Civic Association of West Springfield Village
General Membership Meeting Minutes
13 May 2021
Call to Order – 7:30 PM – President John Cooley
Self-Introductions –
Minutes from Last (October 2019) Meeting – Secretary Kim Brown – minutes from the October 2020 meeting were vetted by those who attended that meeting and then posted to our website. Similarly, those attending this meeting will receive draft minutes for your review and changes as may be needed before they will also be posted to the website.
Vice President Comments – Bernie Koehle – NTR – nothing to report
Past President Comments – Kirby Myers - NTR
Financial Report – Treasurer Liz Greene – see attached.
Village West Pool – Pool President Jen Guernsey - After last year's hiatus related to the finances of operating during COVID-19, the pool is reopening this season thanks to an economic injury disaster loan that has given us a cushion to manage the expenses of last year and navigate any decrease in membership. Swim team practices and meets will also be taking place. Under current restrictions, both pool and swim team will operate somewhat differently from normal, but the governor has indicated that these restrictions may lift in mid-June. For the time being, we will not be holding large events such as our normal Memorial Day open house and grill event. However, we are hopeful that some of our social events, including those we hold jointly with the Civic Association, will resume sometime this summer.
The pool's finances are always tenuous. We do the best we can and are hoping to switch to a self-management model (hiring our lifeguards directly) next year, which will save us some money. We have some large expenses coming up, including major periodic pool renovation (renewing the plaster on the bottom and replacing the tile and stones around the edge), replacing the parking lot, and paying the balloon on our mortgage. We also would like to get a cover for the pool ($15K), which would significantly decrease our maintenance costs by enabling us to avoid fully draining the pool each spring and acid-washing the plaster layer. This past year we manually removed the leaves from the pool in the fall and were able to avoid draining/acid washing this spring, but that's pretty labor-intensive. Although we would prefer to leave our cell tower lease intact to receive the full monthly income it provides, we have the option of selling all or a portion of the lease to bring in the funds to address these issues. For now, we are focused on holding steady and getting everything back up and running as we emerge from COVID.
Committee Reports:
1. Membership – Julia Hale – John Cooley made Julia’s report saying that we have 341 members in our civic association, but that includes 30 from neighboring subdivisions. We are thankful for those 30, but 311 members from the village puts us under the 75% objective. We actually need 350 members to finance our operations, but also need 350 members who want to be part of the community effort. Last gauge of our viability is the willingness for members to volunteer to do certain tasks as they arise. It will require all to spread the word. To that end, we will invest in yard signs at $175.00 to put out during the membership drive. However, folks can join at any time during the membership / fiscal year.
2. Community Directory – Kirby Myers – report made by John Cooley – Kirby has served in this capacity for several years now, but needs to step down. Ideally, we will find a replacement for him from those on the east side of Rolling Road.
3. Village Enews & Newsletter – John Cooley – it goes out every Thursday, but apparently is going into some junk or suspected spam folders. In particular, AOL has been an issue and those messages are bouncing back as undeliverable. The problem is apparently on the receiver’s side. Our webmaster has verified that all is right on the sender’s side and we are not blacklisted by any email providers. Reminder, the enews is also posted to our website on Thursdays.
4. Website – Bob Havey – it is up to date, but comments to improve are always welcome.
5. Neighborhood Watch – Jeff Carter – Jeff passed along information from our FCPD Crime Prevention Officer who has warned us of continuing and new scams. Incidence of crime in the village is still very low, but we aren’t insulated from it.
6. FaceBook Group Moderator – Wendi Dorey – the group serves well over 600 subscribers and an excellent communications resource for our community.
7. Rolling Road Widening Project FaceBook Group – we were asked to establish a closed and private group so that those along RR could share information. Bob Havey is the admin moderator, but as of today, there aren’t many joining that group.
Old Business: Suggestion was made by Jen Guernsey to also use yard signs listing our CAWSV and website to help make new residents aware of our voluntary civic association. Cost for 20 signs - $175.00.
New Business:
1. Calendar of Events:
22 May – Scheduled Day for Village-Wide Yard Sale (virus permitting)
29 May – Memorial Day Picnic and Pool Party is CANCELLED due to Covid-19 restrictions
5 June 5 – Yard Sale Rain Date
12 June – Community Cleanup is CANCELLED due to Covid-19
1 August – 1 November - Membership Drive
14 October - Fall Village Meeting (audit report, FY22 Budget, Elect New Officers)
2. Dues Amount for FY22 (1 October 2021 – 30 September 2022) – President suggested the dues remain at $10.00 per household for membership year 2022. We have enough carry-forward money to cover shortfalls in revenue until the Rolling Road project starts when we will not have the need to maintain the median at least for the two-year construction window. That expense is the largest in our spend plan. We should be financially secure out to the project completion date in 2026 when we may want to contract median maintenance again and raise the dues. Motion was made, seconded and passed unanimously - dues will remain at $10.00 per household. Using PayPal however – it will be $11.00 due to PayPal transaction fees.
3. Status of Rolling Road Project – fully funded and on the revised schedule to start in 2024 and be completed by 2026. Phase 1 is ongoing as is property acquisition for PH II.
Adjourn – CAWSV President
Program – None
Attending: Bob Havey, John Cooley, Liz Greene, Bill & Maria Daugherty, Kathy D’Amato, Kim Brown, Dick Cheslock, Jim Kirkpatrick, John Hoffmann, Jeff Carter, Jen Guernsey, Rob Muegge, Melissa Carl, Wendi Dorey and Brad Swain.