January 2018
Meeting Location: 28 Old Tower Hill Rd, Wakefield, RI 02879 – See Map
1/19/18 Board Meeting
7:00 pm at Twisted Pizza
Present: Richard Kasper, Bill Boardman, Tracy Telford, Philip Telford, Sarah Kirwin, Shawn Hyland, Doug Merrick, Russ Dinoto, Craig Swan, Ronald Bergeron, Beth Curtis, Colin Murphy, Bill Jones, various homeowners.
Minutes from 11/14/17 were reviewed and accepted.
Treasurer’s Report
All bills are paid current.
All homeowner’s dues are paid up to date.
Architectural Review Board
No new business presented.
Landscaping
The Tefft Hill sign has been repainted by the Kaspers and will be installed this coming weekend.
Kasper will talk to the American Chestnut Society and the Town Planner regarding potential planting of chestnut trees in the open space.
Covenants
All homeowners received a letter from the town identifying nine (9) alleged areas of open space violations. The town’s letter was in reaction to a complaint received from one of our homeowners stating that they believed their neighbor was violating the open space area adjacent to their homes. The town attached a Google map of the Tefft Hill development with alleged areas of open space violations.
It was noted that open space is to be left natural and unmodified as per development planning with the town or modified only with the express written approval of the HOA Board of Directors.
Boardman stated the Board of Directors gets to decide what is allowed to happen to the open space. Passive recreation is allowed in the open space but no active changes per the HOA By-Laws. In the beginning of the development, there were more open meadows which have subsequently become overgrown. It was noted that the Town now requires new subdivision developers to place markers on property lines to delineate open space from private property. However, at the time when Tefft Hill Subdivision was developed in the late 1980’s, open space markers were not required and none were installed.
A question was posed regarding if the violations were in the 100 foot perimeter buffer of the development versus the open space. The town was looking at the entire development including all common open space areas including the buffer.
The Board reviewed all alleged violations made by the town (9 total). The Board is forwarding nine (9) of the HOA open space assessments to the town. Seven (7) of the nine (9) were found by the HOA to have no violation. One property owner, who has willingly agreed to remove the violation, was in clear violation of the open space with a fire pit located far behind his rear property line. The second homeowner who had cleared his lot’s vegetation stated that he had his property surveyed and he did not violate the open space. R. Kasper will contact the surveyor to confirm the homeowner indeed had a survey completed.
New Business/ Committee Reports
A new Director is needed for the Board.
A homeowner posed questions of paths in the open space.
Questions of liability and insurance increases were posed. Adjoining neighbors must be in agreement of a path system. Previous meetings regarding refused paths were mentioned. C. Swan stated creating paths could invite unwanted activity. B. Boardman proposed if the membership wants to create a path, it must be submitted to the Board. He recommended a committee should be formed to evaluate path systems. Areas brought up were in the Wingate, South Glen and Meadow areas.
- Curtis volunteered to lead the committee and S. Hyland, R. Dinoto, L. Mueller and R. Morse volunteered.
- Parente resigned from Covenants committee.
The annual meeting is 7pm on March 6th at Twisted Pizza.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:34 pm.