WALLENPAUPACK LAKE

PROPERTY OWNERS ASSOCIATION

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

DECEMBER 16, 2023

The Board of Directors’ meeting commenced at 8:00 AM.

The following Board members were in attendance:  Ed Jordan, (President), Mike Cioffi (Vice-President), Bruce Phillips (Treasurer), Mike McGregor, Jerry Beskovoyne, and John Carney (General Manager). Scott Healey attended by zoom when meeting resumed at the office, Kathleen Maynes (Secretary) was excused.

Ed opened the meeting by asking for any corrections to the November 18, 2023, minutes.  

A motion to approve the minutes from the Board of Directors’ Meeting on November 18, 2023, was made by Mike McGregor and seconded by Jerry Beskovoyne.  The minutes were unanimously approved. 

Treasurer’s Report/Finance (Bruce Phillips):

• The Operating Budget Summary dated 11/30/2023 was distributed.  As of now, all Departments are favorable, except for Building/Grounds which is unfavorable by $1,069 and Recreation Pools & beaches by $3,932. 
• Bruce handed out a 2024 expense summary by departments showing some of the bigger expense items such as payroll, general insurance, other certain operating cost, and reserve contribution.   
• Bruce will have Lorraine email the full financials to each Board Member and they can review and print out the sections that they wish. 

Ed opened the open portion of the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance.   

General Manager’s Report (John Carney):

• Brian Schan and John addressed the four property owners that mentioned problems they were having with their water. Brian and John visited the four sites and were able to assist, two issues improved due to the water flushing that took place shortly after September’s meeting. Brian and John are staying in contact with the property owners.
• The 2024 annual assessment increase will be 5.5%. The Board and Management looked for as many possible ways to decrease expenses to keep the increase to a minimum. In 2024 there will be an open session in November rather than December so the membership can be present the month the Board approves the following year’s budget.
• Fawnhill well chlorine reduction project is now just waiting for the DEP permit to allow final water connection to the water system. 
• Paupack Township has taken a WLE property with a house by Declaration of Taking to condemn the house that has been a blight property for many years. The township will sell the property once the condemned house is raised to recoup their cost.
• G Dock will be replaced in 2024 at the Marina.
• Wifi has been greatly improved at the MCH along with improvements to have better zoom meetings. The October Short-term meeting was held at the MCH and zoom was available to property owners, feedback was that visual and sound was very good.
• Since the STR Ordinance was passed by Paupack Township the Board has drafted new rules to be added to WLE’s present STR Rules & Regulations. They still need to be reviewed and approved by the BOD.

Question & Answer Session:

There was a lengthy discussion on Short-term rentals, a property owner announced that there is a petition being circulated to ask the Board of Directors to put forth a vote to the membership to ban all rentals for less than 30 consecutive calendar days. The petition is not to call for a special meeting or to use the petition to mandate a vote of the membership, it is requesting the Board on their own to put it out for vote to be included in the annual meeting packet.

A property owner relayed that there are many communities that have limited STR to no rentals less than 30 consecutive calendar days. The property owner only mentioned one other community that she is personally aware that has limited STR’s. Another property owner mentioned that he went on the internet and found a community that has restricted STR’s and printed out their website with all the restrictions. The Board will look further into it, but without knowing the circumstances and how the restrictions were done more information is needed. John Carney is aware of the community that the one property owner mentioned and they have rental restrictions in their covenants, WLE does not have rental restrictions in the covenants. 

A property owner that has spoken to the STR compliance officer at Paupack Township relayed that any existing rentals that has not submitted their application to rent will now need to have a conditional use permit hearing before getting their permit. Bruce Phillips attended the last township meeting and relayed that 2 condition use permit hearings were held that evening. The township has told us that if we know of anyone renting who has not submitted their paperwork to the township to please let the township know. 

Under the same topic one of the new rules that WLE is looking to establish is annual inspections of STR’s. A question was who will do the inspections? Fran Raimo, WLE Building Compliance Officer, will do the inspections.

Another rule being considered is no golf cart use for rentals. A property owner relayed that some insurance companies’ coverage for golf cart use does not cover use for rentals.

A property owner complained about a loud vehicle on his street that is constantly going by his house and wants to know if this can be addressed. The PO pointed out in the Rules and Regulations there is a rule against loud vehicles. Chief Manetti responded and he will look into that vehicle and discuss going forward how to address the situation. 

A property owner expressed a way to get work orders to the proper staff by a program that he will forward to the Board. It allows property owners from their phone to submit a situation that needs to be addressed that they observe along with pictures.

Reports of Departments / Committees/ Ad Hoc Groups:

Maintenance / Housekeeping (Jerry Beskovoyne):

• By reviewing the Maintenance report the department has been busy with routine jobs and getting ready for the winter snow removal season.
• Brian Stine is reviewing his equipment to address any issues in the capital budget.
• Housekeeping continues to give each building a good cleaning now that the buildings are not being used as much. From Property owners that use the buildings and pool we have gotten very good comments of the condition of the buildings.

Sewer and Water (Mike McGregor)

• As mentioned in the open session Fawnhill chlorine reduction project is near completion.
• Manhole covers continue to be pulled and inspected for infiltration.
• Leak detection in the water system and infiltration in the sewer lines continues and appropriate repairs will be made.
• By Brian’s report it is noted that the Indian water tower is out of service, the Board was under the impression it would be operating through the winter, John will check.
• A dry hydrant on the side for sections 1, 2 and 3 still needs to be explored. The dry hydrant at Beaver Lake is out of service due to low water level and sediment accumulation. It is suggested that we look to get water from the water tower. Dry hydrants are for the fire department to fill their tankers.

Public Safety (Ed Jordan Jr.)

• Dominic provided the BODs with a Public Safety Report for November 2023 that included citations, incidents, and EMS calls.
• Dominick to get cost for digital speed limit signs that will give the speed limit to oncoming traffic. 
• We will purchase a decibel meter in our attempt to be able to check vehicles that could be  louder than the manufacturer stock muffler or a muffler to have state inspection.
• Mike Ciofi asked to check on one of the EMS incident reports to see that an officer went to the house.

Legal Administration (Ed Jordan Jr.)

• An oversized boat issue is still being litigated, see Marina report.
• Notification of the incident on the waterslide in 2019 is still in the status of being settled. If not settled soon legal counsel for the Plaintiff will be looking to set up depositions. 

Building Committee (Scott Healy):.

• Scott reported that he and the committee are looking to see if anything needs to be added to the regulations for tree replacement by property owners building a new house.
• The revised paint colors allowed for homes, decks & railings, and roofs shingle & metal were reviewed from the Building Committee. This is Section 7 of the Building Rules & Regulations which further goes on to the process to obtain approval for colors.

Scott made the motion, seconded by Bruce to accept the revised Section 7 Exterior Color with corrections. Passed unanimously.

As soon as corrections are made it will be posted on the WLE website and added to the Building Rules and Regulations.

Recreation (Scott Healy) 

• Meeting was cancelled due to Lonnie and Martin being ill.
• Scott presented the Recreation budget that looked to be inline from previous years budgets. The Board is asking for the $6,000 budgeted for equipment and wares be broken out to detail the items. Scott will contact the Tri-Chairs.
• A property owner has contacted John to let him know that she is interested in getting volunteers and hopefully interns from the local colleges and high schools to develop a summer program for kids.
• Bruce, Scott, John and Lorraine, WLE Controller reviewed the financials for the WLE Craft Shop. Due to the timing of sales and bringing paperwork and money into the office it took a little while to be able to reconcile revenues and expenses. This has been done and the Board is requesting an inventory of all merchandise be taken before the opening of the craft shop or ordering of any new merchandise for 2024.

Finance (Bruce Phillips)

• Bruce relayed that the budget for contributions is $6,000 to be distributed among local

            nonprofit organizations.

• Some of the contributions are Lakeville Fire Department – $2,000, Ledgedale Fire 

            Department – $1,000, Lac-a-Wac Sanctuary – $350, Lake Wallenpaupack Water Shed 

            $500.       

• The Lakeville Fire Department has requested if WLE can increase their contribution to 

             to the fire company? LVFD has plans to add onto the substation located at WLE and do  

             some shifting of vehicles between the main station and the substation. The Board is

             requesting details of their plans and asked John to give the Board details of contributions  

             given to the LVFD since the substation was built.                                                                            

           

   Marina Committee (Bruce):.

• Bruce attended the Maina Committee Meeting for Kathleen.
• The committee is aware of the $10,000 cost to defend the case brought on by a property owner who was denied putting his boat into the marina due to the length exceeds WLE rules for length is being charged to the marina. 
• The marina slip fee was increased by $10.00.
• Maintenance needs to be done on the path from the port-a-lavs to the first dock walkway. The grate to the left of the port-a-lavs needs to be repaired. In the spring the walkways will be addressed.
• Step from port-a-lavs need to be made wider and have a railing installed.
• A bulkhead off of the ramp in front of the stairway for C – dock will be looked into.
• The committee is asking that boat trailers have a sticker and boats using the boat ramp not assigned to a boat slip be charged $10.00 to launch boats. The Board does not favor this suggestion.

CDC (Mike Cioffi) 

• There was only one case and it was cancelled and will be heard at the next CDC meeting.

Neighborhood Watch (Mike McGregor): 

• No meeting.

WLE Beautification (Mike McGregor):

• No meeting.

Technology Committee (Proposed) (Kathleen Maynes):

• The Technology Committee’s charter was reviewed and upon further review it is noted that some additional language should be added to coincide with other charters from various committees in WLE.

Paupack Township (Jerry Beskovoyne)

• Discussed at the open session – STR’s.

First right of refusals were done via email due to the fact that they were time sensitive.  

They included the following:

Section and Lot:	Email Approval Date:
1-127	8/22/23
1-250	9/13/23

They were unanimously approved. 

Correspondence:

• A property owner appealed the fine associated with advertising a STR. The BODs determined that the violation stands and fine must be paid.

Unfinished Business:

• The Fawn Hill Well project is awaiting a permit from the DEP.
• Petition with signatures will be submitted to request the Board to put out to vote in the annual meeting packet no rentals under 30 consecutive calendar days.

New Business:

• Annual meeting packet.

A motion to adjourn the meeting at 2:15 PM was made by Jerry, seconded by Mike McGregor, and approved unanimously

The next BOD meeting is scheduled for February 17, 2024, with an open session. There will be a meeting in January to discuss Short-term rental rules & regulations.

Respectfully submitted,

John Carney, Assistant Secretary