Board of Directors Meeting
Monday, April 30th, 2007
Meeting Minutes
Members Present: Luis Rios, Ray Biechele, Bruce Lieske, Sue Beveridge, Joan Grodski, Pat Stanforth, Chris Waguespack, and Jim Mathews (newsletter editor).
Members Absent: Ron Schroeder and Susan Mueller
The meeting was held at Sue’s house, 1836 Seneca Blvd.
Luis called the meeting to order at 7:33 PM.
Meeting Minutes: The March meeting minutes were distributed and approved.
Treasurer’s Report: Sue reported that current bank balance is $15,628.46. There are no outstanding bills.
Sue sent out a 3rd mailing only to those owners who tend to pay their dues. Membership is up to 193 homes.
Luis has been added to the signature card and now may write checks. He also has the safety deposit box key.
Deed Restrictions: Ray has received and granted a few requests. No problems to report.
The error on the deed restrictions on the website is limited to the website. The deed restriction chair has 30 days to respond to a homeowner’s request. The website will be corrected.
Beautification: Chris gave the report. The grass on the right of way along Seneca Blvd. from the monument to Winter Springs Blvd. is dry. Sprinklers are needed. Chris contacted Pat Rugg (407 718-6987), current president of Chestnut Estates. They actually own that property. Neither HOA has the funds for such a project at this time but Chestnut Estates will discuss the matter at its next meeting.
Welcome Committee: Joan has the new welcome booklet. There are 2 homes, which have recently been sold – 1801 Seneca and 1718 Seneca.
Citizen’s Advisory Report: Chris attended this meeting. His report is in attachment A.
SR 417 Committee: Bruce stated a new SR 417 task force needed to be formed. Ray stated that he would help, as did Jim. It is tasked with attempting to obtain a sound wall along SR 417. The strategies to do this as well as the members of the task force are to be determined.
An Expressway Authority meeting took place on April 17th, which Ray attended. At that meeting, it was stated that a sound wall would be placed on the east (other) side of SR 417 but not along the Chelsea Woods’ side. Ray wrote a complete summary of this meeting, which is included in attachment B. This summary was sent out to the Chelsea Woods HOA members via the email list (which contains about 100 members), on the April 20th.
On the 25th, “CWHOA -- Facts for Communicating With Florida's Turnpike Authority re 417 Widening Problems” written by Jim was send out using the CW HOA email list
Chelsea Woods HOA President Rios sent a certified letter to the Expressway Authority addressing our concerns.
On April 26th, City Commissioner Gilmore sent CW HOA a copy of an email to the expressway authority from a city employee, Brian Fields addressing the sound wall problem. This was the 3rd mass mailing via the CW HOA email list.
From these mass emails, responses from Rzshiflett@aol.com (signed Rosemary and Keith), Leroy McLaurin (leeMclaurin@cfl.rr.com), Maryellen, mhutcheson@edythbush.org, stephenfetters@bellsouth.net (Stephen Fetters), lbonett@cfl.rr.com (Laurie), lclose@cfl.rr.com, and Anne DeCantis (aDeCantis@hotmail.com) were received by the HOA.
Henry Pinzon, Expressway Authority representative, contacted Luis and Joan. He said that he was willing to have a meeting with the Chelsea Woods residents to discuss this issue. It was decided to wait until after the task force has determined a strategy before holding a meeting.
Emily Rios made 130 copies of Ray’s original letter. These were distributed to the homes nearest the SR 417 in order to contact as many owners as possible.
Bruce found a website, www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/probresp.htm, that discusses noise problems.
Chlorine Content in Drinking Water: Luis called the water department. They flush the lines with chlorine once a month, or so, to clean them. This creates the chlorine smell. It is not dangerous.
Newsletter: Jim will send out a newsletter when the SR 417 task force has some information to be published.
The next meeting was schedule for May 23rd at the Barnie’s at the Winter Springs Town Center at 7:30 pm.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:05 PM.
Respectfully submitted by Pat Stanforth, secretary.
Attachment A – Citizen’s Advisory Committee Report from Chris
I attended the Winter Springs Citizen's Advisory meeting at the WS Police Dept. on 4/11. Here are notes from the meeting.
Chief Kerr gave the statistics on service calls and crime. I did not get them all, but the messages behind the numbers are as follows. Also, he indicated that there recently was a day-time burglary in Winding Hollow.
- Lots of service calls (11,647)
- Improved response times (3.3 minutes average for emergency, about 6 for non-emergency)
- Decrease in criminal offenses (in all areas - assault, burglary, larceny, vehicle theft)
The officers reminded the group to keep garage doors closed to prevent theft.
There will be a Code Enforcement Class on May 3, 6-10 pm at the WS Police Dept. It is 4 hours and consists of PowerPoint presentation material. The material covers officer safety, prosecution, Fl Constitution, trespassing, etc. There are 20 seats, 9 of which are already taken. To register call 407 327-7982.
The force is starting a focused campaign to curb youth aggressive driving that occurs on 434 in the morning and afternoon coinciding with start and end of school. Reminder that wearing a seat belt is the law; not complying is a primary offense. The force is writing plenty citations for not wearing seat belts, but they indicate it is not having much effect.
Some upcoming events: March for Life - 4/20 & 21; Person Safety - 4/28 class is full, next one is 5/26
Chief Kerr mentioned the possibility of a demonstration of the K-9 dogs at one of the upcoming citizens meetings.
Input from the citizens:
- Concern about speeding and in some areas the ignoring of STOP signs
- Pack of bike riders riding many abreast and not following road rules
- A number of people expressed thanks to the force for their response to requests and their good work.
- Some expressed thanks to force for their participation at the Tuskawilla HOA event held at Trotwood Park several weeks ago.
Chris Waguespack
Attachment B – Summary of SR 417 Meeting on April 17th from Ray
Pat et al,
As discussed, attached are the handouts that were given out at the 417 Widening Project Development & Environmental Studies (PD&E) meeting on Wednesday evening. Anyone who would like to have their comments included in the public record and "receive a response", needs to send in their comments by mail on the attached form, postmarked by April 27, 2007 or by email to the address shown on the form, by that same date. According to the presenter, all comments, regardless of how they are submitted (verbally at the meeting, mail or email), receive the same weight and will be included in the public records of the meeting and will receive a response.
In a nutshell, regarding the noise abatement wall, the study drawings and discussions with the noise engineering consultants indicate that, while a wall is planned for the east side of SR417 for virtually all of it's length paralleling Chelsea Woods, no such wall is planned for the west (or Chelsea Woods) side of the road. According to the consultant that I spoke to, the reason for this is both financial and dictated by federal and state guidelines used in determining where and when noise abatement walls are justified.
I'm not a noise engineer and will not attempt to explain the technical reasons given but, in this case, their computer studies indicated that, because of the physics of sound travel, housing density and distance from the roadway, a wall will not make a significant impact on noise reduction and cannot be justified financially on the west side of the road. An additional issue stated pertains to a requirement (federal or state?) that walls cannot be placed immediately adjacent to the roadway because of safety issues (ie: crashes by autos before control can be regained). Instead, the wall must follow the contours of the right of way and, in our case, this takes some significantly long "jogs" around ponds and further reduces financial viability for this section.
The bottom line, per the engineers that I spoke to, is that while the east side area of the road was just within the "justification guidelines" resulting from the computer study evaluations, the west or CW side fell outside those guidelines and that the engineers had no choice but to deny placing a wall there. They did encourage sending our comments and concerns in be included to the public records and that they would be give equal weight with those made verbally at the meeting. The engineer that I spoke to indicated that, with enough comments and concerns, it was possible that the issue would be revisited.
Also, when asked about the use of trees and foliage, the engineers stated that they were never used for noise abatement since they did not provide any measurable reduction and were basically just cosmetic and were not and would not be considered. He also stated that any foliage installed by them along the roadway, in addition to being only for aesthetic reasons, would be only low lying shrubbery due to similar safety concerns as a wall close to the roadway.
I did ask for copies of the applicable drawing for our area to be sent and was told that I had to request them via the comment sheet. Obviously that will take awhile to happen but I will make the request.
That's it in a nutshell. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them as best I can. Feel free to give me a call.
Ray Biechele
Past Meetings