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Home My WebLink About2008-03-03 Reading Housing Authority MinutesREADING HOUSING AUTHORITY MINUTES OF THE REGULAR BOARD MEETING, March 3.2008 A regular business meeting of the Reading Housing Authority was held on Monday, March 3, 2008 at 7:00 P.M at the office of the Reading Housing Authority the town of Reading, Mass. The meeting was called to order at 7:15 P.M. with the Chair, Timothy J. Kelley, presiding. Those members present and forming a quorum were Diane Cohen, Mary Connors and Karen L. Flammia as well as the Secretary/Executive Director, Lyn Whyte. Consultants, Mark Slomick and Elisabeth Krautschold were invited guests. Minutes Move Diane Second Mary Vote 4 -0 08 -042 VOTED: To accept for the record the Minutes of the Regular Business Meeting of January 7, 2008, as presented. Finances Move Mary Second Diane Vote 4 -0 08 -043 VOTED: To approve and sign the checkroll/billroll for the period for Accounts Payable Check #1392 -1486 Payroll Summary as presented for January & February, 2008. Section 8 Voucher Program, #2240 -2419 as presented. Finances Move Diane Second Mary Vote 4 -0 08 -044 VOTED: To certify receipt of monthly operating statements for all RHA programs for the month end December, 2007 and January, 2008 of the current fiscal year. FY 2008 4001 Budeet Revision Move Mary Second Karen Vote 4 -0 08 -045 VOTED: To approve and sign the FY 2008 4001 Budget Revision to reflect change for recapture of FEMA insurance settlements for May 06 flood damage per mandate by DHCD. Revision to be submitted electronically by Executive Director. Personnel Matters: - None Report of Proerams: Vacancy Report-. Reports were submitted for January & February 2008. There has been a large turnover rate in our elderly development in the past four months but all units are leased at the present time. RHA continues to experience lease -up delays in our state family program due to non - response to updates and mailings. Mitch Hudzik has recently purged the waidist and will be sending out three more packets for potential eligibility and lease -up. - Sec 8 Report- Coordinator Kathy Rolli will be hosting a Section 8 briefing on March 11. RHA will be issuing six vouchers at that time. We have additionally pulled six other wait -list applicants and we are not verifying information. If qualified, our intent is to issue additional six vouchers in April. We have also absorbed a voucher from another outside agency. - Resident Service Coordinator- Current Tannerville Newsletter for the week of March I" provided. New Business: - Commonwealth of MA issued their official audit report for FYE 2006 & 2007. No findings. Our 2007 Annual Report to the Town of Reading was provided to RHA Chair, Timothy Kelley for review and submitted electronically to the Town on February 19, 2008 by the Executive Director. Copy on file in office. ' Real Estate Matter: - Update on resale of affordable unit at Gazebo: A number of eligible applicants are now on our wait list. An offer has been made on the most recent unit for sale; however, the owner refused the offer. Market continues to drop and questions arise as to the validity of the affordable unit price. RHA may refer to legal counsel for guidance before making recommendations to owner. Update on 75 Pleasant Street: 1) CPDC endorsed the ANR plan on January 28, 2008. Legal counsel, Brad Latham has provided us with all documentation for our files. 2) DHCD issued a letter dated January 24, 2008 approving the schematic design of project. 3) Resale of property: a) A certified asbestos report was provided to the board. The report indicates asbestos in one upstairs bathroom. Cost to remove will be minimal; however, the Board will not make a final decision to continue the asbestos removal until April meeting. b) Upon the recommendation of DHCD procurement director, Candy Temptesta, the Executive Director invited consultants, Marc Slotnick and Elisabeth Krautschold to explain the procedures for resale of our property. Both consultants are former DHCD employees with an extensive background in development areas. Executive Director and other board members provided a short history of the project. Lengthy discussion then continued in regard to RUA options as it relates to different facets of our overall project. Elisabeth presented a condensed version of the process to prepare a Request for Proposal (RFP) to dispose of municipal property. Elisabeth did not recommend proceeding with an ' REP until RHA felt more comfortable with a time line from DHCD on the project. Marc Slotnick continued with his recommendations that we ask DHCD to fund the carrying cost of the existing building especially if bids on the modular specs don't come in or if they are too high to proceed. Insurance, interest and other routine maintenance costs, which are considered soft costs, are about $900 per month. We could also request that DHCD amend the architects contract to do stick built construction. If we plan to continue, we want DHCD to start funding these stick built drawings and we base this request on the statistics that are coming in and indicate that modular is not cost effective for less than eight or ten units. The Board decided to follow through with these recommendations and have tabled the preparation of an RFP until the April meeting. The Executive Director will contact DHCD by phone and email with our requests. A deadline date for DHCD response will be the week before our scheduled April 7" meeting. The RHA Chair will be kept informed. Board Schedule April 2008 BOARD MEETING: 04/07/2008 @ 7 PM 08 -046 TO ADJOURN: 9:20 PM. Move Diane Second Mary Vote 4 -0 ' ResP7 submitted, Lyn E. Whyte, Secretary & Executive Director