April 29, 2010 Emergency Trustee Meeting

Blue Ridge Forest Subdivision
Emergency Trustee Meeting
4/29/10 7PM
*Meeting was not posted on Community Notification Board due to the immediate action required
Trustees and Property Owners in attendance:
Edie Rider, Jim Reynolds, Yvonne Lamb, Kevin Lamb, Mike Gummo, Barbara Byers, Gilbert Byers, Kelly Mays, Art Ross, Ron Dick, Kevin Cosgrove, Charlie Tysver
WHY:
Meeting called by Jim Reynolds and Edie Rider due to Post Office Letter and the need to have better organization of Trustees
Meeting was held at 7pm at the Tysver’s home, 132 South Park Trail
Concerns over specifically the written communication of the minutes
A sign in Sheet will be at all meetings
Art Ross will be responsible for maintaining a permanent record of the correspondence for the development to include, but not limited to letters, minutes, bids, etc.
Edie Rider has agreed to provide a recorder for all meetings. Other trustees, no less than 2, will also be asked to take written notes. All notes and recorded notes will need to be turned into the recording secretary for the writing of the official minutes no later than 1 week following a meeting.
Edie Rider has agreed to be the trustee coordinator
prepare agenda for meetings
Keep track of which trustee is responsible for certain project
All trustees and property owners should contact her to have an item added to the agenda no later than 1 week prior to the next meeting.
Charlie Tysver has agreed to be the recording secretary (write the minutes and they should be completed prior to the next meeting)
The Trustee’s meetings will be held the 1st Tuesday of the Month
Laura Ottinger (treasurer) will provide an updated financial report for each meeting
How do we get the minutes to property owners?
Property Owners can pick one up at the next Property Owners Meeting
A box will be placed at the front of the gate with copies
(Charlie will call to inquire on the price of a realty box)
Homeowners can send a self addressed envelope and we will mail them a copy
Minutes will be posted on the BLOG
Kevin Lamb suggested we put some crush and run down over the balist since it was due to rain soon and would pack down better. It was voted on and approved especially since we were having issues with the post office to spend approximately $750.00 for 2 to 3 truck loads.
All in attendance voted and agreed to the for mentioned items.
Postal Service Issue
Jim Reynolds and Edie Rider had major issues after speaking with several other property owners and trustees regarding their personal inquiries with the contact names and numbers that were handed out on the 4/27/10 meeting. It was decided that we needed a chronological account of all the contacts so we could better defend our development. Jim Reynolds also stated he had been in touch with WSET 13 to inquire if the problems we were encountering with the post office were news worthy and they said it sounded very worthy and that they would bring it up at their 10am morning meeting and get back with us in the morning. Below is the Letter created specifically for the media, as it does not include all other items that were for mentioned at this meeting.
　
　
　
　
Emergency Trustees Meeting
Called 4/29/10 by Jim Reynolds (trustee) to be held at the Tysver’s home at 7pm due to the letter delivered by the Post Office on 4/27/10 and dated 4/26/10.
First of all we are not a homeowners association as the letter indicated, we are a private
Subdivision.
Next: Ms Mays did not personally or by the direction of the Trustees request at any time to have the community’s mail boxes moved to the top of the road. Mr. & Ms. Mays are extremely upset (as are several other homeowners) that Ms. Becky Clay, Officer in Charge (of the station) printed out her name and address and then mailed it out to strangers. They have small children and this has scared them that a Government Agency feels they have the right to put them in this public situation without any regard to their safety or their explicit permission to publish this information. They are so upset they are considering legal action against the Post Office. And, we, the Trustees support their decisions as we feel no American rights to privacy should be violated in this manner. For the record, Ms. Mays was not voted in as a Trustee until April 11th, 2010. So, as Ms. Clay stated in the letter, Ms. Mays contacted her around March 1st, therefore she could not speak on the behalf of the community. She was just a property owner calling to make an inquiry and we feel she is a victim in this matter. We also stated to Ms. Clay that if we did intend to move the mailboxes, notification would be done so in writing.
Ms. Mays called to inquire about specifications regarding mailboxes and was told they (the Post Office) would need to get back in touch with her. To this date she has never received that return phone call. Instead we all received the letter delivered on 4/27/10. This was the night of the Property Owners Meeting. At this meeting the minutes and agenda had already been established, so we handed out to the property owners who were present the contact information for Ms. Becky Clay, the Officer in Charge (whom is either standing in for or has taken over the position of Mr. Mark Williamson – still not clear on that) and contact information for Ms. Vicky Young, Post Office Consumer Affairs. We asked the property owners to call the Post Office and inquire about the letter and let them know that this was NOT something any property owner requested…and this is what we’ve heard so far….
As the Property Owners and Trustees called to inquire, Ms Becky Clay was apparently rude to many property owner, she’s given conflicting answers to the same inquiries, she has not returned promised phone calls to several owners, she has stated to several property owners that there has not been ANY maintenance to our roads for over 2 years; which is untrue and our community has $18,172.44 of receipts since 2009 to prove otherwise. Several of the property owners have left messages with both of these ladies to have Mr. Mark James, Central Virginia Regional Director (located in West Virginia) to call us since they are not authorized to give out his direct number. A face to face meeting with Mr. Mark James has also been requested. To date and to the best of our knowledge he has not returned any calls to anyone. Ms. Becky Clay has told several property owners that after "she" told Mr. James of the conditions of our roads, it was Mr. James who told her to end service. When hearing her explanation of what she told Mr. James, she stated that our roads were not passable (not true), she stated it’s a one lane road (not true), she stated that our roads cause to much wear and tear on their vehicles (even though we have seen their drivers flying down our roads and feel any damage or wear and tear is due to the way they choose to drive on our roads and is therefore their fault). We feel that many roads in Amherst County, public or private, rate at the same condition as our roads, some are worse; therefore you cannot prove that the cause of wear and tear is due specifically to our roads. Plus the post office has been using 4-wheel and all wheel drive vehicles to deliver our mail back here for well over 20 years.
The Department of Disabled Americans has been contacted to inquire about the rights of our homeowners who may have a disability or whom have a medical condition such as breathing conditions or heart conditions (no handicap decal required). We are hearing that there is a medical hardship form that you can fill out and turn into the post office which would require the post office to hand deliver your mail to you. If the post office can’t drive on our roads and we have people who qualify for this medical hardship (which we feel at least 4 property owner in the back of the development would qualify for) then the Post Office would need to park at the front of the development and walk to the homeowners home to deliver their mail. This falls under the Disabilities Act and we strongly encourage any property owner who feels they may qualify for this hardship to do so as soon as possible as you may be required to provide some medical information.
Also, we have done "some" research and have only found one other letter so far from the Post Office regarding the conditions of our roads. All concerns about our roads were addressed and fixed…but the letter further states that the cost to the Post Office was an additional 2 hours per week to deliver back here. If money is an issue…then we would like the Post Office to do a cost comparison in regards to delivering the mail by vehicle verses walking to hardship properties and delivering to the front of the gate.
If the conditions of our roads are their reasoning to stop delivering the mail we would like further proof that our roads are worse than other private and public roads, such as the end of Ramsey Road.
Bottom Line we are calling everybody and anybody to try to figure out a way to stop this. We all feel "picked on" because they need to cut cost and we are easy targets because of our private roads.
With that in mind, the United States Post Office may view us the same way the County and State does…we don’t pay property taxes on the roads…so they don’t need to help us…they consider our roads to be an extension of our driveways and guess what….mailboxes may be legally required to be placed at the end of our driveway.
We hope this gives you some reassurance that we are doing everything we can think of to help us all. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact one of your trustees and they can either answer your questions or put you in touch with someone else.