Hidden Valley Lake POA Board: Minutes February 25, 2016

Hidden Valley Lake Property Owners Association
Board of Directors Meeting
February 25, 2016

APPROVED

Board of Directors Present: Pat Hawkins, Tom Hamilton and Bill Minnery

Board of Directors Absent: Robert Starks, Donna Yetzer

Community Manager Present: Bruce Keller

Guests:

President Pat Hawkins called the February 25, 2016 Board of Directors Meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance.

President’s Report: Pat Hawkins

Earlier, and on behalf of the Board, I wrote to the community advising that the proposed property maintenance rules would be presented to them for a vote. The Board is still working towards this goal and will likely be making substantive changes to the rules that had their first reading back in October, 2015. We are working to balance the goals of the Architecture Committee and our Compliance Manager with the concerns expressed by property owners both in the October meeting and in emails and phone calls since that meeting.

The Board has agreed to delay our Annual Meeting from March until April this year in order to facilitate our established election process for Board members. That process calls for the candidates’ resumes to be included in two successive issues of Echoes prior to the date that the ballots are due. We were unable to get them in the February issue and they will now be provided in the March and April issues. Election ballots will now be due by 5:00 pm on Wednesday, April 27 with the election results announced at the April 28 Board meeting. While this is a change from recent practice it is not without precedent and is being done to give property owners ample time to review the candidates’ resumes and make informed choices for the Board.

Treasurer’s Report: John Reiniger

As of December 31, 2015 beginning cash is $476,472.13 and ending cash is $1,136,003.24. Actual income for the month $175,265.69. Actual income year to date $175,265.69. Actual expenses for the month $140,200.93. Actual expenses year to date $140,200.93.

Secretary’s Report: Tom Hamilton

Motion to approve the October 22, 2015 Board of Directors Meeting Minutes.

Motion made by Bill Minnery and seconded by Pat Hawkins. Motion passed unanimously.

Community Manager’s Report: Bruce Keller

Concrete canoe races will be April 1^st. March 5^th the sluice gate will be closed.

Golf Course Managers Report: Pat Sullivan

The golf course has some pretty impressive stats. When I took over as the general manager in 2009, 55% of the members were residents of western Hamilton County. 39% of our members are from the state of Ohio, 36% are from Hidden Valley Lake. 19% are from Indiana, not living in Hidden Valley Lake. 6% are from Kentucky. Total number is 262 members. Last year we finished the year at 258. We lost 51 members last year. We are plus 9 already this year. The interest in the golf course is tremendous right now. 300 members would be a good number and we could handle 350.

Our outing schedule is completely full. We used to close the course for maintenance on Mondays. Every Monday is full this year.

We accepted a contract to re-skin the barns with a completion date in April.

We have black topping scheduled for the cart paths the middle of July.

We acquired the Pro Shop which was run by one of our pros. The POA now owns the Pro Shop. We are going to create an area for Hidden Valley Lake objects to sell i.e. sweatshirts, vests, coffee cups, etc.

We purchased a beverage cart. We never had one and all private and most public courses have one. We bought it for $3,500.00. The owner of Willie’s, Steve agreed to share the cost with us.

We worked out a deal with Cumulus Radio who owns 5 stations here. They are going to play 200 rounds of golf and we will get $5,532 worth of advertising.

Motion to approve the re-skinning the barns with metal and moving a storage shed and enclosing the gas tank and the bid is under $10,000 which also includes 2 double garage doors at the golf course.

Motion made by Bill Minnery and seconded by Tom Hamilton. Motion passed unanimously.
The $10,000 is coming out of the Golf Course budget, not the POA budget.

VRUC Report: Bruce Keller

VRUC is putting cameras on all their lift stations which we may be able to piggy back with that contract for cost sharing.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Architecture Committee Report: Mike Parks

Motion to approve of the unanimous decision by the Architectural Committee, to place Michael Parks in the Chairman’s position made by Bill Minnery and seconded by Tom Hamilton. Motion passed unanimously.
The committee recommends approval of a lot split with Lots 1146 and Lot 1147. This is a small split with the property being added to lot 1146H, owned by Andrew and Elizabeth Muhlada. The dues, fees and assessments for these two properties will not change.
Motion made by Bill Minnery and seconded by Tom Hamilton for a split of lot 1147H, owned by Robert Thomas. Motion passed unanimously.
Lot 1433, Stephen & Julie Mason, 1433 Tyrolean Way, $2,000.00
Signed by Jason Craig, Jesse Jones, Jim Ulrick, Bruce Keller
Lot 254H, Daniel & Peggy Vanderman, 19949 Overlook Circle, $500.00
Signed by Rick Manion, Jesse Jones, Don Yetzer, Bruce Keller
Motion for the return of the above Performance Bonds made by Bill Minnery and seconded by Tom Hamilton. Motion passed unanimously.

Safety, Security & Elections Committee Report: Becky Lortz

My name is Becky Lortz. At our last meeting one of the things we talked about was changing the times our parks are open and closed. We put together a recommendation that we do this which will put us in line with the counties.

The Safety, Security and Elections Committee recommend that the current HVL policy regarding the times our HVL parks are open be changed to reflect the Dearborn County Parks policy (section 209). We recommend our HVL parks be open from dawn to dusk and that signs be posted at all HVL park locations stating this policy. This policy would be suspended in special instances by ruling of the HVL Community Manager (i.e. family campouts, family film nights).

Motion to accept Safety, Security and Elections Committee’s recommendation for discussion made by Bill Minnery and seconded by Tom Hamilton. Motion passed unanimously.

Dave Patterson, Lot 1533, 19803 Lakeview Drive – What are you considering HVL Parks? 77 acres, Moller Park, park on Matterhorn – there are 6 or seven parks. Becky responded no, not the beach or the marina.

Jeffrey Henderson, Lot 2723, 20327 Alpine Drive – Summer when it stays light out until 10 o’clock, you’re proposing closing the park at 8:30? Becky answered that we may renegotiate this, but we are attempting to deter vandalism and suspicious activity and if by doing this change it will give the HVL deputies to refer to when addressing these activities.

Bruce also has a concern because some residents walk the park at night. We may want to change it to an age limit or they must be accompanied by an adult.

Becky stated we are not trying to keep people from using the parks; however we are trying to create a situation that if there is a situation and the deputies stopped someone there is a rule in place to back them up if they ask someone to leave the area.

Phil Hatfield, Lot 621, 1243 Sunset – do we really need a rule for our officers to use their discretion for what is going on in our parks? He does not feel we need a rule for this.

Bruce Keller stated vandalism at 77 acres where our cameras were cut, the deputies saw them, but the kids were allowed to be there because it was before the curfew. Maybe we should adjust the curfew.

David Patterson stated he does not really want to have more rules because this is something he hears complaints about that there are too many rules.

Bill Minnery stated we need to clarify what the deputies can and cannot do.

After much discussion Becky will take her notes back to the committee for further discussion.

Vella Riemann is resigning from the committee as well. The next Safety, Security and Elections meeting is the first Thursday in March upstairs at the POA at 7:00 p.m.

Finance Committee: John Reiniger

Our cash is down $63,000.00 from last year. This is another indication of how tight the budget is. These numbers are for the POA, not the golf course. The Finance Committee did not accept the January report because there were some items missing in regards to the budget so we have to take another look at that.

Pat Hawkins asked if this includes the Golf Course budget and John answered that no this is just for the POA. The golf course budget is separate and looks good.

Finance Committee requests approval of the October 2015 and November 2015 and preliminary December 2015 financial statements.

Motion made by Tom Hamilton and seconded by Bill Minnery to approve the October and November 2015 financials and the Preliminary December 2015 financial statements. Motion passed unanimously.

Finance Committee also requests approval for the 2016 adjusted budget which is still subject to general wages corrections.

Motion made by Bill Minnery and seconded by Tom Hamilton to approve the updated budget for 2016. Motion passed unanimously.

John stated the committee had a preliminary discussion about the possibility of increasing the dues. How much? How often and when? We need more information on how 2016 is going, but we have had a lot of extra expense that put a crunch on us. This is IF we need to increase the dues.

Lakes Committee Report: Dave Patterson

We had our meeting February 10^th. We had a couple of guests Laura and Joey Lenhart. Joey was there as a part of his Eagle Scout requirement. Georg Lortz was present and he presented the committee restructure suggestions. There was much discussion about this. There was significant discussion about the merger of the Lakes and Parks and Rec. This will be discussed further. One plus would be the beach would finally have a home for a committee to take care of it. The Fish & Game Club will host the Cincinnati Youth Bass Tournament again this year. There was some concern about boats, whether they would have enough and members. We decided to plan better to get the boats there on time. We discussed a need for additional gravel for the parking lot by the beach. Bruce is working on that. Lake Patrol – No report yet. We are not sure everyone is coming back this year. If we are short we will have to put the word out to get additional people. No lake statistics report from Jerry. Treatment dates will be May 17^th, June 21^st and August 2^nd. All of these dates are Tuesdays. We will close the sluice gate on Saturday, March 5^th. We are not sure if Mayor Damon is having a ceremony or not. Concrete canoe races will be held April 1^st. Small lake maintenance – Crystal Lake is at the top of small lake maintenance, getting the emergency overflow in place. We had a request for a dock to be built by Mr. Hammerstrom. The dock was approved and is being put in place. 2016 boat driver exam is finished. Some of the questions we wanted to put in we were not able to because they did not exactly reflect the rules. We may need to do some tweaking of some of the rules.

Parks and Rec: George Lortz

Parks & Rec – we did not meet this month. We did get some good news – those of you who are frequent travelers on Fairway Drive. On the north side of Fairway is a large piece of property which was originally a dump. The property is owned by Greendale. Clean up is required and monitoring the results of the clean-up is required. Greendale received notification that the dump is free and clear for development. We are in the process of negotiating with Greendale to jointly developing that land for 2 amenities – 1) a dog park and 2) an RV storage facility. There are 70 acres. There are some other ideas being discussed as to what to do with the remainder of the land.

Judicial

Judicial is requesting approval of a motion doubling the fine ($128 to $256) for speeding 10 miles over the speed limit in our 15 mile an hour recreational areas.

Motion to accept for discussion made by Bill Minnery and seconded by Tom Hamilton. Motion passed unanimously.

This is a first reading. It is here for the Board and anyone in attendance to ask questions or comment on the rule.

It was asked if there have been any repeat offenders. Bruce Keller stated no.

Art Knippenberg ask why not include that for all of our streets? Anyone going ten over the fine should be doubled.

Tom Hamilton stated the fines are the same as Dearborn County fines, so that would be going far over.

Pat asked if the majority of people fines are residents. Bruce Keller stated it’s about 50/50. He also stated we give out a lot more warnings now.

After much discussion Bruce Keller stated he would have David Wismann talk to the deputies and come in next month to discuss this.

Future Planning/Political Action Committee Report: George Lortz

Parks and Rec Committee have agreed to suspend our meetings. Most of our projects are financially based and there is no money in our budget for this year yet. There is an Eagle Scout project to build or rebuild some of the bridges and that would continue because it is self funded. We would represent the four task forces that we support, The Garden Club, The Hidden Valley Farmers and two others. We represent them for activities that come before the board. We are not planning any further Parks & Recs meetings, but George would still be available through the mailbox at the POA office. We are open for business if business is there.

Future Planning Committee has a ton of work we are doing. One project is to review and update the Community Master Plan for this year and to provide an updated version to the Board at the Annual Meeting. We have also been working on projects to implement the current Community Master Plan. We have six projects there. One, we formed a focus group to restructure the POA committees. After reviewing, we feel we probably aren’t organized the way we should be to meet the objectives of the CMP. The idea is to start brainstorming different ways to structure our committees. All ideas have been documented. The second project is looking into developing a land use plan. This is on hold right now, but plan to complete this year. We are also planning to completely restructure the POA website. There is a task force in place for this. Within the next 2 or 3 months we’ll see something new on the website. We are also looking at restructuring how the Board operates. This is on hold because the committee restructuring should precede anything we decide about the Board. We are planning to re-write our governance documents this year, but that depends on the committee and board restructuring. Finally, a proposal came up to create two building documents. One document would be for homeowners who plan to do any type of construction on their property. It would be a check list of what they need to do to get a construction project approved. The second document would be a condensation of our architectural rules that we could hand to contractors. As this project progresses we may review and tweak the handbook as necessary.

Old Business:

None.

New Business:

Consider moving annual meeting and election deadline to the April Meeting. The annual meeting had been held in April for years. This will also give us a chance to get the resumes for the nominees for the Board into the paper or two months.

Motion to approved by Bill Minnery and seconded by Tom Hamilton. Motion passed unanimously.

There was some discussion by resident Diane Clark stated that she feels since she has 3 lots she should get more than 6 pool passes. It was discussed that golf passes are per membership, the same as the pool passes. Pat Hawkins asked George Lortz to take this to the Parks for discussion.

Diane also requested a bench at the playground by the pool. Bruce Keller stated we can put a bench down there.

She commented about adding more lights at the front gates.

She would also like to see more plants at the beach. George will get with the Garden Club on this.

Diane also requested a table for an older couple or a handicapped person at the top of the beach area. She also thinks she needs a slide at the beach as well.