dynamix to make sure that everything contracted with them had been done. VILLAGE GREEN There are a few projects to still be done. BB will also contact Village Green about replacing the boxwoods at the Campgaw entrance which were damaged when the electrical pole fell on November 24, 2014. Bill Compagnone would like to replace them now. BB will discuss with him. MAHWAH TREE According to Mahwah Tree, a very large tree will need to be cut down and replaced near the gravel pathway adjacent to Rio Vista Drive. Unfortunately, this would be very expensive to replace. Mahwah Tree will be doing per diem tree work in January. ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES CONTINUED HOLIDAY PARTY MD reported that there were three hundred and nine RSVPs for the Holiday Party and food was ordered for 270. However, there was still too much food leftover. In addition, there was a problem with the way the buffet was set up. BB will do a complete re-cap of the party with specific comments about the caterer. COMPUTER BACK UP MD performed a complete Ghost back-up on the administrative office s computers. She also installed Peachtree on both her desktop and laptop home computers. In addition, the administrative office will not be upgrading Peachtree 2009. Rich Berens, the Association s computer consultant, removed a file which resulted in Peachtree performing more effectively than before. MD also performed other computer maintenance including, defrag, disk clean-up, viruses, and malware scans on all office computers. POOL COMMITTEE REPORT SPA LEAK There was a leak in the spa piping which will need to be repaired in the spring. BB will be following up with Village Green Landscaping and B&B Pools to make the repairs in the spring. SOCIAL COMMITTEEE REPORT TEEN CLUB MD spoke to Erena Teskova and she will not be doing the teen club at this time. CLUBHOUSE COMMITTEE REPORT There was nothing additional to report. PUBLIC SESSION There was no public session. 4
There being no further business to discuss, PL made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 6:13 p.m. TL seconded the motion. All Trustees were in favor. Edited by Myra Dulberger Respectfully submitted, Lisa Hogrefe 1/15/15 5