Mussel Beach Road Status:  Dave - I am going to try to answer some of your questions; take it in kind of stages.  I have been involved with Mussel Beach Road project since 1998, so roughly 6 or 7 years; and it goes back further than that.  Irv was involved in it prior to my involvement, so we probably jointly go back to 1996/97 when the big disaster hit it.  So back in 1996/97 they had 25 to 30 inches of snow, which melted very rapidly with rain following.  It flushed out that canyon and washed out a portion of the road; made it badly rutted.  From that point on until 2001, there was a lot of discussion about what should be done and what shouldn’t be done.  Finally the membership of the association and the Board of Directors at that time decided to go and get an engineered plan by a professional engineer of what should be or shouldn’t be done to that road. Over the next 2 years taking it up to about 2003, that plan was devised and put together, and approved by the Board.  There were a lot of pros and cons, and a lot of public discussion, but the bottom line it was finally approved by the members to proceed with the program.  Again, in 2002 figures that Beach Road project was scheduled to be about $87,000/88,000 project.  That was the first presentation that was made in 2001.  Over the next years, every year it went up and pretty soon it was up to $120,000; then it kept going up to $140,000.  Finally the project got to nearly $200,000.  But, the bigger problem was that we started talking to contractors and we sent bid applications out to 6 or 7 different contractors, and nobody had the gumption to bid on the project.  They didn’t want to get involved, is what it boiled down too.  This probably told us something that it was a difficult project to begin with.  It was not a lucrative money making project.  At that point, in about late April/May 2004, a little over a year ago, I met with a contractor that was one of that group and Clark Land, who is the engineer of the original plan and said this is out of sight; it’s getting out of our budget.  Is there anything else that we can do?  We came up with a revised plan that was a, for lack of a better description, at least a good band-aid; and, maybe would have lasted a number of years.  But, the membership and the Beach Road Committee at that time saw it differently.  That they wanted to proceed with the original plan and that they would go out and get new bids from different contractors.  They talked to 3 different contractors and finally came up with a bid of about $125,000 to do the drainage and road preparation of it.  It did not include the paving.  That would have been above and beyond that.  So that original $125,000 was approved and the project was theoretically started late September, early October of 2004.  The attempt at that point that over the winter of 2004/2005, all the road bed would be constructed and the drainage would be in place, and the paving would be done in 2006 or 2007.  That was the plan at that point.  Things started and the very first day on the job the contractor hid a buried sewer pipe and broke it, which started the downhill process.  We had to go talk to the sewer drain field owner, and get that relocated, which cost about $3000 to get that done.  Then the project started.  This project was supposed to be done in 60 days and if you look at October 1^st, 60 days would have taken you to December 1^st.  It should have been done before the first of the year ever rolled around.  In March, April of this year it still wasn’t done.  We were still finishing up 6 months later with all kinds of delays blamed on various things from our interference, to rock walls that were not approved, to contractor’s equipment breaking down.  One thing after another; I could give you 15 different excuses as to why it didn’t get down when it should have been done.  Or, for what was originally projected to cost.  It ended up costing about $145,000, and we still don’t have a paved road.  Backing up just a moment, we did send out a ballot of couple of months ago that asked for the approval to borrow $50,000 at 2½ % interest that would have allowed the paving to follow right on the heels of where we were back in March/April.  Had that been approved, which it wasn’t, we probably would be looking at a paved road or at least very close to a paved road this summer.  We did definitely promise in writing, verbally and every way you can think of that this would be a drivable road this summer.  I would be the last one to deny that.  That was a combination of promises made by the Beach Road Committee and the Board of Directors, and membership co-jointly.  Everybody had the attitude and the idea that this would be a completed project and possibly even paved this summer.  Well it’s not.  Now what we are sitting with is a road that its surface is nearly ready for paving.  When I say nearly, I want to emphasize that because it’s not quite.  There is some top dressing, some grading, some shaping that still needs to be done.  The question comes up now that if we took the lock off the gate and opened the gate, you could drive down to the parking lot, with a 2 wheel drive car.  But it is a rough rock road surface, not unlike a rock road or gravel road would be in some farming areas.  But our concern, in fact one of our ex-Beach Road Committee members called me the other day and said the tides are really nice right now and I would like to go crabbing and clamming.  But, I am too old and too decrepit to climb back up that road, can I drive down?  I said yes you could if we opened the gate, because the road is actually passable.  The problem is that if we open the gate up and let people drive up and down it this summer, our concern is that indiscriminate driving may tear up that road surface and then we will have an extra few thousand dollars of repairs to make before we can pave it.  In the middle of June we sent a letter to the contractor saying where you are.  Where did you go, what happened?  We gave you a punch list of items to be repaired, 9 of them in count, to be done by July 1^st.  We still haven’t heard from you, though items have not been taken care of.  Now we are expecting by July 1^st from you a response that will say when and how you are going to address these issues, and when they will be done.  If we don’t hear from you by August 1^st, we will assume that you have vacated the project; we will hire somebody else to finish the project and go from there.  Part of the contract, what the contractor called for was a 7½% hold back for repairs.  They were actually designed for warranty type issues that came up during the ensuing year after the project was completed.  We are holding $8,796 of the contractor’s money that we should have, or would have paid him, if it was all done and done right.  We are sitting on about $9000 of his money and we have 2 options.  I want to point out that when I say we are sitting on almost $9000 worth of funds, if you look at the Treasurer’s report that Irma just presented to you, you will see that it is really about $6000 in the bank.  There is a short fall there.  We owe the contractor about $8800 and there’s about $6600 in the bank; which means if we had to pay up today, on this spot, we would have to dig in our hip pockets and come up with a couple thousand dollars somewhere, because we don’t have $8800.  Right, but we don’t actually have it in the bank.  We have $6100 available to spend.  The question has come, and I will turn this over to Everett in a minute or two, now we have $6000 left, we’ve got some items that need to be finished up to get it fully ready for paving.  Since the contractor did not do his part in taking care of those items, we can hold that hold-back money for 1 year.  This means, we don’t owe him a dime until next March or April at the earliest.  By that time we will have another round of dues coming in and we will have the $8800 that we need.  But, we are of the opinion that we are not going to pay the contractor, period.  As far as we are concerned he just walked off the job.  It is our intent to use those funds to finish up the project and get it ready for paving.  Now the problem is, the paving we know from expense estimates that we got are somewhere in the $40,000/$50,000 range.  The problem is, in 2006, we still won’t have $50,000 in the Beach Road Account to pay for the paving unless we can get the approval from Board members and the membership to borrow that money, instead of waiting 2 or 3 years for the money to come in.  That’s the rabbit we have been chasing for the last 6 or 7 years, always waiting for cash flow to catch up with expense; and as we wait the expenses goes up.  Normally you would get $30,000 in funds for Beach Road each year from dues.  But, we have already gotten $8,000 of that, so that leaves us $22,000 coming.  So, with $22,000 coming with the $6000 that we have, gives us $28,000 to work with; far short of $50,000 to work with.  We don’t have this problem solved yet.  One of the problems and this goes back to what Les was saying and what Lew was inferring, and the next item on the agenda in New Business, is the Mussel Beach Road Committee. 

Everett – We need about $2000 of 1½ inch crush, just to get  the road with a little bit of crown in it, instead of a sally in it, and to bring it up to the edge of the culvert’s.  The sides need work and that’s another couple of thousand dollars.  If we were to put the 5/8 crush on now, which I don’t think we should do because I think it’s going to wash away.  If you look at the little bit he put on there, it is washing away.  We would hire an operator and a machine; we’re talking $9,000 to $10,000, to finish the job.  Now this is the money that we are supposed to not pay him the last 25% of, until he was done.  But because of certain individuals’ submarining the rest of us, that money got paid.  The hold back money was supposed to take care of any repairs after he was done for up to a year.  He does have a $12,000 bond.  My feeling is that we should approach attaching his bond to finish this road, and hold our $8,000 for any repairs this next winter.  I’ve talked to our lawyer and she tells me I’ve got to file suit to attach a bond, but I know that’s not right.  I am going to call L & I; they are the ones I talked to before about some of these things.  Then what I have to do is call the bond company and say we have a problem.  What generally happens then, if the bond company goes back and says – hey Jack you better go back and finish the work to their satisfaction or we will finish it and what ever you have up for collateral is gone and your next bond is going to cost you a lot more.  Remember, the last paving was an oil and chip that lasted 30 years.  The only reason it failed is because the drainage on the side did not take the water out; it undercut the bank, the bank fell.  (A lot of people talking over each other and couldn’t make out all that was said.)

Dave – The one thing we know is that we are going to move forward and tonight we are not going to really resolve a lot of those issues, other than talk about it and get a sense of direction.  Everett – There are no holding ponds in the parking lot.  The 2 stilling basins that are in there now are all that are required.  The later phases of this thing is to clean out the 2 ditches so we have some decent drainage, build up the parking lot 5 or 7 inches, according to the plans, and some new gravel on it.  Then there will be parking on it for half a dozen people on it.  I don’t think boats and trailers are going to be the big deal that everybody is trying to make it to be. 

Mussel Beach Road Committee:  Dave – At our last Board meeting we decided unanimously that the Beach Road Committee was no longer required and it was dissolved.  I think we need a smaller group of advisors, and I am talking about 3 or 4 people, who have some practical experience in that area and who are committed to working with the Board to getting the job done before the millennium comes again, and help to maintain the road.  People wanting to volunteer for this please let Everett know.

On Salal, this backs up to that property.  There is a hanger with an aircraft in it.  The gentleman who owns it wants to be able to taxi out of his hanger and taxi up to the airport and take off.  Unfortunately the person, who owns the property that has the easement going through it, doesn’t like that.  It is recorded with the County as a taxi easement.  But, this person has chained and gaited, the property has piled brush and piles of rock so that you can’t get out with the airplane.  So they are about ready to go to war.  Irv – That is a Court deal, not for SAPOA.  That is an easement that belongs to all of us.  Everett – State Law does not let Associations enforce covenants.  Dave – My point in bring the whole thing up is this some of the things that go on that are above and beyond the normal scope of SAPOA.  We only have 2 choices and one is – that’s not my job; two – we will try and help you out, but be aware that we have limited power and authority.  What we have been trying to do is play mediator or negotiator to get the two parties talking instead of suing.  So far we have been 98% successful.  The place was platted back in 61 or 62 and SAPOA came into existence 84 or so.  So, SAPOA was not put into the covenants.  There are other Associations in the state where the covenants include the Board of Directors, so they had some power to enforce their covenants.  We’re getting growth and some of it is easier to deal with than others.  Lew – The reason we (SAPOA) has to exist is common property.  If we didn’t have common property we could all go home and never come back.  We own the beach, we own 2 lots, we own a strip of land down along the end of Discovery Way and we own a settling pond – catch pond.  Larry Meier – I beg to differ with you a little bit.  Assume for a minute that SAPOA did not exist; that we could not get anybody to run for the Board that property would eventually revert to the County.  Everett – No, the County would sue us for not taking care of it.  Larry – Who are they going to sue, everybody? Everett – Yes.  They can start charging us if they end up taking care of it.  Dave – We got into a discussion about the Beach Road and why not just give it to the County.  That was one of the options.  We looked into that and the County said – We don’t want it.  Everett – Even if the County wanted it, it is part of all of our deeds and it takes 100% of the owners to agree to give that property away.  Dave – We are kind of wandering regarding this subject, but the bottom line is that there is a lot of imperfection in SAPOA, whether it is looking at By-Laws, Covenants, how things are done, how things are managed, and all we can promise you as a group is we will try to do the best we can to what we can with what we have.  Lew – I think one of the important aspects of SAPOA and the Board is not managing private property owners’ affairs or negotiating disputes, which we try to do; we’ve sent letters and such.  But, I think it is disseminating information.  Not too long ago there were reports of a vehicle that was suspected of stealing building materials and stuff; we have a reader board where we disseminate that kind of information.  It is part of us being good neighbors that we watch out for each other.  Like I had a neighbor that was gone for two weeks, and every day when I came home I drove around their house to make sure all the windows were still intact and the doors weren’t kicked in.  It is that kind of stuff; disseminating information, we are a central group that collects and disseminates, and that is an important function I feel.  Dave – If you go to the web site – www.sapoasequim.com – you can read about everything we have talked about tonight.  All the By-Laws and Covenants are there.  There are a lot of announcements; phone numbers, a notice of all of the meetings are there.  Somebody made a comment earlier about the details in the meetings; we try to get real detailed in those minutes.  I don’t know if you have ever tried to do that, but I know Kathleen and I have done it on a couple of occasions, but when you take a 3 hour meeting and try to go through it word for word, and usually you’ll do it 4 or 5 times before you get it right, you’ll ask yourself did we really say all that in half an hour, or 3 hours.  On a computer it’s not so bad, as you can do a lot of things in a short amount of time and it is easy for you to go in and download it, read it off the screen or whatever you want to do.  They are there for posterity too.  It sure makes it a lot easier then filing it in a box somewhere.  One other subject I want to throw out, just so it is common knowledge – we have a storage unit up by the airport, that has records in it going back quite some time.  We have about 10 or 12 years of records in that storage unite and it is time to clean it out.  We are going to try sometime this summer go in there and get rid of records and trash from 10 years ago.  We have ballots from 1998, and I don’t think any one wants them anymore. 

Open Discussion:  Enid Smith – I noticed that there were cables going across the road that you drive over.  Are they measuring traffic and where it goes?  Dave – The County every 5 years, I believe, comes out and does traffic surveys that use to project down stream when the next time is for resurfacing or maintaining the roads.  You know that Diamond Point is growing rapidly and the amount of traffic that is in here is double what it was a few years ago.  They are just counting the number of vehicles that goes down each road so that they can project when they will need to come out and put a new sealer on it 5 years from now, 2 years from now or 10 years.  That is what it is all about. 

 Barry – I just want to caution anyone that walks down the beach road to very careful.  The round rock was put all in one place and it rolls under your feet and can cause you to fall.  Dave – When you want to see what we are talking about when say culverts, road bed just go to the web site.  There are a lot of pictures, so you can tell what is going on.  Are there any other comments?  Kathleen – Is the siren going to be fixed so that it is louder, so we can hear it?  Everett – This is a siren that is very old.  It has been sitting for several years.  As it is used it will clean itself up and become a little louder, that is what the fire department is telling us.  It should cycle up and down.  Right now the cycler is broke, so they cycle it by hand when they run it.  That is supposed to be getting fixed fairly soon.  That is going to be used for a real emergency, so when you hear that siren go off, other than the Tuesday test, it is telling you that you probably need to listen to your Noah radio or realize there is an emergency going on.  You can get a Noah radio on the internet from Costco for about $30.  Some of the emergencies we could have are a Tsunami down below; earthquake for all of us; wildfires along Rhododendron, Madrona Way and Mussel Beach Road.  Michael Fitzwater – Talking about the fire hazard, which is the reason I wrote the letter to the SAPOA Board regarding the SAPOA lots in Plat 6.  We’ve been here 9 years and it has never been maintained.  The Scotch Broom was over grown and Mr. Stauffer went down last year and sprayed that.  This year we have a thistle problem.  We are going to have blowing seeds; it’s just a complete hazard.  I wrote that this be maintained, along with the retention pond.  You touched on it, but I didn’t hear any answer.  Is a vote necessary on that?  Dave – To answer your question, it is an expense.  It is beyond the scope of what one of us would do.  We would go out and hire someone to come in cut this brush and grass down.  But, it is within the budget and our professional services category.  It is something that should be decided by a voting group, like if we had a quorum tonight.  So we will have to address it at a Board Meeting.  There are many lots throughout Sunshine Acres with brush and grass that needs to be cut down, and it’s not.  The only answer to many of these problems and many of you won’t like the answer, and that’s continued development of the vacant lots in Sunshine Acres and eventually will cure some of the problems while it creates others.  When I moved here to Plat 5, most of the lots were vacant lots and they all had this problem.  Now there are maybe 1 or 2 vacant lots and most of the problems went away as people put houses up.  Attendee – Back to the Beach Road, how feasible would it be to just make it a hiking path instead of a road?

Meeting Adjournment:  The meeting was adjourned at 8:47pm.