Goldstream Moose Creek Service Area

February 5, 2004

Ken Kunkel Community Center  7 p.m.

 

 

Minutes

 

Meeting starting at 7pm.  The Chair, Jim Anderson, read from a handout the current road service budget: $14,717.00.  A person mentioned that the Hard Luck Road sign has again ‘gone missing’. Clint Meyer said these road signs cost approx. $38 each. He had an extra Hard Luck Road sign and would put it up sometime in the near future.  To date, $404.50 has been spent on signs and hardware and numerous volunteer hours to replace and install stolen road signs.

 

2.  The service area has two new Road Commissioners; Doreen Fitzgerald and Ed Herrgard.  Welcome aboard!!  Both new commissioners were present and are eager to help.

 

3.  Jen Athey agreed to be an alternate and was handed the necessary paperwork to fill out and return to the Borough.  The alternate position is a necessary one in case there are not enough commissioners present at mandatory road meetings or available to sign paperwork due to sickness or being out of town.

 

4.  It’s now official- the road service’s name has been changed to Goldstream Moose Creek Service Area.  Jim Anderson affectionately calls it the GMC area, what a great acronym.  For reference, the ordinance to officially change this name is #2003-82.

 

5.  Clint Meyer spoke about the necessity of having a secretary hired to take minutes, and attend to all the paperwork that needs to be dealt with concerning road service meetings and any other legal paperwork that comes up that must be signed and handed back to the Borough for whatever reasons.  Deborah Koons, a resident, has volunteered her time in this capacity for the past year and is burnt out.  He mentioned that Rural Services can contract out a professional secretary.  This position goes out to bid.  A discussion ensued about the money involved.  Folks talked about agreeing on an upper limit the road service area would be willing to pay for a professional secretary for a year’s worth of meetings.  It is mandatory that there be a minimum of 4 meetings, at least one a quarter.  If there are more meetings than that, it was agreed that the road commission would negotiate a rate with the hired secretary.  A vote was called for, seconded by Mario Gho, and all present voted yes to hire a professional secretary for a maximum of $400 a year.  Clint volunteered to speak with the FNSB Rural Services and find out the steps needed to get this process rolling.

 

6.  Change in Chair position.  Jim Anderson’s term expires end of June 2004 and he asked to step down from the Chair position, effective immediately.  Jim still wants to be a commissioner until June, but has too many other commitments at the moment to do a good job as chairperson for the road service.  Clint Meyer was suggested to take the place of Chair.  Mario Gho seconded this and a vote of hands from all present showed everyone was in agreement to have Clint become Chairperson of the road service.

 

7.  Driveway and culvert ‘issues’.  A letter still needs to be drawn up and mailed to all residents with the standards that are required for correctly installed driveways and culverts. No one volunteered to do this at this meeting.  Attention needs to be paid to the driveways that have either culverts incorrectly installed or no culverts at all at the base of some driveways.  A very long discussion ensued about the above subjects.  Some residents in the Spinach Creek subdivision understood that road service monies were going to pay to either correct and/or install culverts in many, if not all, driveways that needed them in the Spinach Creek subdivision.  These residents said this is why they were willing to pay a higher tax rate all these years so that road improvements like this would get fixed.  After a long time of discussion and debate, Mario Gho volunteered to look through any minutes that were taken in the last 10 years and try to clear up any misunderstandings or misinterpretations concerning this subject.  He said he would get back to everyone after he looked into the files.  There are really two issues that seem to get confused quite a lot when trying to discuss culverts and driveways: Newly installed driveways and culverts, and existing ones. The community website can post the driveway and culvert specifications, but not everyone goes to the website nor has access to internet.  Therefore it was decided that a letter sent by U.S. mail is the way to go in order to educate all residents of the specs required.  It was also mentioned that when residents see an inappropriate driveway construction or culvert installation, they contact their road commissioner and let them know about this.  It was decided another meeting needs to occur as soon as it is revealed how much money it will take to upgrade either one or all of the roads in the Spinach Creek subdivision.  This will go out to bid sometime in March by the Borough and the Commissioners will then tell the residents as soon as a bid comes back.

 

8.  Clint wants to know from the residents what type of mailboxes are wanted.  To date there are two choices: cluster-type (like what is in front of Goldstream store) and individual rural mailboxes.  He wants to know if there are any other preferences.  Another question needs to be answered in the form of a survey.  That is, how many folks would actually use the cluster-type mailboxes and how many prefer the individual boxes?  A letter, once again, needs to be drawn up and sent to all residents requesting their replies/opinions.  Mario volunteered to do this (way to go Mario!!)  Maybe a preliminary survey could be done over the community website to ‘get a feel’ of what residents want.

 

9.  Neighborhood watch.  Recent burglaries in the neighborhood and in the Goldstream valley in general have risen recently.  The best advice the police can give residents is to:

·        Lock your doors

·        Keep a neighborhood watchful eye and report suspicious activities to authorities

·        Keep a dog (outdoors is best)

 

10. The community website seems to be quite popular—Congratulations to Jen Athey on all her hard work keeping this site current and informative!!

 

11. Next meeting date is scheduled for Thursday eve, May 6^th at 7pm at the same location, Ken Kunkel Community Center in Goldstream valley.

 

Meeting adjourned 8:45 p.m.

Minutes respectively submitted by resident D. Koons

 

List of attendees:

 

Jim Anderson, Mario Gho, Jen Athey, Jamie Roush, Deborah Koons, Doreen Fitzgerald, Clint Meyer, Ed Herrgard, Alfred Sturmann, Erna Sturmann, Diane Herrmann, Felix Krause, Susan Blalock