BARSTOW HEIGHTS COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT
REGULAR MEETING
Monday, December 12th, 2016
President Jacobs called
the meeting to order at 6:03 PM and Director Stapp led the group in the flag
salute. Directors Jacobs, Schendel, Stapp, and Wilkey, were all present. Director
Hayhurst was absent and unable to attend due to a prior family commitment.
There were no guests attending.
The Audit Report was
addressed briefly. A final copy of the Audit Report had not yet been received
by the Secretary and the Report was not presented to the Board because the
Auditor was not able to be in attendance as had been expected.
The Consent Items were
reviewed. While reviewing the financial reports, President Jacobs had a
question regarding a CD that would be maturing on 12/30/16. He inquired whether
or not the Board was interested in cashing it in, since the interest rate on
the CD account was lower than the interest it could make if moved into the
Savings account. President Jacobs motioned that upon maturity, the Secretary
cash in and close the CD account (ending in 1726), and deposit those funds into
the Savings account. Director Schendel seconded the motion. The motion carried
unanimously. Director Stapp then motioned to accept the Minutes of the October
24th, 2016 meeting, along with the Financial Reports for October of 2016 as
presented. Director Wilkey seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.
The Correspondence file was
offered for review.
Barstow Heights Park was
addressed. The Safety Check List from the City was reviewed. There were no new safety,
or maintenance issues listed. The report did mention that a coat of Nitra King fertilizer
for the winter had been put down. President Jacobs reported his belief that the
ground squirrels must be hibernating, since he hadn’t seen any in recent weeks.
There was no new progress
to report regarding the remedying of the privacy concerns of the neighbors next
to the new shade canopy. The secretary had sent a friendly email reminder to
John of Unique Landscaping two weeks prior to the meeting (including a copy of
the portion of the minutes that state the decision the Board had made at the 9/26/16
meeting), but no response had been received yet. She was directed to send a
follow-up letter by mail and another email in January, if a response is still
not received before the next meeting. The Secretary will also call again to
schedule an appointment with Merrill Johnson Engineering to come and give an estimate
for engineering plans for a sidewalk, curbing, and gutters along the South side
of the park (Beryl Street). The Secretary received a phone call from Mark
Gerardi at 6:25 PM, and the board adjourned briefly so she could answer it (in
case it was something urgent regarding the parks). Mark just wanted to be
certain that the Board had received his Safety Check List Reports on the parks
and the Directors were then able to ask him a few questions they had. The meeting
reconvened at 6:29 PM.
Venner Park was
addressed. The Safety Check List from the City was reviewed. There were no new safety
or
maintenance issues reported in the past month. The report did state
that a coat of Nitra King fertilizer for the winter had been put down. The
Secretary will follow up with John Rowe again to find out whether or not
there’s anything he can do (perhaps add a coating or use a grinding machine) to
roughen up the surface of the basketball court at Venner Park to make it less
slick.
The Office Building and
Compound were addressed next. The secretary reported that a proposal for the
kitchen renovation had not yet been received, but a bid was expected to arrive
soon. The
Secretary was directed to
invite/request a bid from Jerry Linebaugh also. When asked, the Secretary
reported that the Security Camera System had been fully installed and was complete
with the exception of it being connected for online accessibility. The online
hook-up will be completed once the internet system is upgraded to achieve a
faster connection speed. The Secretary was still in the process of trying to
switch the current internet provider to a new provider (Spectrum).
Director Wilkey read the
Safety Review Report aloud at 6:39 PM. President Jacobs motioned to accept the
report as presented. Director Stapp seconded the motion. The motion carried
unanimously. Discussion about the “Director’s Vacancy” listed on the Agenda was
postponed until next month, because the vacancy was still uncertain as of the
start of the meeting.
The General Manager reported
that the new computer system had been ordered and had arrived. After she had
written the check to herself to cover the actual purchase price, the computer
went on sale and its price dropped, so the final cost of her purchase ended up
being $18.02 less than what the actual purchase price was expected to be. She
will need to ask the accountant for advice on how to best handle reimbursing
back to the District that $18.02. She’s hoping that the accountant will tell
her that it’s okay to keep it simple by just putting that amount of cash into
the “petty cash” fund. She explained that she had also received a refund check
in the amount of $200 from Ellis Fence Company to reimburse the District for
the $200 paid (back in May) for fence repairs, a bill that was then also paid
by the City of Barstow (since the first $200 of any repair/maintenance is/was
their responsibility). She will continue to work on getting the internet
upgrade/installation re-scheduled.
President Jacobs asked for
the Directors’ reports. Director Stapp had nothing new to report, but did request
brief discussion of one item of concern to him during closed “Executive
Session.” Director Wilkey reported that since his recent election to the
Barstow Community College Board, he had learned that the City of Barstow had
passed a resolution in support of Barstow Colleges’ “College Promise Program”
and would like to see if the District would also consider supporting/funding
the project. He did speak with the former city attorney to be certain that the
District’s involvement would not be considered a “conflict of interest” and was
reassured that it wouldn’t be unless the giving of outside donations is specifically
forbidden by District policy. Director Wilkey also plans to approach other High
Desert CSD Boards with the same inquiry/request and will report back with more
information as soon as he has more specific details to present. President
Jacobs reported that he had purchased and installed a new sign, so that park
guests are notified at all of the entrances to Barstow Heights Park that the
park grounds are under 24-hour video surveillance.
President Jacobs asked the
Secretary if there were any additional bills to be presented. She indicated
that there were three new bills that she had received in the mail that day. The
new bills included one from Southern California Edison for $96.18, another from
Terminix for $42, another from Frontier Communications for $83.51 (phone &
internet). Director Wilkey motioned to pay all of the bills as presented. Director
Schendel seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.
The Board entered a
closed Executive Session at 7:07 PM. The Board reconvened to open session at
7:33 PM. President Jacobs stated that the Board had a productive discussion,
and that no action was necessary. The next Regular Meeting was scheduled for Monday,
January 23rd at 6:00 PM. The meeting adjourned at 7:35 PM.
Submitted by: Jen Rubio - Secretary/General Manager
