A meeting of the Board of Directors of the Williamsburg Settlement Maintenance Association, Inc. was held on Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 5:30 p.m. at the Williamsburg Settlement clubhouse, 1602 Hoyt, Katy, Texas 77449.
ATTENDANCE
Board Members present were Floyd Ball, Walt Smith, Gail Owen, Michael Wood, Dave Ellis, Martin Spears and Larry Crain. Also in attendance was Dolores Sue representing Planned Community Management, Inc. (PCMI) and Officer Wilburn.
Also invited guests Urbano Amzaldua and Nicholas Favre representing CenterPoint Energy.
With a quorum being established, the meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m.
MINUTES
The minutes of the October 20, 2015 Board Meeting were reviewed. A motion to accept the minutes as written was made by Walt Smith seconded by Michael Wood and unanimously approved.
HOMEOWNER CONCERNS
There were twenty (20) homeowners present. Floyd Ball welcomed the attendees and Dave Ellis introduced the CenterPoint representatives who had been invited to the meeting to address the intermittent electrical interruptions that have been occurring recently in our subdivision.
Mr. Favre, Senior Service Consultant, addressed the meeting and stated that these intermittent power interruptions being of very short duration are not breaker trips and thus are not being detected as outages by CenterPoint. He speculated that capacitor banks which are automatically switched in and out to support voltage levels to compensate for varying load levels could possibly be the cause. Homeowners present stated that this has been ongoing for at least the last two months asking what might have changed in the supply system during this period to have precipitated the problem. One person who has been monitoring some of the recent incidents stated that in November she had recorded outages on November 1 at 7:49 a.m., November 2, at 12:15 p.m., November 6 at 5:34 p.m and November 7 at 5:26 p.m. The hours that homeowners agreed were a problem were 7:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Mr. Favre will arrange for a recorder to be temporarily connected to these circuits to detect the interruptions to determine exactly what is happening and thus what action will be necessary to resolve the problem.
It was asked if perhaps the cumulative effect of the additional loads to service the large number of businesses in the immediate area may be contributing to the problem. Mr. Favre explained that all applications for additional loads are reviewed and must be approved by the CenterPoint Planning department before being connected to existing circuits so it is unlikely that the circuits are being overloaded. However, he will look at this as part of his investigation.
The question was raised as to whether these interruptions will cause damage to home appliances and air conditioners. Mr. Favre said that it would be over-voltages caused by power surges that could cause such damage whereas what we are experiencing are momentary power interruptions which do not cause over-voltage spikes. However, many residents expressed the belief that these incidents may be aging their appliances.
A homeowner stated they had called CenterPoint because of these momentary outages and it was explained to her that if a crew came out and the problem is in the home there would be a trip charge. Mr. Favre stated that this is correct information. The resident said that she had called CenterPoint on many occasions when these interruptions occurred to the point that they told her to stop calling! She asked if there was a way to communicate with Mr. Favre instead and he passed out his business cards which has his e-mail address.
A homeowner asked from which substation our circuits are supplied. Mr. Favre stated that it is substation 45.
At this time the Board thanked both CenterPoint representatives for attending and looks forward to a resolution to these issues.
Other Homeowner concerns were:
A homeowner wanted speed bumps in the community. It was explained that the streets belong to Harris County and they will not allow speed bumps.
It was requested that a shade structure and park benches be added to the playground. Mr. Ball said that the resident could request that these additions be placed on the January 2016 meeting agenda.
A homeowner gave an update on the Spark Park at Winborne Elementary. The school had a penny drive and has already collected $2,000.00. The drive ends Friday.
PATROL SERVICE REPORT
The Board reviewed the patrol service report. There were no major issues or concerns reported.
FINANCIAL REVIEW
Dave Ellis presented the financials. As of October 31, 2015 the money in the bank totaled $648,907.00. This figure includes checking, savings accounts and CD’s and is the money to cover both operating expenses and the necessary reserve to fund maintenance and replacement of the Association’s capital assets. This total also includes $6,613.00 in prepaid assessments. Delinquency for the month ending September 30, 2015 was $14,810.29. The Board gave approval for Dave Ellis to move funds from NewFirst bank to Alliance CDARS to maximize interest income as 2016 maintenance fees are deposited.
OLD BUSINESS
Perimeter Fence - Floyd Ball explained that the Board had previously approved the replacement of up to 6,000 feet of the “pre-Ike” portions of the perimeter fence. However after reviewing the entire length of fence where sections are to be replaced the committee determined that some sections previously replaced after hurricane Ike are also deteriorating and again need to be replaced. Floyd therefore requested approval of an additional 1000 feet of fence construction. He also reported there are three trees over 10 inches in diameter that obstruct the fence and their removal is the Association’s responsibility. This number will increase as fence replacement continues. A motion to move $24,000.00 from the operating reserve to the fence reserve to fund the additional fence expenditure and the spending of up to $5,000.00 for removing trees that are obstructing fence construction was made by Floyd Ball, seconded by Walt Smith and unanimously approved.
Tennis Court and Pool Awnings - Since this subject was addressed at the September meeting some Board members have visited an installation of AAA Awnings and determined that the product bid by this company would be acceptable. This being the case, the bids from three companies that submitted their bids in August were again reviewed. A motion that Larry Crain negotiate with the lowest bidder to obtain its best price for an awning over the baby pool, one alongside the East side of the pool and a replacement of the deteriorating awning over the tennis court walkway, all for a pre-tax price not to exceed $3,000 was made by Dave Ellis, seconded by Martin Spears and unanimously approved. The Board agreed that the color of the awnings should be Desert Sand.
NEW BUSINESS
The Board discussed the implications of the changes to laws affecting Home Owner Associations that were passed by the 84th session of the Texas Legislature. To incorporate these changes into our dedicatory instruments will require revisions to both our Collections Policy and our Bylaws. Revisions to these documents have been drafted and previously sent to all Board members for their review. The Board will implement these changes immediately to comply with the law as we are required to do. A motion to submit the document revisions for formal membership approval at the annual meeting of members was made by Walt Smith, seconded by Larry and unanimously approved.
ADJOURNMENT TO EXECUTIVE SESSION
At 6:55 p.m. the meeting was adjourned to executive session
Decisions Made During Executive Session
The Board reviewed all Deed restriction matters and disposition of same.
The Board discussed that the Association is within the 99% collection goal for the 2015 maintenance fees.
With no further business the meeting was adjourned at 7:05 p.m.
The next meeting will be held on January 19, 2016 starting at 5:30 p.m. at the community clubhouse.
