Minutes of the Lake Barcroft Association - Board of Directors

The meeting of the Lake Barcroft Association (LBA) was called to order at 7:40 PM by President Jim Kilbourne at 6425 Lakeview Drive, Falls Church, Virginia.  Those present were LBA Directors Jim Kilbourne, Sally Determan, Lee Price, Anne Cullather, Warren Russell, Pat Payne, Betsy Washington, Frank Phillippi, Bill Lecos, Diane Smalley, Rick Aldrich and Eva Kosztarab.  Shane Oleson was absent.

The minutes of the May 14, 2014 board meeting were approved as presented.

OLD BUSINESS

CALENDAR REVIEW:  The calendar was reviewed.

SEWAGE SPILL UPDATE:  Jim reported that the WID has been working closely with the County regarding water testing and that the county has processed continuous water samples. The most recent reading  for samples taken on 6/3 indicated levels less than 50.  Additional samples were being taken on 6/11.  A meeting with experts from the county and the community will be taking place to brainstorm on a long term plan such as where to test, how often, sense of areas worse than others, etc.  Following will be a community meeting to update everyone on the issue.  There was a report of orange colored water at beach 3, and Jim would discuss with Chuck DeSeve once he receives the photos from Betsy.

COMMUNITY GARDEN UPDATE:  Jim informed the Board that the WID is working to re-landscape the garden area.  Work should be completed by the end of next week. They will re-sod the area in the upcoming weeks.  Jim discussed land owned by the WID and LBA in this area.

LORTON LANDFILL UPDATE:  Jim  reported that he had received a  response to his letter to Chairman Sharon Bulova regarding the Lorton Landfill issue and that a vote would be taking place on June 17 by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.  Bill gave an update and will be attending the meeting.  Jim asked him to report back to the Board.

WARNING SIGNS FOR THE LAKE:  Pat indicated she is revising the draft for new warning signs and will have them at the next board meeting.  She reported that she had also discussed beach hours with WSS Kevin Hardy who felt that they should remain as is: beach #1 11-7, beach #2 10-7, beaches #3 and #4 10-8 and beach #5 11-7.  Kevin expressed concern about extending the evening hours  since it would be difficult to find guards to staff the positions and would place the lifeguards in the role of security guards. We have sufficient funds to extend private police security patrols.  Bill said he had discussed security with the police and that they would be interested in overlapping the lifeguard schedule to show a presence.  Bill agreed to discuss this further with the police and suggested trying it for a month.  

LBA POLICY ON LOT SUBDIVISIONS:  Eva discussed a policy statement she prepared regarding LBA membership for subdivided lots based on comments at the last meeting.  She proposed the following:

“In the event a lot that is within LBA is subdivided “by-right” by Fairfax County Department of Zoning and the resulting lots each are one-half (1/2) acre or larger, then it is LBA’s policy to offer the new lot LBA membership.  However, LBA reserves the right to comment on or object to any “non-by-right” subdivision applications that would result in a less than one-half (1/2) acre lot, and will not automatically approve membership in LBA for any lot less than one-half (1/2 acre).”

A motion was made by Lee and seconded by Frank to accept the proposal as stated.  All voted in favor.

Jim suggested that this should be posted on the website.

NEW BUSINESS

RESOLUTION RE:  BANK ACCOUNTS ACCESS:  Jim discussed the need for Lee, as the new Treasurer, to be able to have electronic access to the LBA  accounts statements ; the Banks required a  Board resolution to provide such access  from the various institutions including Funds of Institutions/Boston Financial (previously Merrill Lynch), Bank of America and Charles Schwab.  Jim read the proposed resolution to the Board.  

A motion was made by Pat and seconded by Anne to approve.

Eva questioned if Lee needed to be added to the insurance dishonesty bond since he would have access to theaccounts.  Eva agreed to contact the insurance broker for LBA to verify.  

The motion was amended that the President will not sign the letters until the employee liability issue is resolved.  The amendment was seconded by Diane.  The motion was passed with one vote in opposition.

REVISED ARC GUIDELINES:  Rick informed the Board that he and his committee were seeking a vote from the Board to move forward and present the proposed changes to the community for comment.  He explained how the need for this came about as the guidelines state they should be reviewed annually and had not been done in many years.  He stated 1) the goal was to update the rules to accept electronic applications;   2) make more objective; 3) streamline the guidelines to reduce duplication;  4) add coverage for new technology, such as geothermal heating units and electronic charging stations; 5) improve consistency with state or  county rules.
He mentioned the need for emergency repairs and that exceptions would be provided to allow for emergency situations. Rick reviewed the draft and the Board discussed various topics.  Jim asked the Board to review and get back to Rick with their proposed suggestions.  Jim stated that there will most likely be a need for a special meeting and will look at dates.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

MEMBERSHIP:  Warren reported that 5 transfer payments were received in May.  Currently there are 15 lots unpaid for 2014.

IMPROVEMENTS:  Frank informed the Board that George Waters worked with students who volunteered their time to paint all of the beach picnic tables and benches.  Frank stated that the steps at beach 5 near the stage need repairing and he will be discussing this with George. There is also an issue with the Beach 2 swingset.  Sally said she also worked with students today on painting the guard boxes.  Chris informed the Board that George had done a tremendous job on getting the county to work on the drainage pipe by Beach 2.

ARC:  Rick reported that 5 applications were submitted since last month with 4 being approved.

WATER SAFETY:  Pat discussed the recent issue regarding boat stickers being stolen.  She informed the Board of a recent incident that took place at the beach involving a resident child throwing a rock at the head of another resident.  She suggested that a letter to the family acknowledging the incident and requesting the child be supervised.  She will draft a letter for Jim’s signature.  Chris informed the Board  that a lifeguard was injured on opening weekend  - she was dehydrated  with low blood sugar and fainted near the lifeguard boat, falling into the motor housing..  She suffered lacerations on her face and dislocated fingers.

SPECIAL EVENTS:  Diane stated that she is working on the upcoming Ice Cream Social.  $400 in donations have been received.  $300 from the Woman’s Club and $100 from the Newcomers Club.  She added that Kevin Howe was still in need of volunteers for July 4.  Jody McKitrick has asked if they can sponsor movies for kids on Beach 5.

SECURITY:  Bill reported that the police patrol worked 49 hours in May and currently were under budget for the month.  Trespassing charges were issued to a few but overall, it has been quiet.

ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY:  Betsy reported that she along with a group of students from West Potomac High School, labeled 178 storm drains.  Geese Peace is going well with 24 volunteers and two coordinators.  A manual has been written on the history, rules and regulation of Geese peace.  Kelso, the current volunteer dog, is working out.  Neighbors are working on the butterfly garden.  She is talking with WID about the prevalence of waterlillys around the lake.  Betsy also reported that Fairfax County is no longer honoring our agreement with respect to tree removal, and that the County has changed is processes for approving removal of trees. You can no longer receive approval by emailing a photo of the tree to the County.  Betsy is talking with the County to develop a new system that will assist residents who need permits to remove trees from their property.

TREASURER’S REPORT:  Lee reported that the association’s finances are comparable to the same time last year --- income is down by $22,000 largely due to the directory because there is no advertizing income from the directory, but expenses are also down.

EXECUTIVE SESSION

The Board went into executive session to discuss an encroachment issue.

A motion was made by Anne and seconded by Sally authorizing Jim to enter into negotiations to resolve an encroachment issue.  Warren opposed. Rick abstained.  Motion carried.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:13 PM.

Respectfully Submitted by Anne Cullather