Mark Reeder, outgoing president of the MHA, welcomes Nick Tamm to the
post.
Spring Quarterly Meeting of the Mapleton Home Association April 24, 2005
Place: Unity Church
Time: 5:30
Attendance: Lee Young (35A), Alex Wilson, (58), Celeste Caperell (17),
Doris Hubbard (155), Steve Schroepfer (83), Mark Reeder (14), Nick Tamm
and Maria Downing (41), Tammy Lynn (16), Jonathan Machen and Paige Wild
(25), C. Kabir (55), Suzanne Baird (91), Gene Langlois (77), Paul
Keaton (22), Kathryn Alexander Community Coordinator, From Thistle
Community Housing: Etta Habegger, Barbara Navin, Bill Windsor
Board Members Present: Mark Reeder President; Tammy Lynn Vice
President; Secretary Nick Tamm.
Agenda:
1. Election of Officers – President, Vice President, Management
Committee Chair and Secretary
2. Updates On CU Project; Infrastructure Upgrades and Affordability
3. Discussion of Changing Park Name
President Mark Reeder called the MHA’s Quarterly Meeting to order at
5:35pm. He asked for a moment of silence to honor Don Lucas, 35A, a
founding member of the MHA and a good neighbor. After reading the
rules of the meetings he called for the first agenda item – election of
officers.
Election of Officers:
Nick Tamm was nominated for President by Paul Keaton, Kabir seconded –
Accepted Unanimously
Paul Keaton was nominated for Vice President by Nick Tamm, Jonathan
Machen seconded - Accepted Unanimously
Jonathan Machen was nominated for Management Chair by Alex Wilson, Paul
Keaton seconded - Accepted Unanimously
There were no nominations for Secretary. The board will appoint a
temporary secretary until a person can be found to accept the
nomination.
The New President, Nick Tamm, then recognized Jonathan Machen, who
presented Mark Reeder with a plaque of appreciation for his 10 years of
service to the MHA.
CU/ED Project Report
Kathryn Alexander reported that MHA has entered into a partnership with
the University of Colorado Environmental Design Department to remodel
older homes from an environmental perspective. Thistle brought the
partnership to MHA and sits on the committee that oversees the project
along with MHA and the CU environmental Design head and the head of the
Planning Department. This is a long-term project that will experiment
with ways to upgrade homes in an environmentally sound manner by
covering them and redoing the interiors. This first project will be a
strawbale exterior with stone “skirting”. The advantage for residents
is that we may be able to offer options for upgrading homes that does
not require money to teardown the old or set up the new home. This
could mean a substantial savings. Each demonstration project will be
different with CU providing the student labor and all parties working
to help fund the project and share in the sale of the home at
completion.
Nick Tamm then asked how long the project would run. Kathryn answered
that the project is scheduled to run for a year. Each project would
employ different designs and materials.
Infrastructure Report
Nick Tamm reported that MHA has written a letter, composed by Kathryn
Alexander and Mark Reeder, asking both Qwest and Xcel for help in
defraying the cost of putting in the dry utilities. He then asked Bill
Windsor of Thistle Community Housing to give the residents an update on
infrastructure rehab. Bill explained that the goal was to install the
entire new infrastructure in one phase. Sewer, water, gas, electric
and phone with Comcast cable at once. The project was priced out at $1
million above budget. Now decisions have to be made on what to do
first. The Park would not be done in sections, however. Whatever
infrastructure upgrades were done would be done to the entire park not
one section of it. Right now there was enough money to do water,
sewer and roadways and repair some telephone. Bill then explained that
the letter Nick Tamm spoke of earlier addressed the electric and gas
upgrades with Xcel and the telephone with Qwest. The idea is to
approach the two companies and ask them to donate the costs of their
upgrades. The costs would be about $700,000. The argument is that
Xcel and Qwest have benefited for 40 years from a private system that
they did not have to fund. Usually Qwest and Xcel would be asked to
put in a system and they would receive back the costs of that
infrastructure through their rates charged to residents. Residents
have been paying for 40 years on a private system and both Qwest and
Xcel have benefited from this. If residents wish to write their own
letters to Xcel and Qwest, they should send them to Kathryn who will
forward them to Bill. By donating their services, the infrastructure
costs could be trimmed enough in connection with other cost saving
measures to enable the entire infrastructure to be done at once.
The fall back position is to do sewer, and water first. Sewer and
water would go through the streets and then gas and electric would go
through the yards at a later date.
We are waiting for the first site approval form the City Planning
Department. They are 60 days behind schedule. This could push the start
date back to August, instead of the hoped for date of June. The project
is projected to take 11 months.
Maria Downing #41 asked whether Qwest and Xcel could front the costs
and then collect them over time through fees. Bill answered that this
would be unlikely at this time.
Kabir, #55 asked if the costs for putting in the dry utilities later
would be more expensive. Bill answered yes, around $1.3 million versus
$1 million.
Bill then explained that the MHA and TCH meet with the engineers and
Wyatt Construction to see what can be trimmed from the budget. So far
the MHA has worked well protecting residents.
Paul Keaton #22 reminded everyone that the new infrastructure had bee
planned in order to bring in new homes. Without electrical, new homes
could not be brought in. Bill agreed, but said that the sewer and
water were important because of health and safety issues. The old
sewer system of clay pipe was breaking down and could leak raw sewage
into the ground and become hazardous to the residents. If the
electric is not done right away, residents could bring in new
electrical for themselves.
Alex Wilson told residents that he priced out new electrical for his
place and it ran between $8,000 and $15,000. Bill then explained that
if enough money can be found to put in the new transformers, then
residents will not have so far to go to put in an up graded electric
system. The new cost could be closer to $4,000.
Steve Schroepfer #83 asked what impact the new upgrades would have on
homes. Bill answered that mobile homes would not be offline for more
tan a day, as units would be hooked up as soon as utilities were run to
them.
To help out with costs residents will be asked to remove their own
skirting, to clean out underneath their home and possibly to connect
the new service. Residents will not be without service for more than a
day and there will be plenty of notice as the project moves through the
park. For those residents who are unable to remove their own skirting,
Bill suggested that other residents could be recruited to help them
out.
Affordability Report
Nick then introduced TCH’s Barbara Navin for an affordability update.
Barbara reported that TCH hoped to finish up the rent tiers by the end
of April with MHA help, and that rent tier letters would go out by the
end of the week. Rents that go down will be retroactive from January
and rents that go up will be effective July one.
Park name change
Mark Reeder said that several residents have expressed interest in
changing the name of the Park. One suggestion has been Mapleton Hollow.
This has been a name of the area in the past. He asked residents to
suggest other names and/or to express their interest in the name
Mapleton Hollow. About 50% of those residents attending would consider
thinking about changing the Park’s name. A name change would be voted
on at the next quarterly meeting.
President Nick Tamm adjourned the meeting at 6:20 pm.
Respectively submitted,
By Mark Reeder,
Acting Secretary
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