OLS ANNUAL SPRING MEETING
JUNE 17, 2017 10 AM
Old Lyme Middle School
Meeting called to order at 10:09 am
Attendees: Paul Yellen, Tom Annulli, Jay Moynihan, John Cunningham, Maura Graml, Sheila DeLutrie, Polly Merritt-Maglio, Matt Merritt, Pat Burns, Joe Halloran.
Welcome and Introductions
Paul Yellen called the meeting to order.
OLSBA Family Memorial
The OLSBA family members who passed away this year were remembered with a moment of silence. Their names will go onto the memorial wall located on our website.
Paul read a letter from Bob Walsh in honor of his wife, Terry Walsh, who passed away in 2016. The Walsh family has made a generous donation to the OLSBA to be used for a memorial gift to beautify the beach and another to purchase special prizes for the Fourth of July festivities.
Committee Reports
Sheffield Brook-Pat Burns
The original pipe at the end of Sheffield Brook was 24 inches in diameter and 30 years old. The Sheffield Brook project costs 1.3 M dollars and is funded by grants. Twin 36 inch pipes were installed for drainage. The 24 inch pipe will be kept as an emergency bypass pipe. This project greatly diminishes the size of the flood plain. Previous to this project, there were 32 homes in the flood plain. There are now only 2. This has a very positive effect on the OLSBA community.
The contractor for this project is Pat Dicello who can be reached at 860 384-5182. He may be contacted with questions and concerns.
There is a maintenance agreement in place with Harry Plaut to keep these pipes open during heavy storms. Final landscaping of this area will be done by the fall.
WPCA-Chairman Joe Halloran
Joe started his presentation with the question, “When are we going to get sewers?” He stated that we are a lot closer than we have been in the past. The WPCA has reached an agreement with East Lyme, Waterford and New London. There are contracts under review with these municipalities. The WPCA is cautiously optimistic these contracts will be signed within a few months. However, the DEEP has come back with additional questions concerning the WPCA Infrastructure project.
The town of Old Lyme previously approached us to join us in the WPCA project and, in doing, so has held up our project for 3 years. Old Lyme went through their process which delayed us and was ultimately rejected by the state. They want our pump station located in the Soundview parking lot. This request needs to go through the Board of Selectman and then be voted on by the town of Old Lyme. We are still waiting for the town of Old Lyme to sign their contract with us.
Once agreements are in place, we will need to get state funding for this project to proceed. It is estimated that this project needs 1 to 1.5 years for both design work and construction. The projected date for this infrastructure project which includes roads, sewers, storm drains, and fire hydrants is 2019 to 2020. Dino Genga resigned from the WPCA. Dede DeRosa will replace him.
The configuration of the roads will change with the sewers. Please be cautious of new driveways, landscaping, etc. as these could be impacted in construction.
The latest cost per household in OLSBA for sewers is 30 to 35K. There will be an additional cost to hook into the system. 1500-2K per house is the estimate right now.
Recreation and Security-Polly Merritt-Maglio
Paul began with a discussion as to how much time Polly spends as the Recreation and Security supervisor. It is an average of 25 to 30 hours a week. It is the opinion of the BOG that this should be a paid position. There is money in the budget with which to pay Polly to continue in her supervisory role. A special vote will be held on June 24, 2017 at 9 am to address this.
Polly reported that all guards are returning. There has been one new guard hired as a junior guard to transition to a guard next year. Guards were not hired this year on Memorial Day due to the poor weather. We have never hired guards for June. Should we take the money out of the budget and hire guards for June? This would cost approximately 3K and a discussion followed. It is the feeling of the association members that guards are necessary for this time period due to the influx of people coming over from other beaches and using our private beach. The guards will start on July 1, 2017 and continue until the third week in August.
The first movie on the beach will be shown on June 30th. Please feel free to drop off appropriate Disney-like movies to Polly. She will tag them and return them to you after viewing.
Comments from the floor:
Why don’t we just close the gates instead of hiring guards? We could do that. Close 3 and rotate them.
Can the guards be on the wall stopping people? We do not know if that is a viable, legal solution.
It was stated that there is a real problem with residents allowing outsiders to park on their property and charging them. This is unacceptable and not allowed at OLSBA property.
We pay for the privilege to live here and use our beach. Old Colony has a guard that physically removes outsiders. We allow too many people into our association. It was stated that there is quite a bit of illegal behavior at the rocks on the Old Colony side. Miami Beach has already put in a fence which is forcing more traffic to our beach. This will be discussed at the June 24, 2017 Saturday morning meeting.
You can call the police if you see someone doing something illegal. This is not an OLS responsibility.
Can we have only one guard at the gate on the weekend? The guards often face confrontation on the weekends and Polly feels it is safer to have 2 guards at the gate because of this.
We need to remind our renters about the rules of OLSBA.
Concern expressed over the large hole at the end of Sheffield Brook. This hole is on Old Colony’s side.
Can the fence happen this summer? Paul will call the lawyer on Monday morning.
It was the opinion of the association members that professional security guards are necessary for this 2017 season-12 K for the additional guards. We have 150K in retained earnings that could be used to cover this expense.
Pat Burns also stated that there has been no change to the fence that separates OLS from Old Colony but rather a change to the rocks. The beach is wider, the rocks are flatter and the fence is the same.
Beach Conditions Paul Yellen on behalf of George Finley
Last year there were many complaints about the quality of sand at the end of Sea Spray. OLSBA has no control over the storms and the weather that moves the sand. This year we have removed the shells, etc. to make that sand more usable. We gained approval from DEEP to regrade the beach-this was done last month. The sand has been leveled and moved away from the wall.
The Sound water is tested every week and our water quality has come back as good. OLSBA has not had to close the beach due to contamination.
The floats and lines should go in in the next couple of weeks. Beach cleaning will happen primarily on the weekends. Please do not set up on the beach before 8 am for the machinery.
Kayak and boat racks going in next week at the end of Billow. Please utilize them as best as possible.
Summer Social Events Maggie and Julia Nixon
Trash pick-up on July 3rd. Put the barrels out by 6:30 am.
Parade- Saturday, July 1st at 10 am, followed by the sand castle contest, beach races and ice cream. Rain date July 2, 2017.
The Michael Cleary Band will perform Saturday, July 1st at 7 pm with a rain date July 2, 2017
Ladies Brunch will be held at The Old Lyme Inn on July 20, 2017
Carousel Night will be on August 5th from 6 pm to 6:45 pm at no charge for OLS residents
Neighborhood Beach Party will be held on August 12th. Please bring a dessert or appetizer to share.
Website and Social Media- John Cunningham
oldlymeshores.org or oldlymeshores.net
Redirected the old site at .net to .org
Previous website issues have been fixed. Maggie Caron monitors the OLSBA social media sites. Please feel free to register on the website. We currently have 39 subscribers. “Thoughts from My Beach Chair” by Paul Yellen is our newest blog. Please email web@oldlymeshores.org to volunteer, post content, etc.
Snow Plowing-Paul Yellen
Last winter was a moderate year with moderate snow amounts. There were no complaints of property damage.
Traffic and Road Safety- Tom Annulli and Jay Moynihan
Our roads are private roads. Therefore, the Old Lyme police will not monitor speed, stop signs, etc.
Our OLSBA vendors have been contacted about our road rules. Please let your contractors know these as well.
Traffic cones and new stop signs will supplement the barriers.
Please let Tom know if you would like a cone in front of your house for speed control.
Hand-outs with our road rules will be given out at the gates. Please post these in your home.
Enforcement needs to be community project. Please remind children to wear helmets, stop at stop signs and that traffic rules apply to them. Our speed limit is 15 mph.
Pre-season email reminder will go out again this year concerning the rules of the beach. We will add that cars need to be parked with all four tires off of the road. We have 30 12×12 white, speed limit signs available for personal usage. If you feel that you have speeding in front of your house and would like one, please speak with Tom or Jay.
Please do not allow children to set up their games in the road.
The roads will be stenciled with STOP near the Stop signs.
More families are using fire pits- these can be very dangerous. Residents need to monitor these and make sure they are fully extinguished before leaving them.
The comment was made that these cones will work better than the barricades with the possibility of less legal repercussions.
Golf Carts- Matt Merritt
Golf carts are not allowed at OLSBA. The issue from a legal prospective is “how to enforce the ban?”
The BOG committee has drafted a policy that will enforce the ban. Starting June 17, 2017, this policy will go into effect.
Matt sent out letter to all golf cart owners last August that enforcement will start in 2017 and met with all owners to discuss this ban. The letter that was sent to the golf cart owners will be posted on the website, in the boards, emailed and sent to the membership.
The community needs to enforce this ban. If you see something, say something. A form will be added to the website which will allow residents to write up an offense anonymously and report it to the BOG. First offense for the golf cart owner will be a verbal warning then a $25 fine will be incurred per offense.
A copy of the infraction will be given to the owner.
We will not register golf carts. To do so would be to condone them.
We can and will lean a violator’s home if necessary for non-payment of these fines and incurring more than three violations in a calendar year can result in the carts being towed.
Budget Sheila DeLutrie
This year’s actual spending went over budget for beach cleaning but every other expense is within budget.
Sheffield brook line item-we have not received the bill yet so that is why there is a surplus.
A motion was made from the floor to accept the proposed budget with a mill rate of 2.7. The motion passed to accept the budget as proposed.
Nominations and Elections of Officers and BOG members
Matt Merritt and Joe Halloran were up for re-election. There were no volunteers from the OLSBA for these positions.
Paul Yellen will continue as President Tom Annulli as Vice President, Sheila Delutrie as Treasurer and Maura Graml as Secretary.
A motion from the floor to accept this proposed slate was made and seconded. The secretary agreed to accept the slate.
Summer Reminders
All construction must cease by July 1st. Cease and Desist orders will be issued to violators in accordance with our Charter and By-laws.
Be considerate of your neighbors.
No eating, no alcohol, no glass bottles on the beach.
No parking on the roads- all four tires off of the road
No dogs on beach
A motion was made to adjourn this meeting and seconded.
The Spring OLSBA Meeting was adjourned at 12:13 pm.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Maura Graml.
It appears that the golf cart rules are not working and we have more golf carts now then before???
The people that own them think only certain rules apply to them and they want other owners to comply with rules they like. What are we going to do????
On June 29th Pat Burns told me that a vote of the general membership had been taken to approve the replacement of the fence between OLS and OCBA. I do not see this reflected in the minutes.
Mark Phelan