Lake Linganore Association Inc.

October 6, 2003

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

CALL TO ORDER

The meeting was called to order at 7 p.m. Those in attendance were: Alan Dinkelacker, Grant Sheehan, Todd Young, Andrew Twillman, Brian Kopec.

Absent from the meeting was: Bill DiLoreta.

Resignation: Board member Peter Fitzpatrick resigned from the board on Oct. 3, 2003.

Also in attendance were: general manager Stephen Hembree; assistant general manager Larry Brown; community resource manager Joy Gurley.

Special guests in attendance were: Michael Cady, Frederick County commissioner; Ray Barnes, director of facilities for the Frederick County Board of Education; Michael Marschner, director of county Division of Utilities and Solid Waste Management.

APPROVAL OF September 15, 2003 MINUTES

The minutes from the September 15 meeting were approved with the following amendment:

•Under Unfinished Business, Finance Committee Clarification from Sept. 2 BoD Meeting— add the following sentence to the beginning of the paragraph: A question about a budget line item for the community center was noted as being incorrectly coded and staff was instructed to make the correction.

NEW BUSINESS

LLA board president Alan Dinkelacker introduced county commissioner Michael Cady and gave him the opportunity to make an opening statement. Commissioner Cady thanked the board for the invitation to attend and introduced Mr. Marschner, who he invited to the meeting, and Mr. Barnes.

East County High School—  Mr. Barnes said that he had come to present a brief status report on the progress of discussions between the Board of Education and the Eaglehead declarant Land Stewards regarding the dedication of the East County High School (ECHS) site to the BoE. Mr. Barnes said that things were moving forward in a positive way on the high school site in the town center section of the Eaglehead PUD. The developer will be transferring 53 acres to the BoE, of that 43 acres will be used for the high school. He said that the county BoE will submit later this month its request to the state for funding for the high school. He expected the initial phase of design to be done during this fall and winter and by summer to have an architect onboard. He said it would take two  years to get the design, permitting and procurement accomplished. Construction should take 20 to 24 months and that the school should open September 2008. Tuscarora High School is the model for the ECHS, which will be 200,000 sq. ft. Mr. Barnes said that the BoE will work with the developer to get a compatible design with future build out of the PUD. He said the Eaglehead Barn will become the property of the BoE in three months.

Question/Answer Session: LLA director Young asked whether the school will have a pool. Mr. Barnes said if a private entity was interested in building a pool for the school that would be the only way the facility would have a pool. He said that the BoE does not build pools. At one time the state gave funds for half the cost of building a pool but that it no longer does that and that the county is not interested in building pools as part of the schools.

Director Twillman asked about what would happen to Linganore High. Mr. Barnes said that LHS students would shift to ECHS for one to two years while that building undergoes a renovation project.

Director Kopec asked about the fate of the Eaglehead Barn and the pond located across the road from the building. Mr. Barnes said the BoE had no plans at this time related to the building but would most likely make an assessment of the property and initiate plans next spring. He said the pond would remain in order to meet environmental regulations and because it is an interesting land feature for the area. Director Kopec asked about adequate parking for the school. Mr. Barnes said that how to achieve adequate parking was still to be determined but that the BoE was thinking of a parking deck.

Resident Lisa Rogers asked whether the county would move ahead with ECHS if state planning approval was not obtained and whether the original 2007 opening dates was a “no-go”.  Mr. Cady said that the county had received word from the state that $100 million would be put in the state’s budget for school construction in the upcoming year. He said that was a big reduction in the funding. He added that the county is likely to get only one new school and that ECHS was at the top of the list. If the county doesn’t get the money from the state, he said he did not see how the county could forward fund the money for ECHS, which is estimated to cost up to $50 million. Mr. Barnes said that the 2008 opening was a reasonable timeframe and even if all the money was in place now it wasn’t certain whether the 2007 opening date could be met.

Resident Carol Thames asked about whether the barn was able to be used for meetings beyond the three months left before the transfer to the BoE. Mr. Barnes said the BoE would look at the user groups and work something out. In addition, there were tenants in the building with leases that had to be considered.

Resident Kathy Brown asked about the student capacity of ECHS. Mr. Barnes said it would be approximately 1500 to 1600 students. The current student capacity of LHS is 1200. 

Mr. Barnes told the audience that a network should be set up to communicate with state officials to encourage support for the ECHS project. Commissioner Cady recommended that parents interested in providing support on the project be in touch with the LHS PTA, which has been successful in being heard.

Boyer’s Mill Road Construction Project— Commissioner Cady said that the county knows the road needs improvement but when reviewing the first draft of the project plans they understood that it needed further work, specifically that an alternative route was needed to accommodate the traffic. He said that the county’s Division of Public Works (DPW) was working on an alternative plan. One or more of the roads heading to Rt. 75 will need to be improved before the Boyer’s Mill construction could take place, he said, adding that DPW would be submitting the alternative plan within the next month or two because the goal is to include it in the CIP for next year. 

Director Kopec asked whether the redesign of the Boyer’s Mill bridge would be more user friendly, allowing better pedestrian use. Mr. Cady said that was a consideration. Mr. Marschner said that the water and sewer project would not be an obstacle for the bridge aspect of the road reconstruction  project. Rachel Kopec asked when construction would begin on the road and bridge. Mr. Cady said that nothing would happen within the next two years.

Eaglehead Drive Bridge Project— Commissioner Cady said he did not know much about the project but was happy to do homework to find out more but that he understood that Land Stewards would be applying for a new Community Development Authority to be able to build the bridge. LLA director Young said that the board’s concern is that the resistance experienced on the last CDA for the bridge project would be experienced once again.

LLA director Kopec asked if funding was secured for the bridge other than through a CDA would the county be prepared to fast track the project. Commissioner Cady said that the term “fast track” was very specific and that when it came to DPW there was no such thing as fast tracking, rather things moved according to plans.

Residents expressed concern that with all the current and future building going on in Woodridge, all that traffic has to move toward Boyer’s Mill Road in order to get in and out of the community. Mr. Cady said that he understood that would cause greater delays in going down the road. He said that problem could be faulted to the fact that the county does not have a concurrent policy and instead has an APFO policy, which has grandfathered in approximately 1100 homes that are not subject to the APFO requirements.

Full Funding to LLA of SHUR Funds— LLA director Young explained that the board main concern was the state’s complex formula and how the current legislation does not clearly address it.  Commissioner Cady said that the state ordinance say that the county can only grant money to the LLA for the linear miles and that only municipalities could get the money from the formula that is based on the number of registered vehicles. He said the state has not been helpful to the county in detailing the formula. He said that 50 percent of the money determined for linear miles was to go to the LLA. Director Sheehan asked whether the county attorney had okayed that amount. Mr. Cady said the attorney was not supportive of this but that he had talked to county manager Doug Browning who told him that the county attorney’s office had ratified the number. Director Young said that the decision from that meeting only related to this year’s funding and asked what would be the policy regarding next year. Commissioner Cady said the county has asked the state for a solid formula to work this out for next so that everyone will have a better understanding for next year. He said if the LLA wants the SHUR money based on the number of registered vehicles it should be prepared to work on legislation to achieve that. Director Sheehan said that the LLA has a solid fix on the number of registered vehicles in the PUD. Mr. Cady reminded everyone that with more money from the SHUR fund comes more responsibility for the LLA.

Obligations of Millennium Development Group to Westwinds Village— Director Twillman explained that Commissioner Cady had made a presentation to the Westwinds HOA during the summer about the matter and asked about the status at this time.  Commissioner Cady said that both sides have backed off legal strategies and gave a brief background as to where things were during the summer. He added that roads were being worked on in the village and expected to be completed by the end of this year. Mr. Marschner  explained that the two sides had reached an impasse on the water and sewer work involved in the matter but that a solution had been drafted by the county. The county is taking the responsibility for the water and sewer work that was to be done by Millennium and is using the developer’s letters of credit to do the work, which is moving ahead with the major improvements to Ben’s Branch and Boyer’s Mill Road pump stations. He believes it will work out and that by December 31 he will have a group of permits to grant to Millennium, with others to come later. In addition, Mr. Marschner said that his division is working with Bob Wilcox/Land Stewards on the water and sewer projects for his nearby project known as Heritage Knolls. Director Twillman said that he was happy to hear that things were being worked out. Mr. Cady credited Mr. Marschner with moving this matter forward. Westwinds resident Christie Sherwood said that as of that afternoon the county was not releasing letters of credit.... Cady said that he wrote a letter to the bank and addressed Poss’ concerns with the recent outcomes.

Snow Plowing— Director Sheehan provided a brief background on the matter to Commissioner Cady and let him know that the LLA would be pursuing a more equitable remuneration. Cady suggested that the LLA write a letter outlining the matter and that he would then share it with county staff. He said the letter would give him a mechanism to initiate discussion and to do any necessary follow-up.  Resident Sue Corbin asked whether the agreement with the county on the amount paid to the LLA for plowing county roads within the PUD were in writing. It was explained that no written agreement has been discovered. Director Sheehan explained that the LLA decided to do the plowing because residents in those villages (Westwinds and Summerfield) demanded that the LLA take on the task because it could be done more quickly by association staff. Commissioner Cady said it was not atypical to find these kind of arrangements throughout the county without them being in a written agreement.

Water & Sewer Super Project— Commissioner Cady asked Mr. Marschner to address the status of the super project.

Mr. Marschner said the project has gone to bid after being delayed by some amendments to the contract to clarify questions brought up by contractors interested in bidding on the project. He said the bid opening is set for Oct. 14. At this time there are five serious bidders, some local, and he believes that the project will get competitive bids. He explained certain parts of the project in order to emphasize the difficulty and scope of the work to be done and reminded everyone that there will be “lots of inconvenience”.

Director Sheehan asked if all easement had been satisfied. Mr. Marschner said that the county has prescriptive easements but prefers perpetual easements and will work with home owners to achieve this. This is something that should have been done when the community was first built but was not done. Current efforts will help to clean up administrative aspects and the hard infrastructure. Mr. Sheehan asked if temporary construction easements were completed. Mr. Marschner said that some were still needed and noted that these affect the cost of the project because the county will have to work within what easements are given.

Director Kopec asked if LLCS difficulties in getting some easements will affect the county’s work. Mr. Marschner said the LLA can’t condemn land and take it. He said the county’s goal is to stand shoulder to shoulder with the LLCS to get them worked out.

RESIDENT FORUM

• Director Young asked Mr. Cady whether the county would accept the LLA roads in the future. Mr. Hembree explained that the letters between the county’s DPW and the LLA board regarding LLA roads and LLA road standards and county acceptance had recently been mailed. Mr. Cady said he was surprised by the question and thought the dialogue went the “other way”, with the preference for the LLA to keep the roads. LLA president Dinkelacker explained that the LLA road standards are  good for the Eaglehead community but they do not meet the specific county standards and that if the county ever agreed that the LLA standards were acceptable that there could be dialogue in the future, which is what is stated in the recent letter to the BoCC.

• At the October 20 board meeting the new fee schedule for the ECC will be presented.

• Social Committee chairperson Rachel Kopec told Commissioner Cady about the Dec. 5 LLA holiday party and that invitations would be forthcoming to the commissioners.

• Resident Lisa Rogers asked about the status of the New Market Regional Park, also known as the Old National Pike Park. Mr. Cady said that the Program Open Space funding had been cut in half. He said this program provided one-half of the local funding for parks and as a result the schedule for the park had been moved back. Mrs. Rogers asked whether funding partnerships with local groups such as Linganore Urbana Youth Athletic Association (LUYAA) would help to make the park become a reality more quickly. Mr. Cady said yes.

LLA president Dinkelacker thanked Mr. Cady, Mr. Marschner and Mr. Barnes for attending the meeting.

LLA president Dinkelacker made an announcement that board member Peter Fitzpatrick had resigned from the board and that public notice would be made and invited residents to consider applying for the position.

ADJOURNMENT

Director Kopec made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by director Sheehan. The meeting adjourned at 9:55 p.m.