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Dakota Ridge Board of Directors Meeting
July 12, 2018, 8am in the Commercial Property Group Board Room
Board Members Present: Sarah Jones, Paul Orzech, Holly Van Deursen, Jim Lob
Guests Present: Steve Hofman, David Dennis, Medora Fralick (Property Manager), Andrea Wilhelm (secretary)

Sarah called the meeting to order at 8am and the first order of business was a capital projects update.

Water & Roads - Relative to capital improvement plan, Mary Andre created a detailed spreadsheet previously sent to the board that will essentially become a capital plan for water. The next steps will be to reconvene the capital planning committee in order to review/prioritize Mary’s list along with NWCC’s road list. Then the capital planning finance committee will look at funding over the next 10 years. The final information and recommendations will be presented more concisely to residents via the website. Mary will also be condensing the six pages of technical information into a more readable narrative this fall. Once Mary has submitted the water CIP narrative, Jim will reconvene the capital planning committee.

Chlorine Contact Basin – The first invoice for $90K out of a potential project budget of $508K was submitted/paid last week. Duckels Construction has thus far been timely, on budget, and compliant with all state, city, county permits. There was some negotiation about the monthly reports that were outside the scope of CDC’s contract. In order to appease some of the other landowners involved in the easement, these reports are a necessity (and also helpful for our own informational purposes) but adding an extra cost of about $1K/month.

Water Usage/Meters - CPG just mailed the annual water meter recertification notices to about 15 owners selected annually over a five-year rotation process.

Per the recent article in this week’s paper about city water restrictions, Sarah suggested an email to owners reminding them that we are in a drought and advising them to participate in a voluntary restriction. The suggestion will be that on odd days and, odd addresses can use irrigation water and vice versa on even days. Sarah and Medora will work together to draft/send it along with some supplemental information.

A further discussion ensued regarding Dakota Ridge’s current tiered pricing system for water assessments. The current pricing system covers operational costs but does not address the long-term capital costs associated with increased usage. This topic will be reviewed by the capital planning finance committee.

Financial Update - The income statement shows that we are $3000 under budget for the first quarter. Paul has reviewed the financial statements, check registers, bank recs, etc. and everything appears to be in order. In comparing March to June on the balance sheet, the total cash situation went from $620K to $756K primarily due to the collection of assessments. There is currently $725K in a Centennial money market account. Since the FDIC insured requirement is only $250K, Paul proposed that if we get to the end of the chlorine project and there is still a remaining balance above that limit, we should re-evaluate other/safer investment options.

ARC - In consideration of a pending sign request, Medora and Holly drove the neighborhood to document, photograph, and measure driveway signage. The current covenant on signage stipulates a limit of 4’ tall and 2.5’ wide. The homeowners with the pending request were asked to come back with a revised/smaller submittal which is still larger than the covenants but in line with some previously built. Therefore, all three ARC members have now approved it.

Fire Mitigation – The project to clear dead and standing trees from a common parcel has been completed by All-Weather Services. Unfortunately, during the tree work, the contractor crushed a septic leech field pipe, not identified during the utility locate, in the common parcel and there is some gray water seepage. NWCC and Native are meeting on site tomorrow with a mini-hoe and estimating a couple hours work to un-earth and replace the pipe.

Weed & Mosquito Spraying - Weed spraying has been completed. Mosquito spraying has been done twice and is budgeted for 4 times/year. Road work is scheduled for late summer/early fall. Ben Schreiner from RMA will give 3-4 days notice of when he’s coming to DR for road repairs and CPG will send out a notice to any homeowners who want to tag onto the project for personal driveway repairs.

Trash Bids – Discussion from previous Board meetings identified possible road damage due to trash collection by three different services in Dakota Ridge. Paul had asked CPG to solicit bids from the haulers, with the potential to provide one service to all homeowners in the Associations. Trash bids were provided from Aces High, Twin Enviro, and Waste Management. Two questions that the Board considered were: 1) is this something the association is able to do per the current declaration/by laws? 2) If so, is this something the neighborhood would like to consider?

Sharon Pace sent an email to Medora with her opinion which stated she does not currently use any trash services (like some other residents) therefore, it would be unfair to increase dues or impose a service that is not utilized by certain homeowners.

Others present at the meeting felt that a single hauler would minimize road damage (even pollution concerns) It could also enhance neighborhood appearance so that trash cans aren’t out for 3-5 days/week.

Steve said he attended the meeting in order to share his opinion that it is a bad idea to shift the responsibility of trash collection from individuals to the board. He also read the governing documents which reportedly stipulate that trash is a responsibility of the homeowner. Lastly, he does not feel that road damage argument is valid because frequency, weight, and speed are what determine the impact on the road and none of those are significant considerations in this instance.

Next steps: CPG will review the governing documents to see if they would need to be amended in order to move forward with a neighborhood-wide trash proposal. Sarah pointed out that another option for consolidation would be to designate one provider for the neighborhood but not charge the cost through assessments so that those not utilizing the service would not be negatively impacted. The board will revisit this with more information in the coming months to decide if it is worth presenting at the next annual meeting.

Management Agreement - CPG’s management agreement was up for renewal at the beginning of this year. Paul reviewed the last agreement and suggested that CPG provide a new one for review. The current contract is billed on an hourly basis and Medora pointed out that based on the overall budget and size of DR HOA, the $15K in management fees is quite a bit lower than what many of our other HOAs pay (partly due to lowering fees at the last bid process). CPG will provide further information to the Board to help them make a decision.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 9:30am. The next Board meeting was scheduled for Thursday, September 20 at 8:05 a.m.