Four Lakes Landowners Association
Board of Directors
March 17th 2005
In attendance:
Rod Case* Terry Deschenes* Lee Koger
Matt Jones Shawn Mulqueeney Kit Nau*
Tom Price Steve Scott* Rich Ward
* newly elected Board members
Also attending: Mike Goza Theresa Johnson
This transition meeting for new Board members was called to order by outgoing President Theresa Johnson at the home of Rick and Muriel Ward. After brief introductions, it was decided to proceed directly into identifying Board Officers for the 2005 year. Shawn got the ball rolling by volunteering to be the President if someone would be willing to take over his current role of Treasurer. Matt agreed to become the Treasurer if Shawn would “train” him over the next billing cycle. Terry then volunteered to be the Vice President and Rod Case volunteered to be the new Secretary. Therefore, the 2005 Board Officers are:
President: Shawn Mulqueeney
Vice President: Terry Deschenes
Treasurer: Matt Jones
Secretary: Rod Case
Before she left the meeting Theresa then gave the new Board all Committee sign-up sheets from the annual meeting. She also left some historical documents that are kept by the Board. With that, Theresa excused herself and left the meeting. Shawn then took over the Presidents chair and conducted the remainder of the meeting.
Committee Reports:
Lakes: Mike Goza was present to discuss current activities. With the dry winter we have had he is very concerned about algae bloom this summer. He reported that he recently met with Mike Murphy for King County to discuss options for lake maintenance. Mike G. presented the Board with a plan broken into three objectives:
1. Identify and act on immediate concerns. Within the next couple of weeks he plans on assembling his committee and doing a baseline survey of the lakes to identify areas that need attention. He also reported that we may use almost any manual means of controlling weeds that we wish. This could include hand pulling, some kind of bottom cutter, or possibly introducing plant-eating wildlife. These, and other options will be discussed by his committee and reported back to the Board at the next meeting.
2. Develop a short term (approx. 3 year) plan. This plan will address concerns such as natural aging process, animal issues, and the fact that aquatic vegetation growth increases exponentially if left unchecked. In it they will try to identify ways to address some of our bigger issues on a little more permanent basis than hand pulling weeds.
3. Long range plan. This plan would take some time to formulate and will include such diverse areas as weed and algae control, permitting, silt levels, shoreline encroachment, water outflow, fishing and boat access, swimming.
Water: Before he left the meeting, Mike Goza briefly mentioned a concern he has about backflow. There was a short discussion and it was agreed that this concern should be forwarded to Evan Lurton for further review. We will look to Evan for his recommendations.
Community Property: Rick presented an outline of this years bid process for mowing the community property areas. He plans on sending out the Request for Bids soon and hopes to have selected two vendors by our next meeting. It was confirmed that as long as the total contract does not go over the approved budget amount, the Board does not need to pre-approve the contracts.
Rick is also starting to plan for a work party. He requested that each Board member send him a list of maintenance activities that need to be done this year. Kit mentioned a method used by similar associations to approach this type of work. She said others have passed a ‘maintenance assessment’ that must be paid by any member who chooses to not participate in community work parties. There was some discussion on this approach with it being left to Rick and his committee if they wish to try such an approach. Policing such an approach is always a challenge. Terry suggested that a sign-up sheet be posted on the bulletin board where members can identify work they are willing to do on their own, not necessarily in a work party. Everyone agreed that this is a good idea and Rick will follow through on it.
Roads: There was no report in this area. It was noted however that this area was thoroughly discussed at the recent annual meeting and a maintenance plan is available on the web site.
Easement: Kit reported that there was a ‘walk-around’ shortly after the annual meeting. A number of interested community members participated. She said that subsequent to that event and further discussion, she feels interest in aggressively pursuing an creek access easement across the non 4 Lakes 20 acre plot directly to the east of her property is waning. She has contacted the potential buyer and informed them that the easement will not be pursued any further. Kit, and the rest of the Association, is still concerned about development of that land and the impacts it could have on our community. She is going to contact a real estate agent to find out as much about the road access from 4 Lakes to this property and beyond. She will report back at the next meeting.
Old Business:
Ø As reported at the annual meeting, the question of allocating dues for a future sewer system has been resolved. The section of By-Laws that this is in pertains only to the period of development of our Community. Once the original developers turned the community over to its owners this became a non-issue.
New Business:
Ø It was agreed that the Board meetings would be the second Thursday of each month at 7:00 pm. Rick volunteered that most of the meetings can be at his home; this alleviates the need for each Board member to host a meeting during the year.
Ø Mindy Sheldrew has contacted the Board with a concern she has about the school buses not stopping in the right place and sometimes making it difficult for the students. It was agreed that Mindy may place a simple STOP line on the road to help the drivers. Rod said he thought he still had a little of the reflective tape used on the speed bumps. He will call Mindy and inform her that the Board agrees that a STOP line is appropriate and offer the tape if he can find it.
Ø The web site is up and running now. All long range plans, Board meeting minutes, and other pertinent documents are loaded and available for all to see. Craig is working on getting the ownership transferred from Jim B. to a generic 4 Lakes designation. This will cost approximately $200. Rod suggested that it would be good backup to have a second person with access rights to the server in case something happens to Craig or he is just to busy to work on the site. Rod has experience in this area and will contact Craig to volunteer to be that second ‘web master’ for our community site.
The meeting was adjourned by President Shawn Mulqueeney at 8:30 pm. Next meeting will be on April 14th at the Ward home.