Meeting minutes

      Lord Road Association

Lord Road Association
2022 Annual Meeting
9:30 AM, July 15, 2023
Location - Ellis Residence, 1031 Lord Road, Sanbornville, NH

Paul Romano, President, opened the meeting at 9:30 AM with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Paul Romano, President - Noted that we had a legal quorum.

28 households were in attendance.

Jill Mailhoit, Secretary report has been posted on our website for ample time to review.  No amendments or corrections were noted. The minutes were accepted and approved by attending members.

Elizabeth Conner presented the Treasurer’s report.  The Profit & Loss report was reviewed and Elizabeth noted that we have received $7,200 in matching funds for the paving project.  Elizabeth discussed our annual expenses to include brush trimming, plowing contract, road repairs which have been extensive due to heavy rain washouts, cost of speed bumps & signage and website fees.  We collected on 2 delinquent properties this past year, due to sales of the properties.  This coming year’s expenses are calculated that we will have $15,000 in the bank at the end of this fiscal year. The report was accepted and approved by the attending members after much discussion by some members, to include:

David Doyle: Road maintenance and bush trimming not being done past Camp Road, members are not getting services at the end of Lord Road.  This is the worst I’ve seen the roads in 35 years, what is repairs and maintenance totals?

Paul Romano: We’ve had extensive water damage due to rain; we will be purchasing rip rap for the sides of the road in certain spots.  Elizabeth Conner noted that a lot of repair work is being done, we had a lot of trees come down from snowstorms last winter and there are things that were out of Robbie’s contract that he billed us for.

Lou Sciortino: New paving questions that Sam Crowley answered.  Paving was done lump sum, and all was verified by Sam, there were 2 tree stumps under the existing paving that had to be removed at an extra cost. Two inches of asphalt was put on top of the shim.

Paul Romano: We increased the gravel budget for this year to keep up with maintenance of the roads, the roads are getting more use.  Paul noted that at the PRP meeting it was noted that 1/3 of membership is full-time residents which is a trend for the LRA also.

Lou Sciortino: Do we have a “reserve account?  Paul noted that our reserve fund has no limit, we use it for emergency use.  The board votes on any emergency funds that are used.

Steve Krawic: Is there a revision for Bad Debt?  Elizabeth noted that we don’t recognize that money into our yearly budget.

David Doyle: Where are the speed bumps? This was tabled for Sam Crowley’s report.

Lou Sciortino: Would like to have a spreadsheet with a 12-month review.  Elizabeth noted that most of the expenses happen in the summer months except for Robbie’s contract payments, so there is not a need to itemize expenses out on a monthly spreadsheet.  Paul stated our budget is small for our association and we never refuse to release monthly information if asked, we are very open to expense questions.  Elizabeth stated that bills are paid when they come in.

Cindy Pfeiffer: Who determines about clean out the turnouts? This is done and decided by Sam and Robbie with Cindy’s input.

How do we collect the past dues that are owed?  The answer was that this is the effort of the Board.

 

Election of Officers:

Paul Romano noted that the following positions are up for re-election:  President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer.  All committee members are willing to stay on except Joe Carriere, Vice President position, Joe expressed to the board that he was stepping down, thanks to Joe for the knowledge he brought to our board.  Sam Crowley is running for the open Vice President position and Justin Kelly for a Directors position, this was accepted and approved by the attending members after discussion.

Ed Hanlon:  Nominated Andrew Baranowski as a Director / Lou Sciortino seconds the motion.

Lou Sciortino: Nominated Joe Carriere for president with a letter delivered from Joe.

Paul Romano read the letter from Joe Carriere which stated he would accept the Presidency of the Lord Road Association if so nominated and elected.  This willingness to serve was contingent upon certain conditions.  Discussion ensued about the contingent conditions that Joe Carriere listed.  It was determined that these contingent conditions would not be met as at least one Officer would not serve under Joe Carriere.  Paul Romano stated that in his opinion, the nomination of Joe Carriere was not valid based on Joe Carrier’s unmet contingent conditions.  Paul Romano asked if there was any disagreement from anyone at the meeting, there was none.  Paul Romano then asked if there were any other nominations from the floor, which there were none.  The meeting voted unanimously to accept the original list of persons nominated.  That final list was: Paul Romano, President; Sam Crowley, Vice President; Jill Mailhoit, Secretary; Elizabeth Conner, Treasurer: Directors: Nancy Clifford, Cindy Pfeiffer, Justin Kelly and Andrew Baranowski.  Paul Romano stated that he thought there was no need for a ballot election and asked the meeting for a voice vote to approve the board of Officers.  The vote was made unanimously by the attending members.

General Road Report by Sam Crowley and Cindy Pfeiffer:

Sam: We didn’t get to do everything that’s needed to be done because of the rain, we have done the grading & speed bumps are going down this week. It was noted by a member that we need to widen the speed bumps so people can’t go around them (so noted).  Dustless will go down next week weather permitting, from Camp Road to Savini home, that is what we have already purchased from last year’s budget.  There is no need to close the road down for this application, it will be sprayed on one lane at a time.  This product is not corrosive, it needs to be absorbed into the gravel, and it doesn’t freeze.  There is no maintenance involved with this product.  The expense has gone up since we first purchased it, and we will re-evaluate it in time and then make a decision on how it’s working going forward.  We will have enough to re-treat the same section next year as this is an annual application.  This is OK for the watershed.  Paul noted that we will re-evaluate in time to see how well it worked and decide if it’s worth it to continue.

David Doyle: Speed bumps should be moved to where there are more homes.

Mr. Rochenski: How did you decide where to place speed bumps?  Sam chose these by where drivers are speeding, and Sam will look at locations by population.

Lou Sciortino: Can we roll crushed gravel? / Sam- no plan to roll it.

Lorri Carriere: What is being done in the section by Adessa’s coming down the hill to the ramp where it’s washed out on the sides of the road?  Sam- we are going to put gravel there and a new turnout.

Jay Anderson: When are we going to look at culverts?  Paul – We have Grant money coming through AWWA, Sam is doing the engineering for this now.  Cindy – There is 319 Grant money, for the ramp area in the amount of $15,000, we must come to a resolution with the funds and utilize it in full.  $15K won’t even cover Phase I.  Phase I is the removal of the pine tress on the corner and put in concrete soakers across from the ramp and gravel.  The estimated cost of Phase I is $30,000+, and we need to spend the grant money by the end of 2024. Cindy and others are forming a fundraising committee with the PRA and the PRP to raise the rest of the funds that are over the amount of the Grant.  Sam- is engineering 2 concrete soakers with stone & a catch basin, to reduce the sediment.  Phase II hoping to pave that intersection / Phase III pave from Savini’s and up to Mailhoit’s, this section can’t hold off the run-off as it is.

Kathy Locurto: Can we be sued for wash out ditches? Sam – nothing is bad enough to worry about that happening.  Kathy- We are getting flooded in our yard, will this plan help with that?  Sam – yes

Sam- Phase II & Phase III and beyond we will reapply for more funding.  The question was asked “who will do the maintenance on this?  Sam- if paved it will last 50 years, every 2-3 years will have to “suck out” the silt, this will be paid with ramp funds.  Cindy noted that the boat launch is privately owned, and the Lake Community benefited because of the launch.

Wendy Krussman: Are we a 501 3c?  There would be more avenues to raise funds if we were.  Elizabeth will look into this. Wendy will work with Cindy on ideas for fundraising.

David Doyle: Why don’t we get money for the extra traffic due to the boat launch or have them use Pray Hill.  Paul – how would we enforce that?

Lou Sciortino:  I was an engineer and would like to meet with Sam to discuss design.

Dar Ellis:  Will need organized funding for this, $17,000 is not attainable.  Paul – this is lake wide not just the LRA.  Cindy – this will go through all lake residents.

Cindy Pfeiffer:  Weed Control / Invasive Bladder Wort is in Pine River Pond; we could use more people to work with us to spot and patrol.  We have a Weed Watch Committee and are always looking for more help, it’s a commitment of approximately 1 day per month. Contact Cindy for more information. clpfeiffer9@gmail.com

Bylaws:

Paul Romano noted that the Board did a lot of work on revising the Bylaws and unfortunately the most current version was not the one that went out by email.  The Board will get together to finalize and resend to members.  Any thoughts or suggestion by members will need to be put in writing and emailed to Paul at paulromano@pipeline.com.  This is still a work in progress.

Dues Structure:

Paul Romano – Per our members input over the past years we have changed our dues structure.  This year is the last time you will see a graduated payment.  We looked at this to include services for all branch roads to include Lake & Grenier as stated by our bylaws.  Previously Lake Rd. paid $220 and Grenier Rd. paid $200 to their own road committee for plowing.  The expense to include these 2 additional roads was calculated with estimates and added to our current budget and divided by the number of households.  The tentative new rate for everyone starting next year will be $386 per household.  This number was based on budget numbers right now.

Cindy noted that Camp Rd residents paid out of pocket for gravel put in front of there homes.  David Doyle noted that they had to bring the end of Lord Road up to par years ago, which they paid out of pocket for.

Curt Curtis:  Would like to see what the changes will be in writing and would like to see us have more left over in the budget going forward, suggest forming a committee.  Paul agreed to look into this with the board.

Lou Sciortino:  Who owns the road?  Paul noted that Jason Irving owns most of the road.


Paul Romano asked if there was any other business, and nothing was brought up.

 
Paul Romano adjourned the meeting at 11:40am.

Meeting minutes submitted by Jill Mailhoit, LRA Secretary and approved by the Board of Directors

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