Call to Order
Tony Gronniger, lot 2281, called the meeting to order, held in the upper level of the clubhouse at 6:30pm. Board members present were: Marvin McNabb, lot 28; Mike Booth, lot 2380; Allan Slavin, lot 181; Celeste Armanees, lot 62; Mark Leggett, lot S165. Absent was Troy Lesan, lot 576. Allen Slavin led in prayer. Shad Mort led the Pledge of Allegiance. Tony Gronniger opened the meeting with the Vision/Mission Statement: “Lake Viking is a private lake aspiring to preserve our community and environment for future generations.” “Our informed members are the strength of our community.”
Approval of Last Month’s Minutes
Celeste Armanees moved to approve last month’s minutes, Allan Slavin seconded; motion passed.
Handbook Committee
No report
Finance Committee
Celeste Armanees reported: We met Thursday, December 9th online with 7 members present and guest Tony Gronniger. The bulk of the meeting was a presentation by Patrick Roth, our Morgan Stanley investment representative.
Morgan Stanley: We did a thorough annual review of VVA’s investment portfolio. As you recall, in February this year, the Finance Committee began a 3-bucket approach of investing our money.
- Bucket 1: currently $7,000 invested, is cash-on-hand for immediate needs, like a checking account to pay the next few month’s bills.
- Bucket 2: currently $1.4 million invested, is for short-term needs in the next twelve months, e.g. our massive silt basin project.
- Bucket 3: currently $285,000 invested, is for long-term needs, so ideally we’ll never touch it unless e.g. the dam breaks or some unexpected problem arises.
The Morgan Stanley representative, Patrick Roth, presented for a half-hour on this total $1.6 invested at Morgan Stanley, as detailed above in the three different funds or “buckets”. He confirmed for us that each bucket is getting the approximate return on investment that we expected, resulting in an overall 1.6% yield, after the company’s maintenance fees. This overall 1.6% yield on our total $1.6 million invested = $25,000/year “profit” or yield to VVA. So why, you ask, our low 1.6% return vs. the Dow-Jones being up an impressive 15% return? It’s because we purposely invested in LOW-risk securities, NOT high-risk stocks like the Dow-Jones. We the Finance Committee back in February invested your money in the “safest” way possible, with low risk. Vs. Alternatively, we could change to a moderate-to-high risk strategy. The danger of high risk, of course, is that though you get big gains in a bull market, you also risk big losses in a bear market. Being good stewards or fiduciaries of VVA’s money, we back in February chose the safer more cautious route of selecting LOW-risk investments for VVA’s money; hence the low % return. Still, this investment gave VVA $25,000/year more “profit” than VVA has EVER generated, because VVA in the past had most (not all) of this money “under a mattress” not invested @ almost zero return. So generating approx $25,000/year every year profit is major progress for VVA. However, in future months, we may revisit this low-risk strategy, or more likely just transfer more money into the higher-performing bucket (after we complete the silt basin project), for a higher but still relatively low-risk % return.
Taxes: We anticipate a high tax bill coming April 15th due to selling several, Community Area (CA) lots this year, with capital gains tax due on it next year. This is the same scenario we had last year, just less so. You’ll recall this happened big-time in the year 2020 when we sold the most CA lots; it’s true again now just less so in 2021 when we sold a few CA lots.
Budget: The year-to-date November 2021 Financial Statements were reviewed & appear correct. The Morgan Stanley balances discussed above already reflect a $170,000 withdrawal which paid the contractor for major road expenses & also paid year-end personal property taxes. Also reflected was an additional $250,000 out of Morgan Stanley transferred to BTC Bank to cover year-end operating expenses & more Silt Basin phase two expenses. Projected budget: Due to the changing landscape of finalizing year-end numbers, the final 2021 year-end budget & approval of next year’s 2022 budget will be presented at January’s Board meeting.
Accounts Receivable: Paula Hepinstall reported that Westbrook is currently flowing “uncollectable Receivables” through Special Assessments line 4100. Instead, they are now creating a new Gain/Loss income account for clearing Accounts Receivable.
New Committee member: The Finance Committee unanimously approved recommending that the Board of Directors add George Eshnaur to the Finance Committee. George has an extensive Finance background, with a Master’s degree in Finance. He is currently the Assistant Professor of Finance & Dean of Faculty at Ottawa University in Ottawa, KS. George & his wife & kids live in KC and spend most weekends here at their home in Lake Viking. At this time, I’d like to ask for a motion from the Board to add George Eshnaur to the Finance Committee. Marvin McNabb moved to approve the addition of George Eshanur to the Finance Committee, Mark Leggett seconded; motion passed.
Strategic Planning Committee
No report
Activities Committee
Celeste Armanees reported: The Activities Committee included in the Board members’ binder the proposed Activities calendar of events for 2022. We have added to the past year’s calendar: an additional Fishing Tournament–so one in March & one in September. You’ll recall the money raised from that event was donated back to restock the lake w/ fish. The proposed Activities calendar would also add a “Local Bands Jam-Off” sometime in summer. Celeste Armanees motioned to approve the Activities Calendar for 2022, Tony Gronniger seconded; motion passed. SEE the 2022 ACTIVITIES CALENDAR on page xx!
Building Committee
Marvin McNabb reported: A total of 9 permits were approved in the month of November–no houses.
Fire Department
Tony Gronniger reported: The Fire Dept. met as usual. This month we re-registered our department with the county’s Mutual Aid Agreement. It’s an annual occurrence–we give help to them, they give help to us. We also reviewed year-end expenditures & we have some money leftover in the operating budget for the Fire Dept, so we ordered 2 med bags for each of the Safety vehicles. We also had some extra money in the air bottle fund, so we ordered 4 radios–3 for Safety & 1 for the Fire Dept.
Campground Committee
Mike Booth reported: In both Campgrounds, the campsites have been re-numbered.
Lake Committee
No report
Infraction Committee
No report (next meeting in spring).
Dredge Committee
Shawn Hepinstall reported: Phase 1 of the ponds on the south side is complete; Phase 2 will start shortly. I spoke with our contractor, who said he will be here Monday morning to continue the work. They are saying by mid-January they will have all the concrete and everything poured. After that is finished, our team will put in the stop log braces, etc. So we will be ready to go when the weather breaks this spring to begin dredging. If you haven’t noticed, the dredge is staying in the water this winter, so as soon as weather permits we will begin dredging! For 2022, we’ll focus on erosion control & clean-up on the south side.
Lake Manager Report – Shad Mort
- Chip and Seal Operations: I double-checked with Vance Brothers to make sure we are first on their list to complete our roads next spring.
- Special Lake Projects: Pirate & Pilot work is being completed, as well as the 3-Tubes project. They are moving forward.
- Tube Replacement: I hope to have 1 more tube replacement done in the next few weeks. This will be the last one until spring.
Financials
Celeste Armanees motioned to approve this month’s Financial Statements, Mark Leggett seconded; motion passed.
Guest Time
- Sandy Moles, lots 1116/1906: After lengthy discussion RE: construction of a large dog fence begun without a permit, Allan Slavin motioned to dismiss the contractor’s $500 ticket, and reduce the homeowner’s $500 fine down to $200. Marvin McNabb seconded; motion passed.
Board Discussion
- Nominating Committee: Mark Leggett commented that we’ll have 2 open seats on the BOD, and some potential candidates–1 candidate for sure is going to run. I hope to have this all out together by early January, for voting at the Annual Meeting in March.
- IT Discussion: We are going forward with a $200 router & a Cloud-based server in the Office. It will be ready to go by early January.
- Managing Director: Tony Gronniger stated that the Board has been searching for the past 6-8 months looking for the right candidate. Of 10 applicants, we interviewed 2 very strong candidates. It is now my pleasure to announce that Cathy Poindexter, lot 1127/1128 is Lake Viking’s new Managing Director, whose job is to oversee “all things Lake Viking” (5-page Job Description) starting January 1, 2022.
- Expansion of hours at Maintenance Area for trash disposal: The dumpsters are now available 3 pm – 5 pm, seven days a week. Mark Leggett explained that this change to ONLY supervised hours is due not to the actions of one person, but due to this privilege being abused (dumping of furniture, refrigerators, and other illegal items) primarily by our LV community as a whole, and even some non-member outsiders who were using our dumpsters–all causing our trash costs to soar. Our trash costs are now back under control.
Adjourn
Tony Gronniger moved to adjourn to Executive Session to discuss Personnel & Board organizational matters at 7:13 pm. Mark Leggett seconded; motion passed.
Attendance
Paula & Shawn Hepinstall, lot 543; Sandy Moles, lot 2039; Mark & Stephanie Closterman, lot 1900; David Sandy, lot Z-9; Cathy Poindexter, lot 1127.
