Aerial view of the Elk Forest peninsula between the Elk River and the C&D Canal
The Community of Elk Forest Website for the neighborhood of Elk Forest, Maryland

March 26, 2024 Meeting Minutes

ELK FOREST CIVIC ASSOCIATION - BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING - MARCH 26, 2024

BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:

CIVIC ASSOCIATION MEMBERS PRESENT: Travis Hembree

GUESTS PRESENT: None

VERIFY QUORUM, CALL MEETING TO ORDER: At 6:34PM the secretary confirmed that a quorum was present, and the meeting was called to order by JS.

MEETING MINUTES: The meeting minutes from the November 14, 2023, meeting (which were previously sent to board members) had no additional comments. Motion to approve as submitted made by CL1 and seconded by LM. With no additional discussion held, the motion was approved.

FINANCIAL REPORT: The financial report was presented by LM and reviewed by members present. The report showed a Balance of $3,876.69 in the Checking account and $28,289.95 in CDs. It was noted that EFCA received a refund from the 2023 season Mosquito Spraying for $766.20 and entertained expenses for the 2023 Holiday gathering of $201.04. Total funds balance of $33,337.80. A motion to accept the financial report as presented was made by SM with a second by CL1. With no additional discussion held, the motion was approved.

OLD BUSIENSS:

2023 Holiday Gathering. The Board agreed that the 2023 Holiday gathering was an enormous success, a good time was had by all. A round of applauds to the LaPense’s for the use of their property. In a moment of weakness, CL2 offered the property to be used again this year!

Nominating Committee. CL1 reported that Travis Hembre has agreed to sit on the board beginning August 2024. CL1 stated we are still looking for residents willing to serve on the board and that she and LL continue to approach neighbors for their interest in serving the community.

It was announced that DS will step down from the board at the end of this term. CL1 has agreed to take the Recording Secretary role on. Thank you CL1. DS indicated he will maintain his role as the “Sign Master”.

Progressive Dinner. CL2 reviewed the status of the upcoming Progressive dinner. It was confirmed that it would be on the evening of April 20, 2024 “after” the Spring Clean-up. CL2 will create and distribute flyers this weekend (3/29 – 3/31) to notify residents and solicit interest in participating and hosting one of the “stops”.  Multiple board members have indicated interest in being part of the dinner stops. The event will end (last stop) at the LaPense property around their fire pit.

NEW BUSINESS:

Spring Clean Up. DS confirmed the date of April 20, 2024 @ 9:00AM. Meeting at the corner of EFR and SFR. Donuts, Coffee, trash bags will be provided. ML will provide (as always) the “trash truck.”  TM asked how far we would go for our clean up. It was agreed that we would end at Sinking Springs as they are responsible for the cleanup from their driveway to McKeown Rd. Signboards will go up on Saturday 4/6/24.

The 2024 Annual Meeting. The meeting this year will be hosted by the Hembre’s on August 10th with a rain date of August 11th. A brief discussion on whether there is enough parking (yes) and it was recognized that because of the central location, many will be able to walk rather than drive. Many thanks to the Hembree’s for offering the use of their yard!

Facebook vs. EFCA Website. DM reported that the EFCA site had ~20 hits around the holidays and since then ~ 4 per day. The question was raised if it would be a better fit for the community if we migrated our website to a Facebook page. Currently EFCA pays $250 per year for our website. A Fb page would be free. Currently any EFCA resident has access to the EFCA website and the secure portion via secret a decoder ring password.  To migrate to Fb, we would need to have an Fb administrator and develop an access process for residents. There was discussion about Fb messages being sent to residents and pushback from residents creating unneeded “spam”.  DS suggested we continue with the current website and use an e-mail push (as we did successfully for the Holiday Party) for limited notifications.

With multiple discussions and ideas ensuing, SM called for a vote on if we should move to Fb or remain as we are with our EFCA website. The vote was 1 for and 9 against.  We will remain with our current website.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Solar Light for the EFCA sign. DM informed the board that the previous Solar light for the EFCA sign was damaged last year and removed. He requested funds and authorization to purchase and install a new light. (The Board is authorized to spend $500 without community vote). DM said he could get a good light for ~$50. ML suggested he get a “really” good light for ~$100.  SM authorized the expenditure and the go ahead to replace the light. TM offered to help with the installation.

Mosquito Spraying 2024. SM reported on the Community Mosquito Spraying control project as follows:

  1. Kirkwood (previous provider) sold the business to Dependable Pest Management (DPM) who does not want to and will not continue the community spraying. DPM did offer to contract with individual property owners for Mosquito treatment (not spraying) at a discounted rate or $100 - $135 per treatment. This information will be included in a community mailing (see below).
  2. SM has contacted multiple Mosquito Control companies and found none interested or equipped to spray a community such as ours.
  3. One or our neighbors, Chris Brookmyer informed SM that there is a program sponsored and administered by the State of Maryland, Department of Agriculture (MDA) and Cecil County (CC) to conduct community spraying. It is a cost share program split between the community and MDA, CC.
  4. The cost is $35/15 minutes of spraying, MDA estimates that our community will take 90 minutes to spray for a seasonal cost of $4,200. The spray is conducted between 7PM and 7AM once per week, determined by the MDA supervisor.
  5. The MDA program does not spray near the water (C & D Canal / The Elk River) does not go down long driveways and requires anyone that does not want to be sprayed to sign and file a “do not spray form” with the County. This form will be included in the mailing mentioned above.

After much discussion on the MDA plan or nothing coordinated by EFCA, it was decided that having no community spraying was not a good option at this point, and that while not ideal, the MDA program was the best alternative. It was agreed by all present to move forward with MDA. Notification of this change will be included in the mailing as mentioned above.

OPEN DISCUSSION:

With the reduction in the cost of Mosquito spraying (almost half the cost) the discussion about the annual membership assessment for 24/25 will need to be adjusted, or do they? It was agreed finally that the membership assessment would be reduced to $60 (from $85), and this would be explained in the mailing (see below) with the new membership bill.

Discussion was held about the lower fee not reflecting the actual reduced cost of the spraying and it was pointed out that the membership assessment covers membership in the EFCA, mosquito spraying, spring cleanup, the annual picnic and the holiday gathering.

A motion to reduce the membership assessment for the 24/25 period to $60 was made by DS, seconded by CL2. With no additional discussion, the motion was approved.

Informational mailing. The need to mail the below to the residents was discussed and agreed to as the only way to ensure every property owner receives the information. The mailing will include:

  1. Annual membership assessment notice.
  2. Letter on the new EFCA Mosquito Spraying program.
  3. Newsletter
  4. Do not want my driveway sprayed optout form.
  5. Private Mosquito Treatment program by DPM

ADJOURN:

With nothing else to discuss, SM asked for a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn made by TM, seconded by DM.

Meeting adjourned at 7:44PM.

The next EFCA Board meeting will be on June 4, 2024 @ 6:30PM.

2024 – Upcoming Events:

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