Minutes of the regular April 26, 2008 meeting of the
North Fork Community Development Council
North Fork Mill Site, North Fork California
DRAFT

The meeting was called to order at 5:37 by President Chuck Borden. The three newly elected Board members, Kirsten Englund, Richard McQuone and Dan Rosenberg were duly seated. Also present were Sandy Chaille, Steve Christianson, Joanne Freemire, Stuart Pincus and Mary Proper. Absent were Garrit Allen and Maryann McGovran. A quorum was present. Also in attendance were Grant Administrator Jill Mross and Recorder Volney Dunavan.

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited and the agenda was approved. During Public Comment there was mention of the newly signed compact the Rancheria had received from the Governor. Paul Abram told about the “Paint the Town Purple” event planned for the Community Art Gallery the weekend of May 3/4 and Volney talked about Relay for Life May 17/18 at Wasuma School.

The minutes of the March 2008 meeting were approved with the change in Item 8.a from a tire shed to a grease pit and at 8.f, the name is correctly spelled Snyder not Shyder. In giving her report as Treasurer, Mary reported that we had to date received $1,295 in membership dues. The payment plan for the older Worker’s Comp bill was approved. The payment of the old PG&E non-energy bill will be complete in August.

Grant Administrator Jill Mross gave a tentative 240 grant budget through August 9. It is noted that she is being paid out of this grant and when it is finished, there is no money for her services. On the 250 grant, HUD has confirmed that Madera County does not have oversight responsibility unless we request it. They do, however, have the responsibility for the environmental revue on behalf of HUD. There were six proposals received for the asbestos abatement services. Jill passed out a synopsis of the proposals to Board members.

The Brownfields loan was executed with Madera County and they in turn executed one with the EPA which is the source of the funding. Bass & Associates has just submitted a draft on the dip tank; we have 180 days to accomplish that. Regarding payments, Marina Grigorova at Bryan A. Stirrat & Associates will send the original and a copy of each invoice to us. We approve it and forward the original to the County for payment. We have an issue about this process as we have no way of knowing when or if an invoice is paid. We need to be kept in that loop. Do we yet know what a payment timeline will be?

There was a big thanks to Jill for all her hard and detailed work on our behalf.

8.a The following were elected as officers of the corporation by appropriate motion, second and unanimous vote: President, Steve Christianson; Vice President, Sandy Chaille; Secretary, Joanne Freemire; and Treasurer, Kirsten Englund. Mary assured everyone that she would continue to do the detail bookkeeping work for the CDC as a volunteer.

8.e and 8.l were brought to the front of the agenda so that guests would not have to sit through a long meeting.

8.e On behalf of the North Fork Women’s Club, Chris Stanley passed out a letter requesting land, referring to an attached letter from then President Linda Morse (not dated) also requesting land for a building for the Women’s Club. Dan talked about the contract with Grubb & Ellis and the fact that the Community building had not been included. There was lengthy discussion on the subject. All were in favor of supporting the Women’s Club. There was discussion about how much land was needed (possibly two acres) and where. It was opined that the Women’s Club would own and manage the building for the community. They did not get their Starbuck grant. They don’t need the building today but would like a firm commitment from the CDC.

Dan moved that we seriously consider designating a piece of land, possibly two acres, for the North Fork Women’s Club. This would be done after we talk to Jeff Wolpert. We will send a letter to the Women’s Club with our intent. The motion was seconded by Sandy and passed unanimously.

There needs to be a planning session which would include the new board members, to focus on possible themes for the site. Joanne said this could affect the architecture of any building. There is an Area Plan regarding buildings: how can the fire station go with the building they have asked for when it is not in compliance with that Area Plan? Paul will send Dan the Master Plan and he will circulate it to Board members.

8.l The Conference Room was discussed. We are under contract with the County for the distance video system. There was also concern about a painting on a door and the blocking of the fire exit from the Conference Room. Paul reported that the fire exit is only temporarily blocked on Saturdays and Sundays when there are people in the building who could open it easily if necessary. The painting has been up now for several weeks without any problems. The tv and table will be moved down the hall during the gallery hours, and returned following that period. It was unanimously passed to have a nice framed note requesting that the furniture in the Conference room be returned to its original position following any use of the Conference room.

There was appreciation expressed to the gallery and its members for the beautiful job they have done with the painting and fixing up of the Conference room. Chuck takes the CDC trash to the dump.

Sandy has copies of the amendments to the bylaws which were most recently passed. Do they need to be sent to the Secretary of State? Joanne and Volney will research this.

8.b and 8.c were combined. Steve is figuring the commitment for the Management Board would be about a two hour meeting each week. The Planning Committee would be for those interested in going back to the drawing board so that there is a backup plan should the property not sell. It would be an ad hoc, short term committee. The members of the Management Board would set the time they met. Those who indicated they would be able to be a part of the Management Board (timewise) were Steve, Stuart, Chuck and possibly Maryanne.

Mary reminded everyone that last year the Women’s Club handled the very successful Fall Festival. There was consensus that we ask them to do it again this year.

It was unanimously voted to create a Planning Committee; those wishing to be members were Sandy, Rich, Dan, Kirsten and Joanne.

8.e Doug Carpenter and Devi were in the audience. They had taken this agenda item to refer to the clean-up of contamination on site. Rather, it referred to trash clean up. They both stated that Mrs. Carpenter was quite concerned about the possibility of the creek being moved. Doug also stated adamantly that more water was going through their property than ever before. Doug felt that his questions at the Membership meeting had not been answered.

Chuck had looked at the areas hit by the heavy rains. The County had said they would take care of it but they didn’t do a good job and rodents have been at work in the area, also. There was a big washout on one of the roads with no money to fix it. Marc Mandel did funnel the waterway a different way so a substantial area has been repaired. That is all on the back part, in the area of the sedimentation ponds. The Regional Water Quality Control Board does test the water regularly.

The site does need a cleanup, however, the recent windstorm blew a lot of roofing material around. Don Loweburg is working on repairing the solar panels; right now he is waiting for some ordered parts to come in. The site cleanup has been rescheduled for Monday, May 19, to follow an abbreviated, 1-1/2 hour meeting.

8.g There is some conflict between the Model Airplane group and some of our neighbors. The matter will be referred to the Management Board.

8.h Sandy requested a thank you letter be sent to the Chawanakee Jazz Band. It was voted to do so, and also send them $200 toward their expenses.

8.i The annual meeting had a good turnout. It was one of our best ever. The cookies were awesome. The use of question cards allowed a speaker time to formulate a response, and also kept a lid on any possible irate comments. It did establish a new way of doing things which did allow the audience members to ask whatever they wanted. We could send a letter to the non-members, thanking them for coming and taking part in the Membership meeting and inviting them to the regular meetings.

8.j The budget for the new fire station is supposed to be on the Board of Supervisor’s agenda for the meeting of May 6. There was a big meeting called by Supervisor Wheeler several weeks ago, which included Stell Manfredi, the County CAO. The bottom line is that we need to get approval in order to go forward. So far the County has refused to use anything the NF Volunteer Fire Department Auxiliary has presented. We do have to be sure the County knows we, the CDC, want to have the fire station here.

Organizational Reports
• There was a great fire house BBQ on Saturday, There was $1080 earned during the silent auction and probably over $3,500 overall. Great fun was had by all.
• Joanne passed out flyers for the June Sidewalk Festival and asked everyone to help get them posted.
• Boosters had a fairly good kick-off to Jamboree. There are 5 candidates for Queen. Together with the North Fork Women’s Club, they will be hosting a bunco & books event on Saturday, May 10 from 12 to 4. Cost is $10. Sunday, May 11 is the “Big Event” hosted at Town Hall by both the Women’s Club and the Boosters. There will be food, crafts, a yard sale and information. Time is 11 to 4.
• The Chamber had their annual dinner/auction; attendance was down but the proceeds made it a very successful event. They raised $3,700 just with the auction and silent auction itself. They are working on directional signage and the crane is being scheduled to put up the totem pole at the three way stop sign. They are hoping in the future to have a totem also on the other end of town. The street light project is coming along nicely. They are trying to get the final estimates and are asking the County for help. This is a major project, somewhere in the area of $100,000. The lights will be high efficiency. The Grizzly will pay for a part of it. Right now they are researching if there is an available fund tucked away. Seems another area had at one point been termed a special management area and they found a couple of hundred thousand of dollars that had been set aside for it. Hopefully that will also be the case for us. They are still moving forward with a new sign at Highway 41 and Road 200. They are contacting additional property owners for clearance as it will be a big sign.

There being no further business to come before the general meeting, the members moved to closed session.

When they returned to open session, there was no report and no action. The meeting then ended in a timely fashion.

Respectfully submitted,
Volney Dunavan, Recorder
Approved by Joanne Freemire, Secretary