Pacific Terrace Home Owners Association
Annual Meeting - Saturday, October 22, 2017
1. Call to order and roll call- The meeting was called to order at 10:00am at McMenamin’s Gearhart Hotel. With 34 homeowners represented, 13 in person and 21 by proxy, a quorum was met.
2. Proof of notice of meeting- Notice was given on October 3, 2017; no less than 10 days and no more than 50 as required by the Bylaws.
3. Adoption of meeting minutes from 10/22/16- The 2016 Annual Meeting Minutes were passed unanimously with no discussion with a motion from Michele Nelson and a second by Barbara Steele.
4. Annual Update- Vice President David Rosencrantz updated the homeowners on the current affairs of the association in David Waterbury’s absence.
a. The cable tv project was this year’s top priority. Working with GBTS throughout the year, all 4 condominium associations in Gearhart now have high definition television reception; a major accomplishment for all those involved. The majority of the Terraces original cable was used as planned, however more time/labor and other materials involved did push this project $10,000.00 over budget. Although, we were able to avoid a special assessment and recapture this deficit as other items came in under budget such as landscaping.
b. The painting on the back deck railings and walkways on the two story buildings as well as the concrete blocks on the middle/one level buildings have been completed.
C. The large pole street lights along 10th have been repaired with all new lights. Thank you to Paul Tice and his maintenance crew for managing this project. This will add another layer of security for the Terraces.
d. The well pump that failed during the hot summer months has been repaired. Thank you to Paul Tice and Board member Jim White; an expert in irrigation, for all their help with this unforeseen project. Some landscaping did suffer as a result of lack of water. Consequently, some has been replaced and other plants as the heather by the Terraces sign will be replanted this Spring.
David R. encouraged homeowners to let the board know if they come across any maintenance issues, to please call Paul Tice, General Manager of GBTS or any Board member. Our goal is to maintain the property to the best of our ability year round.
Paul Tice, GBTS General Manager reminded homeowners to check the age of their water heaters as they tend to fail after 10-15 years. There have been severe leaks in the past, and it is the home owner who is responsible for any and all damage due to failed water heaters. Paul also encouraged owners who have icemakers to turn off the water line to your refrigerator located under most kitchen sinks when leaving to avoid leaks.
As discussion pursued, David R. asked Paul Tice to obtain a high level quote from an electrician and plumber to install water shut off valves for all owners. This type of automatic water sensor detector could be very helpful in preventing future water leaks.
5. Landscaping Report- David Rosencrantz, Landscaping Chair addressed the broken well pump issue again, pointing out it will be assessed by an expert in this field before next Spring to help avoid further malfunctioning. We were lucky not to lose more plants with the resources on hand and thank you to Paul Tice for all his efforts in hand-watering to help keep the bulk of the landscaping alive. David thanked Board member Jim White for installing new sprinkler controllers with network communication, increasing the flow and direction of water throughout the property. More failed plants will be replanted this Spring. New bark dust will also be spread in the Spring.
A request was made to move the weekly mowing/blowing to Thursdays from Fridays in order to avoid all the noise over the weekend. Great suggestion; David will talk to the landscaper about moving our job to mid-week.
6. Review of Financial Status of the Association- Board Member Jim White spoke for Treasurer Mike Plymale who was absent. Jim first reviewed the Balance sheet for September 30, 2017 with estimates for October and year-end. Cash on hand is $61,000, with total assets $320,365.00. Liabilities/Equity is $320,365.00 which includes capital reserve cash with capital reserve fund at $236.00.00. This puts us in good standing with a decent amount of operating cash.
Major expenses for the year were: utilities $1,618.00 under budget, maintenance currently shows under budget of about $1,000.00 but with October’s numbers, it will be about $10,000.00 over budget primarily due to the HDTV project as mentioned above under point 4a. Landscaping is $5,154.00 under budget as is the Contingencies fund, of $1,375.00 under budget. Total year to date expenses $130,081.00 budgeted was $141,185.00 with a variance under budget of $11,420.00. Estimated net operating income for 2016-2017 is $3,640.00.
7. Review of proposed 2017-2018 Annual budget and Annual Replacement Reserve- Board member Jim White reviewed the 2017-2018 Proposed Budget in Mike Plymale’s absence which shows a total operating income of $158,106.00, identical to last year. The Replacement Reserve Assessment shows an increase of $11.00 per unit; bringing the total monthly assessment for residential units for 2017-2018 to $398.00. This is an overall increase of 2.8% over last year’s 2016-2017 monthly assessment of $387.00. Jim reviewed the purpose of the Replacement Reserve sighting future years projected with major projects; noting we are putting away a little bit every year to help cover major expenses over years to come. Board member Jay Nelson reiterated the reserve study helps to avoid major assessments such as what happened in years past when no reserve study existed and each homeowner was assessed $30,000.00-$40,000.00 to cover the replacement of new siding, decks, and railings.
The study is posted on-line for everyone to view. A review of how to log in and familiarize oneself with the Terraces website was also reviewed.
A motion was made to pass the 2017-2018 Proposed Budget by Barbara Steele. Owner Patrick Toulouse seconded the motion and it passed unanimously without any further discussion.
8. & 9. Identification of Outgoing Directors / Nomination and Election of Directors- David Rosencrantz solicited audience for nominations from the floor to join PT Board as a new Director. With no new nominations, a motion was made by Jeff Day and seconded by Barbara Steele to re-elect current Directors: Paul Campbell, Jay Nelson, and James White. With no discussion, the current Directors were elected to continue in their current positions on the Pacific Terrace Board of Directors.
10. New Business-
1. Wi-FI- David Rosencrantz addressed the inconsistency of our current Wi-Fi. This issue has been brought to the Boards attention by several different homeowners over the last several months. The bottom line is we need a more reliable and dependable Wi-Fi system, improving connectivity and speed. AirWave, our current Wi-Fi provider recommended in order to insure all 46 units have proper connectivity throughout, is to evenly distribute the wireless access points throughout the buildings. This would insure that all areas of all units would have access to adequate wireless signal; regardless of where they are or what type of device they are using (TV, Smartphone, iPad, etc). This would be the next best thing to actually having a dedicated network cable or fiber line to each device.
AirWave is recommending at their expense, to install cable modems with a secure set identifier (SSID) using our existing cable which is the same method as cable TV providers use. This would eliminate the current wireless connection. A total of 17 cable modems would be installed, 1 for every 2 units in the single story buildings and 1 for every 4 units in the 2 story buildings. They feel strongly that this would provide noticeable improvement. Once we see that it works, we would then reimburse AirWave at a one-time cost of $125.00 per owner.
Once we can insure that everyone has a solid and reliable connection, we will be able to better evaluate whether or not a fiber service is necessary. It will most likely be needed at some point, but that is not something that can be done on a trial basis, so having a reliable connection for everyone is really the most important.
Discussion pursued, and David R. will address the questions with Airwave, for instance what happens when a modem goes out and needs to be reset when sharing with another unit? Overall, the homeowners present were in favor of pursuing this new idea with AirWave.
2. Stainless Steel railings- A homeowner asked about our plans regarding removing the rust on the stainless steel railings/wiring. Board member Kari Anderton addressed this concern as she has been working on finding a reliable solution to this project. Research led to a simple home remedy of baking soda and lemon juice paste to be quite effective. The Board had previously discussed to hire/train GBTS maintenance to work on this project. Homeowner Mark, said he is in the marine business and would offer up his assistance as well. Kari thanked Mark for his willingness to get involved and looks forward to working with him on this project.
3. No Smoking- Several homeowners were concerned with the amount of cigarette smoking on the Terraces Property. Paul Tice added this has also been discussed at the Board level, and consequently a $250.00 fine as been added to all rental unit contracts if caught smoking in a non-smoking unit. A request was made from a homeowner to change to the language to drop the “if caught” and that a $250.00 fine will be charged for smoking in non-smoking units. Smoking may occur inside a smoking unit, but not on the front or back decks.
Discussion pursued about making the Terraces property totally non-smoking. A concern was expressed of being too extreme in our policies of do’s and don’ts that it was left to see how effective the new $250.00 fine is and re-evaluate at next year’s annual meeting.
4. Pets- A homeowner commented on unleashed pets and barking at early hours. Please respect others when it comes to managing your pets; using leashes as it is Oregon law. Discussion pursued regarding adding a dog park on the property and adding more signage. Some felt the beach, just a short walk away- is the ultimate dog park and managing a “dog park” is not something we want to take on.
11. Adjournment- The Board thanked those for attending and sharing their input; the meeting was adjourned at 11:35.
The Pacific Terrace Annual Meeting Minutes have been respectfully submitted by Kari Anderton, Board Secretary.