Hale Estates Owners’ Association Meeting Minutes
Second Half of 2021
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Saturday, September 21, 2021
Tuesday, November 16, 2021
Hale Estates Owners’ Association Meeting Minutes
Saturday, September 21, 2021
6:00 PM – Virtual Meeting via Zoom
Board of Directors Present: Pete Tracy, Tom Cosentino, Meg Richard, Mark Richard, Bruce Miller, Lynda Mahoney, David Klibanoff, Scott Hubley
Board of Directors Absent: Roberta Smith
Community Members Present: Catie Hubley, Wayne and Kathleen Mora, Dorothy and Mike Lane, John Hebb, Blaine Nelson, Jerry Kelley, Rick Elkstrand
Meeting convened by President Pete Tracy at 6:00 pm.
Meeting Minutes
The board voted 8 yes and 1 absentee to approve the June 2021 Board Meeting Minutes.
Finance – Mark Richard
Mark reported that annual dues are nearly all collected. We have $2,200 still outstanding. About $3,000 of expenses from last year that were not in this year’s budget have been paid this fiscal year. We have to keep an eye on the budget as we go forward and make sure we don’t go over. There was a question as to what category Phase I dues fall under, and Mark responded that the category would be Dues Upper Grandview on the P&L. There was a suggestion that we track expenses versus budget. Mark said he would like to do that so we have an idea of where our cash flow is. A member suggested that we change the wording on the P&L in the Total Collection section from Dues-Lower Grandview,
Dues-Phase II, and Dues-Upper Grandview to reflect where we currently are. Perhaps Lower Grandview, Hastings Trust (paying dues at the lower rate) and Current Residents or Homeowners (anyone paying the standard dues whether with septic or without).
*Action Item: The board will look into changing the terms in the Total Collection section of the P&L so that they are more reflective of our current situation.
Mark presented the balance sheet. See attached for details. Pete pointed out the CARF (Capital Asset Relief Fund) account to those new to the association. He explained that the CARF is for capital improvements and repairs. As an example, we had a well damaged by a lightning strike and it was a significant cost to repair. We used the CARF fund to pay for this so that we didn’t have to have a special assessment. Pete explained that CARF is broken out into roads, septic, and water because some residents do not have community septic, and the residents of lower Grandview do not have community water.
There was a question as to whether we expect any major expenditures before the end of this calendar year. Mark responded that if we can get to a cash flow methodology we will have a better idea of upcoming expenses. Pete reported that we have allocated funds for crack sealing and we will discuss that when we get to roads. Tom Cosentino reported that we have two tanks that are beyond their life expectancy and we have not had that work done because in order to do that the tanks will have to be offline for 2 or 3 days. We have been hesitant to do that during the pandemic because we are concerned that if an employee of the contractor doing the work tested positive for COVID they would all have to quarantine and we don’t want to risk the tanks having to be offline for two weeks. According to Iron Mountain, they have seen this type of tank in use for much longer than the expected lifespan of 25 years and the tanks are not showing any signs of failure. We want to do this in the foreseeable future but it may not take place this year. We will not do the work in the summer while we have high water usage.
Roads – David Klibanoff
David reported that we received the estimate from Andrade Sealcoating LLC to do crack sealing. We usually only do one-third of the roads every three years, rotating through the three sections. We have asked Andrade to break down the estimate so that we can vote on having the work done. The board will have to do the voting online once we get the revised estimate.
Pete reported that he recently met with Paul DegliAngeli, Town Engineer for the town of Conway. The town is very interested to begin discussion of town acceptance of the roads within Hale Estates. Lower Grandview does not meet town standards and is considered a failed road so this must be replaced. This could be two years out. Pete explained that the town would test the quality of the soil and determine how much work will have to be done to replace the road. Please see the document attached for full details on this process. In order to pay for this we have two options. We can either apply for a bond, which we will almost certainly not receive because we have never had any success in getting a bond. The other option is that the town will assess a betterment assessment where they will take the total cost of the project and divide it up between lot owners. Each owner will pay their share of the betterment on their annual property tax bill in the additional assessments box. This will likely be a multi-year assessment. Paul will be sending us a letter that will explain the process. Pete asked that members send him any questions via email and he will gather them to present to Paul. There was a question as to whether the roads will continue to be private if the town takes them over. They would no longer be private roads. If the town takes over the roads they will plow and maintain them. If the road is replaced by the town it will also be made a little wider.
Bellmore Basin and Culvert Cleaning will be doing the culvert and basin cleaning again this year. The culvert under the pit was clogged. Pete thanked David Smith for cleaning out the culvert with a backhoe. Bellmore will finish blowing out the rest of the debris in that culvert. The basins in Phase II have never been cleaned out to our knowledge, so we will have that done this year. The culverts in Phase II on common land have been cleaned out.
Landscaping – Bruce Miller
Carl Drew has one more mowing and Bruce has asked him to finish clearing off the brush from the retaining wall on Heather Hill that we couldn’t reach on the Community Work Day. There was a question as to who is responsible for mowing which sections of the association. There is a map on the Hale Estates Owner’s Association website that shows who is responsible for what. Anything in yellow is the association’s responsibility, anything in green is Hastings’ responsibility. Homeowners raised concern about the quality of the mowing in Phase II. The timing is not as frequent as Phase I and the mowing is inconsistent. It appears that Phase II is only mowed with a tractor and not trimmed. It was suggested that Phase II homeowners contact Tom Hastings directly to resolve any issues. In response to this suggestion, it was recommended that the board should take responsibility for interacting with Tom Hastings and not put the onus on the homeowners. The board will continue this discussion offline. Homeowners in the phase II area continue to voice concerns over the maintenance services provided by the Hastings Trust.
*Action item: Scott/Pete to work together on additional options to respond to homeowners’ concerns over the maintenance services provided by the Hastings Trust.
We have a three year contract review for Carl Drew due.
*Action item: Bruce to send Carl Drew’s current contract to the board and the board will review.
Septic – Pete Tracy for Roberta Smith
We are completely up to date with homeowner septic pumping. Pete reminded members that if they are coming due for pumping within the next six months to do so before the ground freezes.
Community Water Systems – Tom Cosentino
Tom reported that our water has been tested for coliform, lead and copper and they are all within acceptable limits. We just had the annual maintenance on our generator completed. Tom reported that our water utilization has gone down substantially now that we have a conservation program in place. Our recent consumption is at ~29,000 gallons per day versus ~45,000 gallons per day during the same period last year. Tom thanked everyone for their efforts at conservation. A homeowner had inquired as to whether the recent rainfall has helped out any with our water capacity issues. Tom explained that the majority of the rainfall does not recharge our aquifer. The reason is that the deciduous trees in the summer are consuming a majority of the rainfall. The recharge to the aquifer starts when the trees lose their leaves. The snow pack also recharges the aquifer and we had lower levels of snowfall last year. Also, we are constrained by the amount of water we can pump out of a well. We won’t be able to return to watering daily because we have so many more homes who are reliant upon the same number of wells. Pete noted that there is an exception to the odd house number, water on Mon/Wed/Fri and even house number water on Tues/Thurs/Saturday. NEW homes that are establishing a lawn for the very first time are allowed to water all 6-days. No one should be watering on Sunday.
Design Committee – Pete Tracy
Pete shared the status of lots under construction. We have approved the plans for lot 76. We continue to track the construction in Phase II.
Community Outreach – Scott Hubley
We welcomed Robert and Emily Koch and Susan and Andrew Almquist to the community. Scott reported that the association has historically supported End 68 Hours of Hunger. The organization fills backpacks with food for students in need to eat over the weekend. Scott spoke to the program manager and there are some very specific items they could use help collecting. He proposed that the association participate in donating these items. We would have a collection bin at the mailboxes starting the day after each HEOA board meeting, and members could donate the requested items. Scott would drop off the donated goods on the following Monday. We will draft a communication to our members detailing items needed and explaining the process and will send it out via email. Scott is happy to pick up goods; feel free to email him if you would like to request a pickup.
Old Business
Community Work Day
Pete thanked Tom and Teri Cosentino for organizing the Community Work Day. It was a huge success and many community members helped out. We also thanked Tom and Teri for painting the mailbox enclosure and the lower pump house.
New Business
The HEN Newsletter – Lynda Mahoney
Lynda reported that she and Catie Hubley will be putting out the newsletter after each board meeting. Lynda asked if the newsletter could be sent out without board approval, as it has been taking a long time to get the approved newsletter turned around. Pete replied that we do have an approval process that we need to follow and agreed to turn the newsletter around more quickly so we can get it out in a timely manner.
Signage Request – Mike and Dorothy Lane
Mike thanked all of the members for taking care of our property and keeping it beautiful. He presented a photo of a sign that he would like to place at the two entrances to the community. The signs read Private Community| Residents and Invited Guests Only. Mike and Dorothy offered to pay for the signs and any costs associated with their installation. Mike asked that the Board of Directors consider this request. There was discussion regarding this request and the suggestion was made that we install the signs and if we get substantial negative feedback Mike agreed to remove the signs. A motion to install the signs was made by David Klibanoff and seconded by Bruce Miller. The board voted 7 yes to 1 no and 1 absentee to approve installation of the signs.
Questions/Comments
Mark expressed concern that our email lists are not up to date and suggested we have a concerted effort to consolidate and update our email lists. Mark asked that everyone send their updated email address to haleestates01@gmail.com.
Meeting Adjourned
A motion to adjourn was made by Bruce Miller, seconded by Lynda Mahoney, and approved unanimously.
Action items for next Board Meeting
The board will look into changing the terms in the Total Collection section of the P&L so that they are more reflective of our current situation.
Scott/Pete to work together on additional options to respond to homeowners’ concerns over the maintenance services provided by the Hastings Trust.
Bruce to send Carl Drew’s current contract to the board and the board will review.
Hale Estates Owners’ Association Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, November 16, 2021
6:00 PM – Virtual Meeting via Zoom
Board of Directors Present: Pete Tracy, Tom Cosentino, Meg Richard, Mark Richard, Bruce Miller, Lynda Mahoney, David Klibanoff, Scott Hubley, Roberta Smith Board of Directors Absent:
Community Members Present: Cate Mora, Ian Heiselmeyer, Mike Lane, Glenn Davis, Louise Hansen, Nancy Cassidy, Linda Armstrong, Andrew Schuyler
Meeting convened by President Pete Tracy at 6:00 pm.
Meeting Minutes
The board voted unanimously to approve the September 2021 Board Meeting Minutes.
Pete recommended that we nominate Scott Hubley to serve as VP of the Association, a position that has gone unfilled for a couple of years. This appointment was approved by the board.
Finance – Mark Richard
Mark reported that we are slightly over budget to date. We have incurred some expenses from last year that were not budgeted for in this year’s budget and have had additional unbudgeted items come through. We will continue to watch the budget closely. Pete explained that there was an overage with the crack sealing due to the desire to have them do any work they see that needs to be done so we will go over. We are just starting the budgeting cycle now for fiscal 2023. Board members that will have line items in the budget please do the due diligence so we have a good idea of what we will really be spending. Tom reported that the water system had a few overages. We needed a new battery at $84. Central Alarm Monitoring incurred an unexpected expense as the batteries needed to be replaced in the pump houses, and we had a lot of alarms going off and had to bring Pope Security in to find the source of the problem. We have been asked in the past not to pad the budget and because we are going to incur unexpected costs we either need to pad the budget or expect overages. We do understand that we will likely have unplanned expenses and we realize that we need to pay for emergency expenses that we incur. We should be very specific as to how we handle contingencies for the FY23 budget. There is a contingency line item that the board can distribute as needed.
Mark presented the balance sheet. See attached for details. Mark noted that this won’t be changing much, we’ll see the checking account change as we pay bills throughout the year.
We had a couple of billing errors last year and there will be a small revenue shortfall (~$400 - 500) related to that.
Pete thanked Roberta for her work on the HEOA Budget and Annual General Meeting Calendar and Roberta, Scott, and Mark for working on how we will manage the budget going forward. See attached agenda for the Budget and General Meeting Calendar.
There was a question as to whether all dues have been collected. Mark reported that we are short $375 and we do have a plan in place to collect those outstanding funds. Mark reported that John Hebb will be stepping down from the Finance Committee and thanked him for his service. Scott Hubley has agreed to join the Finance Committee.
Roads – David Klibanoff
David reported that we had the crack sealing done on all of Phase II and all of Heather Hill. Next we will likely do High
Point and the rest of Grandview. David believes we will spend $8,000 a year for crack sealing. Bellmore Basin and Culvert Cleaning completed the culvert and basin cleaning again this year at a cost of $4,700, will probably be the same next year. Street sweeping will be ~$800 for this year and again next year. Snow plowing for both phases will be $27,000 for this year and next. That is a flat rate for plowing. We are billed by Coleman for snow plowing on the first of the month from November through April. The current 3-year contract with Coleman will end in the spring of 2023 when we will negotiate a new 3-year contract.
Landscaping – Bruce Miller
Bruce reported that Carl Drew has stated he will renew the contract with a 10% increase in cost. We are going to put the contract out to bid. We would like to define the scope of work and include that in the bidding process. This scope of work will also be shared with Tom Hastings so that we can make clear what the level of work is expected throughout the community.
Septic – Roberta Smith
We currently have only one homeowner who is past due. They have been sent two bills and we will be sending a certified letter. Roberta noted that we are paying $.11 per kilowatt hour and Phase II is paying $.808. She is working with Eversource to see if we can get the rate consistent to the lower rate.
Community Water Systems – Tom Cosentino
We did our coliform testing and that came back clean.
Tom reported that we had a NH State Inspection in October. They came up with six recommendations and Tom has been working with Iron Mountain to get these suggestions resolved. The state is running a 50% grant program and Tom has applied for the grant. This will help with getting the tanks inspected, cleaned, and determine whether we need to replace them.
The Security System needs to be upgraded. We had a battery fail in one pumphouse and Pope replaced both batteries. We received notice from Pope Security that the 3G Phone system that we currently use is being discontinued and we will need to replace it with a 4G unit. It will be $365 for each pumphouse.
Water Conservation - we asked everyone to cut back on usage and many people did and we are thankful for that. We were able to reduce our year over year consumption by 20%. We did still use quite a bit of water even during the rainiest July on record.
Tom noted that we have discovered a prohibition of timed water systems and underground water systems in Hale Estates. Pete, Tom, and Scott will be meeting with Ed Alkalay, the HEOA’s attorney, to discuss this on Friday. This is on the website in the as-built plans. We will notify everyone how that meeting goes and provide an update in the next meeting.
Pete thanked Tom for all the work he does on water for the community.
Design Committee – Pete Tracy
Pete shared the status of lots under construction. We have four lots under agreement. Currently there are six homes under construction in some phase. There are currently 14 lots unsold in Phase II.
Community Outreach – Scott Hubley
The last drive we did for End 68 Hours of Hunger was very successful. Thank you to all who contributed. The collection box is down at the mailboxes and will be picked up on November 26. Pete noted that they also accept monetary donations and they receive a matching donation of 50 cents on the dollar. Catie put the information in The HEN regarding how to donate money directly. We will also put a sign down at the mailbox with information regarding End 68 Hours of Hunger.
Old Business
● Open action iItems from the meeting on 09/21/21
● 1. Completed as presented
● 2. Create a SOW for Phase I and share that with Tom Hastings and explain we want the same for Phase II ● 3. Carl Drew contract done.
● Pit maintenance – clearing the culvert at the entrance / Roads – Bellmore Basin and Culvert completed the clearing. David Smith asked that when someone moves a trailer they park it in a different spot to allow for mowing in the pit.
● Proposed Stop sign at the intersection of Grandview and Grandview. Pete spoke to the town inquiring as to whether we can add a stop sign. Pete will look into the cost of a Stop sign and will present it to the board. We will vote on it at the next meeting. Tom suggested that we install Yield or Stop signs at all intersections within Hale Estates. There was concern expressed by homeowners regarding the reckless driving of a contractor within Hale Estates. That contractor has been sent a certified letter informing them of their need to adhere to posted speed limits and drive with caution within the community. A motion to install a Stop sign at the intersection of Grandview and Grandview was made by Roberta, seconded by Bruce, and approved unanimously.
● Signage within HEOA discussion: There were some concerns about the new Private Road signs that were put up in Hale Estates. Residents questioned why we need more Private Road signs when we already have several. There was a concern that we would not be able to enforce the signs and that the signs were unfriendly and snobbish. The board had voted on the new signs at the request of a homeowner in September’s board meeting and they were approved. There will be continued discussion on the signs. Pete will discuss with the board whether to put this matter before each member of the association for a vote.
● Lighting: There was a request to add a requirement for downward facing night compliant outdoor lighting in the new construction checklist and also for any replacement of exterior lighting. Pete asked Teri to send the wording to the design committee and Pete will have it added to the new construction checklist.
New Business
Speed Limit Signs
There was a request for more speed limit signs in the neighborhood. We have very few speed limit signs in the association. It would also be helpful to have residents ask the police department to patrol the area. This would need to be discussed with the town and also voted on by the board. Pete encouraged the sign committee to check with the town regarding installing speed limit signs. Any signs would have to meet the highway safety standards. Mike Lane agreed to reopen the sign committee and to contact the town to get information about regulations for speed limit signs. Ian volunteered to be on the sign committee.
New Committee to Review/Edit/Define Declaration and Covenants We need to change the covenants in three places:
● SECTION 7. LAND USE, 7(n): Landscaping, “…A minimum of seventy-five percent (75%) of all disturbed service shall be re-seeded with grass and at least five (5) shrubs.
● Watering guidance for Spring, Summer and Fall months?
● Also add a change to the covenants to require the dark sky compliant lighting. ● Perhaps also look at signage within the community.
Tom, Scott, and Pete all volunteered to serve on this new covenants committee.
Website Updates
Nancy is working on a beta for the website through Squarespace. Pete shared the beta site with the meeting. Nancy asked that the board look at it ASAP and send her any recommendations as soon as possible. The trial ends in 11 days. One issue with this is the password protected area will need to change. Each page will now be password protected. Pete will get Nancy a CD with the as-built plans so she can upload them. Nancy asked the board to review the new website and get back to her ASAP. We will wait until we speak with legal counsel regarding loading the as-built plans to the website. A motion to move forward with the trial of Squarespace was made by Pete, seconded by Tom, and approved unanimously.
Meeting Adjourned
A motion to adjourn was made by Roberta , seconded by David, and approved unanimously.
Action items for Next Board Meeting
● Follow up on discussion with legal counsel regarding irrigation systems.
● Design committee will add dark sky compliant lighting requirements to the construction checklist.
● Pete will look into the cost of a Stop sign and will present it to the board. We will vote on it at the next meeting.