HCTA Trustee May Meeting Minutes
HCTA May Meeting Minutes * May 6, 2011 * Loudon Residence
Present: Bryan Lewis, Jim Loudon, John Imperiale, Susan Lewis, Kathy Ries, Phil Kunz, Barbara Lehman.
Absent: Barbara Frank, Saul Ellman, John Cadmus, Michael Pasnik
Treasurer’s Report: We currently have $8924.89 in our account. Jim has paid the JCTA dues, the state filing fees.
Membership Report: Saul has again created a letter to be sent to all HC Taxpayers asking them to join/re-join for the next season. The letter is being printed and he will mail it out in the next week or so.
JCTA: Barbara stated that we (the HCTA) need a second representative in case she cannot make a meeting. A second set of ears is always helpful. She tried to speak to the Barnegat Light Rep. about the BLVD and they would not speak to her. Someone at meeting stated that the BLVD Safety Stantec model did not include right hand turns?? Bryan and Phil stated that is a valid question, but they believe the model includes all variables and will confirm. Barbara stated Leonard Connors thinks the other school should be closed- not the one selected from the consolidation study.
Town-wide Yard Sale-Sat. May 28: Kathy has put together all paperwork/forms and Susan has posted to the website. After a few edits, a blast email will be sent out to the membership announcing the event to be held Memorial Day Weekend (Sat and Sun). The event will include members and non-members. Non-members paying an additional fee giving them HCTA membership. All info must be into the HCTA no later that May 21 to be assured inclusion in the sale ‘Treasure Map’.
Saturday morning volunteers:
1. Handing out Treasure Maps at 6:20: Phil, Susan, John I and maybe Barbara L. (Please be outside town hall no later than 6:10am. We will hand out maps until 9:00am.
2. Handing out Sale Flags/Signage at 6:15am: Kathy, Jim Loudon and Saul. Please be ready to go at Town Hall no later than 6:05.
Sunday Flag Pick-up: Sellers are asked to leave the flag out by their front door or porch for pick up on Sunday. Kathy will arrange the Treasure Map assist? If some one knows of a student in need of Community Service hours, we will write them a letter for their assistance with pick-up. So far, Bryan ans Susan are the only volunteers for pick-up. Who else?
BLVD SafetyUpdate: The Sandpaper is not publishing all the letters they are receiving concerning BLVD safety. We have had a number of members writing in (Thank you all!!) and the letters are not being publisheed. We will ask people to re-send their letters in Bryan’s Spring update to members if their letters have not been published.
BLVD Questions/Brainstorming: How can we put additional pressure on the Freeholders? They talk about school consolidation, but they don’t represent our kids well being now re: BLVD safety. Besides cost savings, why would we want to consolidate with you Larson and Mancini? The BLVD safety project is not moving forward because of these two mayors. We a least have a dialoge with the Freeholders, Mayors Larson and Mancini will not even speak to us. BL Mayor Kirk Larson is responding to BL First Aid squad’s Bob Van Meter’s nay saying/misinformation. Van Meter doesn’t really care about emergency vehicles. The real reason is he doesn’t want to be slowed down in his personal life, has found his talking point with the mayors and he’s sticking with it.
Stantec told Van Meter specifically the ER vehicles have a BETTER response time. We need to educate the Mayors and/or the people who vote for them. We need the AVI model NOW and will again ask the Commissioners to help us acquire it. Both mayors have now seen the AVI model, but their supporters/voters have not and they are playing on those peoples fears.
Education is key and we cannot educate peole without the AVI. Who is personal friends with Larson and Mancini? Oldham.
BL Mayor Larson said “Put the lights in. My people don’t care.” We think people will care about more traffic lights. While that will help people cross the BLVD, it doesn’t help make the shoulders wider for those attempting to walk, ride, jog or push a baby stroller.
How can Jon Oldham help us?
How do we proceed from here?
1. We will keep writing letters to the Sandpaper to keep this issue current and in the public eye.
2. We will write an OPEN letter to Mayors Larson and Mancini for the week of Memorial Day publication. Bryan, John I, Phil and Kathy will work on this. John I is the lead.
3. We will map out an Ad campaign.
Bryan made a motion to spend up to $2000.00 for ads. Phil seconded and the motion was passed by all Trustees present for up to 12 weeks of a large ad, plus up to $750.00 for a separate ‘Open Letter” to the Mayors. What is the Best placement for an Ad in the Sandpaper. Saul – what do you think?
- We will ask John Oldham and the Commissioners to partner with us on this effort both financially and work wise. We need to meet with them to plan strategy.Susan/Bryan will contact Jon Oldham.
4. Get the AVI Model. The town has asked for this and Freeholder Kelly has promised he wouid get it for us- BUT so far NOTHING. Ocean Co. Engineer Frank Scarantino also asked on behalf of our Mayor. Where is the AVI and why won’t anyone provide it to the HCTA/Boro of HC?
5. Could we contact: NJ Pedestrian Safety Impact Team for assistance? What about the NJ Pedestrian and Bike Safety Council? What about Channel 30- Free TV? Who in our membership has contacts or experience with this sort of campaign?
6. Once we get the AVI we could schedule a presentation to the JCTA, post it on our website and send out a blast email to the membership that the AVI model is there.
7. We could create “Burma Shave” type signs for put out this summer. Phil, Kathy and Bryan will work on this. Could we use Police Chief Preiser’s quote? Susan will check sign prices. (similar to what we use for our Annual Meeting)
8. We will revisit the idea of Road slow-down and a rally at our or other Town Halls (LBT or BL) at our next Trustee meeting in June.
Our next meeting will be on Friday, June 24th at the Ries residence.
April Board Meeting Minutes
April Meeting Minutes- Cadmus home
Present: B Lewis, S Lewis, J Loudon, P Kunz, J Cadmus, M Pasnick, S Ellman, J Imperial.
Absent: B Lehman, B Frank, K Ries.
President: JCT Representative Charlie Gaver emailed his resignation, stating he would like to complete his term as Secretary for the JCTA. Bryan agrees that he should honor his committement to that organization. The HCTA Board thanks him for his service. After quick Board reports, this Trustee meeting will be a working/brain storming meeting regarding BLVD/Safety strategy.
Treasurer : Jim stated that we have $8924.89 on our account as of 3/31/11. He paid the bill for our beach umbrella donation to the HC Beach Patrol. Susan added that we purchased enough umbrellas to cover every life guard stand including the Bay Beach, with two extras as spares. They are dark green and white with ‘Donated by the HCTA’ printed on them.
Membership: Saul is working on the Spring membership drive letter and the group previously approved the expenditures associated with this. Saul and Jim spoke to businesses in the Fall- getting face time with about 65% of HC business owners. No new businesses joined. Two local businesses renewed. Saul will now seek businesses outside of HC as ‘Advertisers’ on our website for about the same price as a HC Business membership.
JCTA: Barbara is out of the country for work reasons and will update us at our next meeting. Note: They will have openings for Treasurer and Secretary positions on their Board in May.
BLVD/Safety: Phil and Bryan provided an update to current staus. The HC Mayor and Commissioners wrote a letter in support of the BLVD re-striping that was sent to The Sandpaper, local officials and other papers in the area. We want our members to keep up the letter writing- at this time voicing their support for our Mayor and Commissioners and our right to have a safer road in HC.
We would like to produce a series of Ads in the Sandpaper. John Cadmus stated he has ‘connections’ and will check ad prices for us. John Imperial will look into robo call prices. Phil’s friend John Demming can advise os in AVI website and Susan will check with our site host Andrew on prices to create a BLVD specific site.
We need to address ‘talking’ points’, BLVD website content, Ad series content, review results of brainstorming, etc. After working on this for 2.5 hours, the group decided to have a smaller committee complete the BLVD plans and then present to the entire group. This will consist of Phil, Kathy, Jim, Bryan, Saul with input from other Trustees as they desire and are available.
The next meeting wil be on Friday, May 6th at 8pm at the Loudon home.
February Board Minutes
Harvey Cedars Taxpayers Association
Board of Trustees Meeting
2/18/11 Lewis Home, 7:30pm
Present: Kathleen Ries, Susan Lewis, Bryan Lewis, Phil Kunz, Saul Ellman, Barbara Lehman, Charlie Gaver, John Cadmus, John Imperiale.
Not present: Michael Pasnick, Barbara Frank, Jim Loudon.
HC Volunteer Fire Company:
HC’s new Fire truck is coming from South Dakota; arriving mid-March.
HC Boro:
Working on handicapped ramp at Mercer.
HC Boro budget “workshop” 2/23/11; Phil to attend for HCTA.
Police:
New Class 2 officer hired from Beach Haven.
Beach Replenishment:
HC completed all paperwork for maintenance permit to keep dunes at 22’. Trying to change rules for HC only. The paperwork for this has now been completed & submitted to DEP.
Beach Badges:
There is a shortfall w/ lifeguard & beach workers, as always; alignment w/ LBT & BH (likely $5, seasonal add-on). Surf City & Barnegat Light are not in agreement. Ship Bottom not mentioned by Mayor Jon Oldham in this discussion. Typically, taxpayers buy seasonal badges; weekly & dailies usually purchased by visitors, the feeling seems to be that they should endure the higher-priced badges. HCTA is of the opinion that there’s no big benefit to promoting reciprocity for HC; passive reciprocity will promote a pleasant vacation experience.
Town-wide Yard Sale:
Jon Oldham approved the plan (verbally) Yard Sale plans for Memorial Day weekend -Saturday. Need to follow up w/ Boro in writing.
Membership:
We have new listing of residents & businesses. It will be $1,000 to do the Membership mailing. Discussed the idea of offering businesses the opportunity to stuff the mailer & support the organization. Generally approved.
Treasurer’s Report:
Handed out at the meeting.
Schools:
Charlie: The Board is restructuring report… refused to release report ‘til mtg. General recommendation to close SB, expand EJ ($9 million). Have not addressed staffing & other issues; history shows that if these issues are never dealt with the change will never happen. 4% increases every year, avg teacher salary here $75k.
Boulevard:
County Meeting re: Blvd. moved to 3/2; HCTA is not invited
Mayor Jon O.ldham wants meeting w/ HCTA board members after that.
Sandpaper article re: lights appeared. Mayor Oldham talked about misconception.
Mayor Mancini was supposed to be getting a meeting together w/ Barnegat Light & one or both Loveladies organizations. Mancini reported to not want the mtg. Doubt Jon O‘s actually pushed for the mtg. Ocean County Commissioner Jack Kelly called for a meeting w/ Mancini, Jon O. & Barnegat Light Mayor Kirk Larson. Jon O. says he met w/ Mancini, Frank Scarantino-OC Engineer- and that Mancini’s comment was “I can understand why you want this”. Larson’s concerns supposedly are about travel time to get to Barnegat Light. Larson & Mancini, evidently, aren’t communicating w/ their taxpayers.
Action items:
1.) Bryan to address Mancini issue in a letter to the editor to convince folks north of us:
o There will be change one way to the other, the alternative (Larson argument) is worse than the proposed.
o Fallacy of Larson argument
o Transit time will be worse
2.) Susan to double check current website content.
o Get the software available to produce a video to post on our website (Phil)
o Draw attention to article online
o Want to support the safety? Join.
Traffic light scenario:
o Target people in Barnegat Light – to make them award this could happen.
o Make three flashers fully functional and delay traffic by even more time-won’t help pedestrians on shoulders, but could slow cars for those crossing.
o Every week a letter from a different person to the Sandpaper: FACTUAL STUFF… “Good Old Boy Network putting public safety at risk.”
o JD. (member) may be interested in staging a protest, HCTA will be aware but not endorse: One mile walk… 3-abreast, every Saturday in season.
o Charlie recommends letter from HCTA to JCTA as well (next JCTA mtg 3/7/11)
Next trustee meeting: 4/1, 8pm at home of John Cadmus
Fall 2010 – HCTA Board Meeting Minutes
HCTA Board of Trustees Meeting 9/24/10
Home of Saul Ellman, 7:30pm
Present: Charlie Gaver, Barbara Frank, John Cadmus, John Imperiale, Bryan Lewis, Susan Lewis, Phil Kunz, Saul Ellman, Jim Loudon.
Not present: Barbara Lehman, Michael Pasnick.
Mayor’s report (Bryan): Flumenbaums’ federal court victory — because they own riparian rights all the way out into the water AND that the beach access way (theirs is a vehicle access street) is located partly in their riparian tract. The judicial victory earned them $150K + legal fees; 9% will be paid by Boro of HC.
A second suit is still pending; no timeline.
Blvd (Phil): Ocean County has collected the data obtained by the new flashing speed control signs on LB Blvd in town. The devices collect data even when signs are off. The County has requested a mtg w/a couple of us in early Oct. Could give them fuel for the argument to turn the newly installed flashers into working lights. Saul learned from a workman on the street pole that there ARE working lights going in there. Jon Oldham & Mike Garafalo have a suggestion of doing three lanes in the ctr of town (only); though Garafolo wants it through the whole town. Mayor Oldham wants to find a way to convince the two neighboring mayors (Larson, Mancini) to take a neutral stance with the County but it’s unlikely. All negative letters in Sandpaper were focused on travel time through town. The mayors may convert quickly when it comes to light that adding three working traffic signals in HC will significantly slow traffic through town, much more than 28 seconds. All involved in the discussion are still saying it’ll be resolved before the scheduled 2013 resurfacing.
Action steps:
– Press & Advertising: Three papers (wintertime) BHT, Press of AC, AP Press would be best venues. Freeholder Jack Kelly remains the toughest challenge. Bryan will write letter to editor regarding the reasonably high likelihood of three new traffic lights planned for HC (quote from Jack Kelly).
– Direct Messaging Campaign: Designed to reach full time residents north of us. Cadmus deferred being in charge of getting mailing list off TaxRecords.com; Saul will go ask BL and LBT. Content same as/similar to letter to editor content.
– Lobbying: Bryan will try to set an informal mtg w/ the leaders of the three TPA organizations north of us to discuss disseminate the info to their members.
– Model Modification: synchronized model may/may not be available to us to insert three traffic lights to the model & recheck times. Phil might be able to ask Jack Kelly if he’d be willing add three lights and their respective proposed timing to the computer model (by Stantec)
– Check Existing Lights: Saul will go out & time the lights in HC, BL, SC to see how long lights are timed presently. This may change through the year.
JCTA (Charlie): Nothing new. Other TPAs (SC) have advertised to get an item on the ballot to try to force the SC City Hall expansion to be placed on the November ballot so that the taxpayers could vote on whether it made more sense to expand the current building rather than build a new one at something like double the cost; and also to put any expenditure over $1.5 million on the ballot in the future.
Treasurers Report (Jim): See attached. Bryan recommends keeping a “low” of $4,000 (3 years of operating expenses) in our account and spend around it for projects & misc.
– Barb F recommends sending an email out to folks who haven’t renewed yet; Saul will write letter circulate to all board members for edits.
– Jim would have liked to find an interest-earning place for some of our money. Two under discussion were “Select Business Interest Maximizer” 1/10th of one percent and a 9-month CD (risk free) at 4/10th of one percent. Susan suggested looking at ING which is paying 1.1% for savings accounts and can be transfered online.
Correspondence (Susan): Susan will write to the new member brought to our attention by Charlie.
Membership (Saul): 341 members today.
Other Biz:
Helipad (Bryan): Jon Oldham asked Bryan if it would be good for HC to lease a helipad at Sunset Park to earn $40,000. Response: Not at all!
Old File (Phil): Phil has the old HCTA file re: traffic conversion from two lanes to four but nothing of substance was found.
Scholarship (Susan): Joe Krug Scholarship discussion. Barb F is concerned w/ giving away money in an activity that doesn’t directly support our mission. Most trustees agreed. We are looking for ways to utilize our money not simply distribute funds because we have them.
Fireworks (Charile): rec’d a letter from Judy w/ his donation check returned indicating all is on hold because HC is doing fireworks every other year (news to us!) AND there’s a home being built on Salem Ave that will be located in what is now the “fire zone” and this may preclude having fireworks launched from Sunset Park ever again.
Next mtg: Friday, January 28, 2011 at 7:30pm. Location TBD.
Board Meeting Minutes July 2010
July 23, 2010 HCTA Trustees Meeting Minutes Kunz Residence
present: PK, BL, SL, BF, CG, JL, JC, MP
absent: KP, LN, KR, SE, TC
New Tax Assessments- The Boro states that about a third of the assessments went up, a third stayed flat and a third went down. They would like to have a town meeting and invite the County to come explain the County increase, but the Assessor is not available in August to do this. (The County and the School Budget make up the bulk of the assessment. HC’s budget actually went down 72K this year.) We wonder what the Boro is hoping to gain by hosting a meeting with the County, how much of HC’s portion went up vs. other towns and how often are we re-assessed compared to other towns. We will follow up with Commissioner Gerkins. A detailed explanation of the new Assessment can be found on the HCTA website at www.harveycedarstax.org.
We also discussed the amount of ‘rateable property’ in town that the Boro owns that could be sold and put back on the tax collection books. We will follow up on this after our Annual meeting.
HCTA Annual Budget-Jim (our new Treasurer) created an operating budget for us based on our previous Treasurer’s (Barbara Frank) records. We are growing and want to have a clear picture of our operating costs. After review, Bryan stated he feels we should keep at least three years operating costs on the books to allow for ‘tight’ years. Charlie so moved and John seconded the motion. The grouped passed it unanimously. It was agreed that this can be re-visited every year for updating, but no need to ‘re-invent the wheel’ every year.
Jim also discussed an HCTA car window decal to give to our members at the Annual meeting- the idea is to get our ‘brand’ (logo) visible around town. We discussed the price and different proposals. Charlie motioned to approve this expense and John seconded. This passed and Jim will proceed with this for distribution at the Annual meeting.
Membership Update- Saul is ill and e-mailed his report. He is trying to introduce the HCTA to businesses in an effort to increase Business Memberships and generate some type of coupon type offers for our members. He has visited retailers along route 9 and both on and off the Island. A few Trustees expressed concerns about who would be invited to participate- stating we should concentrate on HC taxpaying businesses. Mike also expressed concerns about coupon liability and being able to control the reproduction of coupons and our responsibilities to businesses we would solicit.
Another idea was for Saul to offer ‘Sponsorships’ of our Annual meeting possibly to out of HC businesses where we would post signs at the meeting and also feature them on our website as meeting sponsors. Jim pointed out that Saul (a former retailer) was thinking like that (out of the box) and we all appreciate his efforts on our behalf. It was decided to get an idea for the prices of signs, effect on our non-profit status, etc. needed to be known before we can proceed further. Phil will check out sign prices for ‘Meeting Sponsor’ signs. Bryan will follow-up with Saul-Thanks Saul for your efforts thus far.
BLVD Safety/Traffic Safety- Jim, Bryan, Phil and Susan will be attending a meeting with the Boro next week to discuss plans/strategy on moving forward with the BLVD Safety issue with the County.
Phil will reach out to our two engineer members (Jim F and Dick B) to invite them to the 7/31 BLVD meeting.
We have had several emails from Members asking why they see so few traffic stops in HC compared to other Island towns. The Mayor updated us with the following information on the BLVD: “Although there is always room for improvement I believe we have made great strides in controlling the speed. In fact for the month of June there were almost 90 tickets issued and 104 warnings. I believe these numbers will be higher in July. The addition of the digital speed signs also have had a calming influence on the speed going through our town. I have also seen a great increase in police presence and they will continue to work to reduce the speed on the Blvd. “
HCBP- donation/ other donations/ Zoomerang- Susan will proceed with the Beach Umbrella donation for the Harvey Cedars Beach Patrol. The selected item was out of stock for this year, but we will work with Shore Promotions and Randy T (Capt of the HCBP) to get an order placed in the fall and delivered in the winter. At this point, we will hold off on other donations until we see what funds are needed to possibly fund an newspaper/Ad campaign for the BLVD safety plan and we know what funds we have after the Annual Meeting and set aside the 3-year operating expense cushion.
Resignation/new Trustees- Bryan noted the resignations of three Trustees (LN, KF and TC) and the addition of two new Trustees (JI and BL). Charlie reached out to BL to gage her interest. She has volunteered to serve for HC on the JCT Budget Awareness Committee and is now a committee head for the JCT. We believe her experience and willingness to step up will be an asset to the HCTA. In addition, Saul nominated and reached out to JI who has previous government and volunteer experience. He too gets involved and we feel he will compliment our Board with his background and willingness to work. We appreciate our departing Trustees service to the HCTA and look forward to welcoming our new Trustees.
Annual Meeting- we discussed our upcoming Annual meeting which is Saturday, Aug 28th at 10:00am at the High Point Firehouse. Up to date paid members (New Members) will be sent an e-mail reminder and ‘ticket’ showing they are paid thru August 2011 for admittance to the meeting. Those members whose memberships come up for renewal will receive a different email along with a membership form to ensure their contact info is up to date. They too will receive an admittance ticket to bring along with their check. Finally, we will have a ‘new member’ line where we hope to gain additional new members by way of our signs/advertising around town.
A small group of Trustees will do the initial planning then present this to all at our next Trustee meeting.
Misc.- The Beach Replenishment is now complete. The Barge has traveled to Mississippi to assist with building barrier islands to protect the shore from the Gulf Oil spill. The Army Corp will resume planting dune grass in the fall when temps decrease.
The Replenishment court case: Harvey Cedars vs. Flaumenbaum is scheduled to begin in the next week or so in Toms River.
A few items were discussed in ‘executive session’.
Next Trustee meeting: Friday, August 13 at 7:30 at Bryan and Susan’s House. We will say goodbye to our departing Trustees and welcome our new Trustees prior to our Planning meeting for the Annual meeting. Spouses are invited.
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Business Members
