Once again election season is upon us. The following is my view of what the current Board has accomplished:

1. This is the first time in 45 years that the leadership of the Association has an affordable, well thought out program for cleaning the lake. We have purchased land, spent money on engineering, applied for permits and have quotes for the equipment. Despite rumors to the contrary, the board of Directors plans NO INCREASE in dues and assessments for 2013 or 2014.
2. The majority of the Board are experienced managers and business owners. They have demonstrated that they can identify, analyze, and implement significant cost savings for the Association. Consider the following:

• The Board eliminated the position of General Manager at an annual savings of $72,000 per year. (Note: The recently hired Director of Maintenance has an annual salary of $47,000/yr. This still results in a current savings of $25,000 per year in salary savings).
• The Board also developed a cash flow report that enables the Board to anticipate and plan expenditures to stay within our budget. As an example, for the last two years our financial residual (money not spent during the fiscal year) has increased to over $52,000 as of January 1, 2013.

3. The Board members are involved in the daily running of the Association. Tim O’Donnell and Rick Rumbaugh traveled to Wisconsin this last year to pick up the new Weed Harvester. They didn’t have to do that. They did it to save the Association $5000 in shipping costs!
4. Al Rubosky has had his students at the Vocational school re-roof the Sunset Park Pavilion and they will be finishing this Spring on the rebuilding of the Beach 2 Pavilion. By accomplishing this, Al has saved the Association a minimum of $10,000, probably much more.
5. The Administrative Committee, consisting of Tim O’Donnell, Al Rubosky, Barry O’Connell and Rick Rumbaugh, analyzed the maintenance Department and recommended hiring a Director of Maintenance. The Board agreed and we hired Dan Mullins on February 4th. The output of work from the maintenance men has practically doubled! In addition to snow plowing, they have built six new umbrella tables for use at the pools, rebuilt the trailer used to haul the lawn mowers around, repaired the large dump truck’s transmission, and replaced one tractor’s fuel injector system. We have never had so much work done by the maintenance group in such a short period of time. The point is simply this: we currently have a group of directors that are making a difference, they are analyzing problems, and they are solving the problems. They are involved!
6. The three incumbents who are running for re-election are all professional managers: Tim is the owner of a janitorial service, Barry is a retired Chemical Engineer and past President of a $75,000,000 manufacturing firm, Al is a teacher at the local vocational school and operates a contracting and building company. Do we really want to lose this talent on the Board of Directors?
7. The Board’s Administrative Committee is currently working on two projects that will generate over $25,000 in annual savings to the Association and will be completed by July of this year. The two projects are a review of employee medical benefits and a revised salary structure (with job descriptions) for part time help.

This is your opportunity to decide the future of the Association. Please consider each of the candidate’s strengths. And please do it wisely.

Barry O’Connell, President
RRA Board of Directors

In early February, the Board of Directors hired Dan Mullins as our new Director of Facilities and Maintenance. He has a background in construction and maintenance and has experience operating dredging equipment. He ran one of the dredgers that helped during the construction of the Geneva State Park Lodge. Dan lives in Geneva with his wife, Cathy. We welcome his experience and expertise to our organization.

Chagrin Valley Engineering continues with the DMRA design and the coordination of our dredging project with the EPA, Corps of Engineers, and the ODNR. For more information, please read the Lake Management Report in this issue of the Shores News.

The Board of Directors is currently investigating the replacement of our “membership” computer program. It has been the mainstay of our organization for many, many years. For those of you who are familiar with computers, our current program is a 16bit application. Most modern computers run on 64bit processors that are only backwards compatible with 32bit applications. Windows XP was the last major Windows operating system capable of running 16bit applications. Our new workstations cannot physically run our old membership program.

If our current Windows XP system fails, we have no backup and we will be left with a manual paper system to track membership data, dues and assessments, and boat stickers. Several of the Board Members will visit Apple Valley, one of our OLCA members, to look at their new membership program and assess how well it will work here at RomeRock Association.

Barry O’Connell, President
RRA Board of Directors

The Manzo property is now owned by the Association, as are two other properties located along Lake Vue Drive between Ketchum Road and U.S. Route 6. DMRA’s (Dredged Material Relocation Areas) will be constructed on two (2) of these properties. Engineering on the design of one these DMRA’s should be completed in January and the design will be submitted to the Army Corp of Engineers and the EPA for approval. Once that approval has been obtained, The Association will begin the competitive bidding process for the construction of the DMRA and obtain the necessary building permits. Once the bids are received the Board will update and review the dredging cost estimate.

During the title search for the purchase of the Manzo property, An Easement Deed owned by Mr. Manzo was discovered that crossed 4 lot owner’s properties, RL 39 and Morning Star Drive. This easement was unacceptable to us. As a result, the negotiations continued for an extended time period until Mr. Manzo agreed to file a Quit Claim deed to all of the property owners affected. In short, these property owners no longer have an easement going through their respective properties.

In other dredging related news, six weeks ago three of our board members visited an Ellicott facility. The main reason for the visit was to enlist their engineering assistance to determine what would be required to pump the sludge farther distances. The dredging equipment we were considering could pump only 7500 feet, not quite enough to dredge all locations in the lake without extensive pipelines running through residential areas and several more DMRA locations. We received their proposal late in November. While the new proposal accomplishes the pumping length requirement we were after, it also costs more. As of this writing several board members are reviewing the financial impact of this proposal on the dredging program and developing different planning scenarios. Nothing has been decided at this point in time.

As of the end of November the Projected Cash Flow Report indicates the following year-end financial numbers:

Barry O’Connell, President
Board of Directors

On 11/16/12, two Board Members, Tim O’Donnell and Rick Rumbaugh, began their trip to Wisconsin to pick up the new weed harvester.  They volunteered to make the 14 hour trip (one way) to save the Association some $4500 in shipping charges.  They deserve a lot of credit for taking the time and making this effort for the community.  Thank you, Tim and Rick!

Work continues on the rebuilding of the beach 2 and the Sunset Park pavilions.  Al Rubosky and his students are progressing nicely.

The purchase of the Manzo property has been delayed because of title issues uncovered by the title company.  We hope to have this resolved in the near future.

Normally, I do my best to keep politics out of the “President’s Corner” because I believe the President’s Corner is a means to inform our members of the actions of the Board of Directors and the current status of our various projects.  However, I feel compelled to in this case.

At the OLCA meeting at Lakengren, Rick Gainar, Gary Stamm and I were discussing the mechanical dredging project together with the dredging supervisor.  We were asking him questions and we all listened carefully to his answers.

In the October Board meeting, Mr. Gainar was explaining to the members what he learned from attending that OLCA meeting at Lakengren. There were only approximately 25 members in attendance at our Board Meeting.  He gave his report which was correct as far as describing the system they are now using (Mechanical Dredging) and that they had tried hydraulic dredging with an old dredger that followed cables which were suspended from one side of the lake to the other, and decided that it was too costly to maintain. (We never planned to use that type of dredger, our judgment was that it would not work on our lake) He also gave an accurate description of the capital costs (approximately $84,000) of the mechanical system they are now using. Their goal was to remove 100 tons of sludge per day with their existing system which included four (4) people.

He forgot to mention that they were using this system on a very small lake (5 acres at most) and the distance from the excavator to the point of removing the sludge from the barge to the tilt bed truck was approximately 200 feet.  Using this system on a 500 acre lake like ours will markedly increase the need for more barges ,more work boats, more tilt bed trucks and most importantly, more operators (men) to move the sludge a greater distance.  To accomplish the same rate of sludge removal (100 tons per day) in our lake would conservatively add a minimum of 3 additional work boat operators and one additional tilt bed truck driver, making a total of 7people. Assuming $20.00 per hour wage rate with 7 people for an 8 hour day to remove 100 tons of sludge, the cost is $11.20/ ton.

Hydraulic Dredging will use 2 operators at the same wage rate for 2 hours and it will remove the same 100 tons.  The cost for hydraulic dredging is (2 x 20 x 2)/100 = $0.80/ ton.  Note: the hydraulic dredger has a capacity of 800 tons per day.

There are presently 345,000 tons of sludge (not to mention the 20,000 tons that enter the lake yearly) currently in the lake.  Would you rather spend a total of $3,864,000 to remove the sludge mechanically or $276,000 to remove it hydraulically?

I believe, once again, that the board has made the correct decision in choosing hydraulic dredging.

Holidays are rapidly approaching.  The Board of Directors, Pat and Jen, and the maintenance staff wish all of you a happy and safe holiday season.

As of the end of October, the Projected Cash Flow Report indicates the following year end financial numbers:

Barry O’Connell, President

RRA Board of Directors

The Board voted to replace our present weed harvester, which is approximately 20 years old, and in need of much repair. The new weed harvester will cost $60,000.

For those residents that wish to dredge around their docks during the lake drawdown, we have a solution for you. All that is needed is for you to fill out a simple form at the office indicating your name and address, the location of the dredging and where you intend to put the spoils from the dredging. The office will inspect the site and approve or reject the application based on where you want to put the spoils and whether or not a wetlands is involved.

The 2013 budgeting process is in process. No increases in dues or assessments will be necessary. The Administrative Committee is diligently working on cost savings plans for the Association.

For those of you that have a metal detector and enjoy searching for buried treasure, now’s your chance to help the association determine the locations of any buried gas pipelines on the Manzo Property.

We need to determine if there are any buried pipelines and plot their locations. Please call the office and get in touch with me.

The driveway on RL40 was completed recently using only our own maintenance staff. We saved over $4000 by doing it in-house as opposed to contracting it to an outside firm.

Barry O’Connell, President

RomeRock Association

Projects update: The clubhouse parking lot and road paving (chip & sealing) was completed.  The basketball courts have been sealed and the Beach 2 tent has been removed in  preparation for the construction of the new pavilion.  The Weed Harvester is now being prepared for major repairs this winter.

Recently, I was invited to give a presentation regarding our dredging plans to the women’s aerobics club.  They were hearing conflicting rumors about our dredging plans.  Lee Shaffer and I prepared a presentation that lasted about 2 hours covering everything from our cash flow monthly report, to how the Association will pay for both the operating costs and the capital costs, the estimated costs of all of the equipment needed, a PERT diagram (a critical path of the project milestones), and the individual expertise that each member of dredging team brings to the table.  Afterwards, the attendees suggested that we should do the same presentation for other groups within the Association.  So, here’s my offer to the members: If you want to learn more about the project and resolve the conflicting rumors and issues regarding dredging, then give me a call at the Association Office (440-563-3170) or at home(440-563-9337).  I’ll be happy to schedule more presentations.

You may be surprised to learn that the dredging project group contains two (2) Mechanical Engineers, one of them is a Registered Professional Engineer and the other is an expert in hydraulics.  There is also one Chemical Engineer who taught the hourly workforce at Perfection Corporation in Madison, Ohio how to heat fuse polyethylene pipe.  Polyethylene pipe is going to be used in the dredging piping.  These individuals are all local people, RRA members who have agreed to bring their individual expertise to the dredging project. I know there must be many members who have special talents that we can use on this project.  Again, let me know and I will include you in the planning group.

Allow me to dispel other rumors that I have heard:  Dredging will tie up the lake and interfere with boating and fishing.  Wrong!  The Fall dredging program was planned to start in September of each year for two reasons: to avoid the fish spawning season and the summer boating season.  The dredging operation will only affect the specific area being dredged; it will not affect the whole lake.  After the dredging is completed in an area, the floating piping will be removed and reinstalled in the next area.  When the dredging season is over, all of the floating pipe will be removed from the lake and the submerged piping will remain in deep water for the next season.

Last, and probably the most important issue being discussed in the Association is whether or not there will be an increase in Dues and Assessments in 2013.  No, there will NOT be an increase in the Dues and Assessments in 2013!  Why not?  The Assessments were raised in 2012 to pay for the yearly dredging operating costs, i.e., fuel, maintenance, lubricating fluids, etc.  We have the funds to operate the dredger.  The equipment is being paid via bank financing.  We do not need any more funds for the dredging project.

The cash flow position as of the end of August for the Association is as follows:

Barry O’Connell, President
RRA Board of Directors

The Board of Directors has decided to lower the lake his fall. No exact date has been established yet, but it appears that the drawdown will begin sometime around November first. More details will be available after the September Board Meeting.

The clubhouse parking lot and 2-1/2 miles of Lake Vue Drive and Morning Star (from route 6 to Acacia circle) will be chip and sealed this year. Specialized Construction Inc. was the low bidder this year at $75,900. Russell Standard, our historic paving supplier, was asked to quote but never quoted on the job.

In September, I have been asked to attend an OLCA meeting at Lakengren in western Ohio to take part in discussions regarding lake dredging. I will report to you the high points of these discussions at the September Board Meeting. Also during September, on the 13th at 6:30 PM in the clubhouse, Mr. Tom Grabow, Regional Dredge Supervisor, for the Ohio State Parks system will discuss his experiences dredging at Grand Lake St Marys. The meeting is open to all. Please plan to attend and bring all of your questions regarding dredging with you.

Our recent offer to purchase land for the DMRA (Dredge Material Relocation Area) is still under discussion. Mainly our respective lawyers are working out language between the parties. I expect this process to be completed by early September. Then the Engineering begins for the design of the DMRA and the pipeline routes to and from the lake. After that is complete, we can submit the designs and our permit application to the Army Corp of Engineers for approval.

The office will start the winter hours schedule on the 15th of September. The office hours are Wednesday thru Saturday 8:00AM to 6:00PM. The office will be closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of each week.

Barry O’Connell

First off, a big “thanks” to Bob and Carol Delly for their work on the fireworks display this year. It was spectacular!
The weather even cooperated.

The Board of Directors, in Executive Session, approved (5-2 vote for approval) placing a bid to purchase land for the dredging project. This action was legitimately taken in Executive Session because the business discussed was legal in nature and it was of a sensitive nature, i.e., if the details were made public it may have complicated ongoing discussions with other potential landowners. If the bid is accepted and when the title transfers into RRA’s name, I will disclose the particulars of the purchase to all of you in a public meeting. The second reason for purchasing this land is that we will now meet the “contiguous” land rule for selling mineral rights under Association property.

The title search to determine if our members own the mineral rights under their homes continues. As further information is developed, I will communicate it to all concerned.

We have received from the Army Corp. of Engineers a list of engineering firms who have experience in designing sludge ponds and the associated environmental studies that go with the design of those ponds. We have contacted several and asked them to submit proposals. Along those lines, I have met with village officials to discuss with them any present and/or future zoning rules that may be applicable to our dredging project. At that meeting the officials indicated to me that the present zoning rules would be adequate.

Barry O’Connell, President
RRA Board of Directors.