2011 Annual Meeting Minutes

There were approximately 40 people gathered at the stable for the potluck and subsequent annual meeting.

The meeting called to order at 1:30pm.  A motion was made and carried without dissent to approve the minutes from the 2010 annual meeting.

Treasurer’s Report.

Annie Hensley reported there is $105,000 in checking, and $48,000 in CDs.

President’s Comments

Nola Adler thanked outgoing board members:  John Gilmore, Richard Wikle, Sambo Lewis, Jerre Mabry and Tim Tetreault as well as Joanne Gilmore (outgoing email chair) for their service.

Carolyn Ferguson agreed to head the welcoming committee. Marion Corpus will be heading up beautification committee.

Nola also thanked Glora Bauer and Debi Smallwood, who performed an audit on the MALA books in May.

There have been issues with dogs running loose. A cat was killed by roaming dog. Please call animal control for any of these issues.

Seventy five individual contributed $4600 for the roads in addition to assessments.  Overall, in 2011, 91.5% of the mandatory area assessments paid, and 58% of the voluntary areas. 

We don’t have a stop sign at the entrance anymore.  It was replaced with a yield sign, since people were being targeted for tickets rolling through the stop sign. The state police and VDOT had no issue with what we do on our private roads, and the state police noted that a failure to yield carries the same penalties as a failure to stop, should an accident occur by someone rocketing out of Merifield Drive onto Old National Highway.

Secretary’s Report

Nothing to report.

Open Forum

A resident, Margaret White, brought up that there are too many signs up, like for a landscaper. Too many RV’s in the front yards. They should be parked even with or behind the house.  She offered that MALA should be involved in the county meetings and political issues like the proposed uranium mining.  

Ed Mazer offered a resolution to the membership asking for guidance from membership regarding allocation of funds for roads maintenance. Basically, in voluntary areas where contributions fall below 90% of the assessments paid by others, as their roads need work, the residents on the road will need to bring the contribution up to par to cover the expense of that work. It will be up to those residents to organize that fund raising.

One complication brought up is that there are lots of shades of gray as to which roads are voluntary or involuntary, and ‘forcing’ a voluntary member to pay simply cannot be done.

Another issue is that MALA owns all roads and has an obligation to the entire community to maintain the roads.

Those attended largely liked these suggestions but chose to not vote on this until further study could be made.  Ed Mazer said he’d come to the next Board Meeting with more details filled out.

Appearance and Beautification report

Chair Marian Corpus said that she needs help with this committee and is seeking volunteers. 

Architectural Committee

Chair Kevin Hensley reported in the past year there had been 13 requests submitted for reviews. All were reviewed, and nothing is outstanding at the moment.

A request from the floor was made that clearing of properties not be done until just before construction is to be done. Kevin said that is generally what happens but occasionally someone gets so far along in the process and runs into issues which halt the construction.  Not much can be done about that. 

Aviation Committee Report

Chair FJ Hale reported that everything is going fine. Several donuts were cut into the runway by some vehicle, but they were smoothed over. We are getting interest from potential resident pilots, even in the Foote property which adjoins the runway.  Regarding Foote property, FJ is hopeful that new personnel with the county will order the property razed, clearing the way for a pilot resident there should the property eventually be sold.

Common Areas & Facilities

Chair Clint Dalton sent in his report summarizing the activities of the past year.  Everyone should be aware we have a new maintenance contractor taking care of the common areas:  Mike Hite.   

Deer Control  

Chair Noel Corpus had no report. 

Political and Environmental

With the resignation of Richard Wikle from the Board, there is no longer a current chair for this committee, but President Adler asked if anyone were interested, to let her know.  Margaret White suggested that whoever serves on this committee be familiar with the County Board of Supervisors.  Also, there are several groups (such as the Marina and Bobcats) who have petitions that can be signed regarding the uranium mining issue.  MALA should get on board with protesting the uranium mining.

People boat in too fast to Mazer’s cove and it is eroding the cove and disrupting the docks. It would help if people doing water sports near these coves would keep this in mind.  Mazer asked if we could we get no-wake buoys around our coves?   Someone responded that you have to get everyone to sign a petition, then submit it to the Corps, then it also has to go to another government agency before it will be allowed.

We will request that Mecklenburg Electric not spray herbicide underneath the power lines. We will call for a vote on that at the next board meeting.
 

Roads and Maintenance Committee

Chair Mike Gupton reported that roads are in pretty good shape. Liquid asphalt prices are still quite high, even though gas prices have fallen. One road with a new house will need to be completely asphalted. Myrtle Court also needs asphalting. Lewis Road has a lot of cracking and we have decided since the equipment will be here, to go ahead and do two treatments of tar and gravel. To asphalt Lakepoint and Merifield will be over $200,000. To tar and gravel those roads will be $17 or 18K. We may need to do those to prevent deterioriation till prices come down.  

Security Report

Outgoing Chair Tim Tetrault was not present and had no report.

Comment on security: Someone did attempt to steal some jet skis, so take precautions. 

Welcoming Report

Chair Carolyn Ferguson was not present and submitted no report.

Directory

Linda Carter reported that the directory will now be on the website.

Newsletter

Nola Adler said the news will now be posted on the website, saving the association $1000-$1500 per years in printing and mailing costs, money better spent on road maintenance.  An analysis of the budget show this year truly spends 90% of the budget on roads and common area maintence.

New Business

Election results:  

Rick Baldwin*, Gloria Bauer*, Phil Beck, Butch Cheatham*, FJ Hale, David Hammer* & Jim Monaco*
were the newly elected board members, whose term expires September 2014.  (Asterisked names are new to the board while those not are re-elected.)  

Andy Ferguson was elected to the open position on the Architectural Committee for the next 3 years.

Budget was approved.

Adjournment 

The meeting was adjourned at 3:30pm.