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PONDEROSA COMMUNITY CLUB INC.
BOARD MEETING MINUTES
APRIL 9, 2005
Meeting Called to Order: President
John Fulmer called the meeting to order at 8:10 a.m. Board Members
present were John Fulmer, Jim Harrison, Bill Allison, Roy Daggett
and Sharyl Nelson. The Minutes were read and accepted.
President’s Report: John reported he
has been unable to contact the towing company due to snow and
then they were on vacation. He will contact them. Arne contacted
him to tell him the Forestry Project is done for now as we have
run out of money and Firewood is available. Report accepted.
Vice President’s Report: No. 1 thing
is the “Great Reader Board”. Every time he comes
up he reads the Board and he can see what is happening. Thanks
go to John for bringing that over and everybody appreciates it.
Went to Court House and took off 3 liens and put 2 on. Thanks
to Bill and Sharyl for getting after these people to pay their
dues. Regarding Mosquito Spraying, Jim would like to get someone
who lives here to report to the Board when the mosquitoes get
bad. Diane Johansen volunteers to call Jim after she gets complaints
about mosquitoes. A copy of the original CC & R’s were
sent to the Needler so the membership would have a copy for their
info and then we will do a hand count at the Annual Meeting to
see if the majority present would want us to continue to pursue
getting all of the Ponderosa covered by CC & R’s. The
County approved Carol Webb’s application for a home business.
Regulating weekend rentals did not pass the County but they reserved
the right to reopen this again in the future. Report accepted.
Director of Operation’s Report: Sharyl
just sent out letters to homeowners on Riata and Spur to tell
them what is going to happen and when. We purchased 100 extra
feet of culvert pipe that will be stored up at the water tower.
We will need it and we got a pretty good price. If homeowners
want to put in culvert pipe we will have it. They will pay for
the pipe and we will furnish the labor. We have taken the water
improvement project as far as we can go now. Roy suggested that
we take our engineering costs and submit them to our state loan
and see how long it takes us to get the money. We need to know
the turn around time for when we hire contractors to do the work.
There is quite a bit to do around the Ponderosa. He went around
with Paul and looked at some of Paul’s concerns. Snowplowing
was one as there are people encroaching on Ponderosa roads by
making parking spots, which would make it practically impossible
to snowplow. The Roads Committee is working on putting together
a budget for things they would like to do next year. They would
like to oil the parking lot in front of the Clubhouse. Paul has
asked for a dumpster to clean up around the shed and caretakers
house. He is going to start hauling off some stuff and cleaning
up. There is some damage to the sand shed and he has ordered
some panels to fix it. This week there is supposed a collection
of hazardous waste material and hopefully Paul can get that cleaned
up. There is a lot of old old pool chemicals etc. There are a
lot of things going on and we would like to see more people attend
the Roads Committee meetings. They are the 1 st Sat. of the month
at 10:00 a.m. in the office. We are putting up gates underneath
the power line to keep people from riding thru. Bonneville Power
is paying for them and we are putting them up. Everything seems
to be going along pretty good. He has been very busy and he believes
in getting things down now and not let things fester and cause
problems later. We have a bunch of fencing by the shed that was
around the pool and I want to get rid of it. The Board approved
letting Diane Johansen remove the fencing by the shed. Roy made
a motion that we rent a dumpster to do the clean up. It was passed.
Paul will be purchasing a new ladder for the Clubhouse. The burn
pile will not happen this year and the Ponderosa got permission
to burn it’s waste in a 10 by 10 on a per item basis. The
apparent low bidder for the Shetland Rd. project is Leavenworth
Electric and it is $6600 to realign Shetland. They have been
given the job and away they go. Mary Bunney brought up the fact
that we need to get a volunteer group to pick up cans along Primitive
Park it is bad again. We should have a “Litter Pick-Up
Day”. Report accepted.
Treasurer’s Report: Bill gave the financial
report for the month. We do not have printed reports today as
we had a computer breakdown and we will have them later in the
month. He continues to pursue collecting dues. Thanks to Bill
for his efforts. Report accepted.
Secretary’s Report: Sharyl received a
letter from Jack Bartleson that he wanted read at the meeting
and included in the minutes.
“Dear Chairman Fulmer and Board Members.
As you may recall, at several Board meetings I have inquired
about the Ombuds Report, which is never included in the regular
business of the meeting. On each occasion, Chairman Fulmer has
smiled and rather smugly stated that there is no report as we
have no problems for the Ombuds to pursue. Since the Ombuds doesn’t
regularly attend the Board meetings and apparently doesn’t
submit reports, this view is left, in my mind, unconfirmed. I
am a little surprised since in the not too distant past the Ombuds
was very active. Reasons for this change could be that the membership
is essentially unaware of the existence of an Ombuds and/or have
little confidence that this function could serve to investigate
and resolve their concerns.
Regardless, I would like to suggest for the Board’s consideration
a task that might be pursued by the Ombuds. There are a few properties
within the Ponderosa that exhibit the character of the Appalachians
in the late 19 th and early 20 th Century. Certainly these properties
detract from the overall character of this Community, impede
sales, and must be a cause of frustration for the neighboring
lots. I have heard comments from outsiders that the Ponderosa
is to be avoided because residents are allowed to do anything
they choose with their property.
You might ask “Why then have we not heard from the neighbors”.
I would suggest that this might be the point of contact for the
Ombuds. Perhaps if the Board understood, through the Ombuds,
the view of the neighbors, a decision to take action or not would
be forthcoming. My guess is that they are concerned about retaliation
and/or that the Board would not be supportive.
If you are in doubt about the problem take a stroll up Palomino,
Appaloosa, Spur St. or upper Bridle. Then drive around and see
whether there are other pockets that are similar. If you find
that my concern is not supported, then you can write it off to “one
of those disgruntled Ex Board members up to some mischief.
Sincerely,
Jack Bartleson.”
John commented that this is what we hope to do with getting
the CC&R’s reinstated and then we can take some action.
What does Jack suggest – Maybe the Ombuds could get a petition
together and contact the property owner and let them know the
conditions are onerous and see what the owners do. If the property
owner says mind your own business and we would see if it would
be legitimate to go to the county on the basis of the zoning.
It maybe against the zoning codes. We might need to consult with
an attorney to see what we can do.
We need to have our Ombudsman, Bobbie Olson, give the Board
a report each month. We need to give her this concern with the
junky properties and see what she can do with it. Another suggestion
was to contact the Sheriff’s Dept. and see how many calls
they have gotten regarding a certain property and also the Health
Dept.
We had put money in the budget to hire an office assistant.
I was looking for someone to fill the position and received a
comment that we should have a job description first. We also
need to check out liability insurance and accounting. I am in
the middle of getting the ballot out and it should go out next
week. We are going to do a By-law change to make the time of
Board meetings to be decided each year by the incoming Board.
I have a pro statement but do not have anyone willing to do a
con statement. I am asking for a volunteer and if no one steps
forward we may not have a con statement. Report accepted.
Committee Reports: None
New Business: A homeowner on Riata has not been able to get
a building permit unless they have an easement on Ponderosa’s
greenbelt. Riata is not a roadway established with the County.
Del Keifer wants to stake the area and then the Roads Committee
will review it. He said when the road was built in 1988 it should
have been dedicated then and it wasn’t. A motion was made
to give Roy the authority to ok the easement once the Roads Committee
has reviewed it without going thru the Board again to help speed
it up.
Diane Johansen would like to start a new activity, “ Sponsor
a Road” for families to help keep our roads cleaned up.
There is so much litter. A motion was made to bring this up at
the Annual Meeting and see if we could get people interested.
We could have a sign-up sheet. Diane will be put on the Agenda
for 5 min. Gina Wilkins will make signs to say litter patrol
for safety.
Respectfully submitted,
Sharyl Nelson, Secretary
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Leavenworth, WA 98826