Attendees:

Grimmett Drive: Jeanna Van Dyke; Crys and Scott Thorsen; Alice Hall Peabody; Leora Gregory (Secretary/Treasurer), Jay Avery, and Ailey Hines (took the minutes); Carol Stewart and Sean Senko (provided meeting venue);

Glenwood Lane: Michael Smith; Valerie Carsey; Bill Kendall;

Johansen Lane: Jim (President) and Shelley Johansen; Robert Jennings (new neighbor who bought Doug Johnson’s house);

Grover Lane: John McGinnis;

Wilson River Highway: Terry and Vi Bytwork.

This represents 12 landowners out of a possible 28, so about 43% of the community was represented.

Decisions Made:

• Dues for the current year will go up to $150/lot.
• Jim Johansen should install the “Wen-Ken” solution for the entrances to bridge if <$2000.
• Leora remains the Secretary/Treasurer.

Still to be done from last year’s meeting:

• Leora will change the by-laws to allow just going over decisions made at the beginning of each meeting – this allows the current meeting to have prior context. The hold up is finding the document with the by-laws!
• Jim will find out the cost for using reclaimed/ground-up asphalt on Glenwood Lane.

Thanks for contributions to:

• Jim Johansen, Gary Miller, Bruce Pederson, and Jake Lorenz for mailbox installation.
• Jim Johansen, Gary Miller, Bruce Pederson, Jake Lorenz, and Sean Senko for bollard (purchased from Rick LaFave’s company) installation.
• Rick LaFave for having an impact on the motorbike issues.
• Gary Miller and Jim Johansen for recouping $750 for some of the mailboxes.
• Carol Stewart and Sean Senko for use of their yard and furniture for our meeting.
• Ailey for taking minutes of the meeting, so that Leora could write these minutes!!!!
• Jake Lorenz for keeping up the road, immediately fixing bridge entrance bumps when notified, and especially for giving the community a super good rate for his work.

Minutes:

The meeting was held in Sean Senko and Carol Stewart’s yard at 18069 NW Grimmett Dr., Gales Creek, OR 97117 and it didn’t rain!!!! Perhaps because we held it ½ hour earlier than last year, it didn’t get cold, either.

Leora called the meeting to order at about 6:30pm, and we went around introducing everyone to each other, and went over decisions made from last year and gave updates:

• New Mailboxes and bollards were installed.
• Old mailboxes were put up for sale. Sold one multiple slot unit and one parcel box unit.
• (relating to making a change in the bylaws to just go over last year’s decisions, versus reading the entire minutes) Leora and Shelley did an initial search to find the bylaws, but it turns out that we didn’t find the document that has the minutiae that the minutes should be read. . . Leora still needs to work on that.
• No wash boarding seems to have occurred this year. (Yay!)
• Motorcycle riding problem seems to be minimized since the last meeting. (Yay!)
• At the meeting, no one was aware of an on-going problem of speeding (amounting to reckless endangerment of people and animals passing between the park & store) from the highway to the bridge, but by the next day Kevin told me that that is still very much an issue.

The minutes from last year were then approved, unanimously.

Treasurer’s report: we’re spending more than is being brought in for ongoing road maintenance (putting aside the one-time mailbox purchase).

Old business:

• Bridge work – lucky BPA is interested. It was over $100K for the permitting, and likely twice that much for the work.
• BPA sent a copy of what their intentions are to the property owners affected. The file is very big. (After the meeting, Leora sent a link to the permit application which has very detailed info about the work BPA plans on doing to repair the abutments of our bridge. The link was sent to everyone with an email address). The permit for 2019 was denied. BPA redid the cultural survey, and expects to resubmit the application next year. The only comments on the application were Gary Miller offering the use of his property. Again, we’re hoping the work will be done end of 2020 summer. For REAL.

New Business:

• Our new neighbor, Robert Jennings (bought Doug Johnson’s place), arrived, so we welcomed him and reintroduced ourselves.
• Road maintenance is now outpacing the annual dues. When do we start raising the dues? Jim proposed starting September 2019. He suggested that $150 should cover the road maintenance. This caused a lot of discussion about how to reduce the cost of maintenance.
  • Was the lack due to payments in arrears? Of course, the amount ($1450 as of 8/26/2019) doesn’t help, but the real issue is that we’re now spending more than we’re taking in, assuming that everyone contributes, and, because of the mailbox purchases (a one-time deal), we’ve reduced our reserve a great deal.
  • How about oiling? Can we get rid of that? Especially because it was done so late? The oiling company was VERY backed up this year. We wanted the oiling done in June. However, even being done so late, it was HUGELY appreciated by the people who are directly on the road, and suffer from the dust. There was disagreement about the longer term affects with Jim believing that it helps the overall health of the road, and John believing that it quickly dissipates. For those of us who have been here a long time, I have to say that whether it’s Jake’s constant attention, and/or the oil, the road is now in great shape. It hasn’t always been.
  • How about paving? Jim had researched this, thoroughly, back in 2011. He got quotes anywhere from $15,000 to $42,000 for the work 8 years ago, so a current quote would likely be more. Those quotes assumed a good road base, which Glenwood Lane doesn’t have. Likely, it would be another $30,000 (guessing) to do that work. And, while we wouldn’t have to re-gravel nor oil the road, we would have to maintain it, yearly: fill in cracks, and sometimes retar it. So, for the low side, back in 2011, it would mean that each lot owner would have to ante up somewhere between $500 for the lowest bid and NO road base work to as much as about $2,400 for road base work, and the paving. This doesn’t include the cost of speedbumps (Jim was advised that we’d need 5!). The concerns of the neighbors in 2011 was: people already speed, paving would make that worse, hence the need for speed bumps; and snow removal and winter care would become mandatory, which we avoid by keeping it gravel. And then the guess on the yearly maintenance would be roughly the same as current expenditures. So, no, paving would not be a panacea. People are already having issues with the cost. This would increase the cost, not lower it. It may be something that we would want to look into, again, but it wouldn’t be a solution that would lead to lower fees.
  • The Bytworks wanted to be excused from paying the increased cost because they don’t use the mailbox (paid for by their fees), and don’t use the bridge that much. Jim pointed out that the Bytwork’s bridge is not a 30,000 ton bridge, so that any heavy equipment, and the garbage truck has to go over Glenwood Bridge, so while the use isn’t as constant as some others, it’s needed. (The agreements for both the Glenwood bridge and Lane are based on lot ownership, not usage.)
  • Jim pointed out that Oregon law says that we need to have a reserve. Leora did some research after the meeting and found the following links about keeping a reserve, but neither seems to specify how much, or a percentage, just that there must be one: and
  • After all of the above discussions, Leora proposed that we raise the fees, and everyone (perhaps excepting Terry) voted to raise them.
• Thanks to Gary Miller and Jim Johansen for getting $750 back from selling the old mailboxes. Jim has had no more luck on the remaining units. While those in attendance suggested that we just get whatever we can get for them, Leora and Ailey will look into other places to attempt to sell them for a reasonable price (NextDoor, Facebook’s Marketplace, etc.).
• A couple of people complained, during this last year, about the bumps on the bridge entrances, because their cars were getting scraped up on entrance and exit. While Jake has taken care of it, each time (costing money), Jim has been looking at a more permanent solution. We’d been told of the “Wen-Ken” solution that was implemented on many forest roads, so Jim was looking for that design. One of the Wen-Ken solution designers passed away, and attempts at contacting the other designer (Wendy) have so far failed. Jim Johansen believes that he now knows what the design is, but hasn’t priced it out. He took a guess at how much the solution that he envisions would cost ($2000), and then we created a proposal around that: If, when he does price it out, the solution is less than $2000, he has the go-ahead to make the change. (This proposal passed, unanimously. The expectation is that this will decrease maintenance costs in the long run.
• And, finally, Leora volunteered to continue on as Secretary/Treasurer (obviously, a masochist!). She received several nominations, and was voted back in for another 3 years.
• Open Forum: No one had anything else, so. . .
• THANK YOU to Sean and Carol, for opening up their place for the meeting.
• Meeting ended at roughly 7:37pm.

Leora Gregory, Secretary/Treasurer

Officers:

President: Jim Johansen (September 2017- August 2020),

Vice President: SinSing Miller (September 2018 – August 2021)

Secretary/Treasurer: Leora Gregory (September 2019 – August 2022)