The Bermuda Beach Improvement Committee Annual Home Owners Association Meeting was held at 10:00am on Saturday October 23, 2010 at the Galveston Country Club, 14228 Stewart Rd, Galveston, TX 77554. Directors present were: Ron Coker, Kathy Love Cowen, Mary Jan Lantz, John Lightfoot and Tammy Kidd.

I. Meeting Call to Order - The Meeting was called to order at 10:10am with a quorum of the home owners in attendance.

II. Introduction of the Board of Directors- Each of the Board members was introduced to the HOA and their duties were described.

John Lightfoot, President Mary Jan Lantz, Secretary Ron Coker, Treasurer
Tammy Kidd, Director Kathy Love Cowen, Director

III. Minutes- The Minutes from the October 17, 2009 Annual HOA Meeting were reviewed.

MOTION- A motion was made by Bill McFarland and Seconded by Denis Parmer to approve the Minutes from the October 17, 2009 Annual HOA Meeting. The motion passed.

IV. Financial Report- Ron Coker, Board Treasurer, reviewed the annual financial report. He explained the Board had hired Canady & Canady, Certified Public Accountants to audit the financial statements. The report from the CPA firm was included in each of the HOA's packets for their review. A discussion followed regarding the purchase of Christmas decorations and travel expenses. Ron explained the decoration charges also included labor and the travel expense was for mileage to Austin for a meeting with the GLO.

MOTION- A motion was made by Kathy Love Cowen and Seconded by Bill McFarland to approve the annual Financial Report. The motion passed.

V. Introduction of the Guest Speakers:

Lt. Henry Porretto - City of Galveston Police Department, West Island Commander discussed the importance of registering golf carts. He brought copies of the City registration forms and the City Ordinance requiring all golf carts be registered. He said his officers will be issuing tickets for non-registered carts.

He gave a report of the criminal activity on the west end. He encouraged all homeowner not to be targets- to keep their cars and homes locked and valuable personal property out of plain view, to install motion lights and timers for lights and TVs to make an appearance that their homes were not vacant. He went on to explain his officers had worked with Center Point to get all the street lights on the west end in working order

He told the homeowners that it is very important that they report all crimes or suspicious activity and ongoing patrol funding for the west end neighborhoods comes from these activity reports. Always call 911 for emergencies, (409) 765-3702 for non-emergencies, or if you do not get a response call his personal cell number of (409) 765-3609, or email him at hporretto@cityofgalveston.org. He also asked the HOA to report to him any of his officers that were nonresponsive to calls.

Sgt. Andre Mitchell - City of Galveston Police Department, BBIC Patrol gave a report of the citations he had issued for the neighborhood. One of the HOA asked that he have magnetic signs to mark his vehicle. John Lightfoot, Board President, responded that the Board would work on this for the next season.

John Gillen- Texas General Land Office (GLO), Coastal Director, gave a visual presentation of the Beach Renourishment project. He explained what the homeowners could expect during the project. A long discussion followed regarding the installation of dune walkovers. Mary Jan Lantz, Board Secretary, explained the grants that were available and the ones the Board would pursue following the Renourishment Project for dune walkovers. A discussion followed about keeping people off the dunes. John Lightfoot explained the Board had purchased "Keep Off Dunes" signs and they would ne installing them following the Renourishment project. One homeowner mentioned the City should provide the walkovers since they are included in the City's Beach Access Plan. Eric Wilson said he would look in to this.

Eric Wilson - City of Galveston, Director of Utilities, explained the City was going to be providing a facility on the west end for the police. He said as far as code enforcement 6-8 notices had been sent to the homeowners in violation and that charges had been filed against 4 homeowners.

He then explained the Bermuda Beach (BB) Drive plans saying west of Rachel would be paved with two-way traffic, west of Pabst would be paved with one-way traffic, and east of Pabst would be a raised stabilized road bed of limestone. Jimmy Hill asked questions about why the east section would not be paved. Eric said the GLO had determined this section of the road was within the 200 foot line and was on the beach and it could not be paved. John Gillen said the renourishment would increase the profile of the beach by 4 feet and that should help with the problem of residents on the east end of BB getting stuck in the sand. Eric said they were hoping the project would start in 6 months.

He went on to explain the FEMA repairs on Jane and John Reynolds Circle would begin after the Renourishment Project and they might work out an agreement with Marquette to use their land for access to that area. He then explained all the government agencies, including the TDRA that had been involved with the BB projects and how each had tied up the funds. He said it would take $600,000-$700,000 to repair BB Drive and they were in the second round of funding and the funds for the repairs still had not been approved. He closed by taking many questions about street options and by giving his phone number for further questions 409-762-2115.

Charlie Coleman - Texas A&M University, Marine Scientist, discussed the raking of the seaweed and what effect is has on erosion. He explained raking the wet sand loosens it and has a negative effect on the profile of the beach speeding erosion. He explained that raking on the dry sand does not have the same effect however the majority of BB was wet sand. He said that during high cycles of the seaweed it comes in wave after wave with each high tide and if the HOA raked after one high tide it would just come back with the next high tide.
After Charlie concluded his presentation John Lightfoot told the HOA the Board was elected to support them and that the Board would proceed however the HOA wanted them to do so.

John explained that each rake costs the HOA $1500. He then asked for a show of hands of HOA members that wanted the beach raked. Seven people raised their hands. He then asked for a show of hand of HOA that did not want the beach ranked and the remaining members raised their hands, approximately 55 HOA members. The majority of the HOA voted not to rake the seaweed off the beach.

VI. Old Business- Report from the Directors on Board Activities: each Board member discussed the activities they had completed during the year.

Tammy Kidd went over all the notices the Board had sent to homeowners that were in violation of deed restrictions. She explained the Board was working to bring the neighborhood back to pre-Ike conditions and to restore the value of the homes by improving the neighborhood. She went on to explain the Board had hired a law firm and would be proceeding with legal actions against homeowners that were refusing to comply with deed restrictions.

Mary Jan Lantz went over the CEPRA Cycle 6 grant and explained BB had been approved but was currently on an alternate project list. Following the renourishment project the GLO would revisit the alternate projects and there was a good chance the BB dune restoration project would be funded. She also explained she had been working with Melissa Porter from the GLO on the Texas Coastal Management Project (CMP). Ms. Porter had advised BB that the only eligible applicants for the CMP were public entities however if BB could get a letter of support from the City they could apply. Ms. Porter also said the CMP was currently only funding public outreach and coastal education programs but the GLO was probably going to be funding hard structures, like walkovers, during the next funding session. BB would have to be able to definitively describe the dunes and the dune planes which until the renourishment project was completed was not possible and therefore any CMP grants BB submitted would not meet the criteria to be funded at this time.

Mary Jan then discussed the Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP) saying she had also been in contact with Kathy Smart at the GLO about the CIAP projects and BB had the same situation as with the CMP grants- they would have to be able to definitively describe the dunes and the dune planes which until the renourishment project was completed was not possible and therefore any CIAP grants BB submitted would not meet the criteria to be funded at this time. Mary Jan closed by saying she would be applying for these grants following the renourishment project to hopefully get funds for dune restoration and walkovers.

Kath Love Cowen discussed all the communications the Board had sent to the HOA during the year. She went over the development of the database and encouraged homeowners to keep their information current with the Board so they could receive Board communications.

Ron Coker discussed moving the financial statements to quicken and the audit.
John Lightfoot discussed the Board's goals for the new year.

VII. New Business- The discussion was open to the homeowners- John asked the HOA if they had new business they would like to discuss. Some members of the HOA asked that Sgt Mitchell be in uniform when he was on duty. Sgt. Mitchell responded that he was always in uniform. Then he was asked to be in a marked car. John explained the City did not allow its officers to use City vehicles to work second jobs. Then is was asked it the Board could get Sgt. Mitchell magnetic signs for his car so that he would be more visible. John said the Board would revisit this request next season since the current season was completed.

VIII. Election of Directors- John asked each of the candidates if they would like to speak to the HOA.
Candidates:
Andy Lang said he had been the Board president in the past. That he was for the seaweed raking and that was why he was running for the Board. He also said he had developed the agreement with Marquette and wanted to serve on the Board again.
LaRoy Hammer said he didn't want to replace any of the current Board members because they had been doing a good job but he did want to serves on the Board again.

Current Board (CB)
Mary Jan Lantz (CB) discussed wanting to remain on the Board to continue working on the grants
John Lightfoot (CB) said he would appreciate the votes and enjoyed working for the neighborhood he discussed the current Board and noted for the first time the subdivision was completed represented by the current Board
Tammy Kidd (CB) discussed wanting to remain on the Board to continue working on the deed restrictions and improving the neighborhood
Ron Coker (CB) said he would appreciate the vote
Kathy Cowen (CB) said she was on the other side of the fence of the seaweed discussion and she saw the damage it had done to BB and did not want to see it happen again. She discussed the hard work each Board member had done during the year and said the Board finally had representation from every area, she said it was the best BBIC Board she had ever served on and encouraged the HOA to re-elect the current members

The Ballots were cast and the current Board members were re-elected by majority vote: Ron Coker, Kathy Cowen, Tammy Kidd, Mary Jan Lantz, and John Lightfoot

IX. Adjournment- Being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 12:30pm