Reflection Lake Community Association Board Meeting – September 3, 2019
Board members present VP Charlie Bennett, Secretary Vonnie Hutchison, Treasurer Jim Boothby, Gary Long, Jeff Toffer, Richard Miller, Chad Boyd.
Meeting was called to order at 6:00pm in the RLCA Community Room. We’re recording these meetings so the minutes can be accurately transcribed. The recording is destroyed when the minutes are approved.
Minutes from the last meeting: Any additions or corrections to August’s minutes? There is a motion and second to waive the reading of the minutes. Motion to accept the minutes from the last meeting by Dan and seconded by Gary. Motion passes.
OFFICERS’ REPORTS
Vice President-Charlie Bennett: See Firewise below.
Secretary Report-Vonnie Hutchison: Nothing to report.
Treasurer Report-Jim Boothby: Report included with the minutes. $65,871.99 in treasury. No projects will get done unless funds are available. Only necessary spending until Sept.
Motion to approve by Vonnie and seconded by Jim. Approved unanimously.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Lake Conservation: Jeff took water samples checking for e. coli and pollutants. We should find out this week if lake is safe to swim in. The test does not include algae. We don’t have the dangerous blue-green algae that other areas have.
Spoke with Randy Osbourne from Fish and Game to look at refurbishing the old fish hatchery
Conservation, Maintenance & Dams Committee (CMD), Dan Loos: The north dam is done. Charlie, Rick and Jeff were very involved. DOE recommended and approved that project.
Toilets will be picked up Sept. 9th. Chain across Turtle Beach Rd. 8th. Members who want to remove boats should do so this week. Projects have been completed or postponed until next Spring.
Security-Gary Long: Thanks to all who helped this year. It went very well, including the people who walked around the lake. Shutting down regular patrols. Be sure and report what you see if anything is out of order. Neighbors helping neighbors is a good internet awareness site. Having the gate locked has helped keeping unauthorized people out.
Roads Committee-Chad Boyd: Thankfully Chad has agreed to work with Robert Syverson to develop a roads committee.
Social Committee-Richard Miller: No dates set for meeting. At last meeting Glen made up my mind as far as continuing on. I’m not. This has been really thankless so I’m not interested in continuing. Charlie: you’re welcome to stay on the committee if you want.
LEASE LOTS: We’ve turned back 3 of the 4 lots to their owners for a considerable savings. Hoping for a letter from the Water Board that lays out their idea of the relationship to the Association is. It comes down to liability. If you read our bylaws and quit claim deeds, the Association is responsible for all the properties and the water system so if they have a major failure, they’re out of water for any time at all, they can’t pay their bills, we’ll end up paying their bills. The problem with that is the Association is both sides. If the west side is going to pay for the east side water bills, that is going to be a major chasm between both sides, so we need to have the Water Association formally take the liability, otherwise this is going to hang over until next year. We’re going to have some good meetings planned and get it solved pretty early in the year. Gary would really like to see the meetings with the Water Board continue. There was good communication. It gave us both an education of what was going on for both sides.
We signed over ownership to three lot owners out of the four. They accepted responsibility for their lots. In other words, they own their lots again. We’re out of the leases except for one lot. Charlie: Unfortunately, those lots are a protected zone. It’s where our springs come together above the wellhead. Working together we need to come up with something so that we can protect the water and use it. According to Betty Goodwin there can’t be any houses built there but it can be a parklike setting, community garden, that kind of thing so if we could have people put in some input that would be great.
There can’t be any development on those lots.
FIREWISE: Charlie Bennett: Fire Chief Dist 4 is coming this week to verify the location of the draft site for the dry hydrant. If it is okayed by them, we can begin the planning and permitting process for installation in the spring of 2020. This could potentially lower our insurance rates and of course, help with any house fire.
Captain Sylvester has given us a reduced rate on an AED (automatic external defibrillator) which we could keep in the community center. New AEDs are typically around $2000. This one would be around $600. if there is enough interest Sargent Sylvester has offered free training to teach a CPR class at the community center this fall. This is a hands only CPR, not a certification class. They will offer AED training if anyone wants it. It’s a pretty simple process. The thing walks you right through it. Jeff: If we can get a few people trained we would distribute those phone numbers. Should be able to get response quicker than the fire department getting here. The basic CPR class if just a one hour class. It’d be about two hours for CPR and AED. This will not be funded through the Association. Charlie has started fundraising to purchase and has contributed $100, along with Gary, Jeff, Dan and Terry. Terry: it’s about 15 minutes for the fire department to respond. If there is more money we could purchase another AED for the west side. Pulse Point will notify trained people with a text Amber Alert, which is set up through Fire Dist 4. Richard: These are refurbished AEDs. Fire Department really pushed it because they know how long it takes them to get here.
Thanks to FireWise and the DNR, the Greenbelt is opened up for us which will help with fire suppression. Everything is growing strong and healthy and the insects aren’t near as bad.
Sandi is working on the Welcome Packet, including FireWise info (where, when and what to burn). The Welcome Packets will have a real evacuation plan to ensure that what happened in California never happens here. Is Firewise still doing evaluations? Yes. Fire Dept and Conservation Dept will do them. Reflective address markers are also provided for free, which allows the Fire Dept to find you quicker.
NEW BUSINESS:
Jim received an email from Nancy from our insurance company, Liberty Mutual, and she reported that there is a pending claim filed by Rob Lee. On August 12th and 14th, 2019, Mr. Rob Lee requested a copy of our insurance policy be emailed to him. On the evening of the 16th he received the information. On the 17th there was a pending claim filed against the Association by Mr. Rob Lee. Very fortunate that he got the information on time. It is still pending. They’re going to send an investigator out in the next week and I’ll go around with the investigator and find out what it’s all about. The insurance hasn’t divulged any information except there was a personal accident on one of our roads over here, so we’ll need to address that in our bylaws making rules so that can’t happen again.
The second thing that happened, I received from Spokane County a Stop Work Order on all work being done around the lake. On August 19th there was a request was made to the County to investigate lake improvements as far back as four years ago by Mr. Rob Lee, an associate member. He was very concerned about damage done across the north dam. On August 27th, Spokane County officially notified the Association of a permit violation that included an immediate fine of $600. I was impressed by Mr. Lee after learning he personally conducted the tour of the entire lake on August 19th. By not inviting a board member to come along, clarify or give a different point of view, whatever was said to the county investigator stood as fact.
I must thank Mr. Lee because over the last 50 years the lake association has been operated with member volunteers trying to do their best. When something needed to be fixed, we collectively fixed it. Rob, you have taught us a better way, report all suspected code violations, consequently the Association pays the fine and charges the members. Is this really a better way? I would also like to know who caused the vandalism on the north dam asphalt on the edge of the road. We have that desist order and it’ll have to go to committee for a meeting with the public works people and then we’ll find out what happens after that. Charlie: we’ll set a meeting up this week. Jim: We’ll have to do that because on the 17th is when they’ll do the fine and do a reinspection. Rick Hayes will want to be at that meeting. Charlie: We’ll set a meeting with the county. We got fined for incidental damage to the roadbed. If the association members are going to be paying for fines, the whole community needs to know about it so it will be posted in several venues.
GOOD OF THE ORDER: Terry: Last week we were starting to get a lot of algae on top of the lake. It’s not pollen. Terry contacted DOE and they’re going to do a sampling. They were here over the weekend. Jeff took a sample about 1.5 months ago and they gave us an all clear. They don’t specifically test for algae. The lakes in this area normally do not have the bad algae. Someone said we were lowering the lake, but we haven’t been lowering the lake. The yellow algae was backed up at the dam. Jeff took the board out to flush it. It took a long time. It seems worse this year than last. Dan replaced the board and the lake came back up. It is good to open that gate up and flush the top of the lake. Dan went down Thursday and both boards were missing. He replaced them. Lake level had risen back up. Charlie: With both boards missing would that cause the fish to be released? No, the gates still there. Sandi: Is the lake quality because the lake turned over more last year? It might be a little worse lately because we don’t seem to have any aquatic plants at all and they work as a filter. We might help the north end because Conservation Dist recommended a 2’ drop to the water level every year. That would be just like draining water out of a fish tank and filling it back up. Fresh water has everything perfectly aligned. By replacing some of the water it clears the water. This is still under debate. There are a lot of people still uncertain. Flushing the south end doesn’t really benefit the north end. Unfortunately the trickle tube was taken out of the north end because it was leaking under the road. It will be on our agenda to discuss in the future. It’ll be an expensive operation, but it’ll be well worth it for the clarity of the lake. The dam inspectors say our dams are in great condition so we shouldn’t have to be spending any money on dams for the near future. Jim: We’ve already discussed the budget and the approval for projects. Next year in July we could try to get approval to replace the trickle tube. It will take deep cuts in the budget to fund. Universities like to do studies and we could start there. The water can’t freeze for a dry hydrant to function, so a trickle tube would help with that. This is a big deal. Talk to your neighbors. It’ll definitely improve swimming.
Dan: plant life. If we installed a few pallets into the deeper part of the lake it would keep the carp away from the aquatic plants, which would allow for more clarity, and gives the minnows a place to escape the larger fish. Dave: They put fencing, a 100’ square fence around the eastside of the lake. We found out the lake fauna grew up naturally with aquatic plants. We opened it up to the carp which demolished it in a week. We could try an artificial reef. We’ll be discussing this again next spring. Pallets are at no cost. Environmental concerns? Ask the State.
Were there environmental considerations on the road from the county? Is it taking that one step further going through the Dept of Natural Resources? Gary: Worked with the Dept of Ecology and we went through them and they recommended the rock. Jim: when we initially put the rocks on Lakeside Rd it was a very skinny road. It was made as an emergency access. When the road was widened it helped in the winter if you were sliding. Terry: Did we ever talk about jersey barriers on the North Dam? We’ll bring up in the meeting with the county. Lakeside road is county responsibility. It is overdue for chip sealing again. We also have another pothole on the hill. We’re trying to address this safety issue.
Donna Mack: I want to speak in support of the officers. It’s been a very good, calm, nice place to live. I’ve really enjoyed this group of officers. Everybody is working well together. Suddenly there seems like a lot of problems. I want to say I really support this group of officers and I hope everything can be worked out. I really like living here.
Charlie: Newsletter coming out the 15th. Need to get everything into Vonnie ASAP. They will be mailed to everyone then.
Richard motioned to adjourn and seconded by Gary. Unanimously passed.
Prepared by Vonnie Hutchison, Secretary
Charlie Bennett, Vice President
Vonnie Hutchison, Secretary