Annual Meeting
February 22, 2014 10am
Orange Township Hall
Trustees were all in attendance
- Michael Peirce
- Dale Conklin
- Carol Conklin
- Frances Catanese
- Amy Lloyd
Meeting opened with Michael Peirce discussing the new website and features. The new site provides the opportunity for homeowners to add or update themselves allowing us to keep current on email addresses. The new site will reduce the cost by eliminating the need to pay a hosting fee. The only remaining cost will be the domain name retention fee of approximately $15/year. The work by Michael and his wife Kathleen is much appreciated and the new site looks great.
Next was a financial review by Steve Ginter. The financial summary was distributed to all attending homeowners. The ending balance for 2013 was $2,748.01 more than projected. This was primarily due to lower cost of lawn services. Mr. Zuelke asked what the board felt was the right amount to hold? He felt that the current amount, approximately 1.5x the dues was accurate, but if it increased beyond 2X then we should consider adjusting annual dues. Both Dale and Amy offered examples of potential needs in the next year or two, including work on the retention pond bordering Waukeegan and Buckman homes, that will dip into the reserves and the work on the pipes and signs at the entrance. After some discussion, Mr. Zuelke said he was satisfied with the explanation and agreed with the current decision to maintain dues as is.
Frances discussed the paving that has been promised by Orange Township and she has an email from Debbie Taranto – Orange Twp. Board member that we will be first on the list for paving this year.
The trustees are going to publish an updated directory and ask that if you want your email and phone number included you send an email with that information. Otherwise, only your name and address will be included. We talked about the potential of keeping it updated on the website and will discuss the option to password protect that section to only homeowners.
Events for 2014:
Looking for a volunteer to host an Easter Egg Hunt? If you are interested please contact Frances Catanese
Kathleen Hadder will host the annual Wine Party this year on April 26th. Please bring a bottle of wine and an appetizer to share.
Mr. Ginter asked about replacing the tree in the circle on Highgate. Mike Chiappi has agreed to spearhead this operation and the trustees have approved funds for tree replacement. The board would also like to thank Jamie Stabl for all of his help in beatification of the neighborhood. He has helped plant flowers and do clean up at the entrance many times. Michael Peirce said that he has stain kits made up for mailboxes if anyone needs one see him. The stain is non-standard and can be difficult to locate. The board purchased a gallon and made up kits for homeowners. The stain kit is at no cost to the home owner.
The meeting moved to voting for 3 open positions; Frances Catanese, Carol Conklin and Amy Lloyd. All three board members expressed interest in remaining on the board in addition to two other homeowners expressed interest in becoming trustees; Mike Henn and Lori Henn. Mike Henn talked about his desire to get involved now that he was more familiar with neighborhood and suggested that he would like to do more to help new homeowners by creating a welcome packet. Lori also said she would like to get more involved.
Michael Peirce passed out ballots, voting was 1 per household. He also tallied the votes with all three current board members retaining their seats. Each term is for two years.
Mr. Henn offered to take on developing a welcome committee/kit.
Last discussion was the domestic geese that have invaded the pond. They are noisy and becoming a nuisance. They chase many of the small children in the area and becoming more aggressive. Mr. Stabl spoke with the DNR who indicated that unless we could find the people responsible for bringing them here, we couldn’t do anything about removing them. We could destroy any nests to prevent the increase in population. One homeowner indicated that he thought someone was feeding them, but didn’t know who. The trustees agreed to try and find out who brought them here, so we could ask that they be moved before further problems.
There was no further business and the meeting adjourned at 10:45am.
