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February

Date: February 11, 2014

Place: Village Hall, 5906 Connecticut Ave.

Time: 7:30 PM

Present: Peter Gray, Tim Hanlon, Frances L. Higgins, Chris Richardson, Greg White, 1 Section 5 resident

  1. Agenda Item: Minutes

    Peter moved that the minutes of the January 14, 2014, Council meeting be approved as presented; there was a second and the motion passed unanimously.

  2. Agenda Item: Discussion of Ordinance to Restrict Through Truck Traffic on Williams Lane

    A. Morton Thomas, Inc., (AMT) an engineering firm, has presented the Council a proposal to conduct a vehicular traffic study on Williams Lane. This proposal is in response to a resident on Williams Lane concerning the excessive number of delivery trucks which use Williams Lane as a cut through to both Connecticut Avenue and Brookville Road. The Council will use this survey data to determine if there is a need to enact an ordinance precluding cut through truck traffic on Williams Ln.

    Action:
    Greg moved that the Council approve the traffic survey proposal from AMT for 168 hours at a total cost of $1,500. Chris seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. The manager will sign the proposal and return it to AMT. The survey will be conducted in mid to late March, 2014. The expenditure for this survey will come under the line item for Roads in the 2013-14 budget.

  3. Agenda Item: Discussion of Land Survey of Section 5

    Alan Beal, a home inspection services specialist, provided some background information concerning the value that a land survey will provide Section 5. He said that Chevy Chase View and Martin's Additions some time ago engaged an engineering firm to provide their towns with the data that contains the locations of their boundary lines. This data also showed the boundary lines of the private properties in their relationship to the public property. In addition to the boundary line locations, this data allowed the towns to view a picture of the tree canopy of the towns.

    When Chevy Chase View reviewed the data, its Council members discovered that there were some private property lines which were incorrectly drawn. Alan said that because several new structures are built each year in Chevy Chase View and Martin's Additions those two towns pay to have the survey data updated on a yearly basis. Alan said Section 5 might not want to update the data on a yearly basis but rather every three or four years because Section 5 does not have several new houses built in its town's limits. He said that if Section 5 does not have the survey data updated on a regular basis, the data would soon become outdated and useless.

    Alan said that if Section 5 decides to have a land survey made, it should purchase a computer that would be dedicated to the use solely of the land survey data. Also, he said that Section 5 will need to purchase a license to install the GIS software on its computer. The cost for the new computer and the license fee will be approximately $2,000. There was some discussion.

    Action:
    Chris moved that the Council engage A. Morton Thomas, an engineering firm, to conduct a land survey of Section 5. This survey will include a boundary line survey, a street right-of-way survey, plus the front property line of 3802 Leland St. He also moved that Section 5 purchase a new computer and pay the fee to install the GIS software on the new computer. The cost of the three items is not to exceed $50,000.00. Peter seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. The manager will sign the AMT proposal and return it. The cost for this survey will appear in the new budget under a separate item titled “Land Survey” for the 2014-15 budget.

  4. Agenda Item: Treasurer’s Report

    Tim provided the Council members with the financial data for FY 2013/14 up to Jan. 31, 2014. All the budget items are within the budget.

  5. Agenda Item: Discussion of 2014/15 Budget

    Tim provided the Council members with a financial sheet that includes the incomes and expenditures for the three most recent years. On this sheet he provided a blank column which will be filled in with the figures for FY 2013/2014 through March 12, 2014. He also provided a blank column on this sheet where Council members should write the proposed budget for 2014/2015.

    The manager was asked to contact Montgomery County and determine the raise which it plans to offer its employees for FY 2014/15 in order to assist the Council in deciding an appropriate raise for the manager. There was some discussion. The following are the figures for the proposed budget for 2014/15:

          Revenues:
          Income tax                   $340,000
          Interest income                 5,000
          TV Cable fee                    2,000
          Holiday Gratuity Fund           3,000
          Building Permit Fee             1,000
          Highway User Fee                6,000
          Miscellaneous Income            1,500
          TOTAL INCOME                  358,500
    
          Expenditures:
          Gratuities                      5,000
          Police                         30,000
          Personnel & Admin              65,831
    
          Community Activities
          Block Party                     8,500
          July 4th                        1,600
          Other                             300
          Total Community Act.           10,400
    
          Cable TV                        2,000
          Dues, Mtgs & Membership         4,000
          Insurance                       1,500
          Miscellaneous                   1,000
    
          Office & Printing
          Web Site                        4,000
          Bank Charges                      100
          Telephone                         800
          Newsletter                      2,500
          Other                           4,600
          Total Office & Printing        12,000
    
          Professional Fees
          Building Permit Review          1,000
          Legal                           2,500
          Accounting                      8,000
          Total Professional Fees        11,500
    
          Snow Removal                   15,000
          Leaf Collection & Disposal     12,000
          Lighting                       10,000
          Streets                        20,000
          Trash & Recycle                65,000
          Tree Work                      30,000
          Landscaping                    10,000
          Town Survey                    50,000
          Capital Improvement Fund       11,000
          TOTAL EXPENSES                365,981
          

    The manager will provide the Council members with a hard copy of the proposed budget.

  6. Agenda Item: Building Inspector's Report

    No building permits were issued during February, 2014.

  7. Agenda Item: Manager's Report

    Peter said that the County has stationed a white van on the east side of Brookville Rd. just north of Leland St.; the van is outfitted with a radar device to register the speed of vehicles. He asked the manager to contact the County and ask the County if it would station such a van on Section 5's streets to deter motorists from speeding.

    The Town of Chevy Chase contacted Section 5's manager and asked if Section 5 will participate in the Town's forum at which the political candidates will present their positions on certain issues sometime in June prior to the elections. The manager agreed to cooperate with the Town and notify Section 5's residents about the forum.

    There was a broken water main at the corner of Underwood St. and Connecticut Ave. during the very cold weather in January. The manager contacted WSSC to repair this break; however, they did not send a crew until after the water had flowed in great amounts along the gutter of Connecticut Ave. and then down Williams Ln. This water froze creating a virtual skating rink on Williams Ln. After several attempts to persuade WSSC to sand the ice on Williams Ln., the manager used Section 5's funds to have the area sanded and salted several times. Once the water main was repaired she paid someone to remove the excessive amounts of salt and sand.

    WSSC did not patch the excavated site at the water main break properly and thus a pothole developed. The manager was finally about to get a State highway crew to patch the large pothole located at the corner of Underwood St. and Connecticut Ave., the site of the water main break.

    Pepco contacted the manager about its planned tree trimming this spring. The manager contacted the Pepco arborist and discovered that Pepco plans to trim the public trees along Brookville Rd. Section 5 does not have jurisdiction over Brookville Rd. because it is a State road.

  8. Agenda Item: Adjournment

    Peter adjourned the meeting. The next Council meeting will be held Tuesday, March 11, 2014, at the Village Hall, 5906 Connecticut Ave., at 7:30 PM. The Village Hall has handicapped access. Everyone is welcome.