French Branch Homeowners Association
Meeting
Minutes
Time: __7pm______________
Homeowners Present: 16 (see attached attendance sheet)
Agenda for meeting as
follows (see attached sheet)
Call to Order: Robert Broome called the
meeting to order with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.
Robert
Broome then presented former president Debbie Stasney with a plaque for the
associations appreciation of the job she has done in the past year.
The
new officers for 2004 were then introduced to the association.
Minutes
from November were not available therefore approval waived at this meeting.
Darlene
Brennan passed out the Treasurer’s report for the 2nd half of the
year 2003.
Ann
Smith (2003 treasurer) briefly went over end of year figures. (See attached
Semi Annual Report)
Robert
introduced the guest speaker, John Lamarque. He is the President of the St
Tammany School Board and Dist. 13 School Board Representative.
He
briefly spoke of his personal background
and then went on to discuss what is presently going in for the school systems
in St Tammany Parish. Several people, including him, from the school system
have visited schools in other states to get ideas to try and implement
standards to improve the school system here and the quality of education.
He
went over new school construction going on and/or being planned in the parish.
Also discussed the bond issue that is for an expansion program
and some of the things this money will be used for. Also stressed that this
bond issue will not result in raising taxes.
He
then took questions from the homeowners. Some of those questions were as
follows:
1) Is there anybody to
coordinate volunteers for the school systems?
a. He took name and phone and will have Judy
Earle call about this.
2) Will the bond package take
care of the roof for
a. Yes No, the contractor has gone
bankrupt and the school system has to replace the roof using school board
funds.
3) Is there a way to benchmark
nationally? Most major companies ask how do we benchmark nationally before
considering moving to this area
a. A nationwide search was done
to find schools similar to ours. They have visited schools in
At this time also briefly discussed how it came
about that every high school in the parish has its own athletic
stadium auditorium.
4) Recently heard at MRA
meeting that Kevin Davis is proposing Impact Construction fees to be
imposed when building permits are issued. Is school board addressing this?
a. Does not know that Mr. Davis
will get this approved. If so and if the school board participates, the
money will probably will go into the general fund. We can’t rely on impact
fees for income for the school system. The school system is a $250 million a
year business. Impact fees would not be a significant amount.
5) What controls do we have on
teachers and what about pay?
a. We pay more than some
parishes and less than others. We have job fairs that we can pick from the
best. Teachers want to work here due to money and conditions. Tenure laws in LA
make is difficult to get rid of bad teachers. John went into detail about how
this has to be done.
The
school board discussion was over.
Robert
then spoke briefly about the yards of the month. See agenda sheet for last
month winners.
Then
proceeded with report from Jane Dean of the ARC. She discussed the priorities
of the ARC.
1st.
Houses that are letting the neighborhood down. (disrepair, junk vehicles, etc.)
Letters have been sent out to three people along with follow up letters. One of these has been resolved.
Jane
feels we should use the newsletter to let people know we will be sending
letters if they are not abiding by the covenants.
2nd
RV, trailers, boats. These will be addressed later.
Robert
stated that the rules (covenants) are not by our choice, they were contracts
that were set up many years ago.
Dave
Mannella stated that it is a parish law about not having junk vehicles in your
yard and that there are fines, he thinks as much as $100.00 a day. Dave
stated that there are Parish ordinances covering problems that we are trying to
deal with by enforcing our covenants. Improved enforcement of these ordinances
may be warranted. Our covenants
are law and are filed with the parish.
Jane
stated that we are trying to resolve these issues before it gets to the point
we have to go to court.
Rick
Williamson then briefly went over the progress with the Walmart/Lowes
situation. Discussed the traffic study that has been going on for the last
couple of months. Hopefully there will be a meeting next week to go over the
results of this study.
Robert
then went over the goals and plans for 2004. (see agenda sheet)
The
meeting was then adjourned at 8:15pm.
Minutes
by Gewel Beard.