===PAGE 1=== LUNENBURG HOUSING AUTHORITY MINUTES OF THE REMOTE REGULAR MEETING 131 White Street, Lunenburg, MA August 19, 2021 Members Present: Jon Hogue, Chair Deborah A.H. Christen, Vice Chair Linda McDonald, Treasurer Catherine Clark, Assistant Treasurer Members Absent: None Also Present: Benjamin Gold, Executive Director Adam Gautie, Assistant Executive Director Denise Ivaldi, Recording Secretary 1. Meeting called to order: a. Chair Jon Hogue asked for a roll call of members present: Deborah Christen -present, Linda McDonald-present, Catherine Clark -present, Jon Hogue-present. Also present were Benjamin Gold, Executive Director ; Adam Gautie, Assistant Executive Directo r and Denise Ivaldi, Admin istrative Assistant. The Chair declared a quorum present and opened the meeting at 6:30 p.m. b. Catherine Clark made a motion to accept and approve t he minutes of the June 24, 2021 meeting. Linda McDonald seconded and all were in favor. c. Opportunity for Public Comment:  Tenant waiting on results for smoking survey. Wanted to know definition of common area and whether smoking and drinking were allowed there. Smoking endangers the health of others and a group gathers outside the community room. Prior policy was adopted in 2010, the survey the housing authority initiated was to try and involve residents in actions we take with policies. Appreciate the tenant’s advocacy on this issue.  Tenant wanted to know the intent of amending the Person al Property Policy if one didn’t already exist. There was a previous policy adopted in 2020, changes made primarily dealing with storage and plants; will discuss further under New Business. Tenant asked the Board to hold off approving. The Executive Dir ector explained that we are putting garden/flower beds out back for tenants. We had some previously, tenants stopped using and taking care of and area became overgrown with weeds so they were removed. Adam Gautie added the concern for vents outside the u nits for water heater exhausts, crawl space and gas meters which could cause possible fire and carbon monoxide issues. Tenant was thanked for their thoughts on this policy. 2. The Executive Director Report – Ben Gold  COVID Update – Virtual meeting meetings will be held for the foreseeable future. We are waiting on information on booster shots; see if we can offer clinics again. DHCD PHN came out late this afternoon on the Delta Variant focusing on continuing protocols, up to housing authority if we want to close community room again. ===PAGE 2===  Town Appointed Tenant Board Member – The BOS should be appointing a tenant to this seat in the coming week. Cathy Clark mentioned the BOS email sent to all Board members stating Mr. Stan Randall is a candidate for the seat and inviting the Board to participate in their meeting with the seat appointment on the agenda. Deborah Christen noted this is under the Acts of 2014 and took a while to implement legislature.  Governor’s Appointee Seat – We received an email that a letter is coming August 30 th appointing Deborah Christen to this seat. Congrats Deb!  Juneteenth Independence Day – This was brought to the Leominster Board and tabled for more information be approving.  Mass NAHRO conference September 19-22 is still happening with masks required. 3. Financial Report – June/July 2021 (reviewed July)  Reserves are at 105.66%. We will be reducing in the coming month by $20,000. Shelter rents were budgeted for $152,000; actual was $145,031. We are behind a little due to an eviction and a tenant who hasn’t paid rent in a while. Administrative is doing fine. Utilities are doing fine; DHCD handles. We are waiting to receive our net metering credits after September.  Maintenance Labor is doing well. Materials, supplies and contract costs are doing well. Other housing authorities tend to go over a lot on this item, so we are happy. We didn’t budget for extraordi nary maintenance expenses so we are behind $12,417 which is fine. Money was spent on unit turnovers and COVID money running through this line item.  Bottom line, we are $21,851 to the good with no concerns. Chair Jon Hogue asked how the $20,000 was being spent. Adam Gautie stated there was a lot of tenant concern with the hot water system, taking a long time to get hot water. The system was a DHCD sustainability project to save energy, over time it needs to be cleaned and serviced. A Rennai Rep came out two weeks ago to determine what could be done to make it a better system. He gave an estimate of $15,000 to take the system apart, clean and change the filters. We can also redo the faucet aerators which are energy saving now and replace with regular a erators to increase water flow. Another complaint tenants had were drafts in the storm doors so we will consider that too. Deborah Christen remembers when the Rennai system was put in, the tenants were all happy with getting hot water much faster than the old system. The system just needs to be kept up. Motion to approve the June and July 2021 financial repor ts made by Linda McDonald ; Catherine Clark seconded. Jon Hogue -aye, Deborah Christen -aye, Linda McDonald -aye and financials were accepted and approved. 4. Administration a. Modernization/Work Order Report – Adam Gautie: Septic System Replacement , Family Units (Fish #162031) – Project completed. Resolutions for Substantial and Final Completion to approve later in meeting. The engineer, Gerson and Scott all said the contractor did a great job and everything looks great. 667-1 Community Room Decking and Handrail Replacement (Fish #162036) – Out to bid August 11th with bids due August 27th with a cost estimate of $20,000. Lunenburg Housing Authority Regular Meeting Minutes Page 2 August 19, 2021 ===PAGE 3=== Work Order Report (June/July) – 61 routine work orders received, 52 completed; 6 emergency work orders, all completed. Chair Jon Hogue asked if the generator was still in motion to get quotes. Adam Gautie spoke with the designer two weeks ago, still working on it. We were going to use reserves but there is an open Formula Funding project that we will now use instead. b. State-Aided Housing Report – Ben Gold: We received 19 standard applications in July; 11 elderly/young disabled and 8 family . We are at 100% occupancy. 5. Unfinished Business – None 6. New Business Resolution 2021-10 Approval of Tenant Personal Property Policy. Previously approved and adopted on August 21, 2020. DHCD had a template which we tailored for Lunenburg Housing. Based on the feedback from a tenant meeting, changes were made. There will be no storage allowed on decks with the exception of bicycles and wheelchairs, other reasonable accommodation requests will be reviewed. There is a compromise for tenants to have outdoor potted plants. Maintenance has to mow grass and plow snow and we want to make it easier for him to get his job done without plant overgrowth. He takes pride in the complex and is a great groundskeeper. After the policy is approved, we will walk the grounds. There was discussion on whether the housing authority could purchase large potted plants for the new deck and let the tenants maintain. Turkey Hill Gardeners maintain the village in the town center and do a great job; maybe they would come and check things out at our complex. The MART bus takes tenants to areas in town. The Church has a vegetab le garden in center as does the Senior Center. These are all areas those tenants looking to be involved could contribute. Personal items left in the community room refrigerator should have dates on the items, place a note on the fridge. Should have a system for food being dropped off with individual there to receive and schedule for tenants to pick up. Motion made by Deborah Christen to approve Resolution 202 1-10 Tenant Personal Property Policy ; Linda McDonald seconded. Deborah Christen-aye, Jon Hogue-aye, Linda McDonald-aye, Catherine Clark-aye and motion passed with a 4 to 0 vote. Resolution 2021-11 Approval of Amended By-Laws. We had previously discussed changing the time of the meeting to 2:00 p.m. Also, Section 1, Article 2 states there are six members, that should be changed to 5 members. The by-laws also call for a Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer. Motion made by Deborah Christen to approve the 2:00 p.m. time change and 5 -member board. Jon Hogue seconded. Deborah Christen -aye, Linda McDon ald-aye, Catherine Clark -aye, Jon Hogue -aye and motion passed with a 4 to 0 vote. Linda McDonald nominated herself as Treasurer; Catherine Clark would be the Assistant Treasurer. Deborah Christen made a motion to appoint Linda McDonald as Treasurer and Catherin Clark as Assistant Treasurer. Jon Hogue seconded and all were in favor. ===PAGE 4=== Lunenburg Housing Authority Regular Meeting Minutes Page 3 August 19, 2021 Resolution 2021 -12 Approval of Certifica te of Substantial Completion, 705 -1 Septic System Replacement, DHCD Fish #162031. When project is 95% complete, a 5% retainage is held until punch list items are completed . Motion made by Catherine Clark to approve Resolution 2021 -12; Linda McDonald seconded. Deborah Christen -aye, Catherine Clark -aye, Jon Hogue -aye, Linda McDonald-aye and motion passed with a 4 to 0 vote. Resolution 2021-13 Approval of Certificate of Final Completion, 705 -1 Septic System Replacement, DHCD Fish #162031. No Discussi on. Motion made by Catherine Clark to approve Resolution 2021-13; Linda McDonald seconded. Deborah Christen-aye, Linda McDonald-aye, Catherine Clark- aye, Jon Hogue-aye, Catherine Clark-aye, Linda McDonald-aye and motion passed with a 4 to 0 vote. Resolution 2021 -14 Approval of Quarterly Unrecoverable Debt Write -Offs, 705 -1 Septic System Replacement, DHCD Fish #162031. Individual decided we were charging too much and starting paying half of the rent. They went to a nursing home, failed to pay rent . The eviction moratorium prevented us from filing for eviction but at the end of the year we were able to. They took items they wanted and abandoned the unit. We can take to the Collection Agency and see if they will accept rather than go through the c ourt and spend more money. Another tenant moved out and didn’t pay rent balance. We do not have security deposits or last month’s rent at the housing authority, rent is paid month to month with a 30 -day notice to vacate. Motion made by Deborah Christen to approve Resolution 2021-14; Linda McDonald seconded. Deborah Christen-aye, Catherine Clark -aye, Linda McDonald, Jon Hogue-aye and motion passed with a 4 to 0 vote. 7. Other Correspondence – No Discussion  PHN 2021-11 End of COVID-19 State of Emergency and LHA Operations  PHN 2021-12 Agreed Upon Procedures (AUP) Program Updates  PHN 2021-13 Updates to Performance Management Review  PHN 2021-14 CHAMP Fair Housing PMR Criteria  PHN 2021-15 Mandatory Data Reporting  PHN 2021-16 Board Member Attendance Application Reminders  PHN 2021-17 Reasonable Accommodation Policy 8. Resident Participation – None Requested 9. Board Commissioners’ Comments – None 10. Motion to Adjourn: Deborah Christen made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:25 p.m.; Linda McDonald seconded. With all in favor the meeting adjourned. The next meeting will be held Thursday, September 23, 2021 at the new 2:00 p.m. time. ===PAGE 5=== Lunenburg Housing Authority Regular Meeting Minutes Page 4 August 19, 2021