AMERICAN TOWERS OWNERS ASSOCIATION
Minutes of the Board of Trustees Meeting
Thursday, May 29, 2003
5:00 P.M.
Norman Salisbury called the meeting, convened in the Community Room, to order at 5:00 p.m.
Residential Trustees present and participating: Norman Salisbury, Irene Link and Sandra Lee Sterns
Commercial Trustees present and participating: Larry Shelton, Deborah Pariseau and Donna Boes
Excused: John Patton
Management present and participating: Joe Toronto
Approval of Previous Minutes: April 24 ,2003
The Minutes of the April 24, 2003 Board of Trustees Meetings, upon motion
duly made and seconded, were unanimously approved.
Financial Statements: April 30, 2003
The Financial Statements for April 30, 2003 were reviewed by the Manager. The
Association reported an unaudited loss of $34,916 Year-to-Date as of April 30, 2003. The
Common Reserve Fund has an unaudited balance of $118,845 and the Residential Reserve
Fund has an unaudited balance of $282,237. The Board also reviewed the Delinquency Report and the Managers
explanation report of each delinquency.
Building and Improvement Committee
Mike Gravitz, committee chairman, will conduct a summary and review of the air conditioning situation and proposal following
adjournment of the formal meeting during the open forum discussion. He indicated that he continues to
work with Otis elevator to provide better service under their contract and to pay detailed attention
to minor but visible maintenance such as indicator lights and the interiors of the elevator cars.
It was proposed that Tom Paul, the regional property manager of Fidelity Investments, one of our corporate
condo owners be approved as a member of the Building and Improvement Committee. He brings excellent knowledge
and resources to the committee. The Board unanimously approved motion duly made and seconded to approve Tom Paul
as a member of the committee.
The Committee also asked the Board to revisit the committees concerns regarding potential building code
violations from owners remodeling, the hazards involved and the impact on our fire insurance coverage with some
guidance as to the direction the Board wishes the committee to proceed.
Finance Committee
Cheryl Stapley reported that the finance committee met with three audit firms, reviewed their proposals
and recommends that the Board engage Huber, Erickson & Bowman to perform our annual audit for the 2002-2003
fiscal year and file our annual tax return. The bid and proposal process will result in savings of $1,700 over
tax and audit costs of previous years.
The committee also recommends that our Reserve funds, presently invested in Prudential money market funds
earning interest of less than 1% be transferred to Bank One Savings accounts presently earning 1.9% in order
to increase our interest income in these funds.
Upon motion duly made and seconded, both of the preceding recommendations were unanimously approved.
In an effort to achieve additional maintenance and repair savings, and to ensure that owners as well as the
Association carry insurance coverage for their own damages and liability, the committee also recommended
additional research be conducted and information provided to all owners regarding what the Associations
responsibilities are with respect to damages, what is insured by the Association, and what should be insured
by individual owners and renters. The committee referred to specific language in the Declaration limiting the
Associations liability for water damages and cited a recent flood in which the damage may not be covered by
existing policies of the owner and the Association.
Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board agreed that this should be researched and publicized and that
the Association should consider adopting a policy of adhering to the strict language of the Declaration even
if not consistent with past policies and procedures handling plumbing and leaks.
The Board thanked both the Building and Finance Committees for their outstanding work in all of these important
areas of their responsibilites. They all have been working very diligently.
Hamilton Partners proposed tolling agreement
After discusssion, the Board agreed that more information was required before approving the agreement
and tabled the agreement without a vote.
Property Insurance Deductible
It was reported that a recent flood caused by a burst washing machine hose in a condo has resulted in substantial
damages and repair costs. The owners liability insurance is deferring to the Associations policy and the Associations
insurance insists there is no Association liability but would collect damages on our behalf after the $10,000
deductible is paid and after they have paid some damages. Both are referring to the liability language in our
Declaration. The Board suggested that our attorney could provide some interpretation of the language as well
as some additional motivation to get the damages repaired.
Amercan Plaza Parking Board
The Board reviewed the minutes of American Plaza Parking Board meeting held on April 30, 2003.
Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Board of Trustees was scheduled for Thursday, June 26, 2003 at
5:00 p.m. in the Community room. Owners are encouraged to set aside the last Thursday of each
month to attend these meetings and provide the Trustees with valuable feedback and input.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 6:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Sandra Lee Sterns
Air Conditioning Forum
Following adjournment of the formal Board meeting, Mike Gravitz our Building and Improvement Committee chairman
conducted a well attended open discussion and question and answer session regarding our air conditioning problem and the
proposed solution.
The following is a summary of what was covered during the AC meeting
that followed the regularly scheduled HOA Board meeting of May 29th.
In addition to the discussion, there were several hand outs given to
each attendee. They included:
* Two memos regarding AC operation/status/operating costs that were written by the Building Committee
chairman (Mike Gravitz) and addressed to the HOA Board/Finance/Building
Committees.
* A sketch, prepared by Mike Gravitz, that was used as a
visual aid to help the attendees understand of the operation of the AC
plant.
* A set of fee schedules, prepared by Joe Toronto, which showed
the cost of the proposed remediation (assuming a $1,000,000 cost) based on
condotype (ie. Jackson, Madison etc.)
Mike Gravitz, the Building
Committee chairman, started the session by describing the operating
principles of the AC plant we all share. This included a description of the
liquid chillers, the condenser water loop and the cooled water loop that
serves the buildings. For each of these items, Mike described what they do
and how they interact as they provide us with in condo cold (cool?) air. For
those that desired more detail on these subsystems, Mike suggested that they
peruse a copy of his first memo. It provides a bit more detail about each
subsystem.
Following that overview of the AC plant operation, Mike then
described what is deficient with it. He said that it was determined, with the
help of John Frank (our engineering consultant), that the condenser water
loop lacks sufficient heat rejection capacity to support simultaneous
operation of our two liquid chillers. That lack of capacity is the root cause
of poor cooling performance on hot days and the ill timed shut down of
the single operable chiller on hot afternoons.
The conversation then
turned to remediation and the options available to us. It became clear that
many factors come into play with respect to remediation. Some of the factors
considered/enumerated were land availabilty to build a new plant, useful life
of existing equipment and financial incentives offered by Utah Power.
Potential remediation options were described and then the pros and cons of
each were discussed. There were numerous questions from the audience that
were fielded by the Board and Mike Gravitz.
The remediation option of
choice was then presented. As described, it consists of a number of new
components. First, a low noise/high efficiency stainless steel cooling tower
will be situated on the plaza just outside and east of the entry doors of the
north building. A cosmetic/sound wall will be built around it. Second, two
new 400 ton high efficiency (twice as efficient as our present 350 ton liquid
chillers) liquid chillers with associated pumps will be situated either in
the existing mechanical room or in parking stalls adjacent to it. The cooling
tower and chillers will be connected by new 12 inch steel pipe. Again, many
questions were fielded. It was stated that the design objective of the new
cooling plant will be for it to provide 42 degree water to the buildings at
a flow rate commensurate with their capacity on a 100 degree day. This is to be compared to our
present plant which generally delivers 53 degree water on a 100 degree day
... if that. The major downside, beside the $1,000,000 cost of the new plant,
is that it will not be available to us this summer. Instead, we will have to
make do with the present plant for one more, uncomfortable,
summer.
Following this discussion, questions were fielded about how to
get the best performance from our existing system. The June/July
newsletter addresses this issue.
The final set of questions addressed
the apparent disparity between some condos being "cool enough" with our
present AC plant versus other condos being unacceptably warm well before the
hottest time of the season. While the exact cause of this is not clear, it
was speculated that the "cool enough" condos were probably fitted with fan
coils and associated ducting that is/are "right sized" and those condos that
are already too warm probably have fan coils and/or ducting that is
undersized. In addition to that, there is also the possibility that the
distribution of the chilled water from the cooling plant to certain areas of
the buildings may be deficient and that, too, can have an effect. Clearly,
this is an area that needs attention. The Board/Building Committee will be
addressing this issue in near term.
And with that, the meeting
adjourned.
Secretary