2006 Annual Meeting Minutes

The Annual Meeting of the West Park Community Association was called to order at 7:30 p.m. on 17 October, 2006 by President Jeff Peters.

There were 24 members in attendance.

Special Guest

The reading of the minutes from the October 2005 Annual Meeting was postponed by Jeff to give time to a special guest, Kings Park West Civic Assn president Tony Vellucci, who discussed the following topics:

GMU sign - Tony has been working with the other local civic groups to bring the groups' concerns about the new sign to Sharon Bulova's office. GMU, being a state run institution, is not required to go before the zoning board to install a sign like this. However, they have met with Ms. Bulova's office and have made some concessions: the sign is turned off between the hours of 11 PM and 5 AM, and the animation displays have been toned down. (For those who get the KPWCA newsletter, there are more details in the October issue.)
Visibility into common area - Lenny Cleveland, the director of security at Robinson HS, has requested that we clear some brush from between the school access road and the common area, so that the school security officials can have a better view into the area. There have been a few arrests made recently in this area. There was some discussion about this, i.e. is it really our responsibility, does it reduce the privacy of the homeowners who back up to this area, etc. Jeff is trying to meet with Mr. Cleveland to identify what areas he would like cleared.
Money for neighborhood watch - Tony indicated that the KPWCA has funds earmarked for community neighborhood watch teams. Originally the money was to be used for mobile radios, but since most folks have cell phones these days, he thought it might be used for night vision goggles or something else like that.
Misc KPWCA news - The Herald newsletter needs an editor, and KPWCA is not planning on raising dues at this time.

At this point, Mr. Vellucci left, and the minutes from the October 27, 2005 meeting were read. A motion to accept was proposed, seconded and passed.

OLD BUSINESS

In regards to the speeding issue, Jeff informed the group that there was really no way to get a speed bump installed. Stallworth/Headly is not a cut through, so most traffic is local. There is some traffic in the morning to the end of Stallworth to drop kids off for school, and a fair amount of turnaround traffic in the Stallworth-Headly intersection. Jeff will make one more attempt to see what could be done to slow traffic down.
Curb your dog - things seem better.
Curb numbering - There was a private company walking around recently, offering to paint. The board has not been approached by any Boy Scouts looking for service projects.
Blue Sky contract - Even though it was reported last year that they did not seem to want to renew our contract, Jeff reported that soon after the meeting, they contacted John Yglesias, and renewed the contract at the same price.
Membership dues late fee - It was decided at last year's meeting year to change the by-laws to increase the late fee penalty for membership dues. However, Jeff reported that while we had a strong enough quorum at the meeting to change a bylaw, we lacked a strong enough quorum to change an item in the Declaration, which is where the guidance on late dues penalties appears. Therefore, there is no change in the late fee structure, although this may come up in the future.

NEW BUSINESS

Jeff reported the results of the playground survey; unfortunately there was not a big response. Nine households responded. 44% of respondents said their family uses the playground equipment. 25% said their guests use the equipment, and 33% of respondents said they would be willing to pay higher dues or an extra assessment to maintain the equipment should that become necessary.
Jeff attended a meeting of the neighborhood task force dealing with the GMU sign. A member proposed that Jeff write a letter to GMU expressing our opinion, with a copy going to our elected representatives. There was a second and the motion passed.
Election of officers for 2007. After some discussion, the following slate was proposed and passed: Karl Kraus, president; Cyndy Unwin, vice-president; Dan Clark, secretary; Irene Pierce, member-at-large; Ken Burns, architectural chair; John Yglesias, treasurer.

TREASURER'S REPORT

Treasurer's report was presented by Treasurer John Yglesias. The report shows the proposed 2007 budget for a dues increase of $0, $10, or $20.

It was a bad year; the cost of tree removal this year wiped out the budgeted and board discretionary funds. Hopefully there will be no additional trees that need to be removed this calendar year.
We need to raise our dues, recommend $20 increase. Most present agreed that was a reasonable request, however 60% of members need to be present to approve a dues increase. Options for raising dues in a phased approach were proposed. Another 2006 meeting will be called to address this issue.
One option that was suggested was to hire an arborist to evaluate the trees in the common area, at a cost of about $2000. The possible benefit would be that trees near the end of their life could be proactively taken down, vs. in an emergency situation. There was some discussion about this, and it was agreed that we would not proceed with this without more discussion (especially since we would need to increase dues to cover these costs).
Regarding insurance and trees falling down: if a tree in a common area falls down and damages one of the houses, that homeowner's insurance typically covers the damage. However, if the homeowner makes known his/her concern about a tree in an adjacent common area, the association has 30 days to respond with a finding that the tree is in good health, or to take some preventive action. This is what makes it important to deal with the tree health issue proactively, as it can impact our insurance coverage.
In any case, John proposed a larger tree removal budget so that next year's board won't have to exhaust discretionary spending on this item.
An option to hire a lawyer was included in the coming year's budget. Apparently there are still those who are not paying their dues, and John has done all he can on his own time to try to collect.
A motion to authorize emergency discretionary spending of up to $2500 was proposed by Karl and passed, in case any more trees get knocked down this year, and to cover reimbursement of board member administrative expenses (copying and room reservation costs).
A motion to accept the 2007 budget, less the arborist (total $5,180), was proposed, seconded, and passed.

Karl asked for any final comments about the budget; there were none. The budget was proposed for adoption by Cyndy Unwin, seconded and passed without dissent.

There was a move to adjourn, which was seconded and passed. The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Dan Clark
WPCA Secretary
6 November 2006

Note: These minutes were edited in accordance with the WPCA Privacy Policy and were posted 1 December 2010. The full text of the official copy of the minutes may be reviewed or obtained by request by any WPCA member by contacting the WPCA president, president@kpwwpca.org.