DATE: 12/6/05

Board Members present: Tom Hauck, Drew Bratton, Bob Flower, Maggie Frantz, Bill Sommers, Lowell Kennedy, Carol-Ann Greenslade

Board Members absent: Ingram Austin, Bob Oram

Other residents present: Jim Granger, Joyce Kennedy, Marilyn Band, Jim Ackerman, Gillian Cell, Ruth Kreisman

The meeting was called to order by President Tom Hauck at 7 pm in the Gathering Place.

The official copy of the newly amended By-Laws was signed by all Board members present at the meeting.

The minutes from the regular November FHA meeting and the 11/13/05 FHA annual meeting were approved as published. Bill Sommers made the motion, Bob Flower seconded it and it passed unanimously.

The following reports were presented at the meeting:


President – Tom Hauck

This will be our final Board meeting in 2005 and my final Board meeting on this side of the table. Drew will take over as President beginning with our next Board meeting.

My purpose tonight is to say how quickly the last 8760 hours has passed and how much I appreciate the work of the members of the Board and the Committees.

Each person accomplished the objectives of the position with Drew Bratton as Vice President and Bill Sommers as Intergovernmental Liaison doing much more than their job description called for. Bob Flower was constantly in the background as Treasurers usually are, keeping track of the money and paying bills flawlessly. Maggie, our secretary, saved my hide on numerous occasions with her unfailing hard work and good humor. In fact, everyone has helped each other.

Ingram Austin and Carol-Ann Greenslade as Financial Officer and Grounds & Facilities respectively jumped in with both excellent feet during the year to take over after Jim Pomroy and Ron Boyington had to step aside.

Bob Oram took care of the most contentious covenant matters very quickly and quietly and I am thankful for the peace.

Edie Lange handled the many contacts at the Gathering Place very efficiently. Edie is going away for the holidays and Lowell Kennedy has kindly agreed to take over the Gathering Place duties a month early. Thank you Lowell.

I thank Cynthia Jones very profusely as she not only has continued in the position for four years but her hard work and unfailing good humor stayed with her the entire time.

Outside the Board, I continually abused the good will and helpful services of Vince Collura, Bob Comey, Clairbeth Lehn, Richard Bird, and Art DeLuca as well as many others.

All of us in Fearrington are lucky to have these, and many other volunteers, helping to make our life as good as it is.

Despite being on the opposite sides of the Incorporation issue, thank you to RB for his unfailing courtesy during the year.

Finally, I hope that I can be as good an ex President to Drew as Jerry Gaudet has been to me. Jerry has always given his excellent advice when I called him and not a minute before.

Thank you also to all the residents who called with advice, suggestions and demands. I did not always agree but I always learned.

Vice President—Drew Bratton

Quality of Life programs. The programs I participated in during the month of Nov. are the following. These comments are summary comments and do not represent final detailed information and follow-up activities for each program.

Service Meeting. This past month the quarterly service meeting was held with all of the representatives from the service groups in attendance. This was the final meeting for the year. A summary of the FHA activities was presented with the service representatives covering each of their neighborhoods.

Tag Sale Proposal The Camden Board has made a request to try out a map mail box idea for all of Fearrington Village. A large mail box will be purchased from Lowe’s and placed next to the newspaper machines located behind the Gathering Place and close to Fearrington Cares. The box will distribute maps for visitors to Fearrington showing the location of the house having the estate sale. We will try this idea for 6 months and then determine next steps.

FHA Office. Pat Harkins, Volunteer Office Manager has been away this month so these are best estimate numbers. Total copies for the month of Nov. were 37,616 Total income for the month was $ $194.60. 120 Faxes were sent for revenue of $120.00. A special thanks to Bert Crouchley for his assistance while Pat was away having a much needed vacation.

25th Silver Anniversary. . Bob Comey and his team are contacting residents to develop this communication. Marva Price and her team are contacting people who may have items we could put on display in the Gathering Place covering our 25 years of FHA governance. If you have any information you could contribute please feel free to contact either of them.

Community Watch Program Gillian Cell and myself met with Art DeLuca to review how the existing FHA Block Captain program could assist the Community Watch program. Gillian is reviewing this need and will advise next month her program. Four Community Watch signs will be placed through out Fearrington Village in January indicating Fearrington Village has a Community Watch Program. Current proposed locations are: Village Way west of Windstone, Village Way & Lassiter, Weathersfield & Caswell and a sign located on Millcroft. This program welcomes all concerned and interested residents to participate.

Let me end this report by indicating we do not have a Secretary for the board position for the ’06 Board Year. We need your help to have a volunteer step forward and assist with this most important function. If we are not able to have a resident perform this task, we will be forced to use alternative solutions until such time as we have a board secretary.

(Note: Since the meeting occurred, Joanne Flower has volunteered her time to become Secretary for the FHA. We all thank her very much.)

Financial Officer—Ingram Austin

On Thursday, December 1st, volunteers Al & Peg Perlman, John Dopler, Richard Bird, Margaret Geoghegan, Julia Salsbury, Christie Austin and I, inserted 1,040 dues notices for 2006 into envelopes, labeled and stamped them. They were mailed Friday, December 2nd. Many were received on the 3rd as I have received several phone calls for clarification especially with respect to sales that are scheduled to close this month. I particularly want to thank all the volunteers for their efforts. They did a fabulous job in completing a tedious job. Their help demonstrates how volunteers help to keep HOA dues at a low level.

January 1st is the due date for annual dues and we are hoping that homeowners will pay their dues on time.

Treasurer – Bob Flower

For the month of October income totaled $6,710. The majority of that is from user fees collected for the upcoming year. Monthly expenses were $10,031 primarily from the FHA Office, Gathering Place and Grounds & Facilities. The detail breakdown of expenses is shown in Table 3 attached to this report. The balance in our checking account as of October 31, 2005 was $8,902.34

Our liquid assets total $181,484.30 with details by account in the attached Table 4.

Table 5 shows September Income and Expense in the Monthly Summary Report and is for posting in the kiosks and at the FHA Office bulletin board.

The year-end totals for 2005 will be available in January 2006 after the books close on December 31 of this year. That report will be submitted for FHA Board review in mid-January in preparation for reporting at the public board meeting in February 2006.

Grounds and Facilities – Carol-Ann Greenslade

1. Waiting for status updates from DOT, Robert Flynn & John Covington re: tree removal, road reflectors, Smokehouse kiosk drip cap, Weathersfield Walkway painting of the Smokehouse kiosk, and repairs to the siding at the GP & S&C kiosk.

2. Met with Bert Bowe from the Camden Board, with Drew & Tom re: request for FHA to take over the Camden kiosk. It was the feeling of all 3 on the FHA Board, that for the sake of consistence, we would not take over any facilities that we didn’t own the ground upon which they stand.

3. Additional landscaping was purchased and installed by Fearrington Cares on 12/1. 4Ever Green has been notified of same, &will mulch & maintain that landscaping per our existing contract with them.

4. The Adopt-A-Highway file has been turned over to incoming Community Affairs Director Gillian Cell. We have one volunteer, Evy Barrow. We need someone to chair and recruit, if we want to be involved in this project. This is an excellent opportunity for those concerned with the state of our surroundings to participate 4 times a year.

5. The Reserve Fund Committee will be meeting on 12/15. We welcome suggestions from the community for adding and/or enhancing amenities in FV. Assuming that we will have some resolution of the Beaver Pond situation in 2006, my goal will be to enhance that area as a destination stop on our proposed walking trail/path system. Grounds & Facilities will be working closely with both the Safety Committee and Walk Fearrington in that regard.

Intergovernmental Liaison Director – Bill Sommers

Since presenting the overall activity report to the Annual Meeting on November 13, 2005 I have the following additional items to report.

1. Chatham County Water Utility: When an 8 inch water main on Millcroft broke open in the early evening of November 30, nearly all of Fearrington Village lost its water supply. The County Water Utility Department responded upon receiving the first of nearly 200 calls about the break and traced it to that part of Millcroft Road adjacent to Fitch Creations construction site. The crews shut down the main at the intersection of East Camden and Weathersfield and, on the other end, at the shut off unit just beyond the break at the next intersection while at the same time opening up a by-pass so that most of the water was restored to Fearrington Village by about 10 PM. Work continued through the night to extract the broken pipe section and replace it with a new section while redoing the original tap to prevent further breaks,

The County Water Utility is current investigating the actual cause of the break since it occurred at the point where, a few weeks prior, the water contractor for Fitch Creations made an authorized tap in the 8 in main to service a 6 inch main to service new home construction in that area. Our thanks to Will Baker, Roy Lowder and other staff members for their quick – and effective – response.

Another item on water refers to the NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC received by all of the Chatham County water customers in their current billing, including at least 5,109 customers existing at the end of the FY05, including 1,065 in Fearrington Village. This notice is based on two testing samples, one taken in January and one in July, 2005. The reading given by the DWQ is based on the presence of an organic compound in .01 parts per million which is non-threatening and a border-line result in terms of testing and reporting. Moreover, the DWQ took nearly a year to act on the January sample regarding so-called non-compliance with total organic carbon removal ratios and nearly six months on the second sample. All other samples were clear and accepted. The Chatham County Water Utility Director assures Fearrington residents that the water is safe and the Utilities Department is focusing more closely on the continuing level of water quality as well as more frequent sampling & reporting procedure. It should be noted that the January sample was taken before the current Utility Director was hired.

2. Preparation for Public Hearing on December 13, 2005 authorized by the NCDivision of Water Quality (DWQ) re Briar Chapel application for a Section 401 Water Quality Certification: Through FHA notification was sent to all interested Fearrington residents for a meeting on November 30, 2005 to discuss procedure and process for presentations at the upcoming hearing. Thirty sets of information packets were copied by FHA Gathering Place staff, which included the original Public Notice, the FHA responses to both the Corps of Engineers and the DWQ, other detailed papers and the DWQ notice sent to abutter’s on the hearing. Some 30 residents came to the meeting and discussed the details of the Briar Chapel application and decided on a course of action. The FHA intergovernmental liaison agreed to email a draft hearing statement proposal for comment to a group of residents who have followed this proceeding from the beginning. The draft was emailed on 12/405. Received responses will be incorporated in the draft and final suggested outline for individual responses will be emailed on December 7. At the same time the FHA response to be filed with the DWQ at the public hearing is being prepared. They will stress the important of prior review of Briar Chapel’s plans for the 100 acres of development – 40 acres of commercial on the immediate west side of 15/501 and 60 acres on east side of the highway which abut 27 residences as well as the FHA property in the immediate area of Creekwood, Beaver creek and Beaver Pond, emphasizing a) the area run-off storm water threatening these residences as well as the potential degradation of the Beaver Creek-Beaver Pond area and b) the threatening environmental effect which the proposed “spray-irrigation” system on the agreed upon buffer zone will have on the abutting residences.

3. Testimony at the Chatham Board of Commissioner’s Meeting of November 21, 2005: FHA was represented at this hearing covering a) the proposed Conditional Zoning amendment and b) amendment of the Watershed Protection Ordinance providing for a 10/70 rule which would expand the impervious area coverage in certain areas of the County. During a nearly five hour public hearing, FHA testimony, among many others, was given opposing both the proposed adoption of the Conditional Zoning proposal as well as the application of the 10/70 rule. The Board of Commissioners agreed to suspend consideration of the Conditional Zoning proposal and recommended to the Planning Board that selected parts of the current ordinance be amended to provide for a pre-proposal public hearing for development proposals. This suggestion, contained in many of the speakers at the hearing, including the FHA representative, was referred to the Planning Board. However, the Board deferred action on the 10/70 proposal.

The meeting adjourned at 8:04 pm

Respectfully submitted,
Maggie Frantz, FHA Secretary
 

These minutes were amended at the January 3, 2006, Board to add the following:

1) “A discussion and request was made by one of the residents (Ruth Kreisman) to review whether or not a hearing assistance capability could be added or included with the audio capabilities of the Gathering Place. The board indicated it would review the request.”