LAKE IN THE CLOUDS
Report to the Community-April, 2023
Board of Directors, Lake in the Clouds
Dear LITC Members,
This month’s Board Meeting was held on April 6th, attended by Charlie Schaffer, Pres., Pat Pancoast, VP. Joan Griffin, Treas., Bill Scott, Carol Shumway and Joyce Torrey, Sec.
Except for the SNOW, March was a pretty quiet month here at LITC…but I do have a couple of things to tell you about.
On March 30th, Charlie and Joan went to the Pike County Magistrates Court up in Hawley and successfully petitioned for a judgement against one of our members who—despite numerous warnings—continued to rent the property for weekends and short stays. As is clearly stated in our Rules and Regulations, our MINIMUM rental period is 3 months and anyone who purchases a home here is asked to sign a document acknowledging that they have read and understood the rules.
OH, and Joan asked me to mention that this summer she will again be taking those who haven’t paid their dues to court.
The Board has adopted the Request for Information form required by the new Title 68, PA Planned Community Act. This document formalizes the process for members who wish to see certain of our “business”-related documents such as audit reports or insurance policies. The Request for Information form is available from Diane during regular office hours, which are Mondays 9AM to 1PM, and Thursdays 1PM to 5PM.
Work on the PennDot mandated upgrades to our community entrances has begun. On March 24th, Campbell’s Tree Service took down a series of large trees at the edges of RT 447 on either side of the Logger Road entrance, which is currently closed off. This will improve the line-of-sight distances on either side, which should make it safer for community members to pull out onto 447. And now we wait for the forms and permits from the state. When those arrive, Panther can begin the surface work.
At the Board meeting Carol Shumway made a great suggestion which we all approved: the Board Report should include an update on the progress-- and costs-- of this project as we try to complete it without having to impose a special assessment on community members.
Entrance Upgrade Project – Activity and Costs
Engineering- $ 7,820
Tree Removal 4,500
Total Paid to Date $12,320
I’d also like to note that despite the snow in March, our YTD plowing bill is quite a bit below budget, and that excess will be moved into the budget for the PennDot project.
Please mark your calendars! The Spring General Meeting will be held May 6, 1PM at the pavilion. (weather permitting) and we will have a Bonfire that evening at the beach, 6PM bring your lawn chairs and refreshments.
Hope to see you there.
Joyce Torrey
Secretary, Board of Directors
Report to the Community-March, 2023
Board of Directors, Lake in the Clouds
Dear LITC Members,
This month’s Board Meeting was held on March 9th, attended by Charlie Schaffer, Pres., Pat Pancoast, VP. Joan Griffin, Treas., Bill Scott, Al Sicignano, Carol Shumway and Joyce Torrey, Sec.
BOY, do I have a fish story to tell you! But first we’ll take care of business. It occurred to me that some of you (ok, maybe one or two of you?) might wonder how these meetings go. Here’s a quick summary:
Once Charlie calls the meeting to order and we recite the Pledge of Allegiance, our Board meetings follow a fairly standard format. If a community member has attended, we invite them to tell us what’s on their minds; if no member of the community comes, we move right to Committee Reports.
Each Board member has one or two committee assignments, those committees being: Finance and Budget, Buildings and Grounds, Construction, Dams, Lake Ecology, Roads, Insurance, and finally Social which includes Green Space, Picnic, Beach etc. Often times, especially in winter, many of the committees have nothing to report.
This month was no exception. No report for Building and Grounds, Dams, Construction, Insurance, and Social/Greenspace. Joan updated us on Finance and Budget with status reports on her past due collections progress. And for the Roads committee Charlie reported that several large trees came down in that last wind storm we had and totally or partially blocked Cherry Point Circle, Skyline Drive, and Lookout Point Road. Charlie, Al, Bill, Byron Majors, Rich Everett and Dave Heitz all helped to get the trees cut up and moved off to the side, so thanks go out to them.
The final draft of the new Schedule B document was presented to us, and approved by the Board. This document is a critical one for you to read if you are thinking about building a new home here, or making significant changes or additions to an existing one. In one, well- ordered 4-page unit it lists all of the regulations and restrictions that apply to any and all LITC property improvements, and alerts you to the documents and permissions you must secure before ANY work is done.
The new Schedule B will be up on our website, and copies will be distributed at the May General Meeting, Saturday, May 6, 1PM in the Pavilion.
So now for the FISH STORY! – As many of you know, we do our best to keep our lakes healthy and well-stocked with fish, and that includes bringing in Shiners—small fish that serve to keep the larger fish fat and happy. A week or so ago Charlie was alerted that the Aquatic Environmental truck with our spring crop of Shiners, would arrive that day, early afternoon.
Then disaster struck! The truck bringing the Shiners from Arkansas broke down in Maryland just over the border from Virginia. A young man from Aquatic Environmental—which is located in Chambersburg, PA about a 3-hour drive southwest of us—climbed into one of their trucks and drove down to meet the disabled truck; he rescued our fish and then drove all the way back up to Lake in the Clouds arriving at about 10:30 that night. Knowing our fish would not survive the night in the truck, Charlie, Bill Scott and Byron Majors---in the pitch dark, icy wind and freezing cold—formed a bucket brigade! The young man from AE scooped the fish out of his tank with buckets and passed them to our guys who tossed them into the lake---at all THREE lakes.
Did I mention it was windy? 30 MPH windy, with gusts up to 50 MPH. At one point Charlie tossed a bucket of fish towards the water but they all blew back up in his face and on to the bank. The guys ran around like the Keystone Cops picking them up off the ground and tossing them into the water. I don’t know about you, but I would give a great deal to have a video of that!
Anyway, they finished up at about midnight---and then the poor guy from AE had to drive all the way back to Chambersburg. Talk about dedication to a job…AND to our community!
One last thing: Last month I told you the Board meetings had been moved to the 2nd Thursday of the month, but it turns out that doesn’t work for all of us either. So now the Board meetings will be held the 1st Thursday of every month at 6 PM.
All together now: “No More Snow! No More Snow!”
Joyce Torrey
Secretary, Board of Directors
Report to the Community-February, 2023
Board of Directors, Lake in the Clouds
Dear LITC Members,
This month’s Board Meeting was held on February 10th, attended by Charlie Schaffer, Pres., Joan Griffin, Treasurer, Bill Scott, Al Sicignano, Carol Shumway and Joyce Torrey, Secretary.
February started with a bang, almost literally, as someone crashed their car through the barrier gate at the Logger Road entrance in the middle of the afternoon. Fortunately, Bill Scott was able to repair it so that there were no further costs to our residents. We understand how frustrating this whole thing is for everyone, but really--- SOMEONE needs to go back to kindergarten and learn how to use their words!
A confluence of fortunate circumstances resulted in our checking account enjoying a nice surplus at the end of 2022. Mild weather kept our road expenses down, and our revenue collections were sufficient to give us about $20,000 to add to our road budget for 2023. Given the extraordinary road expenditures we are facing this year for the first of the three entrance upgrades PennDot has required, this is great news.
Several new owners in our community are in various stages of planning their new homes this winter, and so this is a good time for a reminder: NO construction or improvements—including the cutting down of trees, or the digging of wells-- can be done to any lots without prior approval of the building plans by the Board of Directors; and permits must be obtained from the appropriate county. Please read the LITC governing documents—ALL of them. They are on the website. They may not be very exciting, but reading them could save you a lot of drama (and money) in the future.
Speaking of the Documents, despite the loss of Carol Shumway from the committee (family obligations) work is continuing on a compilation of all building requirements into a single, comprehensive Schedule B that will make understanding and following our regulations easier. Hopefully that will be done.
Several of our Board members were having trouble attending the meetings on Friday nights, so we have now moved them to Thursdays. So please note our next Board Meeting will be Thursday, March 9th at 6PM.
Finally, it seems we once again need to remind folks that the speed limit on our roads is 20 mph. We are receiving complaints of speeders coming over hills and around curves and narrowly missing folks out for a walk with their dogs.
20 MPH seems excruciatingly slow to me, so in the interest of scientific discovery I did an experiment the other morning at 6 AM. I started at one end of Lookout Point Road, up by Skyline Drive and ended about where Raspberry Lane comes in. I had a stop watch, and I drove at just about 20MPH. It took me 125 seconds.
Then I did it again at 30 mph. That time it took only 85 seconds! So I saved 40 seconds.
40 seconds.
Worth a life? We don’t have a police force here, nor do we want one. PLEASE obey the speed limit and remind family, friends and contractors too.
Think “Early Spring”.
Joyce Torrey
Secretary, Board of Directors
Report to the Community-January, 2023
Board of Directors, Lake in the Clouds
Dear LITC Members,
This month’s Board Meeting was held on January 13th, attended by Charlie Schaffer, Pres., Pat Pancoast, VP. Bill Scott, Buildings and Grounds and Joyce Torrey, Secretary.
Guest: Melanie Stracko, G27
We are starting off the new year with some fairly good news to report, but first a quick rundown on our activity.
Our Office Administrator Diane Schaffer successfully survived the audit done by Owens, CPA that has been completed. Nothing was amiss, and the auditors had a few procedural suggestions that the Board is reviewing. The information required by our insurance company for an annual audit was submitted and is being reviewed.
The boiler in the club house developed a leak, and Bill Scott, our Buildings and Grounds Board member, was able to figure out what was wrong and fix it. And when a tree blew down across Lookout Point Road, Charlie Schaffer, Byron Majors, and Jamie Brush fired up their chain saws and cleared it out quickly. These are just two examples of how our volunteers show up and pitch in to save this community’s dollars.
We got a very nice letter from the Greene-Dreher Fire Company thanking us for our donation in December. The Board feels very strongly that it is important for us to support the volunteer organizations that will come to our aid in times of emergency.
The committee that is reviewing and updating our Schedule A and B building requirements met for the first time in early January. Carol Shumway, Chair of the committee, informed us that both of the towns that Lake in the Clouds is part of --Greene Twp. in Pike County, and Barrett Twp. in Monroe---have adopted the new PA Title 68 codes, and we will update our own documents to reflect those regulations. The committees’ goal is to have the new documents ready for the Board to review in February.
We were pleased to have a guest, Melanie Stracko attend the meeting. Melanie said she was there to observe, to see how we work and what we do. Honestly, we wish more LITC residents would show an interest in what the Board does, and what is actually involved with being a Board Member. Maybe we could entice more of you to run for seats! The Board meets in the Club house on the 2nd Friday of the month at 6PM. All are welcome to attend, with the understanding that when we go into Executive Session you will be asked to leave, as that is when we discuss member complaints and/or disputes.
Now concerning PennDot and our entrance roads: Mr. Hudak our engineer from Kiley Associates, returned to meet with a special session of the Board on January 10th. He brought the revised plans, and the excellent news that he was able to negotiate some changes to the way out roads were classified.
I mentioned last month that PennDot had classified our Lake in the Clouds Rd entrance as “Medium Traffic” meaning it would carry up to 1500 cars a day! This was based on the number of lots in our community, including all of those which have never been developed. Under that classification we would have been required (among other things) to install a raised concrete divider down the center of Lake in the Clouds road at our entrance, at considerable expense to us.
Mr. Hudak was able to negotiate with PennDot with the result that the agency has re- classified LITC Road as “Low Traffic”, saving us a significant amount of money and some very unnecessary headaches. We are also happy to report that we can divide the work over a span of 3 years to spread out the impact on our budget. With that news the Board went ahead and approved the project, which will likely begin in the spring.
Joan Griffin our Treasurer told us that barring any major unforeseen expenditure we may be able to absorb the cost for Phase One (Logger Road) into our existing budget, without the need to impose a special assessment on our Members!
And I think that is very good news to start the year with!
Stay Warm
Joyce Torrey
Secretary, Board of Directors
Report to the Community-December, 2022
Board of Directors, Lake in the Clouds
Dear LITC Members,
This month’s Board Meeting was held on December 9th, attended by Charlie Schaffer, Pres., Pat Pancoast, VP. Joan Griffin, Treasurer, Bill Scott, Buildings and Grounds and Joyce Torrey, Secretary.
November was a pretty quiet month, so most of our committees had nothing new to report. Here’s a quick recap:
Our fish survey was completed and the bill was paid; Ed and Susan Kirstein F37 donated a new magnetic signboard for the Lake in the Woods bus stop; the quarterly dam report was completed; Bill Scott installed some reflector tape on either side of Lookout Point Road to aid in navigation during one of our many “Fog Events” (we’re not called Lake in the Clouds for nothing!)
Last month I mentioned that we had received the plans from our engineering firm (Kiley Associates) outlining the work that would be needed to bring our community entrances up to PennDot code. The plans were very difficult to decipher so we asked, Mr. Hudak our Project Manager to come and meet with the Board to explain things and answer our questions. At that meeting Mr. Hudak was facing a somewhat hostile crowd (the Board) but he patiently explained the extensive work that was going to be required and the metrics PennDot uses to arrive at those requirements.
For example, the designation of the Lake in the Clouds Rd entrance as a “medium traffic” road (up to 1,500 vehicles per day) is not based on any actual counting of the cars on our roads, but is instead based on the number of LOTS in the community that might someday add cars to our roads. (A board member then suggested that a PennDot employee be invited to come here and lay down in the middle of the road. And if he was run over more than 30 times that day, I…I mean “they” …. would buy him a beer!)
In any case some of the requirements might be negotiable and Mr. Hudak promised to do his best to convince PennDot to be more reasonable. As of this writing we haven’t heard anything back, so once again we are at a standstill where this project is concerned, and what it will ultimately cost.
Two more things I’d like to mention, and at first glance they might seem totally unrelated, but bear with me.
First, the Board has been asked if anything can be done about obscene, demeaning or just plain nasty political flags or signs that some members have installed on their property. I don’t have an answer right now; we’ll be discussing this issue next month.
Second, many of you are aware that our long-time mail carrier, Barb, has been going through some rough times lately, both health-wise and other wise. Margaret Cafarella (D-54), sent numerous emails out to our community members asking for donations. Then she bought a card and spent a day driving around the community collecting money and messages of support for Barb. She was able to present Barb with a very nice gift indeed, along with the sure knowledge that this community cares.
So how are those two things related? Well, I guess they’re not really. But when I was reading through the list of donors it struck me: I know some of our LITC members are Republicans, and some are Democrats. There might even be an Independent or two in there. But ALL of them are good, kind, caring people who wouldn’t hesitate a second to help someone in need.
And ALL of them deserve to be treated with kindness and respect don’t you think?
Have a wonderful Holiday Season, and here’s to a healthy New Year!
Joyce Torrey
Secretary, Board of Directors