UNIVERSITY HILLS ASSOCIATION OF HOMEOWNERS

MINUTES OF BOARD MEETING

JULY 1, 2008

The meeting was called to order by the president, Arnold Martin, at 11:37 A.M. Board members present were: Arnold Martin, Kass Prince, Esther Nachimson, Charles Schmidt, John DeMarco, Don Jensen, Jim Wells, Martin Kahn, Bob Kitzman, Linda Oliver, Barbara Hull and Anna Walther.   Members not present were Don McGee Nell Anne Hunt, Pat Andres and Fred Odell.

Arnold noted the minutes of the last meeting were posted on the internet.  John DeMarco motioned to approve the minutes  Linda Oliver seconded the motion.  The motion passed.

The treasurer, Kass Prince,  passed out the monthly financial statement.  She explained that checks posted after May 3 have not been posted. A $400 grant proposal from the City of Irving needs to be needs to be turned in by September 1.  A discussion followed on various ways the money can be properly utilized.  Linda Oliver, membership chair, stated that of the 22 entities who purchased ads in our new directory, 16 have paid for them.  There were 2 comps. Linda was applauded for her efforts.  Approval of the treasurer’s report was  unanimously passed by the board.

The Fourth of July Great Flag Caper is on target.  The flags are being staked in the villages in Las Colinas, the entire length of MacArthur Boulevard  and many of areas of the city with active homeowners associations.  The finale will be at Nell Anne’s home at 7:00 P.M. on July 3 for a pot luck dinner. 

Charles Schmidt reported the location for the new aquatic center is Town Lake in west Irving.  The location at Jackie Townsley Park was considered but the city arborist said is would be necessary to destroy too many large oak trees.

The park board met and chose the name of our new park planned at Northgate and Rochelle.  The name will be Northgate Park.

Posters for our residents to sign up for different committees were blown away and rained on at the Spring Fling. After refurbishing, Jim Wells will be posting them on our UHAOH website.  Hopefully they will be ready to be displayed at Nell Anne’s party on the 3^rd.  Volunteers are urgently needed and can contact Arnold or any of our board members. John DeMarco recommended we include replicas of the posters in the notices to be sent out this month for our Green Neighbor Program along with a sheet for the flag display program sponsored by the Rotary Club and Boy Scouts of America.

Charles motioned to include the posters, the flag and the new brochure along with the green program sheet and a dues notice only for those with unpaid dues.  Esther seconded the motion.  The motion passed.

Charles reported that our medallion for our Green Neighbor Program was enthusiastically received at a recent state meeting hosted in Irving at the Keep Texas Beautiful Conference. Everyone was asking for one and they ran out of samples.

The board was reminded there will be no trash pick up on Friday, July 4.  Signs will be placed to notify homeowners.

Linda Oliver stated that there are 303 paid members, the most we have ever had. 

Jim Wells is sorry Ann Aghassibake would not be involved with the membership directory next year.  She had updated and perfected the macros for it and has turned them over to Jim to be used next year.  She was given a warm hand of applause for all her hard work.

News items of importance to our UHAOH people are needed for inclusion in our monthly newsletter, The Beacon.  You may call or e-mail Jim with your news items.

Jim stated immediately after printing the directory we had 35 invalid email addresses.  It is important for efficient communication for Jim to have up to date addresses.  These residents will have an opportunity to correct this with our mailing.

Jim asked Anna Walther if the beautiful brochure she made for UHAOH was in electronic form to able to be placed on our website.  She said it was.

Arnold's reported receipt of an email from Dave Evans of the City of Irving  about their proposed installation of a sidewalk along the north side of Northgate between O'Connor and Mrs. Glatter's house. Arnold then asked the board to approve his responding to the email to say that UHAOH did not recommend installation of a sidewalk there. Instead our association recommended installation of sidewalks in other parts of UH, e.g. San Jose. (Bob Kitzman's committee on UH Infrastructure made a detailed recommendation to the City last September.) 

Bob Kitzman said that the police department had been monitoring the speed of autos after 7:30 AM on Rochelle and Northgate.  He is working with The University of Dallas and Rick Bidne to devise a workable plan for the use of our streets to lessen in intrusion of too much semi trailer traffic.  He noted that a complete ban on the big trucks would not be feasible and to expect something better than zero tolerance.  We need to turn our attention to the broader picture as everyone is affected.  Rick Bidne will be talking to the city officials.  It appears that the construction will begin around the first of the year.

The University of Dallas is presently on board with the project  as they have signed a contract to allow exploration on UD property. They received $5,000.00 per acre, plus 25% of production revenue. How this will affect UH has very interesting possibilities and we are urged not to be to hasty in finalizing any agreement.  The best approach is a "wait and see" position.