Minutes of the Gardnerville Ranchos General Improvement District Board of Trustees meeting held
Wednesday January 7th , 2015 at 6pm at 931 Mitch Drive Gardnerville, NV 89460
Pledge of Allegiance: Led by David Bourne
Trustees Present: Jeff James, Cade Baligad, Brad Newlon, Shari James and David Bourne.
Also Present: Beth Cook, Bob Spellberg, Mike Rowe and Michael Bennett.
Special Item: Swearing in of newly elected Board of Trustees Shari A. James, Jeff James and Brad Newlon.
Bob Spellberg swore in the newly elected Board Members.
Public Comment: None
Approval of the Agenda: Cade Baligad motioned to approve the agenda. David Bourne seconded the motion. All ayes. Agenda approved.
Public Comment: None
Approval of the minutes: David Bourne motioned to approve the minutes of the December 3, 2014 Board Meeting. Cade Baligad seconded the motion. All ayes. Minutes approved.
Public Comment: None
Reports:
District Engineer: Mike Bennett reviewed the January 2015 tracking schedule.
District Counsel: Mike Rowe stated that February 6, 2015 at 9:00 am there will be a training session on open meeting laws and ethics in government laws. The meeting will be held and the CVIC Hall.
District Manager: Bob stated that the District has changed to Heritage Bank of Nevada and the process was fairly smooth. The District is in the middle of a meter replacement program and also replacing various street signs. The District is looking into changing the light bulbs at Bluerock Park to LED bulbs. Bob has noticed a lot of activity at Mitch Park.
NEW BUSINESS
- Board discussion and possible action to elect a Chairman, Vice Chairman and Treasurer of the Board of Trustees.
Chairman Nominations:
David Bourne nominated Cade Balligad. Cade declined.
Cade Baligad nominated David Bourne. David declined
Jeff James nominated Shari James. Shari declined.
Shari James nominated Brad Newlon.
Cade Baligad seconded the nomination. All ayes. Brad Newlon is Chairman.
Vice Chairman:
Jeff James nominated Shari James. David Bourne seconded the motion. All ayes. Shari James is Vice Chariman.
Treasurer:
Cade Baligad nominated Jeff James for treasurer. Shari James seconded the motion. All ayes. Jeff James is treasurer.
Public Comment: None
- Board discussion and possible action regarding Board Meeting dates for calendar year 2015.
The following Board Meeting dates were changed for 2015. February 4th meeting was changed to February 12th. May 6th meeting was changed to May 7th. September 6th meeting was changed to September 10th. December 2nd meeting was changed to December 3rd.
Jeff James motioned to accept the dates for Board Meetings as discussed leaving open possible changes if necessary and direct the District Manager to publish within the legal section of the Record Courier the approved dates. Shari James seconded the motion. 4 ayes. 1 nay (Cade Baligad). Motion passed.
Public Comment: None
- Board discussion and possible action to appoint Board Member and/or Staff to various Committees and Boards for calendar year 2015.
David Bourne motioned to appoint David Bourne to the Nevada League of Cities Board of Directors with Bob Spellberg as an alternate, Bob Spellberg to the Board of the Nevada Public Agency Insurance Pool with Shari James as an alternate, appoint Shari James as the liaison to the County Commission with Jeff James as the alternate and appoint Jeff James to work with the Chamber of Commerce with Bob Spellberg as the alternate. Shari James seconded the motion. All ayes. Motion passed.
Public Comment: None
- Board discussion and possible action to approve a water line replacement program on
Kingston Lane.
Jeff James motioned to approve the Kingston Lane waterline Improvement Project in an amount not to exceed $75000.00. Further giving the District Manager authority to approve change orders in an amount of no more that 20% of the project cost if the need arises. Cade Baligad seconded the motion. All ayes. Motion passed.
Public Comment: None
- Board discussion and possible action to approve an enhancement to the District’s water meter program.
Bob reviewed with the Board various incentives that may entice property owners into going on a meter early. This will allow the District to ease into the program and not having to install several thousand meters in March 2017.
Shari James motioned to approve enhancement to the District’s water meter program by offering incentives to go on the program prior to the March 2017 deadline. David Bourne seconded the motion. All ayes motion passed.
Public Comment: None
OLD BUSINESS
- Board discussion on request for support for a zone change, the creation of a landscape maintenance district and taking over maintenance but not ownership of roads within the Cedar Creek Subdivision.
Stephanie Hicks of R.O. Anderson was present to give the Board some background on the Cedar Creek Subdivision. She explained that since the Subdivision was developed, the property has been foreclosed on. With the change of ownership there has been some discussion by the owner and the residents on changing the zoning of the Club House to a single family dwelling. Since there is no longer an HOA, landscaping outside the wall surrounding the subdivision needs to be maintained. A request has been made for the District to support a decision to create a maintenance district to maintain this landscaping. Next, a request was made for the District to take over maintaining the streets within the subdivision without requiring ownership of the rights of way. Chuck Zumpft from Brooke, Shaw, & Zumpft discussed the possibility of the District maintaining the streets within the Cedar Creek Subdivision without requiring ownership of the rights of way. This is a problem because there is a dispute with the District and the County and who owns the rights of way within the District. Mr. Zumpft and Mr. Rowe have been working on amending the annexation agreement once the County makes a decision on this issue.
Bob feels the estimate of $9000.00 that was given for maintaining the landscape is low and he would like to investigate this further. At this point the District does not have staff available for this project.
Hope Sullivan from Douglas County Planning stated to the Board that what she is looking at is getting the support from the District for these 3 requests. She would like to know if the trustees are receptive to forming a landscape maintenance district and to maintaining the roads.
Mark Turner of Ridgeline Development stated that people that are purchasing homes in the Subdivision are concerned about the lack of clarity on these issues. He feels once these items are resolved, the homes will move very quickly.
Darr Holdeman bought some lots in the subdivision. He was under the impression that the District was willing to maintain the landscape and he would greatly appreciate the Board supporting this decision.
Greg Emmers of Cedar Creek does not want an HOA but he does want support of some sort of landscape maintenance along with the zone change and the street maintenance.
Lou Gundell, a Ranchos homeowner feels that if the District takes over landscape maintenance, a precedent has been set. If Rocky Terrace happened to dissolve their HOA, would the District be required to maintain their landscaped areas?
- Request for support for a zone change for the club house at Cedar Creek Subdivision to single family.
David Bourne motioned to support a zone change for the club house at Cedar Creek Subdivision. Cade Baligad seconded the motion. All ayes. Motion passed.
- Request for support in an effort to create a landscape maintenance district to maintain landscape outside of the stone wall of the Cedar Creek Subdivision.
Jeff James motioned to support the idea of a landscape maintenance district in the Cedar Creek Subdivision if created by the County. Shari James seconded the motion. Three ayes, one nay (Cade Baligad).
Jeff James motioned to retract his original motion. Shari James seconded that motion. All ayes.
Jeff James motioned to support the idea of a landscape maintenance district in the Cedar Creek Subdivision. Cade Baligad seconded the motion. All ayes. Motion passed.
- Request for the District to take over maintaining the streets within the Cedar Creek Subdivision without requiring ownership of the rights of way.
David Bourne motioned to accept maintenance of the streets within the Cedar Creek Subdivision without requiring ownership of the rights of way after inspection by the District and with approval of the annexation agreement between District Counsel and Mr. Zumpft. Jeff James seconded the motion. All ayes. Motion passed.
- Board discussion on the addition of an invocation at the beginning of each Board of Trustees Meeting.
Cade Baligad motioned to have an invocation before each Board Meeting and approve Resolution 15-01 once it has been updated. David Bourne seconded the motion. 4 ayes, 1 nay (Jeff James).
Public Comment: Lou Gundell feels an invocation is unnecessary and a lot of work.
Brad Newlon and Shari James volunteered to be liaisons for recruiting speakers.
- Board discussion on making periodic payments above regularly scheduled payments on the District’s two state revolving loan fund loans.
This was originally on last month’s agenda and the motion was not passed because of a split decision. Shari James was not at the meeting. Cade Baligad and Brad Newlon voted in favor of making additional payments. David Bourne and Jeff James voted against making additional payments. Therefore Shari James is the only person that can vote tonight.
Shari James motioned to pay just the principal and interest that is outlined within the payment schedule supplied by the State Revolving Loan Fund. 3 ayes, 2 nays (Cade and Brad). Motion passed.
Public Comment: None
- Board discussion and possible action regarding the semi-annual review of the District Manager’s goals for fiscal year 2014-2015.
Bob Spellberg reviewed his District goals for fiscal year 2014-2015.
David Bourne motioned to accept the District Managers goals for 2014-2015. Shari James seconded the motion. All ayes. Motion passed.
Public Comment: Lou Gundell asked if there were any plans to pave the Topaz Lane parking lot. Bob said that it is in the plans down the line.
CONSENT CALENDAR
Jeff James motioned to approve the consent calendar. David Bourne seconded the motion. All ayes. Motion passed.
Public Comment: None
REPORTS
David Bourne thanked the District for replacing some of the street signs.
Jeff James would like to have the meeting dates emailed to him. He asked what the procedure is when a bush or tree is obstructing a street sign. Bob stated that the resident is contacted through the mail. If there is no response, the District will cut the tree and charge the resident for the removal.
ADJOURNMENT
Jeff James motioned to adjourn the meeting. David Bourne seconded the motion. All ayes. Meeting adjourned at 8:30pm.
_________________________
Beth Cook, Acting Secretary
