Camp Meeker

Recreation and Park District

Regular meeting

August 17, 2010

Agenda Packet

I arrived 15 minutes late to find the room full, or at least near to it. Turned out it was full of partisans ready for combat, but I’m getting ahead of myself. (And by full, of course, I mean 8 people including the four-person board and the young lady in the back room with a coloring book.)

By coming late, I missed the water system operator report, the report on the Tower Bridge repair and Director Fawcett’s discussion of the Camper Meeker Commons. I did not, however, arrive so late that there was any time for much of significance to have happened with these three items of old business, so I'll just pick up where I came in.

First, though, let me introduce you: Board Chair is Jeffry Fawcett, a well-built man of moderate height with short, light brown hair and a small jeweled stud in his left ear. He is all business and doesn’t really smile much.

To his left is Seth Murchison, a local artist and musician with a wry humor and the man behind the very popular Supper Club, a popular gastronomic marvel that appears on Anderson Hall one Sunday each month. On the right we have Lynn Watson, who doesn’t say much (and who brings the aforementioned young lady with her). Next to her sits the regal personage of the group, a dowager of one of Camp’s oldest families, Cathie Anderson.

In front and to the right of her, like a lady in waiting attending on a queen, sits Cheryl Doran-Girard, the secretary/treasurer. Director Michael Ming is absent. He has let the board know, however, that he has managed to change his schedule and will be rejoining them soon. In fact, he is expected at the September meeting.

The board sits behind a table facing two rows of four chairs. These, along with a small entry vestibule, take up the remaining space in the building. Seated there tonight, right to left in the back row, are former board chair Gary Helfrich, who comes to meetings regularly to see if he can help out. Next to him sit the Fire Chief Fred Meyer and Hal Woods, director of the Russian River Utility District, the water system operator. Anchoring the row is a woman named Nancy who is working with Cathie Anderson on the history project and ice cream social. I sat in front of her, with an elegant woman with perfectly coiffed grey hair and a pair of cowboy boots that were worn, but still bright red, to my left. Across the only empty seat in the room sat a small, reserved man in a knit cap with a whiskery face whom I did not have the pleasure of meeting. I got the impression that he was often present at meetings but seldom spoke.

Website

When I walked in the room, the table was covered with papers. The top layer was a bunch of pictures, all with the legend “Camp Meeker” emblazoned at their head and featuring redwood backgrounds and sepia images of old buildings. I was looking at some ten to twelve different possible configurations of the new website under development.

There was a lot of looking at pictures and talking about preferences, all very civilized, with input form virtually everyone present. The consensus settled on most aspects of the design above, but there is still time to get your opinion heard.

Jeffry was so excited about the website and the easy plug and playability of the Wordpress software that he skipped an item on the agenda and informed us that, having consulted with their attorney, Malcolm, the board would indeed send an intent to serve letter to 160 Redwood as Gary Helfrich, the former board chair, had suggested at the previous meeting.

Water rates adjustment

Jeffry offered three options that each raised revenue by just over $20,000 a year. The average bill is currently just under $50 and would go up to almost $55 under each of the plans. He said the first plan, which raised the upper limit of the first block by 1000 gallons and left the rate ($2.00) the same, is designed to reward conservation (the irony of rewarding conservation when conservation was what had forced the rate increase was not mentioned).

The cost of the second block more than doubled, as did the third and fourth. The fifth block went form $24 to $45, adding 6 users to those whose bills were usually in excess of $150. The big hit came in the middle, though; 17 users would be bumped out of the under $55 crowd and into the next higher bracket. The other two plans were: a flat 55% increase on all users and a progressive increase that made the water more expensive the more you used.

Gary chimed in to urge the board to make sure it had explored other available avenues, like getting tough by asking for concessions from the service operator. As far as Gary was concerned, that was where the red ink was flowing. His dig at the service operator woke Hal up. He said Russian River Utility has simply passed their increased costs along, adding a 2-3% COLA compounded over 10 years; there were not, apparently, a whole lot of concessions open to him. “Power costs are up, parts costs are up,” he explained dolefully.

Jeffry said pointedly to Gary that the red ink, as far as he could tell, was directly linked to conservation. “A severe decline in usage accounts for almost all the deficit,” he said.

Nancy asked about selling water, a topic that had been raised at the last meeting and Jeffry replied that it had a long lead-time before it would start to show a profit and did not address the ongoing issue of declining usage. Seth agreed to investigate the possibility of selling water. “The rate hike is a short-term solution; maybe selling water can be a long-term one,” he said.

“Keep in mind,” Jeffry warned before the vote, “we could go through all of this and face people with torches and pitchforks and decide not to raise the rates.”

They voted to move forward with the conservation plan. By moving forward, I mean putting an official vote to consider raising rates on the September agenda for public comment, notifying the public of their favorable vote, waiting at least 45 days (for the notice to spread) and then holding a public hearing at the November meeting. Whew! Let’s hope the red ink doesn't bleed them dry before then.

Cleaning house

Jeffry wants the District Office cleaned. He put it on the agenda with a potential price tag of $50. The place is a bit of wreck, but not exactly filthy. The building is long and thin, maybe 8’ x 20’, with high ceilings. A vestibule greets you on entry with a room in the far corner and an open space next to it. A garage door makes up most of the near wall.

The open space next to the tiny office is not exactly open. It is packed with tables and a few chairs. There are some cobwebs in the corners and windows and the floors could certainly benefit from some hot, soapy water and a mop, especially near the front door.

“Is $50 enough?” Jeffry asks. Cathie Anderson laughs from the end of the table. “Dream on!” she says. “$150!”

Turns out she may have been exaggerating slightly. According to the discussion that ensued, you can get a good housecleaner in Camp for less than $50, and they will do many rooms in a busy house, not just one tiny, little used office space. “I’m more interested in quality than cost,” said Jeffry. Seth made a motion to earmark the $50 and Cathie seconded. The vote in favor was unanimous. Cathie said she would get the backup cleaning lady to do it; the amount was apparently too meager to interest the cleaner the District employs elsewhere.

Believe it or not, this story continues…and begins to get interesting! Stay tuned for:

The wonders of parliamentary procedure

-or Robert v. Brown-

Coming soon!

Also coming soon:

When is a plaque not a plaque?

Philanthropy, art and procedure at Harmony