2 Board members present:

1. Acting President – Ms. Fink
2. Acting Secretary – Mrs. Bernhardt 

29 Council Members present: (see list)

Meeting brought to order by: Acting President, Ms Fink, at 7:10 PM.

Current President and Secretary have both resigned leaving these HOA Board positions open and ready to be filled. We thank the previous President and Secretary for their service to the Sussex Square community.

The meeting commenced at 7:10 p.m. There were 29 members of the community present. A quorum was not reached thereby nullifying any chance to vote for new Board members. Another meeting will be held on April 9, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. to elect a new Board. The 3 candidates still remain – Harry Payne, Thanh Nguyen, and Kathleen Bernhardt. Acting President, Nelda Fink, urged all community owners present to run for the Board. One more director needs to be nominated.

Acting Sussex Square Board President, Nelda Fink, addressed all present to “air” their grievances/wishes for the community to determine what the Board’s priority of repairs were needed. They are as follows:

1. Railroad tie boxes in the front of homes are rotting

2. Benches are rotting

3. Overgrown landscaping

4. Painting needed for outside eaves

5. Doggie disposal stations neglected

6. Security lights burning 24/7 causing unnecessary electric bills

7. Parking lot needs repaving and new paint

8. Overall rundown look of the neighborhood

9. Community members felt their HOA fees were increasing yet their community was not being aesthetically maintained.

Acting President, Nelda Fink, and a few members toured the basement of 581 Belmawr Place. The basement is so filled with mold and sewage, the smell is a breathing health hazard for the occupants living above. This needs to be addressed immediately.

Unfortunately, the Sussex Square budget does not allow for all the repairs needed in our community. We will have to choose the repairs most prescient and spend as our budget allows. This involves finding 7-8 contractors, hoping at least three (3) show up, walking the community with them to show them our needs, gathering their estimates, and presenting them to the Board for approval (vote).

Community members at tonight’s meeting were asked to participate by volunteering to be on a Committee to enlist contractors and follow through with the necessary steps to have repairs completed.

No one volunteered.

Recorded by Kathleen Bernhardt , Sussex Square Acting Secretary

Approved: _______Date_________ by vote:

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Our contractor Alan (ACM) has interfered with our progress and refuses to post these minutes on the portal. We apologize for the delay in information dissemination.

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2 Board members present:

1. Acting President – Ms. Fink
2. Secretary – Mrs. Bernhardt 

Meeting brought to order by: Acting President, Ms Fink, at 8:30 AM.

Both board members agreed to no notice needed as per Article IV Section 11, so meeting can commence.

Quorum is not met – invoking Article IV Section 12, meeting adjourned and business conducted. Meeting is validated.

Motion to hire Orchard Landscaping to remove bushes at 581 so that work to repair the basement sump pump discharge can proceed without delay.

Motion was presented by Mrs. Bernhardt, and seconded by Ms Fink.

Discussion – need to ensure that Orchard has the equipment to remove the root structures.

Both approved. Motion passed.

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2 Board members present:

1. Acting President – Ms. Fink
2. Secretary – Mrs. Bernhardt 

Meeting brought to order by: Acting President, Ms Fink, at 8:30 AM.

Both board members agreed to no notice needed as per Article IV Section 11, so meeting can commence.

Quorum is not met – invoking Article IV Section 12, meeting adjourned and business conducted. Meeting is validated.

Motion to hire Knott Mechanical to repair sump pump discharge at area near storm drain to prevent further damage to 581 basement and to jet the sewage drain to clean it out and camera it to determine where it travels and if other work on the sewage pipe needs performed.

Motion was presented by Mrs. Bernhardt, and seconded by Ms Fink.

Discussion – Upon following up on contract work performed by NAC in January (2024) and invoiced in February, Ms Fink found the area had been flooded again and was wet with sewage coming out of the floor drain. Ms Fink remarked that it appeared the work was not completed properly since the basement was still not discharging all the water properly. Ms Fink also notice a hole in the ground near the storm drain and when uncovered manually found the discharge pipe was totally broken and blocked not allowing the water to flow properly from the sump pump.

Ms Fink and Mrs. Bernhardt both agreed that due to the raw sewage in the basement and in concern for the occupants of 581 above, something needed to be done urgently.

The motion to have Knott come out was voted on and passed with both agreeing.

Both approved. Motion passed.

Action: Knott was called, and came and repaired discharge pipe on March 21, only to find another hole down line from the previous. Knott did not bring the equipment to perform the jetting of the sewage and promised they would schedule that as soon as possible.

Action: After rain on Saturday, Ms Fink checked on the status of the drain to ensure some of the water was exiting the basement. Instead Ms Fink found approximately 1 foot of water in the basement. The whole discharge pipe had blown apart due to the back pressure. The water was exiting the discharge pipe at the wall of 581, running along the wall to the stairwell and returning back into the basement. Ms Fink rigged a temporary makeshift solution with approximately 45 ft available conduit pipe to allow some of the flow to go all the way to the storm drain.

Another Special Meeting was called to change the plan of action. Clearly there is too much water being taken into the basement for the sump pump to keep up.

Minutes Special Meeting 25 March, 2024 – Subject 581 Urgent Repairs – Basement Sump Pump Discharge Needs Repaired.

2 Board members present:

1. Acting President – Ms. Fink
2. Secretary – Mrs. Bernhardt 

Meeting brought to order by: Acting President, Ms Fink, at 10:30 AM.

Both board members agreed to no notice needed as per Article IV Section 11, so meeting can commence.

Quorum is not met – invoking Article IV Section 12, meeting adjourned and business conducted. Meeting is validated.

Motion to request plumbing bids to reroute the sump pump discharge out the side of the basement to get the full extent of the pipe underground, off of 581 property, and to provide greater flow all the way to the storm drain or to a short distance from it as per county codes if they are applicable to be voted on at the April 9 meeting by the new BOD.

Discussion: Both directors recognized that the patio of 581 is damaged due to the discharge pipe being routed over the patio which is 581 private property. This was a poor decision of previous work probably of Caton in 2017 as it increases the Association’s liability when the pipe fails as it has.

Both directors recognized the layout of the terrain as being an issue that needs to be taken into consideration when designing the new discharge system.

Both directors recognized that the storm water drain may be county owned and we may not be able to dump directly into it. This needs to be researched by looking for easements on the property and the property lines.

Both directors recognized that the makeshift solution will work temporarily for now and that while this needs correctly as soon as possible, it is not an emergency.

Both directors remarked that the root structures from the overgrown bushes are probably contributing to the basement wall bulging inward and that those roots will interfere with routing of the discharge pipe.

The motion to request bids for the rerouting of the discharge pipe was voted on and passed with both agreeing.

Both approved. Motion passed.

Action: On 3/27 and 3/28 4 plumbers were scheduled to review the project scope for presenting their bids. The bids will be presented to the new BOD on April 9 and this item has been added to the agenda.

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