Franklin Estates Residents Association

FERA News - March 2005

Mar 22, 2005

Franklin Estates News ?– March 2005

FERA Officers Announced!

Congratulations to Rich Mickel who volunteered to move into the President position of FERA. Rich has been the Vice President of our organization for the past 2 ?½ years and we look forward to his continued contribution in his newly appointed role! With Rich?’s move, our former co-Presidents, Matt D?’Onofrio and Bob Muir will serve as our Past Co-Presidents for the next year. Thank you Matt and Bob for leading the efforts of FERA over the past 2 ?½ years. We wish you luck in your new endeavor of opening Rotelli?’s at the new Walnut Crossing Plaza in Murrysville!

Unfortunately, we were all disappointed that we didn?’t have a larger turn-out at our Annual Meeting, and were equally disappointed that no one volunteered to fill the Vice President, Secretary or Treasurer positions. Granted, our association is a volunteer organization, but having no one step forward to pass the torch to leaves many of us having to reluctantly continue in our roles or to have positions vacant. The Vice President position will go unfilled for this year; however, Monica Diacopoulos and Fred Holcomb will hold there posts as Secretary and Treasurer, respectively.

If you want to get more involved in our association, have some ideas about different ways we can run the association, or have an interest on serving on a social committee for our neighborhood, please contact Monica Diacopoulos at FranklinEstates@hotmail.com. The time is minimal, yet the impact can be huge. Please give it a second thought.

FERA Directory Update

It?’s been about 1 ?½ years since we?’ve distributed the FERA E-Directory. There have only been a few additions or changes reported, but we would like to publish an updated version within the next few months. If you have not done so already, please contact Monica Diacopoulos at FranklinEstates@hotmail.com with any additions or changes to your information. Please reference the information that would have been represented in E-Directory published in October 2003. Additionally, if you or your son or daughter is interested in pet-sitting or child-sitting, please let us know. We would like to update that section of the Directory, as well. Any changes should be reported by April 30, 2005.

FERA Annual Business Meeting

Below are the approved minutes of the 2004-2005 Business Meeting.

Franklin Estates Residents Association (FERA)
Minutes of Annual Business Meeting


Date: February 23, 2005

Time: 7:30 p.m.

Place: St. Mary?’s Church Hall, Export, PA

Attendees:
Bob Muir, Co-President
Rich Mickel, Vice President
Solveig Peters, Past President
Fred Holcomb, Treasurer
Monica Diacopoulos, Secretary
5 Homeowners of Franklin Estates (Attendance Sheet on File with Secretary)

I Welcome
Bob Muir called the meeting to order at 7:32 p.m. He welcomed the attendees, as well as reviewed the Meeting Agenda (on file).

II. Old Business

A. Secretary?’s 2003 Annual Meeting Minutes Review

Bob requested approval of the 2003 Meeting Minutes that Monica had distributed via email and posted on FERA?’s website in 2003. The minutes were approved.

B. Treasurer?’s Report

Fred Holcomb read the Treasurer?’s Report ending August 31, 2004. A copy of the Treasurer?’s Report is on file with the Secretary. The balance as of August 31, 2004, was $1,997.83, with new members in 2004 being 5 families and representing an additional $25.00 in income, plus $7.14 in interest. There were no expenses in 2004.

The Board had audited this information prior to the meeting, and all was acceptable.

III. New Business

A. Land Development Issues
A majority of the residents that were in attendance at the meeting desire a second entrance into the Mt. Vernon/Lexington section of the neighborhood stating that safety concerns with lack of emergency vehicles into the plan could exist if the entrance at Mt. Vernon and Lexington is ever blocked. They desired the additional entrance to be onto Harrison City Road or onto Route 22 directly. It was not discussed from which property within Franklin Estates the road would connect.

The Board indicated that in prior meetings, the majority of residents stated that they did not want an entrance coming into our plan from Route 22, as there would be an increase in traffic and a safety hazard to the neighborhood children. The Board stated that they would not support an entrance onto Route 22.

Bob Muir indicated that he had spoken with Chris Rearick (Director of Community Development for the Municipality) on 2/25 and Chris indicated that Council thought that they may have determined a solution to the concerns related to a second entrance. These concerns were brought up at the public hearing with Council on 2/16.

The solution would be a type of emergency road with no public throughway off of Kohosek Road via Route 22 and would hook into Franklin Estates. The meeting attendees and the Board accepted this, at least on the surface, as being an acceptable solution to the concerns of emergency vehicles entering our plan, or for an emergency evacuation of the plan. Some questions were raised related to what constituted an emergency, who would have the ?“key?” to the gate that would block off the road, as well as what type of material would be used for the road (e.g. gravel, paved, etc.). These would be additional issues that would need to be addressed in concerning this as an acceptable alternative, yet sounded like a good approach in having emergency situations handled, while keeping increased traffic from 22 or Harrison City Road diminished.

Council is going to discuss the preliminary approval of the FE expansion at the March 2nd meeting. If the approval goes as planned, there would 45 days for final approval, then work would proceed to begin the expansion.

The other issue related to the expansion project that was discussed is the sewage problem in the lower section of Jefferson, where there has been a back-up of sewage in the basement of at least one resident?’s home. The cause is from the terracotta pipe that is cracked. The FTSMA and DEP are involved, and any sewage-related items would be part of the overall plan in the expansion process as it would move forward, according to a conversation that Monica Diacopoulos had with Chris Rearick on the topic in early February. Solveig Peters reminded everyone that Betty Male from Mt. Vernon is a good resource in dealing with the FTSMA since there was an issue which she fought to have them correct a few years ago. Heinz Gilcher provided some history related to the initial sewage installation when the plan was being developed. He stated that the sewage installer went bankrupt, and filled the sewage pipe area with rocks which could have caused the break in the terracotta pipe.

In speaking of the FE expansion project, the issue of pedestrian safety and speeding cars was again discussed. Many cars drive entirely too fast and it continues to be a concern. In fact, with the hills and bends in the roads within our plan, there are many blind spots where a speeding car would not be able to stop if a person was crossing the street at the time of their approach. Monica Diacopoulos volunteered to contact the police to ask that they put electronic speed signs in the neighborhood on a temporary basis to heighten the awareness of the problem to all drivers in our neighborhood.

B. Election of Officers

Fred Holcomb and Monica Diacopoulos agreed to stay on as Treasurer and Secretary, respectfully, only if no other volunteers came forward and if there were a President appointed to the Board of Directors, otherwise the Association would have to go into a state of dormancy. Rich Mickel, former VP, volunteered to be President. No one stepped forward to be VP. Matt D?’Onofrio and Bob Muir would become Past Co-Presidents. All posts were accepted and approved.


No other issues were discussed and the meeting adjourned at 9:10 p.m.