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August 5, 2006
Sunset Hall, 11 am
Crested Butte South, Gunnison County, Colorado
Board Members Present: Al Smith, Leigh Dillenback, Bill Crittendon, Peter Carey, and Dave DiBerardino
Staff Present: Chris Behan, Louise Johnson
Property Owners Present (per sign-in sheet): Paul Reynolds, Joanne Reynolds, Jim Guess, Susan Guess, Wes Bellamy, Benita Bellamy, Willis Hart, Deanna Warren, Angie Dumas, Sue Schappert, Clair Haverland, Kay Haverland, Roger Grogg, Jeff Hanggi, Andrea Heller, Fran Wickenhauser, Diana Wickenhauser, Peggy Moore, Jim Moore, Marilyn Foster, Michael Lee, Sheri Crittendon, Barbara Bartush, Erin Dellaporta, Chris Dellaporta, Charley Dumas, Bart Laemmel, Joel Rem, Dave Houghton, Holly Rubinoff, Sonda Donovan, Berek Novak, Jeff Bearth, Wanda Bearth, Donna Kindervatter, Deborah Tutnauer, Paul Green, Dennis Conlin, Mary Jo Conlin, Summer Ruckman, Tim Poppe, Barbara Mason, Kley Hughes, Margie Hughes, Kathleen Hecker, John Harrington, Rita Harrington, John Reily, Debra Reily, Jeff Taylor, Kathy Taylor.
Call to Order, Welcome, Introductions
Al Smith, current President of the P.O.A. Board of Directors, called the meeting to order at 11:00 am. Al introduced Chris Behan, Association Manager; Louise Johnson, Staff Assistant; and Board Members Peter Carey, Bill Crittendon, and Leigh Dillenback. Chris was hired as full-time Manager in October 2005. Bill and Leigh will be leaving the Board as their terms expire today. Their service to the Property Owners has been greatly appreciated.
Reading of the Minutes of the 2005 Annual Meeting
Reading of the Minutes of the 2005 Annual Meeting was waived. Time was allowed for all members to ask questions or comment on the 2005 Annual Meeting Minutes, as copies of the minutes were available at the meeting for all in attendance.
Year-to-Date Financial Report
The 2006 yearly income will be approximately about $180,000 a year, $135,000 of that comes from property owners association dues. Expenses for 2006 to run the Association have been estimated to be approximately $180,000. Any overage in the Association's revenue is applied to the following years operating budget. The Association carried approximately $60,000 for 2005 into the 2006 Budget/funds. Operating expenses include the costs of running the office, staff salaries, the hockey rink, community improvements and maintenance, and operating supplies. The Association currently holds approximately $230,000 in performance deposits, which are refundable to property owners upon satisfactory completion of their building project(s). Currently, unpaid dues from delinquent homeowners total about $15,000. The Association will begin to put liens on those properties, later in 2006, in order to collect those delinquent dues. A year-to-date balance sheet was available for property owners to examine. The 2006 P.O.A. Budget is also available on-line at www.cbsouth.net.
Officers Report/Manager's Report
Capital projects that are already planned include sidewalk design for the southwestern side of Teocalli Road. A survey for the proposed sidewalks along Teocalli Road has already been completed (Teocalli sidewalk survey and design was allocated in the 2006 budget). Beginning in 2007, every homeowner will get the Associations Profit and Loss Statement in the mail, as required by Colorado State Statute. If an expense is not allocated in the Associations annual budget, The P.O.A. Board of Directors can make public budget decisions at every regular monthly meeting if so properly noticed (any decision to spend a large amount of money can be decided at a meeting that is published in the newspaper, on our website, and posted at the P.O.A. office and bus stop.) In other words, if a budget/project requires additional resources outside of what has been budgeted that year, then the P.O.A. will publicize this information to all of the property owners, prior to any expenditure. As Cb South continues to grow, if the property owners want the Association to do more projects and/or increase the P.O.A.'s level of service provided, the Association may need to increase revenue by asking the property owners to possibly raising fees, annual membership dues, etc. Currently, the covenants limit increasing dues to 10% per year. Any change in our covenants has to be voted in by at least 51% of all of the property owners. Raising dues will be discussed at the next regular Board Meeting.
We are trying to get our Special Area Regulation passed. That would give CB South more autonomy, and we could also ask the County for more money. A review meeting of the Special Area Regulations is scheduled with the County on September 8th.
Current CB South P.O.A. is an Association or a "club", and not its own municipality like the Town of Crested Butte or the Town of Mt. Crested Butte. Becoming our own municipality will not be an easy or cheap process. A reason to become a municipality would be so that we could control all of the activity within the geographic boundaries of CB South, and do so under our own set of Rules and Regulations, separate from those of Gunnison County. However, without a successful commercial tax base, we currently would not make any more money than we do now, based on the 2005 Gunnison County Property Tax rates. Incorporating as our own municipality would require us to provide a higher/different (and more expensive) level of service than we do now. With that in mind, without a commercial tax base, the only way to fund our own municipality would be thru the existing property taxes, which would have to be raised, because municipalities can not collect annual dues. So we are not looking to become our own municipality just yet, even though all indicators show us with an equal or larger full-time population compared to the Town of Crested Butte.
The Metro District handles road paving, based on vacant land and tap fee ratios. Paving this summer will start at the General Store and go around Gillaspey Ave. The paving of Blackstock Drive is on the schedule for 2008.
Update on the request for traffic regulation and more stop signs in CB South: Chris reported that Marlene Crosby, who is in charge of County roads, visited CB South. Placement of all signs to be enforced by the police has to be done according to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. So, the County is to be providing us with their guidance as to which intersections might require additional safety and traffic control signage. Additionally, we are working with the Sheriff's Department on speed control, and we are trying to borrow a radar speed monitoring device from the City of Gunnison for the remainder of this year. The Sheriff's Department is trying to budget the purchase of a speed machine for next year, 2007.
The Board has adopted the State's air quality regulation. Along those lines, Camp 4 Coffee is purchasing an after-burner device, which will eliminate detectible odors from their coffee roasting operation at 161 Gillaspey Avenue. This after-burner device has been approved by the County as well as the State of Colorado for its intended purpose.
Summary List of P.O.A. Board Accomplishments from October 2005 through June 2006:
- Hired full-time manager
- Converted staff assistant to full-time position
- Increased the Associations overall income, among other things: increasing diligence on delinquent dues collection, re-allocation of bank accounts to earn more interest, and adjusting some of the fee schedules in CB South that had not been adjusted in some years.
- Collected grant money for the hockey rink.
- Numerous Design Guideline changes
- Post office box delivery in CB South
- Adopted a noise regulation
- Prohibited burning of construction debris
- Initiated the Teocalli sidewalk study
- Adopted new meeting rules of procedure
- Finalized the CB South Special Area Regulations for potential approval
- Laid the foundation for possible covenant changes
Election of Directors - Three (3) Seats
The majority of votes cast were mailed in prior to the meeting. Those who had not voted were given the opportunity to vote at the meeting. A tally of all votes showed that Donald Montgomery and Erin Dellaporta were elected, and Al Smith was re-elected to the Board. The final count needed to be verified, and results were announced at the August 9th Regular Board Meeting.
Property Owners Comments / Questions Time
Question: Are we able to use the money in the Performance Deposit account?
Answer: Technically that money can be used if the property owner does not qualify or pursue their refund after two years. Recently, Chris did transfer out those deposits that were older then four years (that money was converted to operating capital). Some of the old performance money is being used to build the climbing rock in the park.
Question: Are you satisfied with office staffing?
Answer: We will continue to look at whether we have sufficient staffing given our revenue stream(s). We do need someone to help enforce the existing rules. When budget discussions take place in November and December, staff increases will be considered.
Question: The property owners' in the audience were asked how they felt about enforcing the rules - enough or not enough?
Answer: The following comments were made by various property owners:
- If you make rules you need to enforce them.
- The safety issue should be first, speed and then dogs.
- There is an issue with "stuff" left around houses outside; this "stuff" hurts other people's property values, so the rules should be enforced.
Question: How can the existing P.O.A. rules be enforced?
Answer: We do have a fining system, but it hasn't been used.
Question: If it were used, it seems like the fines could cover the cost of the staff to enforce the rules.
Answer: Possibly, but the fining system is an administrative process. The P.O.A. first has to write a letter put the potential offender on notice. That letter needs to also give the potential offender time to fix the problem. Then, the offender is entitled to a hearing regarding the potential offense. After those things occur, then a fine can be levied…the collection is a whole other process. It was suggested by an audience member that there is a six-week court process we could use. You send it to the court and they enforce it. (The P.O.A. manager will look into this.)
Question: It was asked whether there should be a 'yard enforcement' committee set up.
Answer: We already have an elected P.O.A. Board that can set priorities according to what the property owners want to see in Cb South. There seem to be a number of property owners that know there is no enforcement; if we enforced the rules, it would make some property owners shape up. Enforcing the rules would make it become common practice for all owners to obey all of our rules. The enforcement issue has been discussed at many Board Meetings. Right now we don't have the funds or personnel to do it. Hopefully we will get it done in the next year.
Letters will be coming to homeowners in the next few months that will propose some covenant changes. An annual dues increase of more than 10% a year will possibly be proposed. And a proposed property transfer tax of 1% would be earmarked for capital projects if the property owners were to vote in favor of this. Please get the word out to vote on covenant changes when the time comes. We thin we will need at least 350 "yes votes" to pass anything.
Miscellaneous Business
A discussion was requested by The Crested Butte Land Trust regarding their intent to purchase land from the Niccoli Ranch, which is adjacent to CB South (i.e. the 73 open acres between Highway 135 and the East River in front of CB South). The Land Trust would like to have a commitment and money support from the property owners of CB South. The POA Board doesn't have the money to commit at this time, but they agree to have a discussion with The Land Trust's Board of Directors. It was noted that the P.O.A. has many other projects vying for funds. One aspect of this purchase that could be of interest to the property owners would be to have a public transportation park-and-ride on Highway 135.
Thanks and appreciations were expressed to the Board Members and P.O.A. staff for their work over the past year. A special thanks was extend to all in attendance as well as to all those who participated in this year's P.O.A. Board Member Election.
Adjournment
Al Smith adjourned the meeting at 1:00 pm.
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