Sunday, May 24, 2015

Stannard Beach Assn BOD mtg 5.24.2015

Stannard Beach Assn BOD meeting May 24, 2015  Notes

The Board meeting was convened in the Connell pavilion at 9:05 am by George Dallas.

A moment of silence was observed for those members who have passed on:
Dennis Hersh
Sis Palmer
Warren Katz
Bill Wrang
Emily Fedorko


The minutes were read from 8.30.2014. Motion to accept by Sandy Seidman, 2nd by Merle Katzman. All voted to accept the minutes as presented.

Dave Caslin has left the Board. Need to fill the position. Connie Tosto and Sharon Bender suggested filling with another woman to further balance the board – the Nominating Committee has had no suggestions of women interested in serving on the board, and currently Laura Petchler and Maureen Keegan also serve, so there is a reasonable contingy of women at this time. Ed Spazzarini was suggested. Motion to accept Ed Spazzarini to fill the 3 months left in Dave Caslin’s spot made by Lou Brown, 2nd by Steve Mason, all accepted.

Treasurer’s report: $105,000 in the bank. All dues paid to date except Rosenblatt, who was reminded and will send in payment.
Expenditures:
Pavilion repairs
Groin #1 repair
Speed gate repairs

Dead end sign moved to speed gate at Mackey Barron. Needs to be higher - needs to be mounted on pole higher so is in clear site line for all traffic, as per previous notes.

Security:  Fred is back this year, starting the Friday before July 4. Hours are Friday 5-11, Saturday 11-11 an Sunday 11-7. No Water’s Edge fireworks this year, though Tina Datillo may possibly do an in house party that weekend – she will let us know.

Paul Shlien asked if the Water’s Edge spotlight that shines down the length of our beach can be adjusted to not shine in our faces at night? Many in attendance agreed.

Connie Tosto: Capital Budget reserve is about $70,000 to $75,000 now. We are setting aside $25,000/year and whatever unspent funds are available if possible.

Shoreline: DEEP was here in September 2014.  George asked DEEP to wait until spring to see how the weather would go. He took pictures over the winter of lots of sand in place, and now that it’s spring there will be a loss of sand.  This is a repeated pattern over the years, depending on the direction of storms.

Pizza Night: Friday evening, June 26.

Sharon Bender informed the board of a family reunion she is hosting at her house at 123 2nd Ave, Sunday, August 23, 2015. There will be extra cars and people that day.


Cars were left in the parking lot over the winter. Upon inquiry they were Fred’s car (security guard) and Jim Kiely’s car. Fred was asked to remove his vehicle.

A person writing a book about the area around Westbrook and Stannard Beach contacted George Dallas to say he found a deed saying the area at our beach including tennis courts is owned by others. But the deed expired 10 years ago and no one has come forward with a claim.  Sandy Seidman asked that we share this info with the full Assn and vote on a motion to keep all public and nonbuildable areas in perpetuity.

A set of the newly retyped, clean by laws compiled by Sharon Bender and Laura Petchler, from all the history of Assn and Board notes, will be sent out by email to everyone, with a request for input and ideas as to modernization of our by laws.

Lyman/Brown right-of-way:  OCM told Ziaks that the contract for $16,200 is to excavate the center of the right of way, put in underground tanks to catch the water and leach it out underground, refill the area and grade and sod it.  Additional charges from Ziaks included engineering oversite for $6000which has been adjusted to $3300. 
OCM, Alex Orlowski, is/are the owners of Clean In Between also. It is his wife’s business. George checked with Town hall but they had no info on OCM to share. George asked Ziaks for references but has not received any to date. Ziaks stated he would not be the general contractor for the right of way work. The Stannard Beach assn. needs to sign the contract, but who would oversee it?

The BOD hired Ziaks to do a study of what could be done for $6000. 
We cannot be the contractor as we have no one to oversee the work daily – we need a General Contractor.

There has been no report of any water in the area or in basements.

If the contractor has given us his license, insurance and bonding, should be ok. F W Brown can serve as a reference for OCM. Mike Guinan knows Alec, the owner of OCM, has talked with him and Alec is a large contractor on major New England projects.

Are we obtaining a release? Needs to be obtained prior to any contract for work being signed. Have not heard back from Lyman’s attorney, and it has always been a part of the deal to have a release signed prior to work being done.

Regarding additional costs from Ziaks for $3300, Connie Tosto said we cannot approve this amount without the Assn being informed, but Board members disagreed.

Sandy Seidman made a motion to spend up to $18,000. Mike Guinan 2nd the motion. Voted 7 in favor, 4 against, 2 abstentions.  Motion passed. Ziaks will be contacted. Motion does not include legal costs to obtain a release.

Lou Brown has hired an attorney to protect him. The fees are coming out of the $8000 he is putting towards this project. So far the fees have amounted to $550.

$8000 original amount from L Brown
$1900 sod
$ 8950 net
-$550  legal fees to date incurred by L Brown
$8440

The community is broken over this on going issue in the right of way so let’s fix it and move on.

Motion to adjourn at 10:15 by Sandy Seidman, 2nd by Merle Katzman. All agreed.


Submitted by Sharon Bender