Author: sbruner

Attending: Steve Bruner, Steve Dembitzer, Jan Glinski, Michael Hansen, Peter Levy, Katharine Mukherji, Cynthia Steele, Peter Burgess, and Jose Perez (for the discussion of maintenance issues)

Maintenance

Jose gave an update on maintenance issues:

1) The boiler is now functioning well and there have been no complaints about heat from residents in recent weeks. The boiler temperature is being kept at 190 degrees, to ensure sufficient heat, and will be lowered to 180 degrees in the spring. Given that there were several outages of the boiler this winter, which caused cold in the buildings during servicing, the board has decided to fund the repair of the back-up boiler before next winter. Peter Burgess obtained three bids and will negotiate with the service deemed best. The estimated cost is under $10,000, although the final cost can not be determined until the work begins.

2) The batteries have been replaced in all emergency lights.

3) A plate was affixed to cover the drain opening next to the garage door.

4) Jose is looking into replacement or new motors for the roof deck fans. We also discussed problems with fans not working in some other units. One cause for this can be that an adjoining unit has hooked up its dryer exhaust to the bathroom vent, and the lint is blocking the line. All residents are reminded that this practice is a fire hazard and against fire codes and building rules.

Finances

We reviewed the financial reports. Slowly our reserve is being rebuilt, to $34,000 at present. Beginning in March, the increased income from common charges will help meet regular operating expenses so that we don’t have to draw down on the reserve for such.

The line of credit for $250,000 was passed by the majority of the residents (39 voted for it; 8 voted against it; 9 did not vote). The closing for the line of credit is on March 8, 2007.

New Business

We discussed the importance of ensuring ongoing representation of all three buildings on the Skytrack board and other means.

For the next meeting, we will rank order pending renovation projects to be undertaken against funds available. We will prioritize those where there is a safety issue, and then those that are primarily aesthetic (painting and recarpeting). We will move ahead with getting a bid to make bins for garbage outside 134 Boerum Place, as it was determined that the basement stairs to the garbage area poses a safety hazard.

The next annual meeting is Wednesday, May 9 at the Montessori School.

There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 9:20 p.m. The next board meeting is scheduled for March 28th, 2007.