Sherwood Forest Owner’s Association
Board
Meeting
Manager’s
Report
May/June,
2005
Expenses:
Vendor |
Amount |
|
Mille
Lacs Electric |
$ 5,839.00 |
|
Knox
Electric – 2nd installment for Derbytown Upgrade |
$12,666.66 |
|
Hugh
Heinecke, CPA – Annual Audit |
$ 4,550.00 |
|
Federated
Propane |
$ 2,641.20 |
|
Britz
Store Equipment |
$ 1,112.93 |
|
Aitkin
Implement – Calcium Chloride |
$ 6,315.45 |
|
Mille
Lacs Electric – Transformers in Derbytown |
$ 1,050.00 |
|
Garrison
Disposal |
$ 433.51 |
Statements/Collections:
Since
the May Board Meeting we have collected $43,273 in assessments.
Liens
have been filed by Tom Carlson on four lots that have been in arrears for a
long time.
Second
half statements will be sent out next week.
I
have enclosed in your folders a recommendation from Tom Carlson regarding
requiring anyone selling real estate in Sherwood, either an agent or owner, to
submit a Resale Disclosure Certificate so all parties involved are aware of any
balance that may be owed on the property.
This will ensure Sherwood Forest has opportunity to collect at the time
of sale.
Pool:
The pool was shut down this week for a period of two days because of a leak in one of the pipes. It has been temporarily fixed until we can get someone from Valley Pool to come in to detect the leak. This should take approximately two weeks. Once the leak is detected I can get a bid on how much it will cost to fix the pool.
The hot tub and kiddy pool also have leaks. Fixing the hot tub will entail fixing the leak and buying a new liner. The kiddy pool has not been looked at yet.
Correspondence:
I received a letter from John Gunderson (D3-14) regarding water on his lot stemming from the culverts not working right in his area. Randy has a copy of this letter. Maintenance worked on the problem for two days and finally got the culvert cleaned out. Rocks had been placed in front of the opening in two areas. Apparently the rocks were placed to use as filters and probably blockage for animals. The culverts have been unblocked and water is running fine.
I sent
out letters to people with fish houses on their lots. A few have responded. The
problem is there is no room in the storage area and the storage area is too wet
to use at the moment. As soon as the
area has dried up fish houses will be moved.
This will continue to be monitored.
We have a list of owners who have blue tarps
displayed on their lots. Letters will
be going out next week to have them removed.
Phase
IV of the Electrical Upgrade:
Derby
Town is approximately 80 percent finished.
The target date for completion was Memorial Day Weekend but because of
the weather, the deadline was not able to be met.
No
work has progressed in Derby Town because of the same reason.
Rules:
Work
permit requests: We need a fine imposed
on owners who schedule work to be done on their lot without getting a work
permit first. Several times the
Maintenance Crew has arrived at a lot to check
stipulations on permits prior to approving them only to find the work
already started. Not only is this disregarding the rules, but Sherwood does
not have the opportunity to check to make sure the job is within specs or check
for Certificates of Liability on the people doing the work.
Another
scenario is an owner calls up because they need a permit approved. If we tell them to fill one out next time
they are here, they respond they’ve already got the work scheduled through a
vendor, or a wood cutter is already scheduled to come in to take down trees,
etc. When we explain that we need time
to check things out prior to approval, they seem put out because the work is
already scheduled to be done.
The
bottom line is: We understand people
are very busy, and we do try to turn around permit approval as soon as we can,
but the permit process was put into place for a reason. More and more the owners are jumping the gun
and ignoring the permit process. If we
do not get a handle on it now it will become out of control.
Culverts:
The
recent heavy rains has given us opportunity to check out the culverts and
ditches to see how things are flowing.
There seem to be some real problems in some areas of the forest. It looks like the problems stem from either
blocked culverts, culverts not installed right, ditches that need cleaning, or
ditches that have been filled in without allowing drainage for ground
water.
I
have a proposed solution for ditches that are being filled in which was
submitted by an owner. If an owner
wants to fill in their ditch, in addition to installing a culvert, they would
need to also install a drain to give the ground water a place to go. I have included pictures of a couple that
have been installed and they seem to work very well.
Maintenance
will be taking a more active role when a permit is requested for a
culvert. We want to make sure they are installed
correctly. Also, we will be issuing
letters to people who need to clean out their culverts. If it doesn’t happen, fines will be issued,
and if the Maintenance crew has to clean them out, owners will be billed for
the service.
Due to heavy riding in the ditches in some areas of the forest, especially the road leading to London Town, the ditches have been ruined and cannot be mowed. In spite of logs being placed in front of the entrances and signs that are posted to keep out, ATVer’s are ignoring the signs and moving the logs to reach the woods. They proceed then to tear them up.
After checking the rules I see there is a heavy fine placed on ATVer’s who ignore the rules. The problem is trying to catch them which seems to be almost impossible.
The DNR informed us that 70% of the people they pulled over for violations on Memorial Day weekend in this area came from Sherwood Forest. (They did add that the majority had pink signs hanging from the vehicle which would mean they were guests.) They are willing to come in every so often and patrol Sherwood, pulling over violators. They can not issue tickets but they can inform the office of violations then we could take it from there. I not sure they have the manpower to supply someone every weekend, but I will be talking to them to see what can be set up for July 4th weekend.
It
has been suggested by the staff to shorten the club house hours on weekdays to
9 PM and on weekends to 10:30 PM.
During the week there is hardly any activity during the last hour of the
night and it seems a waste to pay an employee to be here.
On
the weekends it would give the staff opportunity to close the club house and
ensure all kids are on their lots by curfew.
Tim
Modl is still out indefinitely on a medical leave.
_________________
Jim
Karie has returned from a medical leave and is able to resume his old duties.
__________________
Arno
Weber and Vern Cretinon attended a 2 day CPO Training Seminar and each obtained
certification in pool maintenance.
__________________
All
roads were graded this past week.
__________________
We
had to refuse admittance two sheds that were brought in last week. They were not constructed to Sherwood’s
specs.
_________________
There
is a meeting at Garrison City Hall today at 1:00 PM to discuss Lake
Management. I’ve placed a copy of the
information in your folder. Anyone is
welcome to attend.