DAMMERON VALLEY LANDOWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC.
1137 Dammeron
Valley Drive East Telephone/Fax:
(435) 574-6397
PLEASE NOTE: THESE DRAFT MINUTES ARE NOT DUE FOR APPROVAL
BY THE MEMBERSHIP
UNTIL THE 2015 ANNUAL MEETING TO BE HELD MAY, 2015.
Draft: Annual Meeting Minutes – May 17, 2014
Board Members Attending: Jim
Johnson, Terry Taylor, Craig Meyocks, and Ken Mandell
Landowners: A quorum of those present at the meeting is
required to conduct business; 197 total ballots, including proxies, were
counted during the meeting. 99 votes constitutes a voting quorum.
WELCOME, PRAYER,
FLAG CEREMONY:
The meeting was called to order by President Jim
Johnson at 8:00 a.m. The prayer was
offered by Joseph Brazzeal, and the pledge of allegiance was led by Terry
Taylor
APPROVE AGENDA / 2014 ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES:
Terry Taylor MADE A MOTION that the agenda be
approved; SECONDED by Ken Mandell, and the motion carried. Terry Taylor MADE A MOTION that the 2013
annual meeting minutes be approved; SECONDED by Ken Mandell, and the motion
carried.
PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE, Jim Johnson:
President Jim Johnson indicated that the
formation of the Dammeron Valley Fire Special Service District during the
previous fiscal year was one of the most important issues accomplished. This change limited the liability of each and
every homeowner in the valley and enabled us to give the Fire Department the
capability to purchase the equipment needed now and in the future to protect us
and those in surrounding areas. We now
have two associations – the Dammeron Valley Landowners’ Association and the
Dammeron Valley Fire Special Service District.
Last year the annual dues for the DVLA was $300. This year the combined dues, if the DVLA
budget is passed during this meeting, will be $230. Overall, the dues could be
reduced by twenty-three percent, and the liability of the landowners by almost
one hundred percent. Many thanks to
previous board members – Bill King, Terry Taylor, Mac Thomson, Ken Mandell –
who were instrumental in putting this all together. Today we need to vote on
the budget. The board members try to
keep the annual dues as low as possible, but still maintain a reserve for such
items as attorney fees. When the
Association’s HOA attorney was contacted, it was his opinion that if the $60
budget did not pass today, the previous budget setting the annual dues at $300
would again be in effect. This is
something to consider when voting on the budget today. Mack Sorensen was introduced as the President
of the SSD. Several major issues will be
discussed during SSD meetings this coming year, and it was suggested that
landowners should attend those meetings if they wished to have future impact in
the community.
SECRETARY
/ TREASURER’S REPORT, Carol Clason:
One of the main issues handled by the Dammeron
Valley Landowners’ Association this past fiscal year was the transferring of
assets and the continued funding of the Dammeron Valley Fire Special Service
District by the Association. In June,
2013, a $35,277.53 payment was made to full pay the existing mortgage on the
fire house. Since $24,500 had been set
aside for monthly fire house payments in the past fiscal year’s budget, there were
sufficient monies to pay this loan off without disrupting the rest of the
budget.
During August, 2013, $435,658.84 in value
of assets was transferred by the DVLA to the SSD. Taking into consideration the total
accumulated depreciation of these assets of $265,868.00, the actual book value
remaining on all the assets transferred was $169,790.84. This is the figure shown on our books as
“granted” to the Dammeron Valley Special Service District. The assets transferred included the
following: Firefighting equipment - $4,199.38;
Improvements - $26,665.59; Vehicles - $214,713.03; Park equipment - $4,614.26; Fire
house - $185,466.58. These figures show
the original cost to the landowners of the DVLA. The balance sheet for the association now
shows only the asset (community center) still owned by the DVLA and the reduced
equity to the association after the transfer.
Monthly payments were made during this
past fiscal year to fund the Special Service District for a total paid over of
$64,395.54. Outside of the budget,
$47,438.44 was funded to the District to purchase new firefighting equipment
since the equipment on hand was not up to required code standards and needed to
be replaced. All monies pledged to the
SSD have been paid by the Association, and from this point forward, the budgets
for the two organizations should be entirely separate.
One financial item to mention is the
receipt of the recycling monies for the year 2013 from the county. This year the DVLA was paid $721.16. Since this was considerably less than the amount
received last year of $1,111.82. Neil
Schwendiman, the District Manager for county recycling, was called to clarify
the reasons for the difference. We were
paid for one year and several months in 2013 because the county was
coordinating the payments with the end of their fiscal year of December 31, and
this year’s check covered only twelve months.
Mr. Schwendiman indicated that the payments fluctuate with the market
prices of the recycling products. During
2013, plastic was sold at $30 a ton; glass cost $15 a ton to dispose of; metal
sold at $300 a ton; and paper was valued very low, based on the market
prices. The DVLA board members have
indicated they would like to see some/or all future recycling payments paid to
the Special Service District since the land around the mail boxes and burn pile
have been deeded over to them. Since the
DVLA was funding the SSD the entire year from August, 3013, through June, 2014,
the check given to us for the 2013 year was accepted by the DVLA.
This month a question came up about access
to the Association board members through the website. About two years ago, our website was cut off
by our internet service due to what they termed as “excessive e-mail
activity”. What was actually happening
was that someone was putting hundreds of vulgar nonsense e-mails on our site
each week. Johnna and I spent many hours
deleting these comments from the site and finally we were prohibited use of the
service. When Johnna was in the process
of developing a new website for the Association, I understood from her that
there was going to be no e-mail setup on the site. In response to a recent inquiry by one
landowner as to why he did not receive a response to his e-mail, Johnna was
contacted and she indicated there is e-mail availability on the site and has
now given me the passwords necessary to monitor the system. An apology is being given to everyone who
tried to access the system and did not get a response. The site is now being checked regularly, and
some past inquiries have been answered with an indication as to why the
response was not timely.
Two
members of the DVLA board have completed two years of service, and the DVLA
would like to present them with their restaurant gift certificates – Jim
Johnson and Terry Taylor. There are a
number of volunteers who have spent many hours helping landowners in the valley
– Craig Meyocks and Ken Mandell as board members and Ryan Andersen as a board
member for eight months, Ken Mandell as head of the Architectural Committee,
Mac Thomson still taking care of the roads and public safety issues, all the
volunteers needed for the annual meeting preparations and other duties, as they
arise, plus Chief Maciej Szczerbiak and all the firefighters and medical
emergency volunteers. Report
respectfully submitted. Carol Clason, Secretary.
FIRE CHIEF’S REPORT, Maciej Szczerbiak:
Thanks
were given to all landowners taking time to attending the annual meeting and
also to all Dammeron Valley Firefighters and their families for their
outstanding contributions to the safety and well-being of the residents of the
valley. Anyone having questions regarding
the operations of the Dammeron Valley Fire Department was asked to hold their
questions until after the report and/or the meeting when Chief Szczerbiak would
be able to address each comment.
The Fire
Department is open for business every Thursday of the week at 6:30 p.m. The public is welcome to come and visit at
that time to discuss any matters about the EMS/Fire operations.
The EMS
team estimated time of deployment for the year 2013/14 was 170 hours/40 hours =
4.2 weeks of work at eight hours a day. Since
June, 2013, there have been 62 EMS calls, 2 fire calls, and 9 life-FLIGHT
calls.
Ninety-five
percent of the PPE equipment was found to be outdated during the past
year. The Dammeron Valley Landowners’
Association board members agreed to fund $48,000 worth of new equipment that is
now up to code for use in the field.
Thanks to all those volunteers who maintained the burn pile; burn
permits were used correctly by landowners, with only one issue surfacing during
the previous year. Future planning and
goals include improved EMS equipment and training and the possibility of the
fire department becoming a transport agency with the availability of providing
ambulance service to St. George. Also,
the formation of joint EMS response teams with Diamond Valley is being
considered with the hope of improved service and response time.
A
representative from Washington County thanked Maciej and the fire department
volunteers for all the hours and hard work expended during the last year to
bring the firefighting equipment up to code and to meet the training standards
that are required. The ongoing Fire Wise Safety strategic plan was discussed
outlining the intentions to continue working with the Bureau of Land Management
to work against catastrophic wild fires in the valley. He invited anyone who was interested in doing
work on their own property to speak with him after the meeting.
PROPOSED 2014/2015 BUDGET / SSD
BUDGET & DETAILS:
After a
short explanation of the budget by the President Jim Johnson, Sheri Mandell
MADE A MOTION that the proposed dues be reduced from $60 per year to $30 per
year; seconded by Rick Johnson. After
discussion of the proposed motion, the landowners present were asked by a show
of hands if they wanted to further discuss the issue or move on to board
nominations. By a majority vote, the
meeting was moved on to the nominees’ statements.
TRUSTEE NOMINATIONS & CANDIDATE STATEMENTS:
Joel Burnham, Robert Allan, Rick Johnson, A.B.
Johnson and Jim Johnson were listed on the ballot as candidates for the three
open vacancies and presented short biographies of themselves as nominees. Michael
Foot was nominated from the floor as a candidate for one of the three open
vacancies and also gave a short presentation.
REPORTS:
·
WATER COMPANY /
DEVELOPER, Brooks Pace
During the
past two-three years Matthew Pace has been overseeing the Dammeron Valley Water
Company. In the past year the company
went through a severe audit by the SSD Board and also an inspection by the Utah
State Health Department. A new well,
well number five, is being planned which will be located approximately 5/8ths
of a mile further east, with the same aquifer as the present wells. It will pump approximately 1500 to 2000
gallons and is expected to be completed within two years. The survey work has already been completed
and has been submitted to the Bureau of Land Management for approval. Water rates are not being raised at this
time, and have not been raised since 2004.
A state land phase of eight lots is presently being developed, and eight
septic tank approvals from years past will be used on these eight lots.
In response
to a landowner’s question regarding whether or not this new sub-division will
be included in the Dammeron Valley Landowners’ Association, concern was
expressed over the expiration of the CC&R’s and Protective Covenants of
some sub-divisions beginning two years from now. Those covenants and CC&R’s will either
have to be renewed by the landowners living within the sub-division, or the
sub-division will drop out of the association.
If sub-division lot owners vote to drop out of the association, this
will endanger the continuity of the community as a whole. This will be a large issue for the new board
members to address in the near future.
The eight lots were always planned to be included within the properties
of the Dammeron Valley Landowners’ Association but will depend upon whether the
association stays intact.
The
Dammeron Valley Water Company possesses enough water rights to take care of the
valley. In 2003-4 additional water usage
was granted to landowners during May, June, and July to be used in irrigating
plants, trees, greenbelts, etc. The
water assigned to each property had to be used first before water credits were
then allocated to the property. The same
offer was given to landowners for this summer with the intent to further
beautify the valley. Brooks Pace
encouraged those landowners with the large lots adjacent to the highway to use
whatever water is needed to keep those lands green.
Water
rights belonging to landowners who do not intend to use their water cannot be
sold since this is regulated by the CC&R’s and Protective Covenants, but it
might be possible that a short-term lease could be arranged with a landowner
who would like to have access to more water.
·
ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW, Ken Mandell
During the previous year, four homes and
five improvements were approved by the committee.
·
PUBLIC
SAFETY, Mac Thomson
The Fire
Safe program is a program by federal, state, and private entities which
educates community members on how to reduce the risk of fire around their homes
and how to save the lives of landowners and firefighting personnel. Brochures and other information were made
available to those in attendance. One
measurement as to the compliance with this program is the fact that during the
2013-14 year, 272 loads of natural debris were deposited in the Dammeron Valley
burn pile. Anyone interested in working on the burn pile, please contact Mac
Thomson so that the same people are not always called on to participate.
DISCUSSION
& COMMENTS FROM THE
FLOOR:
In response
to landowner questions, the following comments were offered: Per Brooks Pace, the Fire Department
personnel check the water pressure to the fire hydrants each year. Jim Johnson mentioned that a water committee
was formed within the Dammeron Valley Fire Special Service District that will
address any issues that a landowner may have with their water supply.
A proposal
was made by one landowner that we use some of the community’s resources toward
beautification of the valley, i.e. green belts, tree rows, etc.
BALLOT RESULTS:
After double
verification by the registration committee of the ballots submitted, the budget
passed 164 “yes” to 26 “no”. Some
members did not vote on every issue. New
board members elected: Robert Allan with
117 votes, A.B. Johnson with 106 votes, and Joel Burnham with 142 votes.
ADJOURNMENT:
Meeting adjourned at 11:45 a.m.
Carol
Clason
Recording
Secretary