Amston Lake District
Board of Directors Regular Meeting Minutes
July 21st, 2010 7:00 p.m.
ALIA Clubhouse, 16 Wood Acres Road, Amston, 06231
A. Roll Call of Officers and Directors
Absent: J. Connor (arrived at 7:17 pm), L. Hennebury (arrived at 7:05 pm)
B. Call to Order 7:00 pm
C. Recognition of Guests, Residents and Property Owners’ Petitions
Kevin Grady, Deepwood Drive, Hebron – dogs on Meadowbrook ROW; next door neighbor’s dog uses lake side and lake water as bathroom; picking up droppings in his yard too from same dog; possible lawsuit if someone got sick from the dog eliminations when swimming in lake; difficult to tell people on ROW to remove pets when neighbor on lake is allowing pets to defecate in lake; guests bring their pets and allow the same behaviour
Dave O’Brien: hears the concern and wants to address individuals versus enacting an ordinance; district would have to be notified in advance of a vote since so many pets in area; D. Martin – do have power to impose fines against resident to fails to clean up pet droppings; section 5 in ordinances; Lake Champlain has found high correlation between high ecoli and pet droppings
(L. Hennebury arrived – 7:05 pm); we should notify residents in writing asking for compliance and will go to next step, if necessary, need to differentiate dogs swimming in lake from dogs going to bathroom in lake; S. Forgue – can’t tell people their dogs cannot access lake; D. O’Brien – will send letters to people who are not cleaning up after their pets with explanation of issues with lake health
Margaret Rohr-Rosati, Hebron
Fourth of July – volunteer Security and paid Security; registered under the Dept of Public Safety? If hire security, required to be registered, finger printed, first aid class, etc. (J. Connor arrived at 7:17 pm); people expect certain services from Security; look at Dept of Public Safety website; Security should not be interacting with public; Eric, on bicycle, was swearing at public and herself; not acceptable to let people to do this and not be trained; she felt threatened-said she was “on the list!”; she had her dog but was in the parking lot; he was very young and was scarey in his approach; D. O’Brien – behavior not acceptable; other Security persons did apologize to her; please contact the insurance company to check liabilities; L. Hennebury not comfortable with using residents for security; R. Decormier – ACE Security was like not having security; the Board will research and find out what is appropriate; is Neighborhood Watch different?
Swimming at night – has been told that Security is harassing people for swimming at night; should not be that way; read in minutes from another meeting that someone complained and no response was in the minutes; there is no problem with residents swimming in the lake at night
Bylaws state that if Board has “something benefiting ourselves” that must abstain from voting; R. Decormier should have abstained on vote about his dock: S. Martin – probably missed since the end of the meeting – duly noted and R. Decormier stated that he did not vote
Grossman Property Development: Moving street so no round about or intersection issues – 32 wells to be put on Grossman Property; not enough water now for us, not sure how this will affect the water supply
Ernie Gonzales, Hillcrest Drive. Hebron
His family is having a party on July 31st and needs to be able to park on Berglund Property to keep cars off of street – is that OK? Yes.
D. Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes – D. Martin, J. Connor; motion approved unanimously
E. Receive and Act Upon Clerk’s Report - none
F. Presentation of Correspondence and Communication – See attached list presented by the Clerk and July 20 Email from Denise Cooper, Hebron WPCA, asking us to monitor the parking in front of the Main Beach Pumping Station was presented by D. O’Brien
G. Receive President’s Report – D. O’Brien thanked Board for previous year’s work; we learned a lot and need to continue to improve; welcome to the new fiscal year
H. Receive Treasurer’s Report – R. Decormier – have about $5000 left from last fiscal year’s expenses; our accomplishments were very good – money was used wisely and many improvements were made; found new insurance carrier for about $9000 per year for the same General Liability and Workers’ Comp coverage for this fiscal year which should save us $10,000 in our budget; the paperwork will be scanned and sent out to the Board; R. Decormier paid June bills in June and July bills in July to keep books cleaner and easier to understand; wants to suggest we pay off our debt on the dam – it is costing us money right now; will be discussed under New Business
I. Receive Tax Collector’s Report – Eileen Curtin’s July 10 email submission was read out loud by Sherri-Ann Martin; J. Connor – seems to be $600 difference between the Tax Collector’s figures and the Treasurer’s figures – R. Decormier will address with E. Curtin for next meeting; Mr. Jacoby request for refund for $68 – for late fee since he forgot to pay when purchased the property; the Board unanimously agreed that the law is as is and we need to continue to enforce it; we all make errors and have to pay late payments
J. Consider and Act Upon Standing and Special Committees’ Reports
1. Dam – D. Moorcroft: The water is down a couple of inches; S. Forgue has only 2 people to show to bid to clear the brush on the dam; CDG Landscaping of Columbia showed up as promised and quote was $675, $250 for Duck Pond or $850 for both. Spoke to one other person on the phone who wanted $2000. If licensed and insured, D. Moorcroft made motion to go with CDG Landscaping; S. Forgue seconded the motion, got Hope Valley Landscaping quote and about 14 others – most did not respond but list will be sent to S. Martin to post in communications so residents can see list of contacted companies, if needed; motion approved unanimously; cut brush will be hauled away; S. Forgue: next year, should do brush cutting at Lollipop Beach too – the hedges may need to be cut down and replaced or trimmed back significantly next year since getting large and old; M. Rohr-Rosati – did huge research project in past about removing bushes – should not remove; agreed, will prune to keep them healthy and research lake health effects of any changes before they are made
2. Storm Drains – we will purchase vortex unit for $20,000; Hebron will handle approvals of property owners, surveying and installation; asked Dr. K to monitor to measure effects on lake, D. Martin gave D. O’Brien for congratulations with getting this accomplished; should be huge improvement in H11 area; S. Forgue – property across the street from his house is now for sale. Concerned about storm water drainage and addressing Town of Hebron; D. Martin thinks this involves inlet H17; S. Forgue: no storm drain at the end of Wood Acres Rd but there is one at the end of every other road; D. O’Brien asked for info from S. Forgue so he can share with the Town of Hebron
3. Lebanon Sewer Project – D. Martin – in the process of reviewing qualifications of engineering firms who applied – nine applied and review to occur at WPCA meeting tomorrow night; D. O’Brien – getting emails from Town of Lebanon so Board is aware of meetings in Town of Lebanon
4. Drinking Water (to include CT Water and their effect on our private roads); S. Martin - 2009 Water Quality Report received from CT Water; water is drinkable even though some people like to claim it is not; I buy Hosmer Mountain water because I don’t like the chlorine taste but it is drinkable; D. O’Brien sent letters to CT Water regarding possible water tower flushing and destruction of private roads on Lebanon side of Amston Lake; D. O’Brien shared Grossman Properties Petition from the Town of Hebron; should we consider sending a letter like the one Wendell Snell wrote regarding concerns around the availability of water to existing residents, and especially if there is new development; D. O’Brien wants to call and ask for information; get a hold of minutes from the Town of Hebron Conservation Commission from July 8, 2010 to see discussion; S. Martin noted mention of the application of algaecide to an invasive species – we need to get the minutes and find out more; stormwater runoff from the new development is supposed to run away from the watershed; J. Connor – development will have large impact; D. Martin – what really counts is people attending town meetings and voicing their concerns; we can say whatever we want in our meetings and write letters but attendance and visibility make the biggest difference; S. Martin will get copy of the July 8 minutes; D. Moorcroft – Japanese Knotweed is invasive plant growing in Grossman property, he thinks and he has not been able to kill it for five years
5. Boats & Rafts – S. Forgue – boat passes – would like to give some to the Security/Neigborhood Watch so can furnish to residents; send SASE to Attn: Passes to our PO Box, can we get an extra key so S. Forgue can pick up requests; R. Decormier will give S. Forgue the combination so he can pick up requests; R. Decormier is interested in pass distribution but wants to give up other things and we should discuss under Calendar and Tasks; boat passes should not give access to the lake; we should limit the number of passes we give out – one person requested (9) car passes; each taxpayer should be issued two passes only per property, should not be unlimited; we need to define a policy for passes; S. Forgure looked at other lake policies – they issue 2 passes and charge $10 for replacements; John LaFerriere (resident) thinks should have a pass to park and a pass for the beach. One pass is not good enough. Email requests are OK too; now storing row boats on Main Beach since catamarans are there; should consider storing catamarans at Lollipop Beach. November 1st: all boats, trailers, etc must be removed from District Property for maintenance; J. Connor thinks we should keep track of numbers electronically for all passes in a spreadsheet – L. Zimmerman had done in past and we should reinstitute; R. Decormier wants to revisit auctioning if items are not removed; D. O’Brien will search for the info we had in past; S. Martin will check Clerk’s mailbox
6. Weeds – L. Hennebury – no additional spraying of lily pads is needed; want to discuss possible treatment areas for next year with Dr. K so we are developing a strategy and approach for ongoing needs; what was done previously? S. Martin to look in Clerk mailbox for info from the work done for original ACT application to send to Laurel; D. Martin – the treated areas are still clean and Robbins Pond Weed is spreading again which is extremely beneficial to the lake; huge lily pad infestation in Northeast Cove but many will be affected by dredging we do on fall; look at patch of lilies in Southeast Cove; we need to give thought to this now since permitting process takes 9 months and need to start now if want to do anything in Fall of 2011.
7. Communications – nothing to report
8. And 9. Ordinances/Security – J. Connor; D. O’Brien stated that M. Rohr-Rosati made some great points regarding Security and we need to research; S. Forgue – can check passes but can’t do anything else; D. O’Brien – change our mission statement? L. Hennebury – need to be careful about how we handle; J. LaFerriere broke up issue between Eric and Margaret; people were drinking from glass bottles and some allow their dogs to go to the bathroom in the beach parking lot; all in all, was a bad situation; J. LaFerriere has been background checked by FBI since he has worked security in the past; not recertified since he works construction now; J. Connor said that there are a lot of people here during the week who are not residents – kids drinking and partying here that do not live here; Security guards cannot do anything about it; are we enforcing our ordinances or not? Many people get belligerent. How do we enforce ordinances – volunteers are taking abuse from many; D. O’Brien – we need to have presence to keep boats at boat launch – get high visibility to be sure people obey ordinances and to continue to use it, we need to check compliance requirements; L. Hennebury – we brought in Security due to parties, drinking, and nonresidents; Security defuses resident on resident situation and brings in a neutral party; liability goes to security company and away from the Board; issues decreased then and she has positive experience with outside security being here; community approved security; R. Decormier – two hours of Security coverage Monday – Friday, thought outside Security did not pay attention when they were here and that coverage is better and less expensive now; J. Connor - ACE Security used to play video games and nap in his car – thinks many problems are during the week and we need seven day coverage; L. Hennebury – can rotate coverage days so no one knows when Security is on the beach; D. Moorcroft – nothing in writing regarding training for Security persons; need to define processes for consistency to public; many lake documents do not agree in their statements; need to write Security processes and should be highest priority above other items; we will all start reviewing and discussing tomorrow via email
10. Lebanon Roads – D. Martin – pass – next meeting in September 2010; D. O’Brien – requested some pictures to compliment email regarding 18 Cove Rd., D. Martin will get them taken; Brett/BSA Landscaping will take a look at the gravel Laurel has to see if we can use it for the roads; BSA will give estimate of gravel cost
(S. Forgue left room)
K. Receive Lake Management Reports
1. Caretakers’ Report - see below
2. Lake Health Coordinator - we need new water testing equipment at cost of @ $1200; Dr. K is ordering for Kevin Grady to continue doing testing; Larry Zimmerman sent letter stating how great the barley straw is working to clear up the algae; R. Decormier wants to look at other altermatives for treating algae; purchase sonic machine; S. Martin – Dr. K needs to be asked for his opinion; S. Forgue is writing up barley straw installation process; D. Moorcroft looking for map of placement of bales (S. Forgue returned)
L. Act on Remaining Items of Agenda….Old Business
1. Lebanon Street Lights – S. Martin made a motion to add Lebanon Street Lights to the agenda, D. Martin seconded; Unanimous approval to add to the agenda; S. Martin prefers we keep it as is; rest of the town of Lebanon does not have lights either; it is light outside until 9:00 pm at night – walking dog that late? Elimination of lights stops people from congregating in the street under the lights at night. Residents were given the option to pay for lights. There is one on Rt 207 at the top of Spafford Drive and another about six houses down from the opposite end of Spafford Dr.; D. Martin prefers no lights too; residents were given option, D. O’Brien: not a Board issue;
S. Martin: lights were removed from poles by town too so can’t simply turn them back on; Board is not liable for Spafford Dr or Deepwood Dr lighting issues in Lebanon– they are town roads
2. ALD Self Help Document - skip
M. New Business……Discussion and Possible Action
1. Dam Debt – discuss repayment-R. Decormier is interested in repaying the debt; no interest is earned on money kept in bank; paying $3,000 per year in interest and the total debt is approximately $35,000. Approval would require a Special District Meeting. Our cash would be lowered to about $65,000 and could be rebuilt over the next few years to the $100,000 we usually carry; R, Decormier will get facts and figures to determine if we should pursue to save money in the long run
2. Discussion on Calendar and Tasks – Responsibilities and Assignments – R. Decormier –
Tasks need to be distributed among Board members; Board members should let R. Decormier know what tasks each member is interested in working on
3. Lebanon Snowplowing Discussion – D. Martin will do snowplowing RFP
4. Tree Cutting – Elsemere Rd – D. O’Brien – has to contract with new person since first person did not show up
N. Prepare Agenda for Next Meeting
Add Process for Pass Distribution under New Business
O. Adjournment , L. Lenti motioned to adjourn, Dave Moorcroft seconded, unanimous approval – the meeting adjourned at 9:43 pm
Respectfully submitted by,
Sherri-Ann Martin, Clerk
Amston Lake Tax District