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Dakota Ridge Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
March 22, 2022 @ 8:30am via Zoom
Present: Sarah Jones, Jim Lob, Ron Lemieux, Holly Van Deursen, Scott Prochazka, Andrea Wilhelm (CPG)
Andrea called the meeting to order at 8:31 and welcomed Scott to the Board. Jim made a motion to formally appoint him to fill the remaining one year of a board term vacated by Carrie Rawlins. Holly seconded the motion and Sarah and Ron were also in favor. Andrea said she would follow up with Scott to schedule time later in the week to orient him to the Board and answer any questions. Next, there was a discussion of the other seats up for election at the upcoming annual meeting. No owners nominated themselves for election following Andrea's two solicitations. Both Sarah and Scott agreed to reach out to two other owners to see if they would consider a nomination to replace Sarah who has reached her three-term limit. Andrea said she would follow up next week to ensure there was a potential candidate for nomination prior to the meeting.
The next order of business was the finalization and signature of the UYWCD contract amendment.
After the recent legal review and no further questions, Holly made a motion to sign the amendment, Ron seconded the motion, and all board members were in favor. Andrea was asked to resend the document to Sarah for signature.
Before moving into financials, Andrea asked Sarah to provide an update on the Covenant Review Committee which has met roughly five times since the kick off meeting on February 4th. Sarah reported that the committee had established a working spreadsheet of all current articles in order to systematically categorize which articles should remain as is, which ones the Committee feels needed minor changes to ensure consistency in language, and which ones the Committee recommends need further discussion and feedback from owners and/or legal counsel. Ultimately after each issue/potential amendment is presented to owners for a vote, there will be a restatement of the covenants into one revised document consolidating the nine current amendments plus any new ones. Andrea asked if any specific article amendments should be presented or voted on by the ownership prior to the annual meeting budget ratification. The board felt this was premature given the state of current Committee discussions, and the legal fees for this project should be added to next year’s budget.
Next, Holly provided the following highlights regarding the YTD financial packet that Andrea provided through the month of February. Overall, Holly reported the finances are in good shape and ahead of budget:
Operating Budget 2021-22 YTD
• Revenue is about $24,000 over budget, primarily due to water user fees (a bad thing from a water usage standpoint). Annual fees have been collected from all owners.
• Operating expenses overall are $6,800 over budget. Operating expense items more than $1,000 off budget levels are:
o Legal fees, $5,200 over annual budget due, primarily, to Stagecoach water contract review and enforcement issues.
o Admin fees related to ARC issues, $1,300 over annual budget, primarily due to efforts for new lot owners.
o Road maintenance, $6,200 over budget, as agreed this summer for mastic and regular road work.
o Snow removal, $5,600 under annual budget due to a mild winter.
o Sign repair, $3,400 over budget due to two damaged signs and one new one.
o Wildfire mitigation, the association spent none of the $2,500 operating budget as there were no consulting services this year and all work was capitalized.
o Water system operations, $7,200 over budget, due to a substantial purchase of treatment chemicals, an increase in operator fee, and CDC advisor effort.
o Water system repair/maintenance $8,200 under budget, as actual costs were closer to the 2019-20 expenses, and no leaks were detected.
Balance Sheet End-Feb 2022
• Capital reserve is $396,000 versus guideline of at least $300,000. There was some uncertainty on water capex this year, and will draw down further in 2022 and 2023.
• The association is $2,000 over the FDIC insured limit of $250,000 at Yampa Valley Bank.
Capex
• Capex spend to date is $191,000 versus a plan of $155,300. By category:
o Water system $162,000 vs plan of $150,000 due to slight overages in both the smart meter project and the Native Excavating work for ARVs and PRVs
o Road improvement $25,000 vs plan of $0 due to the road patching
o Wildfire mitigation & Miscellaneous $4,580 vs. plan of $5,300
Next, Andrea and Holly reviewed the draft 2022/2023 budget with the Board and Holly highlighted the major changes. A change was made to increase legal fees from $10k to $30k to cover legal review and final language guidance for the covenant review/restatement project, but the Board felt that expense could be funded by the reserve account in lieu of an increase in operating dues. It was also agreed that the south meadow should be mowed for fire mitigation reasons but Andrea pointed out there was already $5500 of money budgeted in the CIP/capital section to cover this expense. Ditch cleaning on Upper Trail Ridge Road was also discussed and Andrea said she would follow up with Brian Len to see if that was recommended without a culvert in place. Although the capital budget does not need to be formally ratified by owners and Andrea is still waiting on additional information from both engineers, the Board agreed to earmark $150k towards roads in 2022 for sealing and possible ditch cleaning and $25k towards water for the hydrant flow testing and acoustic leak testing. Sarah made a motion to approve the budget with these changes, Jim seconded the motion and all board members were in favor.
The last order of business related to the Design Guideline revisions provided by Civil Design Consultants in section 7C pertaining to water meters and meter pits. Holly made a motion to adopt the changes as presented, Ron seconded the motion and all present were in favor. Andrea said she would disseminate the changes to the ownership later that day and after the 30-day period for comments required by the Responsible Governance Policies, the new Guidelines would go into effect.
Before wrapping up the meeting, Andrea reminded everyone that the annual meeting was scheduled for May 5th and the meeting packet should be sent by April 21st. Therefore, the committee chairs were asked to provide their reports to Andrea by April 15th so the Board would have a week for review. Andrea was asked to request proxies from all owners regardless of whether they would be attending the meeting. She was also asked to provide highlights to Jim on the water system and report of ARC approvals to Ron.
Before the meeting adjourned, Holly asked Andrea to include the list of pending/unresolved items in a follow up email with the draft meeting minutes. She was also asked to try to coordinate an informational zoom session for owners with Chuck Cerasoli, Steamboat Springs Fire Chief, in May following the annual meeting. With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 10:10am.
Recorded by,
Andrea Wilhelm
Commercial Property Group