UNIVERSITY HILLS ASSOCIATION OF HOMEOWNERS
MONTHLY BOARD MEETING: DECEMBER 11, 2007
The meeting was called to order by the president, Arnold Martin, promptly at 11:30 A.M. in the Grill Room of the Las Colinas Country Club. Board members present were: Arnold Martin, Charles Schmidt, James Wells, Barbara Hull, Bob Kitzman, Anna Walther, Nell Anne Hunt, Don Jensen, and John De Marco. Board members not present were: Kass Prince, Kent Smith, Martin Kahn, Don McGee, and Esther Nachimson.Committee Chairs present were: Linda Oliver. Committee Chairs not present were: Pat Andres, Jennifer Davis, and Ann Aghassibake.
The minutes of the board meeting in November were posted on the UH website and presumed read by all the board members. John motioned the minutes be approved with a correction to the number of homes in UH that are 40 years of age or older. The motion passed.Inasmuch as the Treasurer was not present at the meeting, there were no financial reports to review.
Arnold asked about additional capabilities of the A-D system. Jim advised the A-D in basic mode already records the outcome of each telephone call. In addition, there are options to respond but we choose not to use these for major events because the span of time required in contacting almost 500 homes would be too great.On other communication matters, Jim called everyone’s attention to the Real Estate Report (two versions) on the UH website. These were updated earlier in the week; it now shows the average sales price for UH homes sold YTD in 2007 as $105/Sq. Ft.
John remarked that distribution of THE BEACON electronically and through the Block Captains now provides us with a marvelous opportunity to increase our communications with homeowners about matters of interest. In this connection Arnold asked Nell Anne Hunt if she might lend her journalistic talents to THE BEACON each month so that it might become even more informative and newsworthy to UH residents to which entreaty Nell Anne graciously agreed.
Charles Schmidt reported on the results of this year’s Green Neighbor Program. All in all some 54 homeowners in UH (20 in Area A, 12 in Area B, and 22 in Area C) had qualified to become Green Neighbors in 2007. This was most gratifying as it served to demonstrate the positive interest in environmentally friendly home practices in almost 12 % of UH. This exceeds our initial goal of 10 % and bodes well for the program as it develops in future years.
Charles advised that TLCA will be sponsoring another Green Neighbor Program in 2008 and proposed a booth be installed at the UH Spring Fling event in May to present the Green Neighbor opportunity to others in UH. All were in accord with this plan.
Charles led a discussion about the items on the list of possible actions for enhancing UH values that had been circulated at a prior meeting and had been emailed to everyone on December 5th. Each board member was canvassed for their top six action items with the president abstaining. Charles did the polling and items # 1, 2, 5, 6, 12, and 13 received the most votes. Charles then proposed these six action items become formal objectives for our association in calendar year 2008 to which all agreed. While spirits were high and enthusiasm abundant, Charles and Jim assigned leadership roles to the actions items as follows:
12. Strengthen the Block Captain Network: Anna, Kent, and John
2. Encourage the City of Irving to toughen code enforcement in UH: Arnold
13. Seek to obtain more resident input and participation in our homeowners association: Charles
In the absence of Pat Andres, Charles outlined this year’s Holiday Lighting Contest. Pat and her committee will conduct its judging on Saturday, December 15th, between the hours of 7 and 9 P.M. Awards will be made in nine categories.
Don Jensen advised that the Rotary Club was in process of selecting a Boy Scout Troop to implement a Flag Display Program for individual homeowners in UH. More than several residents had indicated their interest in the program after Don’s promotional address at the AGM. Don hopes to distribute detailed application form in the not too distant future as the flags are put on display 5 times each year starting in May.
In response to a question from John about the Director for Community Relations at TLCA, Arnold advised that Mr. Rick Bidne will handle the position while a replacement for Ms. Susan High is being recruited.
Bob Kitzman reported on recent developments in the Las Colinas Urban Center and its environs. In contrast to the "buzz" that abounded earlier in the year with many new projects being discussed, all seems to have gone quiet with the developers. The recent announcement by DART of a 1-2 year delay and a $900 million increase in the estimated expenditure for the LRT through Irving will undoubtedly wreak havoc with the planning of many projects. Another troubling issue is the negative opinion rendered by the US Army Corps of Engineers about the adequacy of levees along the Trinity River. If affirmed, this could affect the scope of many of the projects as currently planned. A third issue bearing on the situation is that David Leininger, Director of Finance and Development for the City of Irving, is on the short list of candidates being considered for the City Manager in Fort Worth. His departure could inhibit progress as he has been intimately involved with many of the project plans and financial arrangements.
Bob related another unfavorable indicator: The article about Las Colinas in last Sunday’s Dallas Morning News contained a quote from TLCA about Water Street, the project sited directly across from Williams Square. Instead of an expenditure of $ 375 million and a completion date in 2009, the article cited $215 million and year 2011.
Bob suggested we all we stay tuned but be at the ready. In this latter connection, Bob, Arnold, Don and others are in a contingent of civic leaders from Irving who will be attending the DART meeting in Dallas later today. Don Jensen commented that Bob’s report was most interesting and added that the developments at the Airport Freeway (RTE 183) and Carpenter Freeway (RTE 114) interchange may also be subject to delay.
Respecting the Deck The Hills event held on December 3rd, Arnold called for a round of applause for Barbara Hull in appreciation for her stellar efforts in organizing such a wonderful winter holiday celebration. Barbara modestly accepted this praise and noted that she had large shoes to fill after Nell Anne’s many years of success with this event.
Barbara requested everyone’s critique of the event as she wished to make next year’s Deck The Hills even better yet. She also asked about the cost/benefit of the live animals she had arranged to be present for that evening as these animals are a major expense.
In addition Barbara noted that rats had severely damaged the wiring on several of the lighting displays while they were in storage. Our electrician, Steve, has deemed them beyond repair so a budget item will need to be raised to replace them.
Charles confirmed that there won’t be judging for Yard of the Month in December. As per our custom, the Holiday Lighting Contest awards will take precedence.
John reported that several road signs announcing recent UHAOH events had gone missing while on display. The signs for NO GARBAGE COLLECTION on the Friday after Thanksgiving were not affected. However, we incurred a loss of one Annual Membership Meeting sign and four Deck The Hills signs. Arnold thought there might be some misunderstanding with the City of Irving Code Enforcement about signs planted in the medians. He will check on this with Teresa Adrian prior to the deployment of signs in the future.
In response to a request from Arnold, John re-iterated that Ann Aghassibake had generously volunteered to assist in production of the 2008 UH Directory. Ann had worked with Bob on the 2007 UH Directory so she is well acquainted with our requirements as well as having superior database management skills. Jim suggested efforts be focused firstly on the strengthening of the network of Block Captains as they are critical to the timely collection of data for the directory. Any deficiencies here will prolong the process unduly and make the directory information less relevant.
Arnold commented about the recent Annual General Meeting held at the Las Colinas Country Club on November 13th. The meeting can be considered a success as those in attendance thought the proceedings went well with awards, announcements, and the election of new officers. However, the limited space made available to us by LCCC was not consonant with our efforts to increase the attendance at these meetings of all the members of UHAOH.
Under new business Arnold and Charles brought forth the impending end January deadline to apply for a Neighborhood Association grant from the City of Irving. Some initial suggestions were made, e.g. use the funds toward publication of our neighborhood directory or for the refurbishment of the Deck The Hills lighting displays. But these were deemed to be inappropriate by Charles as he thought the City was looking to fund new projects such as our Curb Numeral Painting done in 2007 or the entry signage and floral landscaping done on Rochelle in the prior year.
Arnold enjoined all to come to the next meeting with some bona fide proposals for a grant application so that it might be submitted within the deadline.
Linda Oliver advised that the notice for Membership Dues in 2008 would be sent out to all residents before yearend.
The next board meeting will be held at the LCCC on January 8, 2008 inasmuch as the first Tuesday in January is a holiday.
With no other business to conduct, Arnold made a motion to close the meeting. It was seconded by Don Jensen. The motion passed and the meeting was adjourned at 1:07 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
John De Marco on behalf of
Esther Nachimson