Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Summary of ECA Board Meeting September 24, 2019

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Board Present: Lyle Schwartz, Zlatan Beca, Makarand (Mak) Dehejia, Francine Klein, Christopher Wemple
Absent: Elisa Siegel, Jimmy Whalen
Others Present: ECA General Manager (GM) MaryAnn Hall, Assistant Manager Romaine Cureton, Jeremy Tucker (ECA Legal Counsel, Lerch Early & Brewer)
Highlights of the meeting:

President’s Report:
—Work is being done to complete the design phase of hallway renovation. See Elizabethan newsletter for overall details of hallway renovation.

—New Action Item List has been started and will be part of the Management Report each month.

Legal: Lawsuit in small claims court resolved without problem to the Association. [No further information on what the suit entailed.]

Management Report

Garage
Still having major problems with unauthorized parking. Complete jack hammering projected as January 29, 2020. Completed project July 14, 2020. Weekend work will continue as needed. [Note: not mentioned in the GM’s report is that the project sped up because the Association now has a contract with a towing company and is towing cars when vehicles have not been moved as requested.]

Marble Flooring
Cleaning of the marble floors in the lobby has become a problem given they were not maintenance properly for an extended period of time. Returning them to standard will require considerable cost, including replacement of the grout. The GM suggested waiting to do this work until after the major projects (like the garage project) are completed. Francine Klein indicated this was not acceptable.

Filter Changes & Condensate Line Inspections
Filter changes will occur starting in October as this work is now being done every four months. Anyone who wants a different Merv rated filter from the standard must fill out a form prepared by our legal counsel. [There is the danger that higher rated Merv filters may burn out HVAC motors as they collect more particulates. The hope is that frequent condensate line inspections will avoid leaks like those that occur in the summer when the humidity is high.

Elevator Inspections
We now have renewed certificates for our six elevators through August 2020. One problem that was resolved dealt with elevator phones failing to communicate with the front desk. From now on there will be a weekly phone check on all six elevators.

Fire & Safety
The Fire Marshall made a visit last week and found some “minor” issues but we were not told what those issues were. The GM is waiting for the Fire Marshall to send his report before the issues can be corrected. [No mention was made about what caused the false alarm recently and when it was suggested that we use BuildingLink to communicate with residents, the GM said the Fire Marshall prohibits communications until after the fire department arrives to ascertain the situation. Nevertheless, the GM was sitting at the front desk telling people who came to the lobby that it was a false alarm.]

Pool will be closed for some unspecified amount of time in November for repairs.

Treasurer’s Report:
Making progress reducing loan balance. A refinance was done to reduce the cost of interest.

Social Committee
—School welcome—30 Children enjoyed cookies & juice
—Ice cream social—highly successful party attracting new and long-time residents.
—Celebration for Hollis Alleyne (45 years of service) October 10.
—Oct 30 kids Halloween party.
—Holiday potluck in mid-December.

MOTION: United Healthcare renewal approved unanimously.

Resident Comments:

Dogs
Pat Peyser discussed the problem of ignoring bylaws relative to pets and their size. She suggested we adopt the American Kennel Association’s regulations on small dog weighing 15-25 lbs. She suggested grandfathering in dog already living in the building but enforcing the bylaws. [Obviously, people looking to buy in the Elizabeth need to be informed better about our rules in a more prominent way. Just handing them the bylaws does not get newcomers’ attention. Given we now have a lot of large dogs and at least two owners who have 2 dogs each, this does not help us stop newcomers from bringing in large dogs and multiple pets.]

Rita Miller also complained about dog owners who allow their pets to relieve themselves in front of our building. [This also causes other dogs to do the same as the dogs “mark” their territory.]

Noisy Fan in the Pool
While the GM said the fan noise had been resolved with installation of a new fan, that is not true. The GM said she would look into the problem.

Non-smoking Building
Enforcement of no smoking rules depends on residents making complaints. Someone suggested making tent cards for every floor to say this is a non-smoking building.

Change Orders for the Garage Project
One resident who is an architect made a strong case for getting a third party structural engineer to review all the change orders that are yet to come. He feels we are overpaying. He was invited to meet with ECA president Lyle Schwartz and the structural engineer we are currently working with.

The new meeting date will change to the fourth Wednesday of the month
Next meeting: Wednesday, October 23, 2019.
However because of Thanksgiving: November 20, 2019 (not fourth Wednesday)

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