Leewood Homeowners Association

May 13, 2003 Board Meeting Minutes

8:00 PM – 9:30 PM, Phillips School

Attendees:

Ron Filadelfo, President
Anne Esquivel, Secretary
Lynn Whalen, Special Projects
Al Sanford, Grounds and Maintenance
Judy Currier, Website
Leona Taylor, Homeowner Accounts

Open Forum

AAA didn’t pick up recycling week of 5/5/03

• Judy Currier called them and they said they would pick it up the next day (5/9/03), which they did.
• Judy recommended the Board write AAA a letter letting them know they’re in breach of contract, and that service should improve, or we’ll find a new contractor.
• Ron is going to write a letter to AAA.
• Al will forward the AAA contract to Ron.

Painting lane lines at the Bradwood St./Braddock Rd. entrance

• Anne Esquivel asked what the outcome of this issue was when the Board looked into it in the past.
• Judy Currier said that when she looked into it as President, she did it through Sharon Bulova's office. At that time, VDOT was questioning whether Bradwood St. was wide enough to paint a left turn lane, a right turn lane, and an incoming lane (from Braddock Rd. onto Bradwood St.). She didn't know the final outcome as our Supervisor was switched.
• Suggestion was made that Anne call V-DOT about painting the lanes at Braddock Rd., or to call Sharon Bulova's office to determine the outcome of the previous investigation.

Approval of Minutes from previous meeting

One edit on the locking mailbox issue was requested. Once this was made, minutes were approved.

President’s Report

Homeowner correspondence

• Ron responded to homeowner regarding the inquiry on the locking mailboxes.
• Ron responded to the homeowner who had concerns about the articles in our newsletter. Ron also conveyed board's wishes to newsletter editor to mark opinion articles with the word "opinion". Ron asked contributors to tone down their opinion articles.
• Ron had an unpleasant exchange with one of the residents on Easter Sunday regarding someone being parked in the resident’s parking space. Ron asked that we communicate to our owners whenever possible that they are empowered to resolve issues themselves, and encourage them to do so.
• Ron received a complaint about the performance of our lawn contractor and passed the letter to Al Sanford to follow up on.
• Ron will review recommendations of parking committee and issue a final board decision. He did receive Tony’s addition input.
• Ron completed account status verification for one owner.
• Ron provided the Board’s position to our attorney on an outstanding ARC court case. Ron is still awaiting the outcome. The Board’s position was that we were willing to waive a $900 fine if the owner completes the needed improvements by the end of May. The owner has fixed two of four violations. Leona will ask the attorney about the outcome of the court hearing, if she talks to him over the next month.

Reserve study

• Ron Filadelfo and Judy Currier will provide needed changes to our reserve study contractor. Ron recommend the Board agree to accept the study, subject to changes he and Judy recommend.
• The changes were minor, the most significant being the recalculation of the reserve amounts for street repairs on Leestone St.

Sidewalk repair

• Sidewalk repair is to begin late April / early May.
• Ron will coordinate with our contractor to perform one final walkthrough in the community before the work starts.
• Judy Currier, Al Stanford, and Ron Filadelfo will to talk with our contractor (Brian Pastoric) about installing drains in the sidewalk for the drainage problem on Leestone Ct.

Other

• Ron informed Betty Lillard of new Board roster for inclusion the POAA packets.
• Ron forwarded the February Board minutes to Anne Esquivel.
• Ron recommended we renew our subscription to Mason District Council of Civic Associations ($15) and the Board unanimously agreed.
• Ron identified two booklets on occupancy limits available from Penny Gross’ offices for Chris to review as he investigates our occupancy issues.

Review of Action Items

• Ron reminded all Board members to give Chris Taylor our comments on the oil-leak notice he drafted.

Officer reports

• Vice President – no report (absent)
• Treasurer – no report (absent)
• Secretary – no report

Special Projects

• The Association was given a $950 credit for our taxes this year, because it appeared we paid an additional amount last year. However, Lynn is going to figure out when the $950 was supposed to be credited (what quarter of last year); She thinks our coupon is filled out incorrectly.
• Lynn is going to look into what to do with the Association’s Certificate of Deposit that matures on 5/25. Our interest rate with E-Trade has fallen, so she is going to investigate other institutions that may offer a better rate. This CD is some of our reserve money.
• Ron made a motion to authorize Lynn to put money back in a CD for whatever time is appropriate within out ladder for a rate Lynn feels is appropriate. Anne Esquivel seconded Ron’s motion. The motion passed unanimously.
• Lynn will talk with Ron before she locks the money into another CD.
• Lynn will get a copy of the "prudent investor" guidelines off the internet to help guide her decision.
• Lynn needs to meet with Leona about the financial audit from ’01 to reconcile Leona and Mohammed’s account discrepancy.

Committee Reports

• 20 accounts overdue, 2 at our attorney for collection;
• 1 "in limbo" – Resident says she paid the attorney and the attorney says he didn’t get the payment. Leona is trying to resolve the situation.

Landscaping

• Bonnie Taylor agreed to help with landscaping contractors. The contractor supervisor will touch base with her every time they come out to work, to understand any resident complaints, so they can be rectified.
• Bonnie will keep a running list of complaints and what we’re expecting our contractor to do to resolve them, to ensure they’re getting done.
• Al is also trying to get the supervisor to talk directly with residents who have complaints.

Fences

• Every panel of old fence in the community has been inspected, as well as recent fence work that has issues. Lee Fence will not come back and fix these problems.
• Al recommended replacement of the old fence (in lieu of repairing it), and fix the new fence sections that have issues. The Board agreed and directed Al to obtain three estimates for replacement.
• Al recommended we replace the fence that parallels Leebrad St. now, and replace the fence on the Southern side of the community in a year or two. The Board agreed.
• This is reserve expenditure, so we have the money available to perform this work.
• Al will give names of residents who have expressed interest in the past in getting a "group rate" for fence work at their residences to Leona for follow up with the residents to gauge their interest.

Parking Space Painting

• Anne Esquivel and Al assessed the whole community.
• Leebrad St. and Lower Leestone were in the worst shape, but some spaces on ALL streets needed work.
• Anne and Al recommended painting the whole community all at once. This makes the effort easier to manage and easier to maintain in future years. The Board agreed.
• Ron made a motion to authorize Anne and Al to obtain estimates for this work and Lynn seconded the motion.
• Once we have estimates, we will need to assess this on the impact on the reserve study.
• Al will give Anne the names of the residents who want their reserved spaces moved, and the names of contractors he has identified. Anne will call the contractors to obtain estimates.
• Once estimates are obtained, Anne will need to call Lynn with estimates so Lynn can asses the impact of the estimates on the decision to roll over the CD, since the money will need to come out of our reserve funds.

Plantings

• Al asked Anne Esquivel if she would take the lead on this effort. Anne will be putting together a committee of residents to review proposals and make recommendations to the Board.
• Al and Leona have agreed to be on the committee.
• Al is viewing this project as a long term project, i.e. it may not get done over the next few months.
• The money for this work is in our money market account and includes the rollover amount from last year in addition to the amount we have budgeted for this year.
• Ron made a motion to allow expenditures for obtaining proposals from contractors (most require a fee to put a proposal together). Lynn seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

• The Leewood website has been "Ungoogled" now, i.e. our website can not be identified on Google.com by entering keywords. Lynn thought perhaps Google now requires a fee, and said she would ask her website person at work.
• Judy recommended we register our site through Hostway, which is free, to get our name registered on many search engine websites.
• Judy also recommended we supply a link on Fairfax County’s website, which includes a list of communities in Fairfax County.
• The Board agreed to the recommendations above.

Other Business

Leewood Brochure - Judy Currier

• Judy has developed an informational brochure on Leewood that residents can give their realtors or use themselves as marketing material when selling their homes. While outlining the advantages to living in Leewood, it also informs prospective residents about our parking challenges.
• Judy would like to get input from realtors. Lynn will give this to a friend of hers who is a realtor for input. Anne Esquivel will also try to get input from Leslie Reisinger.
• The cost for printing them is $1.30 a page/per brochure + a small amount for folding. Lynn recommended additional printing so the brochure could be distributed to all homeowners.
• The motion was moved and seconded for spending the $1300 to have the brochures printed.
• Lynn has a new e-mail address – lynn.whalen@nsffcu.org.

Meeting Adjourned 9:24