November 15, 2007
Trustees Present: Jim Harris, Nancy Shaffstall, Tim Fletcher, Jim Gruenewald and Carel Reynolds Jim Harris called the meeting to order at 7:15 p.m. The trustees introduced themselves.
Finance
Tim Fletcher distributed a report summarizing the income and expenditures for the twelve months ending October 31, 2007, together with the projections for the coming year.
- Current balance $52,000
- 07 Collections $39,000
- Des Peres Help with Des Peres Road Project $5.000
- 2007 Spending $41,000
08 Outlook:
Overall, similar spending plans, less the Front Entrance project
Symmetry landscaping still under contract for lawn care, which is our largest expense area.
The potential exists for significant lake expenses
The ’08 budget will be finalized in January after the Bureau of labor Statistics publishes the consumer price index.
Landscaping Report
Dougherty Lake Landscape Maintenance
We are in the middle of a second 3-year contract with Symmetry Landscaping. They continue to do an excellent job of maintaining all of our common grounds. Irrigation Services continues to do a fine job of maintaining the irrigation system. We have irrigation at the playground/park, lake common ground area, and entrance island.
Playground/Park
We are in the process of improving the Dougherty Lake wooded property next to the playground. Numerous dead trees have been removed. This winter, invasive honeysuckle shrubs in this area will be cut, stumps treated with herbicide and brush hauled away.
The MSD, Charter Cable, and AmerenUE companies have all been digging away in our playground/park area.
It has been a trustee challenge to ensure restoration work gets accomplished to our satisfaction!
Cul-de-sac Islands
Perennials were added to the Briar Fork Road cul-de-sac circles north and south of Beaver Dam Road. Thank you again to the neighbors providing water to their circles.
Des Peres Road Easement
- North of the entrance, the City of Des Peres removed 2 failing redbud trees and a dead maple.
- Dougherty Lake planted 3 ‘Forest Pansy’ redbud trees in the empty spaces. ‘Forest Pansy’ is a purple-leaved cultivar of the popular Missouri native redbud tree. After the trees bloom, the leaves open bright reddish-purple and gradually mature to a more muted purple during the summer.
- Thank you to those Dougherty Lake neighbors who back up to Des Peres Road for providing irrigation to the new trees located behind their homes.
- South of the entrance, the retaining wall project was completed. As was reported in the last newsletter, this was a 3-year project involving the City of Des Peres, the Missouri Dept. of Conservation, private contractors, and, of course, Dougherty Lake homeowners and trustees.
- The trees that were planted above the retaining wall are Kousa dogwoods and ‘Prairie Fire’ crabapples. The wall pockets will soon be planted with groundcover sedum to provide additional color.
Lake and Streetlight Maintenance
- Lake Report
- This year all cable and hardware attachments to the lake aerators were replaced with stainless steel components.
- We have begun a 6-month scheduled testing of the lake outlet valve to prevent possible problems with rust
- We have engaged the services of Reitz and Jens Engineering Consultants to re-inspect and provide written and verbal reports of the dame and outlet system, as was done in 2001.
- We will be proceeding with a testing of the lake water for contaminants as was done in 2001.
- A question was asked regarding the algae, and Jim’s response was that the algae actually helps with the health of the fish over the winter.
- A question was asked regarding our legal obligations with our lake and Jim’s response was that we are only obligated to maintain dam height to prevent flooding.
- Street Lights Report
- All streetlights were cleaned in July of this year.
- Ongoing problems with street lamp outages resulted in the replacement of numerous sensors, transformers, and lamp trees within the past month.
- We are investigating an alternative system to reduce maintenance costs in the future. More information will be provided as we receive it.
General Maintenance Report
The guardrail by the dam was painted this year. There was no leaf pick-up done this year but we do plan to clean the streets.
Trustees
Jim Harris introduced the nomination of Carel Reynolds as Communications Trustee and Tim Fletcher stated that Jim Harris would continue on as President for another term. Fred Shaffstall seconded the nominations and it was passed by acclamation.
The meeting adjourned at 7:45 p.m.