DRAFT OF MINUTES RECOVERED FROM AUDIO RECORDING.
March 2020 Board meeting
Present are Glen Mumm, Gary Long, Dan Loos, Charlie Bennett, Richard Miller, Jim Boothby, Jeff Toffer and Vonnie Hutchison
Guy Gifford is here from DNR, and representatives from Fire District 4 are here to present our official Firewise USA signs and to recognize our achievements for becoming an official Firewise USA site in 2019.
Guy Gifford speaks: Charlie reached out to DNR and asked how can we protect ourselves from wildfire? Spokane county averages over 200 wildfires a year with several structures burning. Usually it isn’t the big flames that burn these buildings; it is usually embers from a fire that could be a mile away. There are so many little things you can do to protect yourselves from wildfire. Firewise educates the community on the small things you can do to protect your homes and yourself from wildfire. To help with this, Firewise got us the dumpsters free of charge last year.
In recognizing the work that has been done Reflection Lake has been working to become a national Firewise site. An assessment was done and the community did a lot of sweat work. Forest Ownbey was involved with his costs share programs. A dry hydrant action plan was put in place. This is a place in the neighborhood to refill engines and tenders should you have a structure or wildfire. Otherwise the closest place to fill is Riverside. The dry hydrant is a huge thing to be more effective at fighting fires. A dry hydrant is not pressurized like a normal hydrant.
Plaque and signs presented by Guy Gifford and Fire District 4. Thank you for all the hard work and it is nicer to see you in here rather than outside with the trees or house on fire. APPLAUSE
Boothby states that in the 90s a house on the west side was lost to fire due to lack of water.
Fire District 4 says that Firewise sites and draft sites cause the ratings to go up in Spokane Co. and when ratings go up, insurance rates go down. DNR and the Fire Department does free fire assessments on your home.
Report by Glen Mumm: President
Concerning special meeting at church: negotiation would begin to with RLWA. On Feb 18 at 3 pm Glen met with Brian Werst (attorney for RLWA) and Susan Weeks to start the negotiation to get the needs of RLWA taken care of and RLCA released of all liability. RLWA needs water rights to spring and ownership of pump and building and land it is sitting on. In regard to needs of RLCA, I have asked for a hold harmless document and a 2 million dollar bond that would idemnify RLCA. Werst informed me that as long as the water rights is in the name of RLCA, RLCA holds all liability and would be the first name in a law suit no matter what type of hold harmless doc or bond we had in place.
Werst informed us changing the name of the water rights with the state would take some time and is unsure how the state had let RLWA exist and could only speculate the names so closely resembled each other and had been overlooked when the RLWA was or formed. MR. Werst is to set the next meeting.
All information on lease lots was disclosed at the annual meeting. Reading from the newsletter: The 5 lots were leased at considerable cost to RLCA. The revenue lost from 2001-2019 from taxes was $14850 and from dues was $11250 plus three years at $2632. For a grand total of $28725. The lots are a safety zone for the water district. We have negotiated with the property owners to eliminate the lease except for one lease resulting in a $210 dollar a year loss but a huge savings in general. The amount saved is close to our dam reserve amount. Terry Zoesch gave us 10 thumbs up at the annual meeting. It was settled out of court and we agreed to pay for attorney fees because of the net yearly gain would pay us back in a very quickly. The total legal expenses on this was $4604. The lots cost a lot of money for something that wasn’t usable to RLCA. Net yearly gain on this $2455.
Discussion followed that Mr. Humphries (lawyer for the settlement) was not paid but a cancelled check will be presented proving he was. Charlie got paid for his reimbursement of property taxes but he returned the check for $300+ back to RLCA.
Susan says the lawsuit is not settled as she did not let relinquish her lot. Concern from Dan Freas that the attorney fees will keep going up because of the water rights issue. Dan Freas was having a hard time understanding the lease is between the lease owners and RLWA.
Discussion between Richard Miller and Dan Freas that Charlie Bennett was on the board during the lawsuit against the RLCA because of the lease lots. Charlie states he wasn’t on the board when this started, he just received the letter saying he had abrogated his lease. And he understands now why because the RLWA and RLCA were butting heads for years. Dan stated that you were certainly on the board while it carried on, meaning someone suing the RLCA was sitting on the board. Charlie replied that he did not sue the board and signed off on the agreement as soon as presented along with Barbara Wilson and Jim Case as well as recusing himself from all decisions and votes on the matter.
Report from Charlie Bennett: Vice President
I want to thank everyone who donated funds the AED. Fire District 4 provided a free training on how to use it. I wish more people had been at the training—I have had CPR training before and it is not the same. It is totally different. We all learned a lot about the CPR even if we had been previously trained We will get it hung soon and put a cypher lock on the door and numbers posted so it is available to all. But if you have better suggestions please let us know. If we get more people trained, more availability to the AED. A suggestion to have another training, by Terry Childs, perhaps at the annual picnic. With more donations perhaps we can get one on the west side of the lake and a child’s AED which costs another $100. Perhaps a quarterly training?
Charlie Bennett says Cleanup day set for 2nd or 9th of May. Will get with Fire District 4 to determine the best date.
People are saying they aren’t getting any newsletters, so Charlie suggests paper newsletters instead of email. Please make sure your current information is provided to the RLCA.
Charlie is making a motion to make a Communications Committee, responsible for 5 newsletters, official emails, Facebook and website updates. Jim Boothby seconded. The bylaws state that the level of communication required is monthly board meetings and the annual meeting. The by laws even go so far as to say it is the members responsibility to know what the date is. The board has several ways of communicating with the members, but they seem to go relatively unused. The best way to communicate might be to go back to written letters and better attendance at monthly board meetings. Website is complete with legal documents, newsletter and minutes. Rick smith is savvy with the teck stuff. Glen would like to nominate Jeff Toffer to head the communications committee. The best way to have input on how the board serves the community is to participate in monthly committee and board meetings and come to the annual meeting and vote on how your dollars are spent.
Rick Smith, Terry Childs, Rob Lee, Catherine Cosby agree to be on it. Glen is asking for a vote on the motion on the floor Glen says committees meet with suggestions and bring them to the board Glen says again vote or table. Glen votes to table the motion, the motion passes. But if anyone has any ideas on how to improve the communication, please let the board know.
Jim Boothby: Treasurer’s report
Our main budget is $28384 and we are in good shape to start the season. We are staying inside our budget and doing excellent with outstanding dues. Harley Douglas just sold his lots and things are happening on the East Side. Capital projects include culverts, green belt, sign replacing, replacing some siding on community center, paint, back door, general maintenance that hasn’t been done. Also the dry hydrant. All were passed at the annual budget. Most of the work is done by members and that is for materials. Typically done with all volunteer labor just for costs of materials, Bigger projects at the dam we need to hire professionals.
Sandi states that one project we couldn’t do ourselves was dead tree removal, Charlie did have to get bids and he saved about $4000. Members say craft classes were held at the community center and that members should be able to use the center. And Glenn answered absolutely. The social committee is talking about having activities at the center. Second by Charlie to approve treasurer report.
Dan Loos: CMD
Proposed project list unintelligible. Fish is reserved and Jeff Toffer is trying to find other places for less money. Carp were stopped at request of Fish and Game department. The head of Fish and Game agrees that we should wait and see before we add more carp. Someone says the lake is nasty and Charlie states that one of the proposals is a trickle tube. A previous board removed it instead of repairing it and a trickle tube would help the sediment issue. The dam inspection requirements by the state are: Survey and benchmarks of the outflows north and south dam, armour the downstream side of south dam, with the basalt rock that was used on other side. Send EPA to affected residents on the south side incase of emergency. Certified letters to all 26 residents sent about a week ago. Monitor SE flow (think it is a stream, but the inspectors don’t know) and outflow and the north dam depressions. A couple of depressions are on north dam and need to determine responsibility. Charlie and Dan took measurements to monitor whether it is getting worse. The main valve needs repacked, the main stem of the valve is leaking at the south end. There is a 16 inch valve that is leaking and in lieu of repairing it they put a 10 inch valve on the outside, rebuild dock at SE access and put in as a fishing access against the bank of the lake a little further north to create another fishing access to relieve the fishing pressure on the dam, so the rocks aren’t disturbed. Turtle beach dock need to be perhaps a freestanding dock since water is so shallow, maintenance on west side docks, access for AED, clean-up day to coordinate with Firewise. Plans for possible trickle tube, but no funds for it this year. Glen says we need to look at other ways to fund some of these projects and there are options out there. And Installation of draft site for use by Fire Department and DNR. It’s important and budgeted. Firewise may pay for this but cannot promise that, but they are famous for under-promising and over-delivering, repairing siding, painting the floor, as always volunteerism is crucial to keep costs down. This committee meets the last Tuesday of every month at 6:30. Someone suggests a sign that Lakeside is not a through road because traffic is routed down the road by GPS. Dead end sign? Your GPS lied, not a through street…
Gary Long: Security
Not a lot of activity currently. I’d like to thank the people that helped last year and all returned the stipend that was allotted to them. This definitely helps the budget out. Gary appreciates all the people that help in this community. If you do help with the screens, please close and relock the gate so the fish doesn’t get out. This is a big no no to Fish and Wildlife.
Jim Boothby says the budget committee meeting is this month, any volunteers, see him. Next month passing out to committee heads to get pre budgets, May is review, June, they get pass and in July they are approved by community at the annual meeting, and it begins two months later.
Road maintenance committee
Chad Boyd has taken that lead but he isn’t here tonight, Rick Hayes will start on pothole repair season. It will be only pothole repair until the RLWA figures out the upgrades to the water system. Robert Syverson has tried several options but too much argument within the committee. Glen says donations, assessment, block grant are ways to pay for Sheets Rd to be repaired. Block grant is the most viable but needs to know what the RLWA needs to have for to upgrade their system. We don’t have a road maintenance agreement with the water system. Glen tried a few years ago to use the deferred maintenance that previous boards hadn’t used to maintain the roads to replace the road and the rest was going to be an assessment to the members. The one thing that Glen asked them was to go to everyone on this side of the road to come to the annual meeting and vote to get it passed. Only about 16 people showed up so the vote wasn’t there. The community needs to get involved to get this fixed. Dan Loose said the approaches were repaired for about 10,000 this year. A reserve tank has a place on the community center property, but RLWA has not communicated their needs to RLCA. Charlie says that there is a mediator now so hopefully we can get past the stuck point. Rob Lee wonders if it would be better to gravel the road up and have it graded and oiled twice a year until the road situation is worked out. Glen says if you can get the community to agree to that assessment. Glen said the last bid was $65,000 to fix the road and they were even willing to carry the loan. Glen would love to have a real roads committee put together and discuss all this and get the community involved. It’s even hard to get someone to come and put a bid in anymore. Maybe the best answer is for the water association to take care of the roads. The chairman, Chad is not here, but Glen is willing to cochair with Chad to get back on the roads committee if the all of you here tonight show up then the roads will get done. Put the ideas together and call a special meeting of the community and make it happen.
Glen asks if anyone is interested in a cluster mail box on the west side because of the mail theft that has been happening. No, says the people there.
Jim says Watson management is doubling the cost from $600 to $1100 for their services. He went to a couple of accounting firms to get bids, Franklin accounting being one of them and they already do our taxes. And we only need their services once a year for the dues. Watson sometimes accidently comingles the water and the dues moneys. The bid Odenske? in Deer Park is $650 and Franklin’s bid is $600 for the dues payments. Glen thinks Franklin in Deer Park is very reputable and good to work with. Richard Miller makes a motion to go with Franklin for their accounting services. Motion passes.
Glen would like to make one final statement. If you have something to say please say it—come to my house or call. The massive group emails are a problem and nothing is being solved by them. The carbon copy is a huge issue because now the member’s private information is now out to everyone and spamming is an horrible issue. Dan Frees begs to differ. Also, Vonnie’s email was hacked and the fall newsletter repeat send outs were not sent from her computer.
Glen motioned for adjournment. It was seconded.