F.Y.I. The Newsletter of Edgewood Townehouse Association
PO Box 5424, Eugene, OR 97405

October 26, 2009

Important Dates:

Next General Meeting: Tues, Oct. 27, 7:30 PM

Next Regular Board Meeting: Tues, November 10, 7 pm

(Notices of any special board meetings are posted in the Clubhouse 3 days before date of meeting per Bylaws)

Hospitality Activities:

Saturday Morning Social: November 14, 10:30 am
By-the-Brook Book Group: Wednesday Nov. 11, 2 pm
Next Potluck: Sunday Dec. 6, 5:00 PM

Contents:

Board Message
Association Notes
Board Meeting Minutes: Oct. 13, 2009
Special Board Meeting Minutes: Oct. 20, 2009
Reports: Grounds; Buildings; Website; Director
Third Quarter Profit and Loss [omitted]
Monthly Banking Activities [omitted]
Roster [omitted]

FYI Info:

Editor: Dave Compton
Next Deadline: November 16

Board Message

Y O U A R E N E E D E D!


Happy Autumn to All of Our Friends and Neighbors,

The next ETA general meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 27, 2009. Please plan to join us for conversation regarding current and future events.

This meeting is the time set to elect new Board members. Three members complete their three year term at the end of each year. This year Eaton Conant and Gwen Acker will complete their terms. Eaton has agreed to run again. Gwen will be retiring. The third position is presently vacant. We are a community governed by volunteers. Won’t each of you consider serving?If you cannot serve, please talk with your neighbors to encourage them to consider serving.

Plans are in the works to enlarge our standing committees and to add new ad hoc committees. Would you like to help with the updating of the CC&R’s and Bylaws, Making a Historical Record, Financial Planning? You are needed. Each committee will have only one board member. The balance of the committee will be made up of other interested volunteers.

We have three new residents at Edgewood; Sara Mitchell at ( ), Paula Backus at ( ), and Jeni Hinton and Jordan at ( ). We welcome you to the Edgewood Townehouse community.

Our new residents are encouraged to attend this meeting so that we may meet and greet you. There are some wonderful people who live here. The more we know each other, the more desirable life in our community becomes.

Please give careful consideration to volunteering for board and/or committee service.

Association News

Association Notes


EDGEWOOD TOWNEHOUSE ASSOCIATION
Meeting of the Board of Directors
October 13, 2009

The meeting was called to order at 7 p.m. by Acting President Bruce Trafton. Those in attendance were Board Members Bruce Trafton, Susan Klein, Eaton Conant, Gwen Acker, Jon Joseph and Toni Horodysky. Russ Fryburg and Doug Cone were excused. Frank Gaddini also was excused.

Director’s Report: The report was provided in written form as Frank Gaddini was not present. See copy attached.

Minutes: The minutes of the September 8, 2009 having been published in the FYI and the September 15, 2009 special meeting minutes having been read by Gwen Acker, were approved by consensus.
Treasurer’s Report: The report was provided in written form as Doug Cone was not present. The Acting President advised that the property owners who are severely in arrears will be given the opportunity by letter to pay in full by October 20, 2009, or to face collection consequences.

Committee Reports:
Grounds: Bruce Trafton provided a written report which is attached. The porch of the clubhouse is being replaced.

Building: Toni Horodysky provided a written report which is attached. She further stated that the window of time for asphalt work is closing and that it may need to be put off until next year. The temperature must remain above 42 degrees to do the work.

Website: There was a problem with the website earlier today. Toni will check it out. There is a change in the server and that may have been the problem.

Hospitality: Toni Horodysky reported that contact has been made with three new residents; at 70 and 90 BB and 183 WW. More information will be provided.

Pool: Bruce Trafton reported that the pool is now closed for the season and Thomas Pool Service will check it weekly.

Unfinished Business:
Bruce reported that a further letter will be sent to the owner of ( ) regarding her request to be allowed to rent her unit. This request was granted but the required paperwork must now be completed and returned.

New Business:
By consensus the Board approved the trial procedure of conducting only business at the regularly scheduled Board meetings and that resident input will be held for General meetings. Residents may, or course, contact Board members by telephone or by letter to request action on a particular concern. The next General meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. on October 27, 2009. Three new Board members will be elected at that time. Gwen Acker and Eaton Conant are retiring and one of the positions is presently vacant.

Ad hoc committees were discussed with the hope of engaging residents on various committees. Please see the Director’s Report.

Jon Joseph moved to have Bruce Trafton and Frank Gaddini research the feasibility (including cost) of a certified audit of our financial standing and business practices, to include strategies to increase and maximize the value of our reserve fund earnings. Susan Klein seconded the motion. The motion carried.
A discussion ensued regarding an update of the Reserve Study completed in 2008, to be completed after conclusion of work done in 2009.

By consensus the Board approved an increase in our monthly assessment, to be applied to the reserve fund.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:10 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Gwen Acker
Secretary

EDGEWOOD TOWNEHOUSE ASSOCIATION
Work Session and Special Meeting of the Board of Directors
October 20, 2009

The meeting was called to order at 7 p.m. by Acting President Bruce Trafton. Those present included Board Members Bruce Trafton, Russ Fryburg, Jon Joseph, Eaton Conant, Doug Cone, Gwen Acker and Toni Horodysky. Susan Klein was not present. Frank Gaddini was also in attendance.

Discussion was held regarding the proposed $5 per month increase to the monthly assessment, to begin January 1, 2010. The Board had previously reached consensus to increase the monthly assessment by $5 rather than the full 4% allowed by our CC&R’s. There was also discussion regarding the possibility of earning more return on our reserve funds. Director Frank Gaddini will provide figures at a future date.

Discussion was held for a proposed monthly calendar through 2010. Frank Gaddini noted that this is helpful to ascertain the future time line for budget, taxes and letting of contracts for the 2010 season.

Upon motion of Eaton Conant and second by Toni Horodysky, a rental amount of $900 per month was proposed for our unit at 87 Westbrook Way. The motion carried. The unit will be available for rental on November 1, 2009. Frank Gaddini will oversee the rental of the unit.

Adjournment was at 8:15 p.m.

Respectively submitted,
Gwen Acker


GROUNDS COMMITTEE REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 2009

Fall is here and the leaf colors abound. Leaf-fall is close at hand.

A small or mid sized company will get the contract to do the leaf cleanup

During the last month we have been gradually shutting down the irrigation system. The “Back Flow” systems will soon be drained and shut down for the winter.

The City of Eugene’s Forestry Division has researched and determined that the Sweet gum trees along Willamette Street do belong to the City. Good News. They have also sent us a document allowing us to cut the tree roots that are invading our wall along Willamette.

We have finally obtained a GIANT pile of three year old, entirely decomposed, cow manure. Our intension is to mix this manure with last years leaves and apply the mixture to our shrubbery beds.

The lawns have only been mowed once since September 15th and that should be the last. The last step will be to apply winter fertilizer.

We have cut back the “yard Debris Rollers” to just four. They are picked up every other week by Sanipac.
In the last few days, our contract employees, Tom and Cam have rocked in the creek in several places that showed erosion. This should protect the bank between the Clubhouse and 40 BB.

Clearview Tree Arborists did a beautiful job along the front and around both ends of 140 WW, 150 WW and 160 WW. They will be back three more times before years end.

FUTURE:

Trees on property that are marked with yellow ribbons will simply be limbed. Those with yellow and red ribbons will be removed [only one]. These, of course, are handled by licensed and bonded specialists.

Duckworth’s Nursery is creating a plan to plan the area 118 BB and 80 BB all the way up towards Brae Burn Drive and along the side of 110 BB. The planting will take place before the end of October.

Greer Nursery has set aside two 50 lb. bags of their special Rhodie and Azalea mix developed by Oregon State University. It will be applied later this month.

And lastly, this Chairman will be attending a two day class on “Sustainable Landscape” on October 27th and 28th. Oregon State Extension Service will be the provider.

Respectively Submitted,
Bruce Trafton, Grounds Committee Chairman

Building Committee Report, October 2009
Toni Horodysky, Chair

Much work has been accomplished this past month under the direction of Frank Gaddini and with the help of our contract employees, Cameron and Tom.

The siding at 183 and 185 WW has been replaced and painted. Dry-rotted wooden walkways were replaced on Brae Burn. Several contractors have been on site painting portions of the building comprised of 149 to 159 WW and putting a second coat of paint on patio walls replaced earlier in the year on Westbrook and Brae Burn.

The wrought iron gate at the end of Westbrook was pressure washed and repainted. The brick wall along Willamette was pressure washed and missing mortar has been replaced. Both bridges over Brae Burn Creek were pressure washed and oiled.

The single light poles were cleaned and painted. The four-light “trees” and their number plaques are still on the painting agenda.

Unit 87 WW had the patio cover demolished, and paneling removed from living room and family room walls. The entire unit was painted and the carpet will soon be cleaned.

The growing season is over – a good time to check the plants growing in your patio. If any plants are touching siding or roofing, please prune them to leave a gap of at least six, but preferably 12 inches.

Now is the time to disconnect your garden hose and cover the faucet with a “helmet” available at the nearby hardware store, Jerry’s, etc. If you are disabled and unable to manage, please give me a call.

A big thank you to Bruce Trafton who took over during my absence.

Edgewood Townehouse Association Website, October 2009
Toni Horodysky, Webmistress

Edgewoodhoa.org had 44 visitors who looked at 82 total pages during the time period September 6 through October 4.

FRANK L. GADDINI
Edgewood Townehouse Director Report

This has been a busy and challenging sixty days serving as the Edgewood Townehouse Director. Since August 1st, I have approached this position with enthusiasm and commitment, building on the diligent, thoughtful, and hard-work of those who preceded me. I have focused much of my attention over these past two months to assessing three functional areas of our gracious, elegant, but aging community. My responsibility, in this position, is threefold. First, to deploy the day-to-day work of maintaining the common exterior elements and common facilities in an organized and safe fashion; second, to ensure that we are in compliance with the existing laws and tax codes, and observing prudent business practices; and third, to assist the Board in deploying the spirit of the Reserve Study and stewardship over the community. My job is to provide the community, through its elected officials, the Board, with the tools, options, and alternatives to make informed decisions regarding the business known as the Edgewood Townehouse Association. ETA is a non-profit business organization with over $22 million dollars in assets and a yearly operating budget of over $275,000 per Fiscal Year. Comparatively, ETA is a small to medium size corporation. Below is an at-a-glance review of my first sixty days as Director.

First, I have been reviewing the history of the site, its leadership, and its organizational structure. I have had many enlightening conversations with several owners, some who are original owners, some who are recent owners, and many owners who have shared their opinions, criticisms, concerns, and advice on their experiences as residents in the community and as association Board members. I sincerely thank everyone for these special conversations.

Second, I have also been reviewing the current state laws, our covenants and rules, and homeowner association practices pertaining to our relationships with governmental agencies as well as the legal and “good neighbor” relationships between homeowners. I have been comparing and contrasting our existing rules and policies against the most current laws and business practices to better understand and predict what we need to undertake as a community to ensure compliance and more effective management of our common interests, as well as practices that ameliorate our community relationships.

Third, I have been inspecting our commonly held and shared facility features in order prepare a reasonable and achievable deployment of the Reserve Study for the continued maintenance of our buildings, facilities, and grounds.

Meanwhile, as I prepare my findings and recommendations for changes that I plan to present to the Board and community for approval for the upcoming fiscal year, I have been deploying the work and projects that were detailed in the 2009 Fiscal Year Budget. To approach this work in an organized fashion, I have prepared specifications (detailed written work plans) to guide contractors as they perform work, and to use as a tool to assess the contractor’s performance of the work. Our community now has specifications for our painting projects, our re-siding projects, our leaf removal projects, our asphalt and concrete projects, etc. I have also re-organized and prepared specifications for our labor/employee relationships to comply more fully with current labor laws and, of course, prudent business practices.

Additionally over the past two months, I have been coordinating various maintenance activities that have included tree abatement and safety pruning, deck and stair repair and replacement, exterior building re-painting, gutter and downspout repair and replacement, asphalt repair and re-surfacing, pressuring washing and re-pointing our masonry fence, repainting our pathway light standards, garage passageway doors, and replacement of fatigued exterior building siding. I have been striving to globally deploy improvement projects throughout all four corners of our site, and I hope these repairs and improvements provide each us with direct and indirect benefits, insofar as we are all owners of the common elements in our community.

Other things that have occurred over the past sixty days include working with the board to develop policies and procedures that seek fairness, are durable, and are enforceable. For example, the Board has recently reached consensus on a satellite dish policy that serves the best interests of our community, yet provides opportunity for homeowners who may choose this form of telecommunications. I have also facilitated the Board in achieving consensus to re-draft the lease agreement and develop assignment procedures to re-let 87 Westbrook Way, the community’s jointly owned premises and formerly known as the Manager’s Apartment. I have assisted the Board in managing productive, respectful, and civil business meetings. And last, I have been working with volunteers serving in ad hoc committees to review the budget and reserve funds and prepare recommendations for the Board to review, consider, and possibly implement changes that will make the budget more understandable and explainable

In the upcoming months, I will be pursuing four topics to propose to the Board. First, I plan to propose new formats for conducting business meetings, collect homeowner input through townhall-style meetings, and hold policy hearings when rules need to be changed or updated. Second, I plan to propose to Board to consider forming ad hoc committees to review the CC&Rs and By-Laws for possible updating, work on expanding the Architectural Committee, create a committee to document the historical record of the community, and work with a budget planning committee for the 2010 Fiscal Year. Third, I plan to discuss with the Board the need to have a certified audit of our financial standing and business practices. And fourth, I plan to discuss strategies to increase and maximize the value of our reserve fund earnings.

I want to thank all of those in our community who have been patient with me as I serve the community’s interest. I feel like the relief pitcher coming in at the bottom of the 7th inning, and I love the challenge. I have learned a great deal from all of our residents. I hope, too, that I have been influential in professionalizing our association over the past sixty days, and I want to repeat my appreciation to all those who have met with me and shared their concerns and advice. I also want to use this report commend the work and effort that was applied to the Reserve Study of 2008. This document is a great benchmark for maintaining our common facilities, and to plot our future course.

I believe that our community is physically in good condition, has been well managed, and is a solid financial investment. I appreciate this opportunity to be one in a long line of stewards serving for our community’s success.


[Phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and street addresses have been removed for privacy reasons.]