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 been 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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