Leewood Homeowners Association

July 15, 2003 Board Meeting

Minutes

Attendees:

Ron Filadelfo, President
Chris Taylor, Vice President
Mohammed Umar, Treasurer
Anne Esquivel, Secretary
Lynn Whalen, Special Projects
Al Sanford, Grounds and Maintenance
Judy Currier, Website
Pam Stover, Architectural Review

Open Forum

Al continues to receive Quorum and Common Ground magazines, and brought the Board’s attention to an article on changes to Virginia’s Homeowner’s Association bylaws. Many people at the meeting are also getting the magazines. It was agreed Board members need to be scanning these magazines for articles the Board may be able to use for guidance on issues they are faced with in the future.

** Ron is going to give Judy his copies of the magazines, so she can review them for applicable articles.

** Other Board members agreed to scan the magazines they get and cut out applicable articles.

Al requested a reorder of the plastic bags used for distributions of materials throughout the community.

** Al will pass the ordering information to Judy, who will then reorder the larger size bags.

Judy mentioned a neighbor who pruned his bushes and deposited the debris in the common area. She recommended someone from the Board call him to rectify the situation.

** Ron will call him after Judy forwards his contact information.

Approval of Minutes from previous meeting

May minutes were approved and will be forwarded to Judy for inclusion on the website.

** Anne is finished with the June minutes, but still needs to distribute them to the rest of the Board for review. She will forward them along with the July minutes for approval at the August meeting.

President’s Report

Homeowner correspondence

Ron answered a letter from a homeowner who complained about a disrespectful comment at the June meeting. Ron advised the Board members to be careful about what is said at these meetings.

One of our residents has had issues with our grounds contractor when she was trying to have work done by them on her front yard. Al has talked with the owner of the company and they will perform the work when they come out again to do work for the Association on the common areas. One of the issues was a car being parked in front of the resident’s yard, preventing the crew from being able to perform the work.

** Al is going to coordinate the date for the work being done, and tell the resident to let her neighbors know. Anne, Ron, and Lynn have offered to park cars in the non-reserved spaces the day before the work is going to be done and move them when the crew arrives.

Reserve study

The reserve study is finished, and Ron has a copy of the final report if anyone wants to see it.

Sidewalk repair

Most of this work has been completed. The remaining work is sod replacement along the side of some of the sections that were replaced.

** Ron will contact Brian Pastoric about when this will be finished.

Granberry Estates

Judy wrote a letter on behalf of the Board and sent it to Supervisor Penny Gross, Brickner, VDOT, and Russ Rosenberg (Madison Homes) regarding the Board’s position against making Bradwood St. a thru street for overflow traffic in Granberry Estates.

Ron received a reply from Penny Gross thanking him for the letter, but not mentioning any action that is going to be taken.

** Judy agreed to follow up on this issue further to see if any definitive action had been taken, and e-mail the Board with the outcome of her investigation.

Other

Ron spoke with the General Manager of AAA (trash contractor) about improving their level of service. The owner mentioned the company is having some labor problems and has lost a large fraction of their workforce. He promised to make an effort to improve the service to Leewood despite these problems.

Ron received an inquiry from a resident about the Association’s insurance policy for refinancing purposes. Ron gave him the name of our contact at Baxter Griffiths, and the contact told our resident he had never heard of Leewood.

** Lynn is going to follow up with our contact at Baxter Griffiths to rectify the situation.

Ron wrote a President’s report for the newsletter.

Ron reported that one of our new residents has expressed an interest in volunteering with the Association.

** Ron will contact him to engage him in the Association activities.

Vice President’s Report

Stop signs are installed. Thanks to Al Sanford for helping with this work.

Judy raised an issue about one of the stop signs causing a possible safety hazard at Leebrad St. and Leestone Ct. Her concern is that we’re only stopping two streams of traffic at this intersection, and not stopping the people coming in from Backlick Rd. onto Leebrad. She voiced concern that residents may think that all traffic has to stop, as is common at most three and four way intersections, and may turn left onto Leebrad from Leestone when oncoming traffic from Backlick doesn’t have to stop, causing accidents.

** The Board agreed to leave the signs the way they are for another month and try to observe the intersection to see if this issue is prevalent. We will revisit at next month’s meeting.

Chris said he would work on the fluid leaks notice for review at next month’s meeting.

Chris has agreed to take over the newsletter for the next few months, and distributed an example of the layout. The Board liked the new layout and thanked Chris for volunteering to take on the newsletter.

** Ron will write a note to Larry Westberg thanking him for his efforts with the newsletter.

Treasurer’s Report

Ron said the Association received a bill from our lawyer for approximately $500. He followed up with our lawyer to ensure it was paid. He acknowledged it had been paid.

** Ron is going to follow up with the lawyer on another bill we received for approximately $700, to see if the $500 we have already paid was part of that bill.

Lynn reported that Mohammed Umar told her the 2001 audit was complete. However, Leona Taylor still needs to review and approve it.

Ron inquired if the Association was in any legal jeopardy as a result of not having the audits completed for past years. Lynn said we were not exposed legally, but she is concerned that the POAA packets have copies of the ’00 audit, since that is our latest completed audit.

** Lynn is going to follow up with Leona about the status of the audit, and if Leona agrees it’s ready to be closed, Lynn will ask Leona to send the audit back to the auditor and have the auditor send the final audit back to the Association’s post office box for filing.

** Lynn will give Al a copy of the completed audit to pass on to Betty Lillard for inclusion in future POAA packets.

Lynn expressed concern over the fact no income has been posted for the Association for 2002 or 2003. She said Mohammed said he gave the 2002 original income statements to the auditor and hasn’t gotten them back, and therefore cannot post the income. He also said he’s missing 2003 statements, so he doesn’t know the amount of income to post. Lynn thought the statements had come through the mail to the Association.

** Ron, Lynn, and Mohammed will meet over the next week to discuss responsibilities as they relate to the Treasurer position on the Board.

Secretary’s Report

Anne raised an issue regarding the Association files. All the files for the Association are currently in Al’s basement and should be moved, since Al is no longer the Secretary. However, Anne does not have the space in her house for all the files. Anne asked if we have any guidelines for what the Association must have on file and what we can throw out, so we can go through the current files and purge unnecessary files.

** Lynn is going to research record retention policies.

** Lynn, Ron, and Anne will go through the current files and try to make reasonable decisions about what to keep and what to purge, if we can’t identify standards by the next meeting.

Special Projects

The Springfield post office locked our post office box and said the bill wasn’t paid. Mohammed gave Lynn the receipt, proving we had paid. Lynn followed up at the post office and they gave Lynn the mail. They also realized there was an issue with the key Lynn was using.

** The problem has now been resolved, and Lynn is picking up three brand new keys for the box next week.

Committee Reports

Homeowner Accounts

Nothing to report for July, since assessments haven’t been posted yet, due to the issue with our post office box (see above).

Grounds and Maintenance

Fence work – Hercules fence will replace the fence behind Leebrad St. and mend the fence behind Bradwood Ct. on July 16^th.

Tree removal – Al distributed a proposal to the Board from our grounds contractor for $1500 for tree removal work that needs to be done around the community. The Board unanimously agreed to go ahead with the work.

Al asked the Board if they knew of any other tree work we needed done and said if the work was small, we could probably have it done with little or no increase in price. No other work was mentioned.

Al mentioned some trees in the neighborhood have brown scorch disease, for which there is no treatment. These trees will eventually die, and Al has asked our grounds contractor for advice on what to do with these trees.

Street Sweeping – Al sited Upper Leestone as a problem area for sand left over from this past winter’s snows. He asked our grounds contractor for an estimate on street sweeping. The estimate for the whole neighborhood is $600. The Board unanimously agreed if sweeping Upper Leestone was $200 or less, our contractor can go ahead and sweep it. The Board felt the rest of the community didn’t need the sweeping.

Drainage – Al has agreed, with Judy’s help, to do more leveling work on the drainage issue on Leestone St. He and Judy are going to take pictures of the area, and Al is going to ask for advice from engineers at work on the best way to resolve the issue.

Plantings – Anne put an invitation in last month’s newsletter, soliciting volunteers to be involved with this committee. Anne Delehanty has volunteered, and Ron volunteered at the meeting. Anne is going to wait another week or two to see if we get other volunteers, and then plan the first committee meeting.

Pam Stover mentioned an area at the intersection of the Braddock Mews service road and Leebrad St. that seemed to be too "open", possibly inviting loiterers into the neighborhood. She asked if we should plant something there to prevent this problem, possibly a hedge to close the area. This had been suggested, but the resident at 7002 Leebrad is concerned about people being able to hide in a large hedge.

** The plantings committee will consider other options for this area, when they meet.

Parking Space Painting – Anne has contacted four vendors and is in the process of getting written estimates from all of them.

** Anne will present the proposals for consideration by the Board at next month’s meeting, if she has them.

Architectural Control

Pam Stover reported the spring walk-thru is done. Overall, Pam said the neighborhood looks good. She identified a couple of major problems on Bradwood Ct., but the other violations are small in nature and should be easily resolved. Approximately 60 houses will be receiving notices.

** Leona has agreed to draft letters to those residents in violation.

** Pam is going to send a letters to residents at 7001 Leebrad St. and 7022 Bradwood Ct., reminding them to put there trash out after dark on the day before the trash is collected.

Tony McSorley asked about a home with a satellite dish on the fence that is in plain view and whether this constituted a violation. Judy and Pam said they were not sure if the Association had any recourse in regard to satellite dishes, since a law had been passed that protected people’s rights to have them.

** Judy is going do some investigation into the Association’s rights regarding satellite dishes.

** Lynn is going to research different types of dishes, to understand why some houses may have multiple dishes.

Anne asked about pending court cases for ARC violations.

The resident on Upper Leestone has finished all the work he was asked to do, except for cutting back his bushes. Since the Board agreed to wave the $900 lien for work not completed on time as long as it was done by 5/31 of this year, and the bushes still aren’t cut, the Board agreed to reassess the lien.

** Pam is going to contact Leona about the situation to get an update, and then reassess the lien if it has not already been done.

One of the Bradgen Ct. residents has been in violation for quite some time and is ignoring the violation notices. Pam has filed the $900 lien.

** Pam is going to call Fairfax County to see if they will come out and inspect the property.

Website

Judy has received calls from residents asking for the name of the Association’s insurance agency for refinancing purposes. She has posted the contact information on the website for access by residents.

Judy distributed the marketing brochure she had printed for Leewood residents to have on hand should they decide to sell their home.

** Lynn agreed to write a letter to go with the brochure and Chris, Lynn, Anne, and Ron agreed to help distribute them throughout the community.

** Judy is going to contact the real estate agent listed on a house on Leebrad and give him a copy of the brochure.

Other

The southern boundary of the property also has a drainage issue. The Association couldn’t get permission from adjoining property owner to fix drainage issue in the past, which was partially on her property. Judy suggested we take it up with the county, or ask the expert we’re going to contact about our Leestone Ct. drainage issue if they can do anything about it. Judy agreed to call the county to see if they could do something about it. Anne will review the correspondence file from past years, to see if we have any correspondence on the issue.

Adjourned 9:45