Rotonda West Association, Inc
RWA Properties Committee
Minutes
Monday, February 25, 2008
Present: George Krabbe, (Chair.), Bud Nill, Fred Warner and Carl Couture
Absent: Hank Artz
Management: Dianne Brophy, Secretary
Other Members: Nick Gizzi and Jay Lyons
The meeting was called to order at 10:00 am and roll call was taken.
The minutes were accepted with one (1) correction. In the tenth paragraph, second page regarding No Solicitation where it states, “an interpretation of the no solicitation law for Deputy Colin Eggleton,” should read “ an interpretation of the No Solicitation law from Deputy Colin Eggleton.”
Chairman Krabbe talked about the No Solicitation signs. A response was received from Deputy Colin Eggleton, which were four pages of information from the County. What the information says is Rotonda West does not have a non-solicitation ordinance. We have a Deed Restriction for No Solicitation and the County does not enforce Deed Restrictions. The County prevents commercial use of the right-of-way unless you have a permit. If you have a permit from the County you can sell goods, property or services and display it on the County right-of-way. Door to door selling requires a permit. Merchandise needs to be over $25.00; otherwise you do not need a permit. Our Deed Restriction for No Solicitation is hard to enforce. The Sheriff’s position is if someone is selling, door to door sales, call the Sheriff’s Department and have the people checked out. Make sure they have their permit. That may discourage solicitation in Rotonda West.
Jay Lyons stated a woman called last week stating that she had a knock on her front door and was offered a free cleaning of one (1) room of carpeting. The women let the people in thinking that one room would be cleaned at no charge. Even though it was a solicitation, she let the people in. Then she called the office when she did not get what she expected. It was a Kirby Vacuum cleaner presentation. Jay Lyons said he called the company in Sarasota and spoke with the sales manager and told him to stop the door-to-door sales. We have Deed Restrictions prohibiting door-to-door solicitation. If you are seen in Rotonda West again the sheriff will be called. We have to depend on our residents to say, we are not interested and we have a non-solicitation policy you cannot come on our property. There was discussion regarding different types of door-to-door solicitation.
Jay Lyons also talked about the yellow bags that were in driveways this weekend. He called Yellow Book and told them not to throw yellow bags with phone books in the driveways. Now what we have is yellow bags in driveways of vacant houses. If they want to distribute phone books they can call the office and a notice will be put in the West Ways informing residents to come in and pickup a book. George Krabbe said we are still going to put No Solicitation signs up in the areas that we don’t have them as a deterrent. The problem we are having is, John Brandenburger has been contacted and he has contacted the Lakes, and they do not like the sign extension that we have put on the other entrances. George said he has been in contact with the President of the Lakes and he feels we can work it out. Bud Nill asked about a neighbor who solicits for a charity. Chairman Krabbe said under our Deed Restrictions, yes. There was discussion regarding people running for office and was that solicitation. George Krabbe said the way it is interpreted, is to keep people from going door-to-door to sell something. It is allowed, when you are going door-to-door asking someone to vote for a candidate. They are not selling anything. You are sharing information.
Signs: Chairman Krabbe said the Oakland Hills subdivision sign was destroyed. That needs to be replaced. We have a problem with the signs. George went to Quick Signs where that sign was made and was given a price to replace that sign of $195.00 plus tax and $40.00 to install the sign. The signs in Pebble Beach and Broadmoor are deteriorating. We need to come up with a better material for signs. George showed the committee pictures of the signs of the paint is pealing. The Pebble Beach sign has bubbles and is spongy. The chairman explained the problem with the wood that was used for these signs. It is called white wood, and is an interior furniture grade wood. It is not designed to last more than a year outside and that is if you put on caps. Caps were not put on all the proper places on these signs. The White Marsh sign is new, so there are no problems yet. George said he also went to Signs in a Day to get a price. What they have is a material called Alumilite. It is two (2) pieces of aluminum with a plastic core that is sealed. Therefore, you have one good solid piece of material. It will not be destroyed by the weather. The lettering would be vinyl and attached to the Alumilite. These new signs could be made to look exactly like the signs we have now and it is not much more expensive than the white wood. Jay Lyons asked the cost of these signs. For a 32 by 18-inch rules and insurance sign, they can be made up for $85.00 plus tax each. That is just the sign. That does not include the post. George said he thought what we could do is take these posts out and put new posts in. This will be up to RWA Properties Committee and the Board of Directors. Do we want to replace the whole sign or do we want to take new posts, at $130.00 per pair, leave the existing signs there and put the rules and regulations sign below? We could leave these signs up until they deteriorate to a point where they have to be replaced all together. Jay Lyons asked if the existing posts could be used. No, they are too short because you cannot put the information sign below. The only place where the posts may not have to be replaced is Pebble Beach as they have the tallest posts.
Carl Couture asked if the destroyed sign was from vandalism. George said we don’t know if a car ran over it or if it was just vandalized. That sign will definitely have to be replaced and I suggest it be replaced with the alumilite material. Signs in a Day have carved signs and plastic signs and they indicated they are very expensive. Carl Couture said it is better to pay a little more up front for something that is not a maintenance headache. George Krabbe said there would be a cap all around the alumilite sign and the rough edges will not be seen. There was discussion as to how the signs are attached to the posts. The posts are made of PVC. There was discussion on the size of the signs. Carl Couture said there are recommended heights for the acuteness of the visibility of someone going by in a vehicle. If it is up too high it may be out of the easy to read vehicle range. Jay Lyons asked about monument signs used by other communities to get away from a lot of signage. It is difficult in this particular situation, but if you kept the sign height at a reasonable height you can get away from a lot of this other sign problems. A reasonable height is three (3) feet. Communities are getting away from elevating the signs. Discussion followed on sign heights. Bud Nill stated we should take our time and look at alternatives as to what the sign and material will look like. Also at this time we should check into the price of a replacement sign and have the vendor commit to a budget figure then. Discussion followed about replacement signs and prices. George Krabbe stated by putting rules on the same posts it will be one sign. Nick Gizzi said if the present signs are going to deteriorate to where they will have to be replaced within a few years, I say we go with better material. George Krabbe said it is a Board decision. Jay Lyons asked the cost of the alumilite sign. George said the alumilite sign, a 32 X 24, with the posts and the caps $230.00 each plus installation. It would cost $325.00 each for the white wood signs installed. Bud Nill asked if the insurance company is picking up any of the cost to the damaged sign. George said our deductible is higher than the cost of the sign. The posts cannot be reused because they are not high enough.
The rule sign would have “Residents and Guests Only,” “Use at Your Own Risk,” “Alligators in Area,” “No Swimming,” “No Open Flames” and “No Long Term Parking.” There was discussion regarding long-term parking because where they are pulling off is the County right-of-way. George asked do we want all of this on the sign. Carl Couture said he didn’t see the reason for no long-term parking. There was discussion regarding long-term parking. Jay Lyons said that junks up the sign. George said eliminate the long-term parking. There was discussion on keeping Residents and Guests Only on the sign. It was decided to eliminate “No Long Term Parking” from the rule sign. Jay Lyons asked about putting the rules on the back of the signs. Driving by you will not be able to read the rules. George Krabbe said that couldn’t be done as the names of the donors are on the back of the signs. Carl Couture said we have to get the verbiage on the signs to cover the Association for liability issues. Perhaps we do not have to do them all at once. Jay said the Memorial Park letters should be larger than the rule sign. He also stated that there could be rules regarding the size of the letters. Carl said we should not put off anything that could put us at risk for liability. George Krabbe said he would get more information from the sign companies. Committee approved verbiage on the Rules sign.
Nick Gizzi talked about the Golf Course directional signs in the right-of-way and other organizations who would like to do the same. George Krabbe said we don’t need a lot of signs in Rotonda. Discussion followed. Jay Lyons said he would talk to the County regarding signs in the right-of-way.
Community Center Inspection: Dan Dunham came in last Thursday and did the whole building inspection. He did some mold sampling. The mold sampling should be back either today or tomorrow. As soon as he gets the sample information back, he will write up the inspection and he will give it to us as soon as he can. Mr. Dunham told Jay and myself there were rafters that were not replaced when the building was done in 2002. These should have been replaced. All they did was sheet over it. There are some damaged rafters. There is an area on the floor that is soft. That is rotted out. There are beams that have been termite eaten. It did not appear to be active termites and it is old damage. He will give us the information as soon as he can get it out. At that time, we will decide what we are going to do. He also said it would be crazy to use the money to fix this building up.
Five year Plan: George Krabbe said when we receive the inspection that will determine where we are going to go. We will have to have more meetings or break it up into committees or subcommittees. We will have our work cut out for us.
Other business: Carl Couture said he had looked over some of the information given to him over the past six (6) months. It would be to our benefit to do some spread sheets of sort by quarters or by year. One (1) item being an inspection schedule. A rotating schedule of our fiscal plan based on the age of things. The second quarter look at the Memorial Parks. I know there are some life expectance items listed for pumps and other things that are in the Memorial Parks. Then another one for scheduled maintenance and repair. A pump has a life expectancy of ten (10) years. If you do a scheduled maintenance, it seems to me that would be helpful in doing a long-term budget whether it is in reserves or operational budget. I believe this would help us or other members in tracking items down. George Krabbe said this should be part of our Five Year Plan. George asked Carl to write up something on this suggestion.
George Krabbe said he is going to the Budget/Finance meeting regarding the signs and explain why the signs need to be done. I am going to ask Budget/Finance for money and ask that it be approved. Then, I will go to the Board of Directors and ask what they want to do. I will ask if they want all new signs. At that time, I will know from Budget/Finance if it is yes or no. If the Board says go with new signs, I will have them made up. The price of the new signs will be approximately $2,000.00. I figure about $500.00 per signs, so that would be $2,500.00. I have bids from Quick Signs and Signs in a Day. It is hard to get bids when the companies offer different products. Bud Nill said get the best sign that will hold up, as the present signs do not.
The next meeting will be March 24, 2008, at 10:00 am.
The meeting concluded at 11:00 am
Dianne M. Brophy,
Secretary
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