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.