HARBOR AREA REGIONAL BOARD OF RESOURCES, INC.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2005; 4:00 P.M.
City of Harbor Springs City Council Chambers


Welcome/Attendance
The meeting was called to order by Denise Simon at 4:00 pm. Executive Director Danna Widmar was present.

Minutes
Dika made a motion to approve the minutes (with corrections) from the December 28, 2004. Breighner seconded the motion. Motion Carried.

Financials
Erber reviewed the financials. The Balance Sheet indicated total assets of 75,500. Erber noted that the organization was 82% to the goal for receipts in 2004. The disbursements were just over 90% of the anticipated disbursements in 2004. Dika made a motion to accept the financials, Breighner seconded the motion. Motion Carried.

Executive Director’s Report

Widmar reported she had a meeting with Gail Gruenwald and Leslie Burk of Tip of the Mitt regarding providing staff assistance on certain projects. They are probably a good alternative for specific profession items but not for administrative things. Widmar also discussed organizational and policy issues with Gruenwald. Gruenwald indicated she would be happy to consult with HARBOR, Inc. on those issues. She copied the Tip of the Mitt Personnel Policies for our use. She indicated that Denise Simon was the chair of that committee for them and would be familiar with all of this information. She also suggested that we follow through with establishing fundraising software (they use one in addition to Peachtree) and indicated she would happily consult on that issue as well. If the best program is one that requires significant funds to obtain, she also recommending making a grant application for it. She felt that another program with another staff person responsible for entering information was a good system for “checks and balances.” Widmar still needs to contact some candidates for part-time help and will make sure the administrative tasks are a part of the job description.

Widmar reported that she contacted Howard Wood, the new Cross Village Supervisor. He will attend the March 2, 2005 to determine if he will take the Board position himself or appoint another person. Wood discussed extensively his interest in Recreation and Open Space. He indicated that the Cross Village Board had a lot of basic catch up work before they could get into further discussion about Recreation and Open Space. Widmar will continue to follow up with him.

The DEQ grant requirements are nearly complete. Only minor additional changes will be made to the website. It functions very well, now. The written report to DEQ is almost complete and the copies of various invoices, etc. have been assembled. The Recreation and Open Space Education Brochure is still being worked on. The map is getting close to complete. The text on the back is in various stages. The written portion will likely include things such as calculations on existing amounts of open space, tax base in the various jurisdictions and information on the funding sources. All of the jurisdictions will need to review this information. Tom Bailey generously supplied his open space data and will review how it is represented on the map, but indicated it would be ok to print the data on the map.

Widmar reported that she attended a meeting on the Petoskey Bay View Country Club potential sale. That situation is one that HARBOR, Inc. membership should watch closely. The developer who has offered to purchase the golf course is proposing a very extensive development plan (with regional scale shopping). Such a development would significantly impact the Petoskey area. Other commercial in the area would likely go vacant due to the competition (including some commercial directly across the street). The entire section of 31 just before turning toward Harbor Springs would then be strip commercial. The membership of the club votes on this issue in August. Apparently, the offer is very attractive.

Fundraising
Widmar reported that the 2004 fundraising fell a little short and noted that very little fundraising dollars were received between February and May of last year. Widmar indicated that a meeting should be convened to discuss a one-on-one meeting approach for Widmar to make during the first portion of the year. Simon is evaluating the fundraising effort from last year to assist with an approach for this year.

Recreation and Open Space
Widmar reported that she did not receive a resolution from the West Traverse Township Board of Trustees. She did however receive a motion to appoint an observing representative to the Recreation Committee. Sam DeCamp and Paul Repaskey will both likely participate to assess further involvement by West Traverse Township. Widmar reported that she received a motion from Readmond Township Board of Trustees to proceed with a process to evaluate the Nolan property. The County Commissioners will be approached in February. That committee has been assembled and Widmar will schedule a meeting. The Readmond Board will also give a general resolution of support for the Recreation and Open Space effort in February.

The Purchase of Development Rights work session had excellent response. There were at total of 26 people registered from the HARBOR, Inc. area and Petoskey area (there were other registrations from other areas). HARBOR, Inc. sponsored 19 people and received a discount from Michigan Society of Planning. Simon indicated that the program was excellent.

Non-motorized Trail
The draft easement documents were prepared by Joel Moore and reviewed by Widmar. Bill Dohm and MDOT need to provide comment and the documents can be finalized for property owner review. Title work will still take some time. A few properties will be given priority and hopefully completed in the next week.

Website
Widmar reported that the enews is being read by a lot of people (based on comments received back). The database of names is approximately 450 (with some duplicates). The forum did receive some response and the issue of allowing people to post comments without their name was raised by several people.

Strategic Plan
Much discussion occurred regarding length and format of the plan. Esposito questioned wording such as “reach agreement” and “implement ordinances” and prefers references to “initiate” and “facilitate”. Esposito also thinks that the full plan should only be two pages. Simon agreed. Dika suggested preparing the plan without the action items. Simon agreed that the action items were really for the Executive Committee. Breighner suggested that the 2004 completed information was better in the annual report. Esposito indicated that some of the trail action items still needed to be in the plan even though the committee is going to wait until work on M-119 is complete. Breighner again expressed concerned about the Boards ability to comment on a lengthy document in one hour. Everyone agreed that preliminary comment from the whole board is desirable.

Board Appointment Process
Erber would like to go with a different process for selecting Board Members. Esposito suggested letting the Board give nominations. Erber indicated that we have four nominations and one position. Esposito suggested we send out an email to all board members, discuss all nominees at the EC and recommend a person.

Forum Postings
All agreed that the Forum should require names.

The meeting adjourned at 5:30 p.m. The next meeting will be February 8th at noon.



______________________________ ____________________________
Danna Widmar, Executive Director Dated