Minutes from the Oak Terrace Improvement Association Meeting-October 2, 2013

The meeting was called to order at 7:07pm by President Greg Denny.  Board members present were William Yarbrough, Greg Denny, Dina Lepczynski, Rich Rieck, Jim Loring, Al Johnsonbaugh, Dan Griffin, Ramona Triebold, and Colleen Hodges.  Jody Matza was the only member at large present.

Dina Lepczynski made a motion to dispense with the reading of the minutes.  Jim Loring seconded the motion.  The motion passed with one nay vote cast by Dan Griffin.

Dan Griffin delivered the treasurer’s report stating that there is now $20,756.47 total in all accounts.  A mistake was found in the report that Dan will correct.  Jim Loring made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report with the correction.  Dina seconded the motion.  The motion passed.

The election of board members will be held at the Annual General Meeting to be held November 6, 2013.  Present board members ending their terms are Frank Cirrincione, Dan Griffin, Colleen Hodges, Jim Loring, and Rich Rieck.  Tracy Kleinschmidt will be added to the ballot.  The ballot will go out with a notice of the meeting at least 10 days before the event.  At present, we do not have the minutes of the Annual General Meeting from 2012.  Emanuel Flores will be contacted in an effort to recover those documents.  Gregg Zink will resign from the board due to his move out of the subdivision leaving one year on his term.  The person elected with the lowest number of votes will be slotted to finish Gregg’s term.

Greg Denny received clarification from the attorney regarding the joining and separating of PINs in the subdivision.  The correspondence he received was as follows:

                Can an owner divide their lot at the Association?

There is nothing in the Declaration that prohibits it, however, if someone wants to divide their lot, they will have to obtain a new lot and PIN number.  In order to have the division of lots reflected in the Declaration, an amended plat of survey would have to be recorded against the property, which shows the newly divided lots.  The amended plat would have to be recorded against the property as an amendment to the Declaration, which would need to be approved by the Board president.  The new lot owner would be a member and would have one vote similar to any other lot owner.

The amendment would only be a few pages long-maybe 5-6 pages total.  The filing fees are $39 for the first four pages, $1.00 per page after, plus $1.00 per PIN and name referenced in the document.  The amendment would need to be recorded against all the properties at the association.

The costs to the association would be as follows:

Recording fees = $39 (first 4 pages) + $2 (2 additional pages) + $186 (assuming there are only 186 PINs and names referenced) = $227.

Some questions arose regarding this issue.  Who pays for this process?  Is the charge transferable to the owner?  Does the president of the OTIA have to approve or is it possible that other board members or the board as a whole can make the approval?  Is the cost and the process the same if lots are joined?  Greg will contact Julie for answers.

Dan brought up the issue of tree trimming and the removal of some trees in the subdivision.  He stated that he did an inspection of trees on the shared properties and determined several trees needed to be removed.  He obtained three bids for this job.  

The bids came in as follows:

                Arbor Care Solutions-    $6,338

                Clean Cut-                           $5,600

                Sawvell-                              $3,955

At Beach Park, the tree that recently split in a storm would be removed.  Lakeview Park needs some tree removal and pruning.  A willow tree needs to be removed at Hansen Park, but Greg will check to see if that project is included in the bid we accepted from ILM for maintenance of the wetland areas and the rain garden before we accept that portion of the bid .  After some discussion, Ramona made a motion to accept the bid from Sawvell using the remaining funds in the maintenance budget, approximately $1,000 for this purpose.  As some of the trees pose a danger to our property and residents, the rest of the payment will be made with money from reserve funds.  Rich Rieck seconded the motion. The motion passed.

Dina reported on her efforts to find three bookkeeping/accounting services to present to the board.  She collected bids from the following services:

                Frost, Ruttenberg, and Rothblatt                              one time fee of $1,200 and $250/month

                Williamson Management                                            no set up fee reported and $275/month

                Cantey and Associates                                                  set up fee of $600 and $300/month plus extras

The services provided varied by company.  The board asked Dina to verify several points with the companies so that a comparison could be made.  Jody Matza asked for an explanation as to why the board is pursuing the hiring of a management company.  Several reasons were given, including:

·         Number of hours needed to invoice, manage, generate reports, enter payments, etc.

·         We are all volunteers and do not have accounting experience.

·         It would provide greater accountability for the OTIA’s money.

·         It would provide protection for the board members and residents.

Dina has contracts from two of the companies and will request a contract from Williamson Management so that we can look them over at the budget meeting.  This expense would need to be budgeted in our annual budget.  This topic will be discussed at the Annual General Meeting.  Dina also reported that the cost of an audit could run as much as $4,500-$5,000.  Ramona suggested asking Williamson Management if they can recommend a less costly firm to perform an audit for us.

We set a budget meeting for Monday, October 14, 2013, 7:00pm, at Countryside Fire Station 1.  Colleen will arrange for use of the room.

Speakers that will be invited to address the membership at the general meeting will be:

                Diana O’Kelly-Lake County Board Member and Fremont Township Supervisor

                Bill Grinnell-Fremont Township Highway Commissioner

                Mike McNally-Countryside Fire Protection District

                Julie Jacobson-OTIA Attorney

Dan Griffin brought up the work being done at the corner of Elmwood and Maple by Lake County Public Works.  He feels that the new pump station is an eyesore and needs to be dealt with.  Greg Denny will speak to a representative to determine if there is any plan to beautify the area.  More discussion will follow.

Diamond Lake issues were again discussed.  It was suggested that the board review Chapter 5, Waters of Diamond Lake Rules and Regulations in the document, Ordinance Code Providing for the Regulations and Restrictions Governing the Use of the Park System of the Mundelein Park and Recreation District, available at www.mundeleinparks.org.  This will allow for a more productive discussion on the possibility of using MPRD to enforce rules on our portion of the lake.  Jim Loring made a motion to defer a vote on this issue until the next meeting.  Dina seconded.  The motion passed.

There being no further business, Dan Griffin made a motion to adjourn.  Dina Lepczynski seconded.  The motion passed and the meeting was adjourned at 9:21pm.

Respectfully submitted by Colleen Hodges, OTIA Secretary