Minutes of LaLama Neighborhood Association Meeting, 19 April 1998

Place: 2051 Lama Star Route (Dove's Residence)

Time: Meeting brought to order by President Justin Friedman at 4:30 pm

Attendance: See attached list

The elected Secretary, Alicia Clyde, was absent. The President asked for an acting secretary volunteer and Cecelia Dove volunteered. Since Alicia was absent we did not have access to prior minutes and Justin gave a verbal summary which was unanimously voted accepted.

Treasurer's report was given by Bill Reifsnyder and he noted the balances as of March 31, 1998 as $1,252.44 in the LLNA bank account and $841.10 in the LLNA Reconstruction Fund. He also reported that four checks in the amount of $200.00 each has been mailed to burn victims for tree planting this year.

Election of Officers: Slate presented was Justin Friedman, William Reifsnyder, and Cecelia Dove. There was some discussion regarding the Lama Foundation since Dylan Trachtman had declined the invitation to join the Board this year. There was no one present from the Lama Foundation who wished to join. It was discussed and decided to hold open a spot on the Board for the Lama Foundation should they wish to participate. Marianne Matheson spoke encouraging continuing representation of the Foundation and continuing open communications between the LLNA and the Foundation. Justin assured everyone we will be proactive in soliciting the Foundation's participation.Other nominations for the Board: Rick Dove nominated Lisa Bayne and Marc Rogers seconded. Bob Aldorisio nominated Rita Hall, Rick Dove seconded.Final Slate of Officers: Justin Friedman, William Reifsnyder, Cecelia Dove, Rita Hall, Lisa Baines.

Terry Klein moved the nominations be closed and the slate be accepted. Margaret Nes seconded. The slated was elected unanimously be ayes. There were no dissenting nays.

Rick Dove questioned whether a quorum was present to conduct such elections and Justin said there was.

Justin invited representatives of the LLMDWA and the El Rito de La Lama Acequia to speak.

Robb Watt representing the LLMDWCA noted that there are LLMDWCA Board meeting each first Tuesday of each month and all are invited to attend. He reported that they met with the Governor and the Governor supports a water system for Lama. They also met with Carlos Cisneros would said he would submit a bill regarding a water system for Lama but did not follow through. Robb Watt said he would like a representative from the LLMDWCA to be invited to the LLNA Board meetings as requested previously. Justin told me that we would let him know of the meetings and they were welcome to attend.

Jeanne Denver spoke for the Acequia, noting the annual meeting will be on May 3, 1998 at 3 pm at Bill Reifsnyder's house and the annual ditch cleaning will be on May 17, 1998, time to be announced. She also noted that the 1998 summer water schedules had been mailed. There were several questions presented to her about the condition of the ditch and she allowed as how she had not seen it this winter. Rollo Silver stated he had just walked up the ditch and the headgate looked fine.

The next item on the agenda was discussion of the draft of the LLNA's submission to the Taos County Comprehensive Plan. Justin explained how the original Vision Statement had been mailed with comments solicited by the members of the LLNA which were then incorporated into a final Vision Statement from which a draft of goals and then actions were drawn up for discussion today. He noted the Kleins' help with Vision 8 and the input by other members of the community. He then asked CeCe Dove to lead the discussion because she had done the "strawman" or original draft that we would be working with.

CeCe opened the discussion by thanking everyone present for their participation and help. Peggy Nes requested the word "community" be added to Vision 1. Julia Watt made a motion to accept that change. It was accepted by the group.

In the discussion of the goals of Vision 1, Julia objected to the organization of the first goal. Robb and Julia presented the idea of altering the entire document to reflect the LLNA's lack of enforcement. Rob has objections to much of the wording. Much discussion ensued. Terry Klein made the suggestion that if we were to accomplish something concrete that we go through each Goal only, leaving the Actions until the next meeting so that everyone would have a chance to go through the document and submit written changes. This was agreed upon by the group. CeCe read each Goal and if there was any single objection it was left open for the next meeting. The following list is of Goals unanimously accepted by the group:

Vision 1. Goal A

Vision 2. Goal A, C, D

Vision 3. Goal A, B

Vision 4. A, B, C, D

Vision 5. A, B, C, D

Vision 6. B, C

Vision 7. A, B, C

Vision 8. A

The following is a list of Goals that had at least one objection Vision 1. B, C; Vision 2. B, ; Vision 6. A; Vision 8. B

Julia would like to add more goals and Peggy agreed. CeCe stated that more goals will be accepted. Rick Dove recommended a time limitation for the next stage of the process. Various suggestions were given for processes by which the goals/tasks will be included. It was decided that another mailing soliciting all further changes be made and that a deadline of two weeks from the date of the mailing be given to expedite the process. Any change suggested after that time would be set aside for consideration after submission to the County. CeCe agreed to attempt to integrate desired changes into a new document.

Justin introduced the next item on the agenda; discussion of the firehouse/community center status and asked Bill to speak about where we are at the moment. Bill told the group that we had a $50,000 grant from the State to be applied to the construction of this project and that Sofio Ortega indicated that an additional $10,000 would be available through a HUD grant. Bill also noted that we have applied to the County to set up a Lama Fire District and that we had included the Fish Hatchery in this application. We have not yet received a response to this application. Bill then introduced Mr. Jim Trehern from the State Fire Marshall's Office who agreed to a question and answer session.

Mr. Trehern noted the following steps necessary to win approval from the Fire Marshall.

After one year probation the State will then fund the Fire District. The amount of funding is dependent upon the ISO rating (Insurance Service Organization). The ratings are from 10 through 1 with 10 receiving the least amount of money. In order to receive an ISO 9 rating you must have a truck, a place to house it and a roster of about 12-15 people. The annual funding for an ISO 9 rating is approximately $25,000.

Mr. Trehern also stated that they generally discourage multi-use buildings because of the complications of paying for services, but that it was not impossible to accomplish. There was further discussion about surrounding neighborhoods, mutual aid agreements, liability, water availability, insurance, training, and other matters relating to a fire district. After the question and answer session, Justin asked for a volunteers for the Firehouse Task Force. The following people signed:

Rick Dove, Marc Rogers, Terry Klein, Miles Hinton, Nat Wilson, Bill Carmen, Joan Blaz, Lee Lestor, Bill Reifsynder, Rob Watt

Justin appointed Rick Dove as Chairman of this subcommittee of the LLNA.

Meeting was adjourned at 6:30 pm.

Cecelia Dove Acting Secretary April 20, 1998