HARBOR AREA REGIONAL BOARD OF RESOURCES, INC.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2004; 12:00 P.M.
City of Harbor Springs City Council Chambers


Welcome/Attendance

The meeting was called to order by Tom Gallagher at 12:00 pm. Executive Director Danna Widmar was present.

Minutes

Dika made a motion to approve the minutes from the December 7, 2004. Simon seconded the motion. Motion Carried.

Executive Director’s Report

Widmar reported that the office will be switching to DSL with wireless router. She also reported she will be having discussions and will prepare a job description for part-time help. Gallagher indicated that maybe hiring someone part-time with a little more skill would be helpful particularly this summer and beyond. Breighner indicated that someone with more skill might be able to help us with additional grants to fund the position. The person should be comfortable with paperwork and the menial tasks, as well. We should get a hiring committee together again if we are talking about more detailed skills.

Breighner requested whether or not we have policies in place regarding maternity leave. Esposito indicated that we had no policies. Widmar indicated that small firms often have short term disability that covers maternity at 60% of regular salary for six weeks. Gallagher indicated that we should check with Burley about short-term disability policies (even though it is unlikely that we could get coverage immediately at this point) including policy costs, coverage, etc. Esposito indicated he thought it would be difficult to get a policy in place, so it would therefore be an executive decision. The Executive Committee agreed to meet on Monday, January 10, 2005 at 8:30 am at Irish Boat Shop to discuss this further.

Widmar reported that she will be contacting the new Cross Village Supervisor to discuss board appointments, participation in the Recreation and Open Space effort and participation in the website. Simon indicated that if there were at large positions available, she would suggest Doug Fuller or Martha Lancaster. Widmar also reported that a proposal for a Housing Special Initiative in 2005 was prepared for review. The newsletter content was very well received. Return service was requested and we found the voters registration data to be very outdated. The return service requires payment of $.37 per piece and cost a total of close to $1,000. The mail list will continue to be updated. Overall, much progress has been made in the last several months with the one remaining large task of completing the requirements of the DEQ grant.
Fundraising
Widmar reported that she had several conversations with the Frey Foundation and Partnerships for Change since submitting the applications. It appears that HARBOR, Inc. will get a portion of the requests, but not the fully requested funds. Widmar also reported that the $10,000 check from Frey was received and deposited. A written report was submitted in December and a financial report will still be required to be submitted to Frey after December 31, 2004. An additional $2,000 was also received in December which will bring the year end total above $90,000. The remainder of the funds from DEQ will not be received until 2005, since final materials still need to be submitted for that grant.

Recreation and Open Space
Widmar reported that she is on the agenda with West Traverse Township Board of Trustees on January 11, 2005 and with Pleasantview Township Board of Trustees on January 27, 2005 for the purpose of obtaining a resolution of support from each community. Widmar also reported that she is on the agenda with Readmond Township Board of Trustees on January 5, 2005 to obtain a resolution for a process to evaluate the Nolan property. It may be possible to obtain a general resolution of support for the Recreation and Open Space effort at that time.

Widmar reported that the Recreation and Open Space effort is being initiated in two areas, education and proposal implementation. The first educational session, a Purchase of Development Rights work session, is scheduled for January 26, 2005 from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm at Victories Casino in Petoskey. HARBOR, Inc. successfully lobbied the Michigan Society of Planning to hold the session in Petoskey rather that Traverse City. The Petoskey Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation funds will be used in part to sponsor community leaders to attend the session which is entitled “How to Develop and Implement a PDR Program in your Community”. Township Supervisors and Planning Commission Chairs are being asked to attend themselves or identify community leaders interested in heading up the effort. A press release will be submitted to the press this week.

The proposal implementation effort relates to the Nolan property. Widmar, Max Putters and Tom Bailey had a very productive meeting with the Readmond Township Board of Trustees. The Board decided to organize a committee to outline a process for community involvement in evaluation of the property. Widmar had detailed discussions with many community members including a key member opposed to the project. Lou Kasishki agreed to participate on the committee as long as it is officially appointed by the Board of Trustees. Widmar assured him that the Board of Trustees was in support of the effort and would officially address it in January. The County is also being asked by Readmond to officially participate. Kasishki was particularly interested in the role of advocacy that HARBOR, Inc. was taking in the effort since he previously had the impression that we did not advocate for things. I discussed the changes to our mission. He expressed appreciation for this change in mission and also for our apparent lack of an agenda in the Nolan project.

All communities except Cross Village will have had the opportunity to provide a resolution of support for the effort by the end of January, so Widmar will pursue appointment of representatives from each community by the end of the month.

Non-motorized Trail
The easement effort was initiated. HARBOR, Inc. will receive payment for services in the effort in the amount of $1,000. Dika marked the map to show those people in agreement with the additional easements (or who have enough easement already), those not in agreement and those yet to be contacted. The map is very encouraging. Dika suggested sharing the information about remaining to be contacted with Kiwanis. Esposito suggesting getting Benchmark Engineer to measure the distance in CAD to determine how much remains to be pursued. Gallagher offered the idea of doing a press release on the information and giving Benchmark credit for donating a little time.

Website
Esposito reported that hits to the website increased dramatically when the newsletter hit mailboxes. He indicated there were over 5000 in December, approximately 150 per hour. The count increased dramatically when the newsletter hit the mailboxes.

Strategic Plan

Gallagher went through the Strategic Plan and had a few suggestions. Al went through it and also had a few suggestions. In Initiative 1 some things could be combined and would want to indicate that we will not proceed with an overall plan until the M-119 is underway. Esposito thinks that the non-motorized trail should be a part of the transportation initiative. Gallagher indicated that Initiative 4 (assisting communities with the evaluation of the master plan) seemed like it was a part of all of the other initiatives and therefore should be moved down. Esposito suggested that Recreation should be 1 with Transportation 2. Dika indicated caution about the term Smart Growth. Gallagher indicated that we are looking for intelligent use of the land. Simon indicated we’re trying to manage and direct development, not defeat the build-out. Esposito indicated that Housing would become 3, if we’re in support of it. He also suggested that below we should get rid of number 5 and combine the officials gathering other things. Gallagher indicated he’d like to eliminate the numbers in the bottom area.

The meeting adjourned at 1:30 p.m. The next meeting will be January 18th at noon.



______________________________ ____________________________
Danna Widmar, Executive Director Dated