Board Present: Joe Bucherer (president), Karen Bues, Bianca Coles, Francine Klein, Elisa Siegel, Jeremy Siegfried, Christopher Wemple
Others Present: Richard Springer, General Manager; Jeremy Tucker (ECA Legal Counsel, Lerch Early & Brewer), Jeremy Powell (Goldklang Associates)
ECA Audit
Despite $400,000 in unexpected expenses, the financial picture is not only stable but healthy. We will be paying off the debt incurred by our past window/door replacement project by April 2023 if not sooner. Among the items that caused the unexpected expense were water damage (our old pipes often spring leaks!), extremely high utility costs (e.g., use of electricity increased as well due to Covid forcing people to work from home), and increased hours for our swimming pool. Jeremy Powell commended Elizabeth Condominium Association for proactively dealing with our finances.
President’s Report
The President reported [more details in December 2022 newsletter]
—Resident owners Ted Ariev and Elaine El-Khawas died, both had contributed to ECA activities.
—ECA General Manager Richard Springer leaves our community December 28, 2022. His two years here were productive, including the most efficient (well managed) hallway renovation. We can only hope to find and hire a manager with his skill set and his welcoming personality.
—our long-time maintenance worker Marcel Straker accepted a job at the US Postal Service and left abruptly in late November.
—Dates to note on your calendar:
· December 16, deadline for contributing to ECA Holiday Fund
· December 28 time TBA, West Lobby Farewell Reception for Richard Springer
· January 1 3pm-5pm, West Lobby, Deck the Halls Party (celebrate hall renovation & holidays)
· January 25 6:30pm ECA Board Meeting (no Board Meeting in December)
Legal Report
—State-wide mandate (as of September 2021) for retrofitting sprinkler system in high-rise building by 2033. [This will cost up to $6 million and there are no state grants for this.] ECA is putting aside funds for this, but the hope is that sprinklers will only have to be installed in the hallways, not in our apartments as well. The installation of a sprinkler system will most likely raise our insurance premium because water damage is usually more costly than damage by fire. Additionally, we have asbestos in our ceilings and that will incur an additional cost for remediation.
—We have officially acquired several “parking spaces” on the far G-4 level which are not suitable for parking but will be used for storage after these spaces are cleaned up.
Manager’s Report [again check Oct. 2021 newsletter for more info.]
—Except for a few minor tweaks (e.g., specialized light bulbs in the fixtures over the floor elevators, and door adjustments), the hallway renovation is done.
—Next project will be elevator renovation.
—Survey pertaining to electric car charging stations successful.
—Notes on Electric car charging stations:
· Care needs to be taken to ensure that these charging stations are use only for electric cars and not scooters which have caused fires at these car charging stations.
· The cost for these charging stations will be passed to the person charging their vehicle.
· By acting now, we will get significant rebates from government and utility organizations. (Total cost: $94,738.40 -$63.100 = $31,638.40)
Board Motions
—Approved project to install six charging stations for Electric Cars on G-1 level but accessed from Resident garage entrance.
—Approved Goldklang audit report.
—Approved draft House Rules which will be sent out to Association members for comment.
Note: I am concerned that ECA members pay attention to Association business now that we are in a transition as Richard Springer leaves, and we hire a new general manager. The building is suffering more incidents of pipe failures and our in-house staff can only do so much. The longer a problem goes unsolved, the more damage and cost. We also have some people living in the building who are uncooperative when emergencies occur. So, we need to work together as a community to ensure the health, safety, and wellbeing of everyone. KLA
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