January 10, 2006 — The
Skyline Ridge Property Owners' Association's 2006 Annual Meeting took place
on Sunday, January 8, 2006 at the
Becket Town Hall. Approximately 25 people attended.
It was good to see our fellow lot owners again. Most of us hadn't seen
each other since last year's Annual Meeting, which took place in
January 2005.
Our Board of Directors (David Babcock, Joan Drucker, and Frank Rizza) headed
up the meeting. David and his wife Terrie own Lots 9 & 12, Joan and her husband
Arnold own Lots 10 & 29, and Frank and his wife Margie own Lot 23.
Below are the highlights of the meeting.
2006 Budget
Frank Rizza, our Treasurer, explained the reasons behind the Board's decision
to raise the annual assessment for each lot from $275 to $325.
Two of the most important reasons, Frank said, are:
- Our 2005 budget was strained because of the many heavy
snowfalls last year, which necessitated frequent road-plowings.
- The Board's budget projections for coming years have indicated
that an assessment of $275 per lot is not going to be adequate to
cover all required expenditures.
Road maintenance
There was some discussion about the need for repair and maintenance
of the roads at Skyline Ridge. In the short term, we will need to
address a problem that is causing water to collect on the cul-de-sac
at the end of Skyline Ridge Road. Our Board of Directors will work with
Wilbur McCaul, our road-maintenance contractor, to get this problem
under control. Long-term plans call for a phased approach to maintenance
of the roads — areas that are most in need of attention will be dealt
with first; areas that are in better shape can wait till later.
Landscaping and signage at entrance to Skyline Ridge
Joan Drucker pointed out that the small landscaped area at the entrance to the
Skyline Ridge subdivision (i.e., at the intersection
of Bonnie Rigg Hill Road and Skyline Ridge Road) is going to need some attention
in the spring. It was agreed that the Board will look into getting some new mulch
and doing a general sprucing up of that area.
Also, Joan — who is now living full-time in her new home on Lot 29 —
said that she would plant some flowers in that area in the spring.
Stanley Borko (Lot 13) pointed out that the
wooden "Skyline Ridge" sign at the entrance to Skyline Ridge Road
is poorly positioned and poorly oriented. Several other lot owners agreed.
The issue is that most people that are going to Skyline Ridge
will get there by driving south on Bonnie Rigg Hill Road from Route 20 —
and because of the way that the wooden sign is positioned and oriented,
anybody driving south on Bonnie Rigg Hill Road is likely to miss seeing
the sign. It was generally agreed that it would make sense to remove
the sign from the north side of Skyline Ridge Road and install it on the
south side of Skyline Ridge Road, facing northwest.
Mailboxes
Frank Rizza, Joan Drucker, Stanley Borko (Lot 13), and Cynthia Leslie (Lot 13)
gave information about efforts that are underway to try to make arrangements with the
U.S. Postal Service to provide "cluster mailboxes" that would be
installed at the entrance to the Skyline Ridge subdivision.
This effort began almost a year ago.
(If you're not sure what a cluster mailbox is, click here.)
The history behind this issue is as follows:
The roads within the Skyline Ridge subdivision are private roads, and the
U.S. Postal Service will not deliver mail to mailboxes on private roads.
Therefore, if we want mail delivery for our homes at Skyline Ridge, we have
three options:
- Each Skyline Ridge lot owner that wants mail delivery could rent a post-office
box at the Becket post office.
- A collection of individual mailboxes could be installed at the entrance to
the Skyline Ridge subdivision.
- A cluster mailbox or perhaps a couple of cluster mailboxes could be installed
at the entrance to the Skyline Ridge subdivision.
Our Directors have agreed that installation of cluster mailboxes would be the
best choice, for the following reasons:
- Cluster mailboxes would be neater and more attractive than a collection of
individual mailboxes.
- It would be more convenient for us to be able to receive mail at Skyline Ridge
as opposed to traveling to the Becket Post Office to retrieve our mail.
- If no mailboxes are present at Skyline Ridge, or if only a few mailboxes are
present at Skyline Ridge, vandals that become interested in Skyline Ridge could surmise that
some of the homes at Skyline Ridge are not occupied on a full-time basis, and
this could make our community a target for vandalism.
Three Skyline Ridge lot owners (Stanley Borko, Joan Drucker, and Cynthia Leslie)
have been involved with the initiative to make arrangements for the U.S. Postal Service
to provide cluster mailboxes to Skyline Ridge free of charge. This initiative was
started because Stanley and Cynthia were aware that in some communities in
Massachusetts (and probably in some other states as well),
the U.S. Postal Service has provided cluster mailboxes
free of charge to some private communities. However, this hasn't happened at
every private community — only at some private communities. Furthermore,
through his recent contacts with U.S. Postal Service representatives, Stanley has learned
that the U.S. Postal Service seems to be moving away from the idea of providing cluster
mailboxes to private communities free of charge.
Cluster mailboxes can be quite expensive (we'd probably have to spend a few thousand
dollars to purchase the cluster mailboxes that we'd need for Skyline Ridge). Given that
Skyline Ridge has a rather small budget to begin with (less than $10,000 per year),
an expenditure of a few thousand dollars would be a major budget item for us. Therefore,
Stanley is still trying to convince the U.S. Postal Service to pay for the
cluster mailboxes at Skyline Ridge.
It remains to be seen whether or not the U.S. Postal Service will eventually agree to
provide the cluster mailboxes to us without charge. In the meantime, anybody that is
living at Skyline Ridge is advised to rent a post office box at the Becket post office.
Other miscellaneous topics
Other topics of discussion at our meeting include the following:
- a plan to replace a missing street sign at the intersection of
Skyline Ridge Road and Valley View Road (this was brought up by Cynthia Leslie)
- the fact that drivers for courier services such as UPS, Federal Express, etc.
are having a difficult time finding Skyline Ridge because the roads at Skyline Ridge
are not yet included on most printed maps and on-line maps (this was brought up by
Joan Drucker)
- the fact that Verizon has been promising to enable land-line phone service at
Skyline Ridge for several months, yet the land-line phone service still isn't available
(this was brought up by Joan Drucker)
Election of New Director
Cynthia Leslie was elected to a three-year term as a Director. Cynthia
replaces David Babcock, who was elected to a one-year term last year. David
decided to step down this year instead of running for election again.
Our Board of Directors now consists of the following lot owners:
- Joan Drucker (Director)
- Cynthia Leslie (Director)
- Frank Rizza (Treasurer)
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