General Membership Meeting September 27, 2007

1) The meeting was called to order by President, Norman McDonald at 7:00 with 7 Board members in attendance. Board members present: Norman, Joe, Eric, Ted, Bob, Jackie and Carl and approximately 17 others.

2) The minutes of the last meeting were NOT read by Joe Wagner, because he forgot to print a copy & put in the notebook for the meeting.

3) Jackie O’Riley presented the Treasurers Report, Jackie distributed hard copies of the report. Jackie reported that to date, ACA has collected approximately 52% of "assessment". It was mentioned that there needs to be 20 more addresses to pay their assessment in order to fill the deficit for the year. Following a few questions, it was read and accepted by majority of attendees.

4) Larry Hargett was the Guest Speaker: Since Larry was running late, Norman continued on to Old Business (5b) and stated that when Larry arrives will stop & let him speak.

Larry arrived and addressed the ACA starting at 7:27 until 7:49. Larry made many statements about the current status of the county and some future items of interest. They are listed below:

• A new fire truck will be dedicated at ARFD is one of 14 that are funded by the new tax millage.
• The ACA area enjoys one of the lowest fire insurance rates in the county because of the ARFD.
• The property tax rate has dropped 40-50% due to the passing of the tax reform vote last year. The debt will still be paid out of the property tax.
• The Adequate Public Facility Ordinance, if passed, will cost an estimated $1 Billion. We have never had adequate facilities. Larry is not in favor of this ordinance due to the cost. He thinks that eh Comprehensive Growth Plan is a better strategy. The first reading meeting had a record turn-out. The next Public Hearing will be 15- Oct in St. George @7:00. If passed the property tax would go back up to fund it.
• The county is responsible for cleaning the storm drains.
• The Appian Way road is planned to be upgraded with sidewalks and widening.
• Many road projects are underway due to the passing of the ½ cent sales tax increase. Patriot Boulevard will be complete soon, thus allowing access to Ladson Road from Ashley Phosphate.
• In a few years, Dorchester road will be 6 lanes from Ashley Phosphate to Oakbrook and 4 lanes from there to 17A.
• New home sales are down 60% this year in Dorchester County.
• Housing permits are being drastically cut back. No permits are being approved for developments with more than 25 homes. North Charleston is still very aggressively building + allowing permits.
• The new 25 MPH sign will go up on Archdale Boulevard soon.
• Dorchester County is the first in the state to have a law that prohibits a business from employing illegal aliens from having a business license. The new code enforcement officer is in place to enforce the new ordinance. There have been a few businesses prosecuted to date.

5) Old Business (7:09-7:27 –> 7:49-8:33)

1. (At 7:49 we returned to this discussion) New By-Laws are still under construction. Norman wanted to clarify the difference between restrictive covenants and the ACA By-Laws. Restrictive Covenants deal with the neighborhood and the By-laws deals with how the ACA board operates. ACA is comprised of 9-11 different neighborhoods with difference covenants. Within these covenants there is a capacity to modify but little or nothing about how to enforce covenants. Norman attended an Association of Property Manager’s seminar dealing with writing By-Laws last Saturday. He learned that the By-Laws were established 30 years ago and have some legal holes. There were attorneys specializing in this area, and they indicated some weaknesses. Norman is working on fixing these problem areas. The term "donation" is being replaced by "assessment". The term donation was an old term used when this was a tax deductible expense. This is no longer the case. All residents can be made to pay the assessment because they "derive benefit" from the situation. It is the responsibility of the buyer to investigate assessments & covenants. Since the "Covenants" sign has been installed, this is all that is required to inform all that they exist. A provision for assessment enforcement needs to be added to the By-Laws. This issue is being worked. The term "Dues" is still on the web-site. Bob said that he will work on removing is term. Some recent house closings have yielded some residents paying back "assessments" at closing. Liens do not show up in title searches, thus we do not use them. There is a plan to get a new covenant sign with $50 on it.
2. Contract renewed for 2008 mowing at the same price: Norman explained that the board had discussed and approved the extension of the current lawn mowing contract through next August.

A question was asked, about the status of the storm drains on Archdale Boulevard? Can we get them cleaned out? Norman stated that he would investigate.

3. We have had requests from ARFD to send emails to the community. This is a very efficient method of information distribution.

6) New Business (7:18-7:27 -> 8:34-8:45):

1. Nominating Committee: Since Carl needed to leave soon for work, he needs 3 new nominees.
2. Carl stated that he is the DCCN (Dorchester County Corridor of Neighborhoods) rep. The updates to those meeting are distributed via email.
3. The Commons of Archdale: There have not been any sales due to no insurance company wants to be the first to insure in an area.
4. Crime Watch: What is happening? Nothing because Tom had moved a few months ago. After the new board is in place, we should have some activity. Larry Hargett mentioned that there are "off-duty" police officers that can be hired at $20/hour to help traffic enforcement. King’s Grant subdivision has successfully employed this technique.

The next General meeting be TBA (Thursday 13 December, 2007,) 7pm at the ARFD meeting room and the next board meeting is scheduled for TBA (Wednesday, Dec 5th 2007). Newsletter articles for the next Newsletter need to be submitted to Newsletter@myarchdale.com NLT 1 November 2007.

Board Attendees:

Norman McDonald President,  Joe Wagner Secretary,  Ted Hucks Board Member,

Carl Hoge Board Member, Bob Veitch Board Member, Eric Zink Board Member, Jackie O’Riley Board Member

The meeting was adjourned at 8:45

Submitted by Joe Wagner