The
meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by President Gary. Present were Craig
Cowles, Gail Hill, Herb Jolliff, Alan Wright, Gary Van Horn, and John Horn.
Guests this evening were Forrest Peck, Jim Huddleston, David Clyne
(Independence City Manager) and Shawn Irvine (Economic Development Director).
Robert English arrived ten minutes after.
SECRETARY: The
minutes from the last meeting have been posted on-line. Herb Jolliff moved
that the minutes be approved as posted, and Gail Hill seconded. All approved
by voice vote.
TREASURER: The
insurance company covering the Directors and Officers has sent us notice of a
7% increase in premium cost. The Board has recommended to pay the increased fee
rather than looking for another policy. Gail also passed around a cash flow
sheet showing the collected homeowners dues. Only three households have not
paid their dues for 2014.
CITY PRESENTATION:
David Clyne from Independence City Hall invited the Board to start thinking
about how the Airport could be involved in the ongoing economic development of
the City. Comments and discussion centered around what other aspects would be
part of a long-term approach to grow the City, and what to avoid in the
long-term plan. He encouraged everyone at the table to drop him a line if they
had ideas of what could or should be done for future benefit of Independence.
Gary said that the gist he got from discussion with others is that we need to
go with “base hits instead of home runs”, and David agreed.
MAINTENANCE: Jim
Huddleston, a pavements engineer from Salem invited here by Craig Cowles, had
some observations to share regarding taxiway maintenance and repair. He had positive things to say about how well
the Association has maintained the 40-year-old paving with the various seal
coatings over the years. The transverse cracking seen since the record cold
this last December will get worse in time, but it is not structural at this
stage: the basic paving is sound under the seal coats. He said that all of the
faults he found were cosmetic only and airplanes could use this system the way
it is for many years. John Horn mentioned the previous crack sealing that has
suffered due to the very cold temperatures and didn't hold up as well as
advertised. Jim said he could get back to us about what repair method is best
for aircraft taxiway service. Gail said it would be best if Jim could let us
know what to use here since he has no vested interest in what product we use on
our taxiways. Jim let us know about
various methods of sealing, tools used for milling and grinding the pavement,
and what factors make pavement decay faster. He advocates waiting and observing
with each taxiway rather than scheduling a resealing job for each taxiway, then
not settling for a cheap job: a good paving job should last ten or fifteen
years, and a cheap one will only last two or three. Craig asked if Jim would
provide us with specific language about what to ask for, what terminology to
use, and to advise us about how to get the best job for the money when the time
comes. He said we could do that for us, even though he is retiring at the end
of this year and will be serving as a consultant. Gary asked Jim to provide
some numbers for the Board and he said he would do that.
PRESIDENT'S REPORT:
The first topic was the bylaw update to improve the readability of the
document. John Horn reminded us that the North Annex is having their By-Laws
and CC&Rs reviewed by third-year law students, and Gary said maybe we
should wait and see how this process turns out. There is also a seminar
covering homeowner association legal matters, coming up next month, and Gary is
going to attend.
Next
topic was the budget process for the Association. He said that Gail and he
could probably hash that out, and Gail said she would be available after about
a week.
Gary
asked about the “Loud and Clear” newsletter one last time, and it was decided
that the Block Herald system was adequate for the neighborhood’s purposes.
ADJOURNMENT: The
meeting was adjourned at 9:05 PM. The next meeting is set for July 24, 7:00 PM,
at the EAA hangar. Respectfully submitted by Robert English, secretary.