PRELIMINARY DRAFT   

This “Preliminary Draft” may differ in some particulars from the official minutes (PDF icon at upper right-hand corner of this page).

In Attendance

George Pauley, President; Laura Cossa, 1st Vice President; Carlos Vargas, 2nd Vice President; Betty Terry-Lundy, Secretary; Tim Patricio, Property Manager; Mavis Mather, Assistant Manager Business Operations

Absent

David Nicosia, Treasurer

Call to Order at 9:05 pm

Roll Call

Four Board Members were present constituting a Quorum as defined by the Association’s Declarations and the Illinois Condominium Property Act.

ASCO Report (Lorraine Meyers)

ASCO met Tuesday March 1st.  We had two guest speakers and also the election of officers.  Shelly Lulkin was elected president again, Vice President is Sandy Chaet, Secretary is Jerry Goodman from East Point, and the Treasurer is Linda Jackson from Beachpoint.

When that was over with we had our two guest speakers.  One speaker was from the Chicago 2040 plan.  I think that each one of you received a book that includes what they have projected that they want completed by 2040.  They had Rick Lopez as the speaker.  He was hired two months ago by the City and really didn’t know what he was talking about.  He was unable to answer the questions so I am not going to bother you with the report, just read the booklet.  Not everybody got a book, but I got five for our members and a copy for Management as well.

They also gave a report on the area, and I guess there is a lot of drug activity at Winthrop and Thorndale.  They are watching that very closely and the police are patrolling.

ASCO is trying to have the Ward boundaries changed.  The Ward boundaries will have to change because we have lost another representative in congress.  We want ours changed because right now Grandville south-side belongs to the 48th Ward and the north-side to the 49th Ward.  Then the boundary runs along Sheridan to South Shore, which is past Grandville.

We have had a lot of problems with the nursing homes in this area.  The one here on Sheridan Road was closed, but it is re-opening now under a different name.  They are going to have five inspectors from ASCO go through it every month to make sure that they are following all the rules and regulations.

We also had a very good speaker, his name was Mike Simmons and he represented Rich Gainer.  He was from the Cook County Budget and Property Tax Office.  He was a good speaker, but I was unable to get copies of his hand outs since it was a well attended meeting.  Everything is fine except that they project that there will be two-million more people in the Chicago-land area by 2040.

Ad-Hoc Noise Committee (Nancy Ledvina)

We did a noise survey, and of the number of surveys we sent out, we collected 168.  This is somewhere between the 20-22% return.  I was disappointed, but I was told that this is actually a good return on a survey.  We focused on three primary areas of noise: train noise, emergency vehicle sirens, and traffic/motorcycle noise.

Of the 168 respondents, 56 reported that they are affected by train noise.  It was pretty evenly distributed over the entire building; what really struck me was that the three corner units, the two-bedrooms, we had the same number reporting that they were disturbed by noise.  The people who were asked if they were experiencing increased train noise in recent years (within the last 5-6 year) 31 said that they were experiencing an increase, 10 said no, and 15 said they were unsure.  The majority of the people are affected by this noise when their windows are open and closed.

By far the most overwhelming response from the list of disturbances is emergency vehicle sirens.  97 people reported that they were disturbed by that.  This affected units throughout the building regardless of whether it was a low floor or a high floor.  Fortunately, I think that this may be the most easily remedied because I think we have a good opportunity with our new Alderman to re-enforce quiet zones along Sheridan Road.

With traffic and motorcycles, 48 people responded that it is a disturbance.  That seems to be primarily units facing east or with rooms within their units that are facing east.

In the area where we ask people to write in other, by far the strongest response to that were garbage trucks and dumpsters from both the Breakers, perhaps Park Tower, and 5445.  I spoke to Tim and it’s my understanding that garbage collection is not supposed to be happening before 8.  Several people reported 4AM and 5AM disturbances from garbage collection.  Apparently this is against City ordinance so I will be taking this up with the Alderman.  I have been in touch with his aide and have been in the process of trying to schedule a meeting for the Noise Committee to sit down with the Alderman.  He has expressed an interest and willingness to work on this.

Home Improvement Committee (Tim Patricio)

At the Home Improvement Committee meeting on March 7th, the Committee talked about two primary issues.  The first was the signage to replace the Park Tower Condo sign in the front circle.  You can see the three mockups that we brought back.  If you recall the approved design was the triangle, basically a scale model of the building.  On the two sides facing Sheridan Road will have address for the Board to choose from the mock-ups.  The results from the Committee are mixed between number 1 and number 3 with one vote from the Committee for the one in the middle.  The Board has their choice between what designs to move forward with.  The other item that we talked about is the tile on the 55th floor.  The Committee looked at some more samples and we went to the floor to get some guidance from residents on 55 and that is progressing.  They will pick out a type of tile and then a pattern for the floor so that that can be changed with the carpet.  The Committee is also looking into one of the budgeted projects for the year which is replacing the front desk where the doorman sits.  We are also looking at the furniture and whatever else can be addressed with the number that was budgeted for the year.  The Committee set a tentative deadline for proposals from designers/architects to be in by the end of April.  At that point we will probably set up presentations with each of them to present their initial concepts.

Motions from Closed Session

Upon due motion by Betty Terry-Lundy and seconded by Laura Cossa, the Board voted unanimously to approve the following decisions made in closed session: $100.00 fines for all units not in compliance with the mandatory insurance policy.

Minutes January 31, 2011 Special Meeting

Upon due motion by Carlos Vargas and seconded by Betty Terry-Lundy, the Board voted unanimously to approve the minutes from the Special Meeting held January 31, 2010, as submitted by Mavis Mather, Assistant Manager.

Minutes January 31, 2011 

Upon due motion by George Pauley and seconded by Laura Cossa, the Board voted unanimously to approve the minutes from the Board Meeting held January 31, 2010, as submitted by Mavis Mather, Assistant Manager.

Tax Appeal Contract

Upon due motion by George Pauley and seconded by Betty Terry-Lundy, the Board voted unanimously to ratify the proposal from Terrence Kennedy to appeal the tax assessments for a 10% contingency fee with a cap of $18,500.00.

Utility Consultant Contract

Upon due motion by Carlos Vargas and seconded by Laura Cossa, the Board voted unanimously to ratify the renewal addendums for the contract with Prospect Resources for utility consulting for the periods covering 2013 and 2014, at the current rate of $300.00 per month.

Adopt Rules and Regulations

Upon due motion by Carlos Vargas and seconded by Betty Terry-Lundy, the Board voted unanimously to approve the proposed Rules and Regulations as amended at the Special Meeting of the Unit Owners.

Entry Sign

Upon due motion by Laura Cossa and seconded by Carlos Vargas, the Board voted unanimously to approve the entry sign mock-up of ‘5415 Park Tower’.

Upon due motion by Carlos Vargas and seconded by George Pauley, the Board voted unanimously to approve the lowest bidder (after clarification and confirmation of the specifications), to install a new entry sign at a cost not to exceed $12,900.00.

2P Drain Repairs

Upon due motion by Betty Terry-Lundy and seconded by Carlos Vargas, the Board voted unanimously to approve Aalders Plumbing to conduct the 2P drain repairs, as submitted for $13,772.00.

Construction Requests

Upon due motion by George Pauley and seconded by Laura Cossa, the Board voted unanimously to approve the remodeling of units 608 and 1003, as submitted by the unit owners, following the recommendations of the Chief Engineer as outlined in their written specifications and in accordance with the Rules and Regulations and remodeling guidelines of the Park Tower Condo Association.

Board Report (George Pauley)

As you know we did a second survey on the internet.  First of all I want to thank Vince DiFruscio, he got all the numbers, we turned over all the raw data to him and he really broke this out into numbers that make sense and you can understand how people voted.  So, thank you, you have saved Tim a lot of work.  What we have is that of all the residents 55% voted yes, and 45% voted no.  This was broken out into owners, renters, and those who already have service.  Based on that, it is so close and evenly divided that, at this point, the Board has decided to not go with bulk internet.  We are going to table it for now and maybe bring it up again later as technology changes.

The Market sign, or north mall sign, has been completely constructed and should be shipped either this week or next week.

Treasurers Report (Tim Patricio)

As of January 31, 2011 the total operating cash was $138,401.54.  The total of all operating reserves was $76,626.020.  The total of all operating cash and investments was $215,027.56. The total of the Barrington Bank Max Safe reserve account was $810,785.80.  The total of all replacement reserve investments was $497,878.11.  The total of all replacement reserve funds was $1,308,663.91.  The total of all cash and investments was $1,523,691.47.

Management Report (Tim Patricio)

I have a couple of things to go through here.  Several Board members have asked what happened with the “Korean” project.  Just to let you know, the delegation was here.  A couple of months ago we talked about a partnership with the Citizens Utility Board, some grant money from Illinois, the government of South Korea, LG, Samsung, and KT.  They want to work with some residential buildings in the City to do some “Green” projects with grant money.  Of the four buildings with Draper and Kramer, Harbor Point and Park Tower is where they would like to focus their attention.  Hopefully that is good news for us, I don’t have specifics yet, but those are being developed as we speak.  I was told that they were looking at our boilers and control system.

The pool is done, but there are two issues.  First of all we talked about extending memberships, it has been just under two months since we closed the pool and it is now up to 80 degrees.  I know that the Board has asked us to consider extending memberships; I know I talked to a couple of you about that.  The office will send out new expiration stickers for everyone to put on their card with a new expiration date.  The other issue is that there are more problems with the pool we have leaking in a number of locations underneath.  We are waiting for an opinion letter about this, but what I have learned is that it is leaking and the opinion will say that our liner is at the end of its useful life.  We are waiting for the letter but it is not something that we will have to do in the short term.  In the budget you may be seeing a figure out in the future to address this.

Just to get this on the Board’s mind, the next project I will turn my attention to is the terrazzo.  This is in the budget for 2013 but we need to start addressing this now before we can do the work.  With all the repairs we have to do along with this project we need to begin the discussion of what to replace the terrazzo with, the railings, the color, etc.  I’m just asking that you start thinking about this so I can get it on the agenda.

We had a couple quiet months with bed bugs, but we have had resurgence in the past two months.  Not that we have been ignoring it, this is something that we deal with on a daily basis in the office.  In the past two days I have spent approximately 95% of my time on bed bugs.  We will be scheduling another town hall meeting and I would really like the Board members to be able to attend.  I was hoping for an actual day and I know Mondays are preferable.  We need to do this for educational purposes and to review the SOP for bed bug units so that people who are interested know the process that we are using.

The next issue is the Market.  I know some of you have heard the rumors and we have had complaints recently about the employees in the Market.  From not getting receipts to people being over charged.  We have had difficulties countless times with communicating with the Market Owner addressing these issues.  It is almost as if he chooses to ignore it.  Most recently we received actual evidence that one of our residents was overcharged and it made us so angry that the staff has agreed to boycott the Market for 30 days.  The staff will boycott until April 11th.

The next issue is the space on 2P that the Board approved in the last Board meeting.  Some residents who park near that spot have submitted letters and pictures for consideration and I wanted to let you know that we are reviewing options for this space.  This space was unbudgeted so we are not loosing income on our budget.  We are doing final fact finding and then will present our discoveries to the Board.

There were 2 sales in February, bringing the year to date number of sales to 22.  The sales were a 1-bedroom unit on the 41st floor for $160,000, and a 2-bedroom on the 27th floor for $138,000.

Adjournment

Upon due motion by George Pauley and seconded by Betty Terry-Lundy, the meeting adjourned at 10:20 pm.

Signed (as seen on pdf, clickable at upper right corner of these minutes)

George Pauley, President

Betty Terry-Lundy, Secretary