Meeting was held at Dean Drabin’s House, 55520 Big River Drive.
Present: Dean Drabin, Doug Patterson, Bart Gernhart, Andra Smith. Absent: Tim Jenning
Dean called the meeting to order at 10:09 a.m.
Treasurer’s Report
A. Checking Account: $20,924.26
B. CD $80,000
C. Mailbox $996.29
CD will mature in June, adding at least $2000 to total. Board will meet at that time to determine best way to reinvest the funds.
Currently, we have approximately $101,000, and anticipate adding $40.000 in owner fees this year and $40,000 next year, which should result in a sufficient balance if repaving project is needed to be conducted as soon as 2025.
Website
We now have 81 subscribers who immediately get emails whenever we post information. Because of this, along with word-of-mouth, we are well along in being able to keep owners informed about local developments. Ideally, we would like to have as many 150 subscribers, which would ensure blanket info coverage for our community, but 81 is certainly a helpful number.
In related news, Dean is now posting Central Oregon Fire information whenever it relates to local events, such as nearby controlled burns which are apt to result in smoke in the region. As we move into fire season, he will also relay updates on various fires in the area, so that residents can be informed about conditions and progress in fighting those fires.
Chipping and Grant Status
In fall, 2022 we obtained a $5000 grant from the County for our spring, 2023 chipping project. As the cost of that project was $3700, we were left with a surplus of $1300. When added to last fall’s additional County grant of $1000, we now have a total of $2300 towards this spring’s chipping effort, which means that we will likely have to augment that total in order to pay for the contractor’s work. Patrons need to place their woody debris out at the edge of the road (butts facing outward) by May 31, so that the contractor can evaluate the number of piles in order to plan for chipping in June.
Dean is also working to satisfy the requirements to maintain our Firewise status. In addition to showing our progress in becoming fire-adapted, this status will continue to show us as a responsible community, which will hopefully result in our qualifying for future chipping grants from the County.
Snow Plowing
Turns out that last winter’s snow plowing bill turned out to be $2750—considerably less than normal. Nevertheless, it is always considered prudent that we maintain a much higher reserve in our checking account, in order to allow for the possibility of a heavier snowfall in the coming winter, which would result in much higher snow plowing costs.
Road Conditions
Bart reported that the roads are in fairly good shape, allowing us to go at least one more year before considering a repaving project. He will evaluate the road conditions next spring, and we will then determine whether we will need to pave in 2025, or, hopefully, whether we will be able to hold off until 2026. Though we should have enough, in 2025, to pay the $160,000 cost of repaving, financially we will benefit considerably from waiting, as each additional year would result, effectively, in a savings of 10% in the overall cost of repaving. To this end it was noted that the pre-emptive edge paving we had done in 2023 has gone a long way toward preserving our roads for an additional year, as the road edge is where the most significant deterioration is likely to occur
When repaving is done, residents will be encouraged to look at Heierman as an example of what to expect (Heierman was repaved in 2023) in terms of loose gravel on the road surface. Bart checked with residents there and found that they had no complaints. Further, because of the relatively light traffic on Heierman it is observed that it takes quite a bit longer for the gravel to become embedded in the road surface than would be the case on the other, more heavily traveled roads of our community (like Gross and Big River.)
CC&Rs?
Discussion: should we consider implementing CC&Rs for our community? Currently, the Board has no authority to regulate homes, in terms of how they are used and cared for. However, the possibility of having CC&Rs has arisen because of complaints from residents about bad behavior by renters at short-term rentals, including noise, parties, fights, trash, use of yards as toilets, trespassing, vomiting, etc. We will be broaching the subject at our annual meeting, but beforehand we will seek to consult with the president of another community which has recently enacted CC&Rs, so that we can become better acquainted with the process.
Electronic Speed Monitor
How effective was it last summer? We don’t really know, but since it certainly couldn’t hurt, and since we have free access to the Sherriff Department’s unit, we will plan to have it set up for two weeks in our neighborhood again this year.
Meeting was adjourned at 11:15 a.m.