Notes From the Chair:

This meeting went much more smoothly than previous meetings. There was little rancor and questions asked were, for the most part, pertinent to the discussion and not confrontational. Let's keep this up!
Next Meeting: The next meeting will be called when sufficient interest and new information, e.g., regarding the forming of an association warrant.It should be noted that the "boiler plate" for most of the associations includes a requirement for an annual meeting.

Attendees:

Bob and Leslie Rantschler            Vincent Kinney
Steve and Kim Kurash                 Leslie Anderson
David and Donna Lema                Bea Kable
Denny and Gail Pelz                    Jorge Herrera
Enaid Savage                            Don Chico
Macho                                     Eric Sargent

Leslie Elliot

AGENDA:

Standing Items:
   Trash and Recycling Report      Bill Pulliam
   Water Report                         Denny Pelz
   Road Report                           Steve Kurash

Old Business
   Telephones                            Leslie Anderson
   Association                            Bob Rantschler
   Community Center                   Bob Rantschler

Action Items:
   Funds for Dominical Police         Don Dicker
   Clean area around trash cans    Leslie Anderson
   Water meters                         Elke Sargent
   Guidelines for water conservation Jennifer von Alstine
   Funding for community center    Bob Rantschler
   Funding of street signs             Steve Kurash

Proposals:
   Beautification Project               Don Dicker 
   Emergency Management System Donn Driver
   Payment of water provistas       Denny Pelz

Minutes:

Prepared by Leslie Rantschler. Please provide any corrections to Leslie Rantschler, written or email at rantschler@earthlink.net

Bob Rantschler called the meeting to order. Attendees approved minutes from the March meeting.

Trash and Recycling:
Transportes Porras Vargas increased monthly fee for trash pickup to 3500 colones per month (36.000 per year if paid annually in advance). Area continues to have trash around the bins. No action for cleaning the area has been made from Porras

Water:
Members of the water committee are Denny Pelz, Carlos, Macho and newly elected members Kim Kurash and David Lema.
The past dry season demonstrated that we have a distribution problem rather than a supply problem. On 3 or 4 occasions this past dry season the ridge road tank ran dry because of problems. However, during these occasions the feeder tank on Cespedes' farm was almost full, indicating that the spring could supply more water than we could pump. (Due to the size and type of pump, it can only run a maximum of 16 hours per day).

A 25,000 gallon tank will be installed instead of the 10,000 gallon tank as reported in the last minutes. This will increase capacity by 200%. The cost will be $8,000 to $10,000. The 3 tanks will be monitored in the dry season to determine if the two springs can keep the tanks full. Based on the results from above, there are several possible solutions:

1. Add another pump to the feeder tank if there is sufficient water available
2. Add another tank adjacent to the ridge-road tank if it runs dry, and there is sufficient capacity in the main tanks to feed it.
3. Obtain more water by capturing an additional spring, and/or explore the possibility of a well.
Water Fund Balance: Maintenance fund as reported by Macho would have a balance of 900,000 colones when everyone pays their current water fees. Fund for new water system:
Balance Jan 1, 2002 $8,254
Interest 2002 755
Provista pymts 10,400
Expenditures
New system $4,063
Labor/material 2,111
Durman Esquival 7,612
Translator 54

Balance Jan 1, 2003 $5,569
Interest 2003 782
Provista Pymts 3,600
Repairs/labor 615

Balance Jan 1, 2004 $9,336
Interest through Mar 1, 2004 282
Provista pymts $7,200
Labor for 25,000 gal tank 681
Current Balance $16,137

In the future, this financial report will be made at the beginning of the year.
The electric pump was turned off the last week of April. Denny stated that the water committee would investigate the possibility of a water surcharge to pay for the pump electric bill.

Road:

Road committee members are Steve Kurash, Carlos Mesen, Jorge Herrera and newly elected members Bob Kable and Bob Rantschler. Road maintenance is typically done twice a year, in December and around June. Maintenance is scheduled for sometime this June depending on weather.

Road Fund Balance:

Brought forward 1/1/2002 $7,724
Collected in 2002 $6,453
Interest in 2002 $1,213
Expenses in 2002 $2,848
Balance at end of 2002 $12,542

Collected in 2003 (for 2002) $2,197
Interest in 2003 $1,294
Expenses in 2003 $8,016
Balance at end of 2003 $8,017
Past due at end of 2003 $5,223

Collected in 2004 (for 2002) $850
Collected in 2004 (for 2004) $1,530
Interest in 2004 $87
Expenses in 2004 $200
Current Balance $10,284

Payments due (2004) $6,030
Past due (2002-3) $4,373
In the future, this financial report will be made at the beginning of the year.

Phones:
Antennas are promised from ICE for the WLL system. This system applies to those who have direct Line of Sight to the Escaleras tower. Those properties having access to the Matapalo tower will continue to be serviced by the GSM system.

Community Association:
We need to further investigate the model for an association. Randal Sanchez, a local attorney, has informed us that we need two associations, one exclusively for water and the other for all other community matters. He also expressed some surprise that we, as a community, have not protected our water supply. Without such protection, we could lose our rights to use the water sources that we now depend upon. Bob Rantschler and Steve Kurash were tasked to determine the cost of the association(s) and the specifics of how the two associations would relate to each other (officers, meetings, etc.)

Community Center:
A proposed sketch was shared of a new community center. Bob Rantschler will talk with the Tico community on the possibility of obtaining funds from the municipalidad. The issue of private funds is still open.

Action Items:
Funds for Dominical Police      Don Dicker           no action
Clean area around trash cans Leslie Anderson     see trash and
                                                                  recycles

Water meters                      Elke Sargent          new committee 
                                                                  formed to
                                                                  provide pros
                                                                  and cons
                   (David Lema,  Denny Pelz and Eric Sargent)
Guidelines for water              Jennifer von Alstine no action
       conservation
Funding for community center Bob Rantschler    see community
                                                                 center 
Funding of street signs          Steve Kurash       need to get an
                                                                 estimate of cost
Establish General Fund           no appointee       no action
Determine $ limit for               Water Cmte        no action
   Committees to make
   decisions vs. vote

Proposals:
Beautification Project            Don Dicker        no action
Emergency Mgmt System       Donn Driver       no action
Appropriate time for              Denny Pelz        see below
payment of provistas

Water committee decided that purchase of provista can be made at any time, plus to pay for any increase made prior to time of construction

Liaison Security Cmte        no appointee        no action

Discussion Items:
Rules and regulation be made for road and water committees
Define maintenance versus improvements
Publish financial reports on a yearly basis
Plan for fiesta to obtain funds for community church

Bea Kable raised some issue about the conduct of the road and water committees. She has talked with a lawyer, perhaps from AyA, and believes that we need other ways of operating the committees. She provided some papers that demanded financial records from the committees and asserted that the recent election was invalid. She also demanded the contact information for all residents, which she was told is not public information. Several people indicated that they did not want their email addresses distributed.