Notes from the Deep Harbour Master Association Meeting of January 11. 2014

Blog readers,

Here’s a summary of the Deep Harbour Master Association(DHMA) Board meeting held on January 11, 2014.  These are my highlight notes, not official minutes.The notes may not include all issues discussed and are only presented to keep blog readers informed.

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The meeting was staged at the Women’s Club on High Street in Cambridge.

50 plus people attended. Wow! The head count will be in the minutes.

Miscellany
The Master Board majority will remain with Beazer until the end of 2014 when their status will convert from Class B to Class A.
This reduces their votes from 3 per unit to one per unit. Current counts: 169 completed; 97 planned.

2014 Budget
The big news was the absence of the Beazer representative.
She resides near Baltimore and was fogged-in. She felt that it was too dangerous to drive.
Unfortunately her electronically transmitted proxy did not arrive in time.
Given the lack of a quorum, the budget could not be passed.
A meeting date of February 22 was agreed upon to “get-er-done.”

The plan is to follow the 2013 budget for 2014 which means there will be no increase to the master dues.

Dan stated that the dues will continue at $88. In theory, the dues should be elevated to an estimated $96.

Previous meeting Minutes

-Power washing of benches, walkways.

-Personal codes for gate is now the established policy... seems to be working

-Entrance Gate.... gates continue to be a nuisance. In short, frequent use wears on them. We will eventually need to upgrade the motor-actuators in the future.

-Landscaping...irrigation for Cedar St and Cattail Cove entrances are under consideration. The question of tree mulching and other issues that bring in to question the professional qualifications of our landscaping services.

-A new recycling dumpster was considered.. no action on this to date.

-Vegetable gardens have been removed behind Town House 5.

Management report

-Master was approximately $2000 under budget. The surplus will be placed in the contingency fund for 2014.

-Pool...A water supply pipe froze and burst in the Clubhouse. Water flow exceeded the floor drain capacity. Water was seen flowing out the windows! At a depth of 12-18 inches drywall will need to be partially replaced. This should never have happened as the interior room temperature was set at 65 degrees. (The heat in the Pool House was not affected by the Recent Delmarva Power snafu.)

The water pipes run above the ceiling. Some pipes are above the ceiling insulation and therefore in unheated space. Contractors have been enlisted to make repairs. 

-Gate repairs on Cedar St Exit completed.  (Exit gate was not opening.)

-Electronic Notifications:  Dan will be mailing an electronic consent forms for the owners to complete. Email attachments of Master Board notices will be sent to replace regular paper mail.  This is a voluntary program primarily to speed communication and reduce costs. 

Old Business

Reserve Study

The final reserve study has not yet been completed and submitted to us by Becht Engineering.

Dan will be expediting this. We understood that Becht only needed to update their draft.

Their engineer said on December 9 that it would only take a few weeks.

This is needed to develop future budgets and to determine the obligations of Beazer. 

Budget for 2014

See above

Responsibility of Snow Plowing and Landscaping.

-No map is available yet that defines that perimeter of responsibility of the Master Board verses the Sub-Associations. This issue is still unresolved. At this time the subs will not be billed for snow removal. 

New Business

-Grading of open lots...some of the open lots are irregular, bumps, pot holes. fixing? need estimate,

-Empty lots cannot be graded for temporary parking, etc.

-Marshall has been accepted for landscaping and snow plowing.

-Meeting schedule: Quarterly on Second Saturday of April, July, October,

-The board will tentatively meet every other month to work on ongoing issues relating to the reserve and transition studies. These will be open meetings.

(I’ll published these dates after I receive the minutes.)

Open Forum

-Owners suggested that we engage horticultural services perhaps from the State to assist in tree selection and sustainable landscaping.

-Hurricane shelter for boats.. From the discussion, the board agreed to draft a policy to allow owners to temporally trailer their boats within Deep Harbour during severe storms. Issues to be considered are boater owner liability insurance, size of vessel, means of storage, duration, number of vessels on site, etc..(subject to owners vote)

-Pool Hours for 2014.... From the discussion, it was agreed that the pool should be open from 11 AM until 7 PM s all summer.  Late openings in August will be eliminated. The pool will be open every day from May 24 until September 7.

-Parking Violations... A vehicles continually park in the no parking zone on Seaway Drive. They have “legal” spaces available but frequently ignore the signage. The Town House sub may be responsible to correct the problem. No direct action has been planned.

-Commercial Vehicles... It was noted that a WBOC vehicle parks on the site.  This appears to be a violation. Dan H will investigate and talk to the owner. The vehicle is a passenger car. Is this a commercial vehicle?

-Pipes on open lots.... Beazer will be asked if the soil pipes that extend 12-18 inches above grade can be cut to ground level to accommodate landscaping, i.e., grass cutting.

Meeting adjourned.

Next meeting: Saturday, February 22, 2014. Time and location to be determined

Respectfully Submitted,

George B

900 Marshy Cove DHMA representative.

Send your comments, opinions, and facts to mc900@comcast.net