Hardwick Mountain Property Owners Association
Board of Directors Meeting
Minutes: April 28, 2009
7 - 8:30 p.m., Ruritan Building
Attending: Denise Yetzer, Kai Dozier, Larry Clark, Steve Harper, Steve Hovanic, (meeting was open to any owner and announced in advance via email or letter).
Treasurer’s Report
Larry Clark distributed a summary report showing a current balance of $24,966.61. Projected payments as of June 30 2009 are $5,517, for an estimated total then of $ 30,483.61.
Larry announced that he is resigning as Treasurer, as soon as we can find someone else to take over the job. We thank Larry for all of his good work, and regret losing his services as treasurer.
Delinquent assessments
Three owners are behind on their assessments (due 12.30.08). One has promised to pay right away. Board members are sympathetic regarding tight finances, especially those living on fixed incomes. We must balance this concern with our responsibility as board members to raise sufficient funds to pay for necessary roadwork, and to follow the Association By-Laws, which state in part “Any assessments which are not paid when due shall be delinquent. If the assessment is not paid within 15 days after the due date, the assessment shall bear interest from the date of delinquency….”. It was agreed that since we have not been enforcing this requirement previously we will not add interest until the end of the year – but any assessments delinquent at that time will owe assessment plus interest, calculated from the time assessment was due.
A letter will be sent this week to those who are delinquent, reminding them of their overdue assessments and the board’s position with respect to interest and penalties.
Road re-surfacing
We’ve been saying at each board and annual meeting for the past 3 years that our plan was to pave as much of Hardwick Mountain Drive as we had money to do this summer. We anticipated we’d have $30,000 in the treasury, which is just about what we’ll have. We did not anticipate how much oil (and therefore asphalt) prices would jump in the past year.
All board members have walked and observed parts of the road, and one had marked the areas showing signs of deterioration. The worst section begins at around 500’ up from the entrance (near where the last application of tar and gravel stopped three years ago), and extends to a point around 1,500’ (where the steepest part of the road levels off). This section was last re-surfaced with tar and gravel in December 2001, making it 7 1/2 years old. The hill, from top to entrance, gets the most use, and is the steepest – so deteriorates the fastest.
Jeff Gray of C&G Paving (who did the asphalt on Chestnut Lane and Turkey Ridge July 2006, and Doubletop Lane October 2007) looked at our roads in April, and while prices for asphalt have gone up considerably since we had the last work done, they have dropped some recently. We received a competitive bid from another paver, but chose to go with C&G due to their history paving here, reputation and customer reactions.
The plan agreed to after much discussion among the board is to apply asphalt starting at 500’ up from the entrance and continuing to near the top of Hardwick Mountain Drive, to have repairs done to the edges as marked, and to have some additional asphalt applied, and still leaving enough in the treasury to pay for maintenance through the next winter. Kai will review this with Jeff Gray.
One concern was how to minimize damage to the newly re-surfaced road while it is curing. The amount of time curing takes depends partly on the weather (the hotter it is, the longer it takes). Our intent is to get the paving done in May, or to wait until fall if it can’t be done in May. We will get clearer recommendations regarding use of the road from C&G when the work is scheduled, and pass these on to all owners before re-surfacing.
Future roadwork / treasury
Once we’ve paved as much as we can with what we have in the treasury through this June 30, we will then have 1700’ to 1800’ of roadway that will have been repaired (edges), but has not been re-surfaced since December 2001. That makes it 7 ½ years old now, already on the upper limit of life expectancy for tar and gravel. At today’s rates for re-surfacing and current assessment rates, in 3 years we would have enough to apply asphalt to the rest of Hardwick Mountain Drive (assuming we don’t need to do any repairs in the meantime, or have any other unusual expenses). Since we can be fairly certain asphalt prices will rise before then, we will need to re-visit assessment rates at the end of each year.
Annual meeting
- Date: Sunday, June 14
- Time: 2-4pm
- Location: Barboursville shelter
- Food and drinks: bbq and chicken, as well as drinks, will be provided by board members. All those attending are asked to bring a side dish or dessert.
- RSVP: So we can plan for the right amount of food and drinks, we ask that those coming RSVP to Kai Dozier via email or phone by Monday, 8 June.
Other items
Work party to spread gravel on road edges, as we did for Chestnut Lane and Turkey Ridge following paving. To be scheduled after paving is done.
Sign at the entrance deteriorating. Larry Clark agreed to take it to a sign shop to be re-done.
Ditch in front of Hovanic’s house, that is getting deep. Steve Hovanic, with help from other board members and anyone else willing to help, will put rocks in this ditch to bring level up 8” – 10”.
Meeting adjourned.
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