Candlelight Oaks Civic Club, Inc.
Minutes of Board of Directors Meeting
July 12, 2018
2018 Board Members:
Sandy Ericksen President
Amelie Fredland Vice-President
Jill Prado Salyers Treasurer
Darilene Bonnet Secretary
Lori Bulla Pool Committee Chair
A.D. Koen Security Committee Chair
Michael Kuhnen Deed Restrictions; Long-Range Planning
Richard Solis Social Chair; Acorn Delivery
Darin Lee Landscaping Chair
Charlie Bowman Asst. to Treasurer / Financial
*Marilyn Harper Acorn Editor 2018
Present: Sandy Ericksen, Lori Bulla, Darin Lee, Michael Kuhnen, A.D. Koen, Richard Solis. Absent: Amelie Fredland, Jill Prado Salyers, Darilene Bonnet. Residents: Ray Cowart, Gill Daoust, Marilyn Harper. Guests: SEAL Sgt Capetillo and Jessie Aust.
Sandy called the meeting to order at 7:40 pm.
Security: The SEAL report was given by Jessie Aust with SEAL Client Services. After noting the lack of any actual crimes reported in the June Incident Report, she remarked that Candlelight Oaks was the most crime-free subdivision that she was aware of among those patrolled by SEAL.
Presentation: Resident Gill Daoust announced that he is ready to print the Deed Restriction booklet he intends to distribute to every homeowner in CO. The 80+ page spiral-bound booklet is a personal project undertaken by Gill, as his gift to the community. It contains the Deed Restriction text for all 4 sections of CO, a color-coded fold-out map of the subdivision showing the 4 sections, and several pages of important contact information. Gill is going to personally hand out the booklet to owner-occupied homes, and mail a copy to those homeowners who live somewhere else. The COCC Board sincerely thanks Gill for this contribution to educating and helping Candlelight Oaks. There will be an announcement in social media Residents of Candlelight Oaks and NextDoor Candlelight Oaks when Gill is ready to start delivery.
Gill then passed around the mock-up SEAL sign he produced for the board to examine. It is high quality printing on a thick aluminum rectangle. Sandy moved for approval for Gill to proceed to make the signs, seconded by Darin, all approved.
Treasury: Sandy reported that her information from Jill and Charlie is there are currently 18-20 NO PAYS, some of which are vacant houses. She thinks that this is the lowest number ever recorded in July. She attributes this to Charlie’s personal touch with contacting homeowners who have not paid and getting them to sign up for a payment plan. There are about 40 homes that are on a payment plan this year. Sandy said the tracking and management of payment plans is soon to transition to Proledge.
Pool: Lori reported that our pool had failed the CoH Pool Inspection that day, due to the emergency 9-1-1 phone was not working. She said it had worked a few days earlier when she tested it. The pool had to be closed, pending re-test. Ray Cowart, our pool maintenance man, found a loose wire for that phone and fixed it, so Lori was able to request re-test for the following morning. [NOTE: That all worked out and the pool was open again on Friday. The initial closing, the reason for it, and the All-Clear were all posted in Q and A on the Facebook Group Residents of Candlelight Oaks.] Lori reported 2 party rentals of the pavilion were booked.
Deed Restrictions: Michael reported that the previous drive-through had resulted in the DR violation letters being produced on a computer, but they were never printed, and thus never mailed. Marilyn will take on the task of combining the violation notes with the form letters, aiming to have the batch completed within 1 week of the drive. Sandy will then print the letters, fold them, and stuff the envelopes. The next drive-through was set for Sat July 21, 10 a.m. A.D. will drive, Michael will take photos, and volunteer Marilyn will note the addresses and violations.
Presentation: With Landscaping being the next topic, Ray Cowart asked to address the board and explain what he does as the current landscaping contractor. In addition to being the pool maintenance contractor, Ray also mows the grass inside the COCC pool and playground areas. His company has also for several years had the landscaping contract for the interior cul-de-sacs and the esplanades on Bolivia, and for maintaining a better appearance than would otherwise happen on the Tidwell esplanades and sidewalks on both sides of Tidwell. Darin has been wanting to get a detailed bid from Ray that could be compared to other bids he has in hand or will obtain. Ray said his procedure is to do whatever he sees that needs to be done, whether it is removing the wrought iron fence section that was about to fall over, or disposing of dead animals found on the Tidwell sidewalks. He said there is a tremendous amount of littering from vehicles driving through on Tidwell. Trash ends up on the esplanades and the sidewalks. He basically sees something that needs to be taken care of and does it and does not want to record every action his company takes. Sandy asked if he could post a short email when major mowing is done, so the board knew when to go look at the result, and be able to tell if it was done on the expected schedule. Ray said no emails, he just didn’t want to work that way, and his motivation has always been just wanting his neighborhood to look good.
In follow-up discussion, it was noted that the Tidwell esplanades belong to the City and the City mows them once a quarter, but that does not keep them looking good. Residents then complain, and expect the Board to mow them often enough to be tolerable. The sidewalk areas along Tidwell actually belong to each home-owner, from the back fence to the curb. Very few people whose back yard is on Tidwell do any maintenance of their own area, maybe most don’t have a back fence gate for easy access to cleanup. The idea was brought up of including Tidwell in the regular Deed Restriction drive-through, at least for fences that are falling down.
Meeting adjourned at 9:40 p.m.