UNIVERSITY HILLS ASSOCIATION OF HOMEOWNERS
MONTHLY BOARD MEETING
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2006


The meeting was called to order by the President, Arnold Martin, at 11:34 AM in the President's Room at the Las Colinas Country Club.

Board members present were: Arnold Martin, Charles Schmidt, Esther Nachimson, Jim Wells, Bob Kitzman, Nell Anne Hunt, Don Jensen, Martin Kahn and Don McGee.  New board members Barbara Hull and John De Marco were welcomed to the positions vacated by Craig Boleman and Chandra Muenster.
Board members not present were: Kass Prince, Scott Glover, and John De Marco.
A special welcome by all was extended to Bob Kitzman on his return from a period of convalescence after his operation.  

A copy of the minutes of the November board meeting (as posted on the website) were passed out and read by the board.  There were some corrections.  Don McGee made a motion to accept the November minutes as amended.  Bob Kitzman seconded the motion.  The motion passed. The corrected minutes were to be posted to the website as final.

In the absence of the treasurer, Arnold Martin gave an abbreviated financial report.  There was no change in the C D account and the November closing balance for the Checking acct was $9,086.38 with one deposit for $829.19 and five checks for $480.35. Discussions during the November BOD meeting, led by Don McGee, had requested Arnold to check with Bank of the West about the possibility of " pre-paying" the Credit Card account to avoid incurring late fees. Arnold reported that he had contacted Dodie at the Bank of the West about this.  The Bank couldn't set that up and the credit card company would need to be contacted. A. Martin moved acceptance of the treasurer's report. This was seconded by Don McGee and the motion was passed.

Martin opined DECK THE HILLS was the best ever.  He commented this was a real gift to our neighborhood and to the city.  To make things perfect, even the weather co-operated and there was a full moon over the manger.  Two UH families, the Parishes on Durango and the Cinkus' on Hidalgo provided the infants for the manger. Even the camels seemed to enjoy coming because the hay was good and the children enjoyed feeding them. How special!!  (Among the notables in attendance were the newly elected Las Colinas Assn. President Rick Bidne and his wife Chris.)

Nell Anne applauded the families who supported the DTH project with special donations, the John DeMarcos, the Lewis Walkers and the Filbecks.  Don McGee asked for a special thanks to contractor, Dallas fireman, Steve Maddox for his invaluable contribution of time and energy in wiring the trees, & repairing and setting up the lighted displays in DECK THE HILLS. The sound system provided by resident Leo Hull and his Texas Blues Machine set the tone for the evening.  For the first time ever the chorus from Farine Elementary could be heard in all its glory.  Special favors were passed out for the children. The new Farine choir director was favorably impressed with the set-up. Refreshments were provided once again by the Martin family.  Because of record attendance, however, we ran out of both refreshments and favors before the evening was over.  

A recommendation was made by Nell Anne to start as early as possible to plan for the updating of the electrical infrastructure.  Don McGee suggested that the people who worked on DTH meet 1 hour before the regular meeting on January 9 to critique and fine tune options for next year.  He also suggested going to BIG LOTS and check for close- outs on outdoor light sculptures, etc.  

Bob Kitzman reported that the block chiefs were experiencing a 10 week delay in gathering all of the information needed for the publication of our UHAOH directory.  They are pushing for a target of no less than 90% of resident participation.  The committee met on Dec. 1 and will meet again on Dec. 15 to determine what else is needed.  Nell Anne suggested holding a contest of artwork from our children to use on the cover of the directory.  After all the data is gathered, help is needed for data entry and to edit the data.

Charles Schmidt reported that a new fountain has been installed in Old Rochelle Park Lake by DCURD (the UH Neighborhood now has three fountains.)  Also, the Las Colinas Assn now has the Las Colinas centerpiece floral clock repaired and back up and running in all its glory.

Charles, who is our designated liaison to the City of Irving, reported that we are in STAGE 3 of water conservation. Fines may be imposed on persons who do not follow the prescribed watering times. He reported Lake Chapman, Irving's primary bulk water source is nearly dry, requiring the City to purchase more water from the City of Dallas at a higher cost.  

Too many households who put their garbage out on Friday when there is not garbage pick up, do not bring it in and it stays on the curbs until Tuesday.  This is not the image we want for University Hills.  It was agreed this needs to be addressed by the code enforcement department.

Pat Andres was appointed to investigate the best group to install new house numbers on the curbing.  Boy Scout Troop 508 gave the best bid of $9.00 per home for a turn-key job. The paint will be luminous green on luminous white background.  There is no need to obtain permission from the homeowners because the numbers will be placed on curbs which are City of Irving property.    The Board agreed that this would be a good project to request Community Partnership Grant participation. Charles had checked with the City and was told this idea would qualify for an application to go forward. U H would be competing with all other neighborhood assn's for grant monies, so there's no guarantee the application will be successful.  Esther Nachimson motioned that Charles start the application for this grant.  Barbara Hull seconded the motion.  The motion passed.

Judging of home Christmas lighting will be on Wednesday evening, December 13.  The 10 categories to be judged were listed in the minutes of November.  

The next board meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 9, 2007 in the President's Lounge of the Las Colinas Country Club beginning at 11:30. There will be an earlier special committee meeting at 10:30 to critique the DECK THE HILLS.  Anyone is welcome to come to the meeting.  Those who are planning to eat lunch, please come at 11:00 o'clock so that you can place your orders before the meeting begins.  

Respectfully submitted,


Esther Nachimson
Secretary