BALLYMEADE

2015 Meeting Minutes

 

TRANSPARENCY.  We have it in Ballymeade.  All residents can be fully informed on all matters pertaining to this great community we call home.  Below are the 2015 meeting minutes for you to read, more meeting minutes will be added as the year progresses.  Please also check out the minutes all the way back to 2005.  These are available from the main Documents and Links page by scrolling down further - you'll see all the years listed all together. 

 

Currently there are FOUR 2015 minute documents below (each set of minutes is a different color).  Please scroll down.

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Ballymeade Board Meeting

October 5th, 2015

Minutes

 

Attendees: Michael Petrucci, Jim Bagnell, Ram Jayanthi, Peter Haggerty, Eugene Zheng, Ron White (PENCO)

Location: Peter’s home, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

 

Minutes recorded by:  Ram Jayanthi, Secretary

 

1.  Peter started out with the agenda and thanked Ron for all his work in the second quarter pointing out how lucky we are to have Ron as our property manager and that PENCO is doing a great job (first year).
2.  Garage sale went very well.  Mike organized the event with advertising.  There was participation by approx 20 residents and a lot of buyers came through.  Everyone seemed pleased with the outcome.
3. Ron and Peter working on format for monthly emails from PENCO on common and general topics to keep the community informed. Ron reported that about half of the homeowners submitted their email addresses and signed up for monthly bulletins.
4. Eugene raised some questions about capital fund and how it is being collected which were answered by Jim.
5. Peter reported that back in the spring he fixed the many references to BC Communities on our website, changing where appropriate to PENCO.  Everyone seems to be contacting PENCO and not BC.
6. Peter reported that the address on the New Castle Parcel Search website still showed BC Communities as the addressee for the receipt of the tax bills for the approx 15 lots that are community owned in Ballymeade.  (Common areas are made up of many smaller lots.)  Peter successfully changed the addresses with the county so the invoices and any correspondence will now go to PENCO.
7. Noted also was one lot with a Naamans Road address event though it is in the cul de sac at the end of  Morningdale Drive.  Peter referred issue to New Castle County asking that the address be changed to the proper Morningdale Drive address.
8. The two pink painted wooden stakes at the entrance are for surveying the new kid-friendly crosswalk that DelDOT is installing next year between Ballymeade and Lancashire Elementary School.
9. Our landscape vendor (Forever Green Landscaping) did a good job this spring, however they forgot to install the special kid-friendly mulch in playground. Peter and Jim alerted the vendor and it was taken care of immediately.
10. Forever Green and NCC worked closely together to resolve a violation on several of our storm water basins.  The 4 dry basins and 1 wet basin are inspected annually by the county and there were issues but Forever Green, per their contract, remediated all issues presented by the county.  A letter of “satisfaction” has now been received from the county on each basin.
11. Entrance lights were tripping out when it rained.  This was noticed by Peter and Eugene.  Ron had an electrician fix it.  A short in the wiring underground was repaired.
12. Water flow out of the wetlands behing W. Boxborough is spilling onto landscaped grass areas.  Peter has taken up with Sean Mathews and Army corps of engineers to determine if the outflows are clogged up.  Peter is waiting for a report and for a drawing of our development’s wetland set up (flows, etc.).
13. ARC reports – nothing outstanding at this time as per Mike and Eugene. One issue will be followed up on by Mike and Eugene regarding shutters being removed and not put back up.  
14. Mike brought up the problem of so many trash trucks/companies coming through the development.  Every day many different trash trucks collect trash here and the noise disturbance and the wear on our roadways is bad.  Mike is going to see if the HO’s on his street would be willing to all go with one company to aliviate the above and if it works out we would sell this idea to the community as a whole.   Jim and Mike would like to get prices from different trash companies to build comparison sheet before reaching out to home owners.  Mike will report his findings back to all via Email.  All board members thought this was a great idea.
15. Jim reported that the playground benches and table were upgraded with new kiln dried wood and that the vendor PENCO provided did an excellent job at a reasonable price. 
16. Per Jim, we are doing well with cash reserves.  At present we have $160000 in reserves and $12,000 in liquid money market fund and residual checking account.  Jim will review our Reserve Fund CDs again around Thanksgiving time when some come due and recommend changes as needed.
17. Jim mentioned that the community asset “Reserve Study” we commissioned to be completed was paid for, half from our reserve account, and half using funds in current annual operating budget. Jim will review the report from the engineering company and report back to the board.  
18. There was some discussion about reserve study results which will be reviewed in more depth the next time board meets. The issue is how much risk can be handled in the future given our current financial state.
19. Bank funds will be handled by PENCO based on their standard processes for all communities they service and this was accepted as a standard practice by all board members.
20. Jim has sorted out several financial reporting matters with the accounting dept at PENCO.  Jim explained the balance sheet report to the board and went through the whole accounting set up which is all new this year since we went with PENCO.  PENCO receives payments and bank statements now on our behalf.  Peter and Jim have the check signing authority still on a small checking account still at our local bank in case a check is needed in an emergency.
21. Per Ron, seven home owners still have to pay 2015 dues as of today.  Board discussed who owes what and what was done so far and what our next steps are to collect the dues.
22. Board reviewed the general conditions in the neighborhood before closing the meeting at 9PM.
23. Discussion regarding the 2016 Annual Meeting, Ron will reserve the Town Center meeting room if available for Wednesday, February 24, 2016.

 

 

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Ballymeade Board Meeting

March 24, 2015

Minutes

Attendees: Michael
Petrucci, Ram Jayanthi, Peter Haggerty, Eugene
Zheng, Jim Bagnell, Ron White

Location: Brandywine Hundred Library 7:00PM to 8:30PM

 Minutes recorded by: Ram Jayanthi, Secretary

 

1. Ron White from PENCO Management, Inc. was introduced and Ron gave a brief bio on his work.
2. The fully executed PENCO contract from board was handed over to Ron by Jim.  Jim also handed Ron a couple of homeowners’ checks
   sent by BC consulting to Jim for deposit by PENCO to our new account.
3. Ron’s office was planning to send invoices to all homeowners on 3/25 accompanied by a letter from president and a letter denoting the change of property manager.
4. The board discussed the small number of homeowners who are past due with assessments to bring Ron and the new board members up to speed.   There was a question about how to reach out to homeowners residing overseas.
5. Ron stated that PENCO maintains both hard and soft copies of home owner records and correspondence and in the process of capturing Email addresses for all the home owners. Ron confirmed
   that he received a lot of documentation from BC Communities as part of the hand off to PENCO.
6. Ron reported that he had toured the Ballymeade development twice already and will do so frequently as part of the normal management of our community and to follow up on things.
7. Ron already inspected the benches in the playground which need repair. After a discussion, it was agreed that replacing the worn out lumber is the best option and Ron would get an estimate for the replacement.
8. Peter, Jim and Ron went over some of the details with contracts, insurance and work orders. They also provided the details on the Naamans Rd fence that is owned by the community and will have to be replaced at some point in time along with other community assets
   such as the tennis court, playground, etc. (reserves are in place for this).   
9. Jim and Peter together gave details on who owns the responsibility on the board for landscaping, snow removal, storm water basins, trees (Peter), Treasury/Finance and PENCO contract management (Jim), ARC reviews and many other projects (Eugene, Mike and Ram).  Ron at PENCO would execute the above and more per our contract and as requests come up by the board.
10. Jim talked about budget in general, what our receivables and bills, where spending is going to be and how much we have in reserves.
11. Eugene and Mike agreed to receive ARC requests via both paper and email and set ourselves to approve them within a two week window. They will also use the template Ron shared to come up with our own and upload it on the community website. PENCO will do the initial screening of the ARC requests before routing them to ARC committee.
12. The ARC committee has their first ARC request to review.
13. The US Post Office, as promised, has repaired many of the cluster mailboxes in the townhouse areas.
14. Meeting was adjourned with upcoming spring event – community garage sale and how to promote it.

Action Items: 

1. Ron will follow up on items 3, 4, 5 and 7 above as per the priority set forth by board.
2.  Discuss electric lights maintenance (Eugene brought up) in the next meeting.

 

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Ballymeade Board Meeting

March 11, 2015

 

Minutes

 

Attendees: Michael
Petrucci, Ram Jayanthi, Peter Haggerty, Eugene
Zheng, Jim Bagnell,

Location: Brandywine Hundred Library 7:00PM to 8:30PM

 

Minutes recorded by: Ram Jayanthi, Secretary

 

1. After initial introductions, and a warm “Welcome” to our two new board members, the meeting got underway following an agenda handout.
2. Peter provided a brief description of terms, roles and responsibilities and the members were asked to determine what office they would like to hold for their term on the board.
3. Peter, Jim and Eugene had held prior roles as president, treasurer and vice president respectively, so they agreed to those offices.
4. Mike agreed to be a Vice President and Ram took on the role of board secretary.
5. All the offices were agreed to by the board members unanimously.
6. Peter and Jim then talked about on boarding PENCO Management, Inc. as Ballymeade’s new professional property management company, replacing BC Communities, Inc.  A meeting with Ballymeade’s PENCO manager (Ron White) will be scheduled shortly by Peter.
7. Jim explained in detail how different contracts by various vendors are handled and who is responsible for what.  He also explained the budget, reserves, etc.
8. Peter provided details about landscape maintenance including snow removal, storm water basin maintenance and tree fertilization.  Contracts were recently signed for all of these services.
9. Eugene provided information on improving the ARC process. Eugene wanted to raise best practices in ARC review with PENCO      and see if they can offer some guidance. It is also agreed that the initial request for ARC should contain home owner signature to carry out the work only on explicit acceptance of the ARC board.
10. Peter suggested that except for the critical items, voting can be done via emails and wanted to keep the email volume low to which all the members agreed quickly.  He suggested that we follow Roberts Rules of Order more so than in the past.
11.  The following was then reviewed for our new board members: quarterly board meetings, our website and Facebook pages, insurance, Corporate Documents, Budget, Reserves/Assets, contracts in place (PENCO, Landscape, Storm Water Basins, Snow Removal, Davey Tree), more.

 

Action Items:

1. Majority of the members wanted to have a
        conversation with PENCO on best practices for various topics.
2. Review new business with Ron.

 

 

 

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2015 Annual Meeting MINUTES

 

Location: Brandywine Hundred Library

Date of Meeting: February 18, 2015

 

The Annual Meeting of the Ballymeade Maintenance Corporation was called to order at 7:00 PM by President Dick Wolf. Board members present were Vice-Presidents Peter Haggerty and Eugene Zheng, Treasurer Jim Bagnell, and Secretary Mary Henderer. Fifteen homeowners were present. Twenty-three proxies were received pre-meeting for voting purposes resulting in a quorum. 

 

The Meeting began with a presentation from DelDot on their “Safe
Routes to School” program.  The speaker was Sarah Coakly, Project Planner, DelDot Planning Division.  Sarah walked the attendees the plans for changes to walkways connecting Ballymeade with the Lancaster Elemenatary School to make it safer.  Features include lowering the speed limit to 20 during school days and creating a bike path for easy bike access to the school. 

 

Mr. Wolf stated the following:

• Ballymeade remains a desirable community on the north end of Wilmington. The Board works hard to maintain the community’s integrity by addressing the need for community property repairs, answering homeowner requests, reviewing Architectural Review Committee (ARC) requests, and insisting that residents adhere to all deed restrictions. There has been much construction work within the community since last May’s hail storm, and the Board will work with those homeowners who have not yet done exterior repairs to their homes.
• Ballymeade remains financially sound. The Board manages a yearly budget of $58,000. Its Capital Improvement Fund continues to grow with 10 houses sold over the past year resulting in an additional $4,500 in our reserve fund. This money is to be used for long-term commmunity expenses such as the eventual replacement of the fence along Naamans Road, of the tennis court, of the playground equipment, and of the visitor parking pads.
• The community’s wetlands are federally protected, and homeowners who encroach on these wetlands will be prosecuted.

 

Eugene Zheng of the Architectural Review Committee (ARC) presented the following:

• Ballymeade consists of 243 units – townhouses and single family houses – all very close to each other. The purpose of the ARC committee is to ensure that no one’s property value is diminished by what their neighbor decides to do to the exterior of their home.  The deed restrictions protect all homeowners from this. Every homeowner should have a copy of these deed restrictions in his possession. They are also available on our website.
• Requests for all exterior changes must be submitted to this committee for approval prior to actual start of work. Application forms are available through the community’s website, and will go directly to PENCO Management - who will look at it for conformance to the community’s deed restrictions before forwarding it onto the Board for final approval. Residents may also mail their requests directly to PENCO
  Management for review.

 

Peter Haggerty of the Landscaping Committee presented the following:

• A large portion of Ballymeade Maintenance Corporation’s budget is for landscaping - which includes four contracts. These contracts were reviewed this past Fall and renewed for another three years at the same pricing as in the past three years!!!  (Six years at the same pricing!)
• Three of these contracts are with Forever Green Landscaping for a set number of grass mowings in the community’s common areas, for the maintenance of the several storm water basins located throughout the community, and for snow removal. Plowing is done only if the snow is more than 2” deep, and is paid for on an “event basis.” DelDot partially reimburses for snow storms 4” or more..  Salting is done based on the contractor’s discretion. Homeowners were reminded that each resident is responsible for the sidewalk in front of or beside their house. Corner homeowners were reminded that they need to clear the side of their properties. In the event of a major snow storm, the “cluster mail box” sites will need to be opened for the delivery of mail.
• The Maintenance Corporation is now maintaining nearly 300 trees that have been planted over the past ten years. The fourth landscaping contract is with Davey for the watering, pruning and any spraying for insect damage to these trees on an “as need” basis.
• The forsythia along Naamans Road is slowly being replaced by knock-out roses.
• Fresh playground mulch is laid each March.

 

Jim Bagnell, Treasurer, presented the following:

• The community stayed within its 2014-2015 budget, and that the proposed budget for 2015-2016 will largely be the same. Although each budget has certain fixed expenses, other expenses can be more flexible. A small number of delinquent home-owners continue to affect the community’s cash-flow, and these households are now not being factored into the 2015-2016 budget. Liens have been placed on their
  properties and the homeowners credit standing is affected.
• The community’s major source of income is its annual assessments which will remain at $240.00 for the next year. Other income is received through “late fee assessments,” “capital assessments,’” and reimbursement money from NCC for snow removal. The latter is a rather flexible amount as the community is only reimbursed (partially) for snows over 4” deep.
• Property Manager contracts are currently being reviewed for the next year. (Note: Subsequent to the meeting the board of directors contracted with PENCO Management for the professional management of our Community.)
• A meeting is scheduled with WSFS to discuss ways of maximizing the return on the community’s deposits. If WSFS cannot do this, other banking institutions will be considered.
• The community’s insurance policy has been fully reviewed, and renewed with a $500 deductible.  The fence along Naamans Road is self-insured. Any maintenance of retaining walls at storm basins within the community may or may not be the state’s responsibility. This is being investigated.
• An engineering consultant will be called in to review the community’s assets - its fence, tennis court, play ground and parking pads. This was last done in 2002.

 

Beverly Harding of B.C. Communities reviewed the services that they provide(d) the community.

 

Elections: Board positions were expired for President Dick Wolf, Vice-President Peter Haggerty and Secretary Mary Henderer. Peter nominated himself as a candidate for the Board. Ram Jayanthi, a resident since 2005, and Mike Petrucci, a resident since 2000, volunteered to fill the remaining two positions. Each introduced himself, was duly nominated, and approved by those present for two year terms each.

 

Discussion then occurred over the following topics:

• Children skating on the frozen pond at the foot of Morningdale Drive
• Townhouse mailbox cluster boxes being on the docket for painting or repair or replacement this spring by the US Post Office – contacts have been made there.
• The playground benches and picnic tables needing refurbishment, and this project also being on the docket for spring.
• Trash cans that must be stored out of sight, and only brought out to the curb when pick-up is scheduled, and,
• 26 of the 243 household units are being rented. These rentals are mostly townhouses.

 

Lastly, Sean Matthews, District 10 State Representative, introduced himself and said a few words. Bob Weiner, area representative on New Castle County Council, spoke of the importance of enforcing community deed restrictions. He went on to discuss various plans to develop community bike paths throughout northern New Castle County and current community projects.

 

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:35PM.

  

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Henderer,

Secretary

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ballymeade Board Meeting

January 27, 2015

Minutes 

 

 

Present: Richard Wolf, Peter Haggerty, Jim Bagnell, Mary Henderer, Eugene Zheng and Beverly Harding of BC Communities (Property Manager)

 

The meeting called to order by Board President Richard Wolf at 7:00PM.

 

 1.) Annual Meeting

 

The Annual meeting of the Ballymeade Maintenance Corporation is
scheduled for Wednesday, February 18, 2015, 7:00PM at the Brandywine Hundred Library on Foulk Road. Three positions on the Board are opening, and community nominations for election to a two-year term can be submitted to BC Communities. Persons can also be nominated or volunteer at the community meeting.

 

2.) Insurance

 

Following discussion between continuing to insure the community with Nationwide, or moving to State Farm, it was decided to continue with
Nationwide as both vendors submitted comparable quotes. This insurance covers neither the fence along Naamans Road nor any of the retaining walls at the storm water basins.

 

3.) Miscellaneous Issues

             
By virtue of correspondence obtained from DelDot, it was finally determined that the fence along Naamans Road fence is owned by the community as the fence was initially installed by the builder, and not by DelDot. After further discussion, it was decided that the condition of the fence needed to be reevaluated as it has not been inspected for a number of years.

              
A three-year contract with Forever Green for landscape and storm basin maintenance, and snow removal, has been negotiated, and signed. A one-year contract with Davey Tree for maintenance has been negotiated, and signed.

              
All community storm retention basins, and ponds, have passed their annual county inspection.

              
A work order for the evaluation, and maintenance, of the “cluster mail boxes” was submitted by the US Postal Service last fall. This project will need community follow-up this spring.

              
The four yellow posts at the playground were repainted last fall. The picnic table and benches at the playground need to be refurbished. This project will be undertaken sometime this spring.

 

All homeowners are reminded that Ballymeade is a “deed restricted” community, and all residents can be expected to be asked to
conform to these restrictions. One of these restrictions dictates that all
trash carts, and containers, be stored in such a way that they are NOT visible from the street. After numerous letters from BC Communities to a few residents who have chosen to ignore this deed restriction, the matter will be turned over to the community’s legal team with the particular homeowners responsible for all expenses incurred.

 
A proposed budget for the coming year was discussed. Unfortunately, there are still a few homeowners in arrears. The Maintenance Corporation will continue to actively pursue those balances over $30.00, and continue to track the large delinquent accounts. All other unpaid balances will be added to, and attached, to the 2015 assessment bill.

              
There was also a discussion of the various bids submitted to the Board by local property managers. These bids will need further exploration.

 

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9PM.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Henderer,

Secretary