july / august 2019 sdra president s letter by: frieda yueh › 0c87051c › files...quired, and make...

Southdown Shorelines Newsletter July / August 2019 1

Visit the SDRA and LBHOA websites for timely

updates on activities, social events and news for

your community: SDRA website-

www.sdshores.com

LBHOA website- www.longbayassociation.com

JULY / AUGUST 2019

The deadline for the September/October newsletter is

8/25/19. Do you have an article or pictures of South

Down or Long Bay you’d like to see in the newsletter?

Submit material to: [email protected]

It is great to see everyone returning - welcome back and

thank you for bringing us some warmth and sunshine!

Your Executive team, Bob Iafrate, Jeff Graham, Peter Cassell,

Lauren Crockett, and I, along with 17 dedicated Council mem-

bers have been busy with a myriad of SDRA activities. There

seems to be no end to your ideas on how we can make South

Down more enjoyable, safe, connective, efficient, responsive,

financially robust, and beautiful. Thanks to all of our volun-

teers for suggesting AND doing, including the 27 new people

offering to share their talents. It is wonderful to see the friend-

ships and networks growing within and across our Villages

and Single-Family Homes.

Council Meetings:

Your Council representatives receive a copy of the agenda one

week prior to the Council meetings. I urge you to look and let

your reps know how you want him/her to vote on the items

that interest you. Approval of Executive and Council meeting

minutes is a lengthy process, involving two consecutive meet-

ings before they can be posted to the TPW website or placed

in the TPW office binder. Because the Council only meets 4-5

times/year, publication of the minutes is a slow process and

does not meet the needs of interested Owners. We are discuss-

ing alternatives.

Association Attorney:

In February, SDRA engaged attorney John Bisson of Cronin,

Bisson and Zalinksky to handle our community affairs. Mr.

Bisson and his team were selected after interviewing nine NH

firms recommended by the Community Associations Institute

of New England. CAINE is the Association for Associations

and they provide a wide range of sup-

port and recommended experts for vari-

ous Association needs.

Cronin, Bisson and Zalinsky are renown in NH for advising

and representing Homeowners and Condo Associations. Their

clients consist of over 200 Associations; to avoid any potential

conflict of interest, they do not accept management firms or

owners as clients. With his depth of Association expertise, Mr.

Bisson has provided us a new level of understanding of our

governing documents, identified gaps and remedies within our

operations, addressed some vulnerabilities that existed with

our contractor paperwork, and advised us on best practices for

meetings, contracts, rentals, rules, etc.

Mowing:

The Mowing Committee, under the leadership of Barbara Spa-

daro (Beach Club), was formed by the Council to review the

lawn mowing rules for SDRA, determine if changes were re-

quired, and make recommendations for The Meadows, John

Davidson, and Peg and Warren Murphy properties. The Com-

mittee spent days with attorneys, the City of Laconia Planning

Director, survey map and deed experts, and SDRA stakehold-

ers. The Committee concluded that the mowing issue is a

property rights issue. Except for three special properties in

South Down, all properties in our community are zoned resi-

dential (RS) and they must be maintained as ‘neat and attrac-

tive’ according to both City and SDRA rules. The three excep-

tion properties are zoned RR2 by the City and they are The

Meadows Village field, Davidson’s field and Murphy’s’ field.

All three of these fields reside within the Parade Road Resi-

dential Rural Corridor District (RR2) and all three of these

properties have a special City designation which permits them

to be left as fields or used for agricultural purposes or mowed

as lawns. It is up to the property owner to maintain their prop-

erty within the RR2 permitted uses. As confirmed by the Laco-

nia City Planning Director, RR2 zoning is attached to the

Continued on Page 4...

SDRA President’s Letter By: Frieda Yueh

http://www.sdshores.com

http://www.longbayassociation.com

mailto:[email protected]


SOUTH DOWN

Matt & Johanna Buoncontri – 68

Drummer Trail

Robert & Pamela Burton – 8A Crane

Circle

Charles & Carole Hines – 86 Gables

Drive

Leonard & Debra Mariano – 38B

Freedom Lane

Jill Pearson – 12B Rockport Drive

Kip & Jodene Sanford – 295B

Davidson Drive

Charles & Judy Tarr – 28 Fern Lane

Gerard & Siobhan Tautkus – 10B

Molly Lane

LONG BAY

Cheryl Grant – 47 Long Bay Drive

Tom & Dawn Flynn – 77 Deerfield

Turn

Ron & Deah Hofeldt – 53 Drew Lane

Joseph & Cindy Parker – 60 Aberry

Lane

Welcome New Neighbors! May and June Home & Garden Club Meetings Draw New Members By: Alice Wolf The South Down Home & Garden Club has logged in two more

meetings since the last publication of the South Down Newsletter.

In May, the meeting began with an “ice breaker” game, followed

by stellar snacks, lots of catching up and discussion of plans for

upcoming meetings. As a project and challenge to each individual's

creativity, small, random containers hidden in individual brown

paper sandwich bags were handed out to each member at the con-

Continued on next page...


clusion of the business meeting. The challenge was to

decorate, fill or otherwise utilize the container, place

it back into a brown paper bag in order to maintain

anonymity, so that members could vote for their fa-

vorite at the June meeting.

The June meeting welcomed two new members,

along with quite a collection of containers, some flo-

ral-themed, others geared toward household utiliza-

tion. Ballot voting revealed winners in both catego-

ries of floral/plant and non-floral, prizes were handed

out and the meeting was turned over to fellowship,

food and future plans. A business meeting took place,

in which officers and committee leaders volunteered

for the coming year.

The Butterfly Garden that was planned by the club to

honor Barbara Van Uden, passed by South Down and

positioned along the walkway to the lake has been com-

pleted for the season. Accomplished by Judy Radley

and her committee, it consists of a combination of per-

ennials such as Butterfly Bush, Coneflower and Phlox,

filled in with annuals like Cosmos, Petunia and Black-

eyed Susan. Barbara was not only an active member of

the club, but a neighbor and friend to many, having

spent a lengthy part of her life in South Down Shores.

Upcoming plans include the popular garden tour in Ju-

ly, when the meeting will meet early, at 5:00, in order

to hop onto golf carts and tour some of the more out-

standing gardens within the complex. Then, the August

meeting was organized. This will consist of a trip to

Meredith to have a docent-lead trek along the town's

Sculpture Walk following a casual dinner. With 42

members registered for the 2019 season, there is always

room for more!

Home & Garden Club Cont. From Page 2...

Containers were filled with everything from fresh flowers to grooming

supplies. Members enjoyed seeing the different ideas that others shared.


property and transfers to successive own-

ers. There is no SDRA rule or regulation

that can legally prevail over these RR2

property rights.

The Mowing Committee’s report to the

Council on June 8 resulted in a halt to

challenging the property rights of the

three owners and a request to the Com-

mittee to determine if any other action is

recommended. The Committee will de-

liver their answer before year end.

Financials:

Treasurer Jeff Graham summarized our

April/May year-to-date status by saying

we are in strong position. Leone, McDon-

nell & Roberts PA is finishing their full

audit of SDRA’s finances and we expect

their report by July 1, 2019. We will

schedule a special Council meeting to

discuss the results. On June 8, the Coun-

cil considered two budget proposals, one

with a 7% increase and one with no in-

crease. The Council approved the budget

with no increases, leaving SDRA dues at

$1120/year. The Association owners will

vote on this budget at the August 3 An-

nual meeting.

Technology Changes:

Our long serving, generously donating I/

T specialist, Roger Legendre, has sold his

home in South Down. We will hire a new

expert who will work with Roger and the

Long Bay volunteer I/T specialist, Peter

Waligora, to transition the SDRA work-

load and begin new projects. Both South

Down and Long Bay will convert to a

new association management system

called Town Square, around the July

timeframe. Not only will it handle com-

munity notices, important documents

access and other standard association

functions, it has the capability for sur-

veys, blogs and classifieds. We still plan

to use Survey Monkey to understand

owner opinions regarding important top-

ics. We have been delayed in the Survey

implementation, but we hope to launch

the first survey in July. The Town Square

system will be the new repository for our

internal information – forms, minutes,

meeting notices, committees, calendar

happenings, etc. The SD Shores website

will be ported over to a new platform

(another project for the I/T team) and will

become a marketing site for prospective

buyers and realtors.

Building Activity:

The Building Committee is newly

chaired by Jim Ryan (Heights) and sup-

ported by Gary Densen (Highwood), Fred

Dolloff (The Meadows) and Don Lasell

(Carol Court). Longtime secretary Mari-

lyn Goodwin is retiring in July and the

Committee is looking for a replacement.

We also have one opening on the Build-

ing Committee that the team would like

to fill with a fulltime SDRA resident. The

Committee meets the first Friday of every

month, 6:00-8:30pm and tours the com-

munity the following Saturday morning

to view application sites.

The newest Village, MJ Estates, which is

under construction along Outerbridge

Road, east of Fields Crossing, has com-

pleted their first road. The first of four

new homes on Darwin Place is under

construction. MJ Estates will begin their

second road in the field west of Darwin

Place; there will be three home sites on

Western Terrace.

Owners, please remember that all exterior

alterations on your property must be ap-

proved by your Village Board and then

accepted by the Building Committee pri-

or to work (including tree removal, win-

dows installation, decks, patios, land-

scaping, etc.) There is no application fee

associated with minor applications. The

Building Committee is a good source for

specialist recommendations.

Security:

The Security Committee, Chair Phil Tor-

risi (Birchwood) and members Gil Fur-

nald (Birchwood) and Roland Ambiehl

(Fields Crossing) have succeeded at eve-

ry challenge that has come their way

since they took charge of safety at South

Down. Securing quality staffing is diffi-

cult with record unemployment rates in

NH. But the team persevered. We are

receiving detailed and verbal reports

from our security officer. He reports that

the community is operating smoothly

with no major and few minor incidents.

We have a new beach monitor for the

summer, Jackson Spencer. He is doing a

great job helping beach goers enjoy the

area. Your Council representatives have

beach wristbands available for pickup.

We are trying this new system for the

2019 summer season and hope that it

restricts beach access to owners and their

guests. We will solicit your feedback at

the end of the summer, so do try out the

wristbands and offer your opinion.

Fireworks:

Tis the season, so a reminder: SDRA

requires South Down owners and guests

to adhere to City of Laconia rules and

regulations regarding fireworks.

Annual Meetings:

The SDRA Annual Meeting is scheduled

for Saturday, August 3 at 9:00am. We

have several important votes to adminis-

ter, so please come or provide your proxy

to a neighbor, friend or TPW.

All of the Villages have either held or are

scheduled to hold their annual meetings. I

have been invited to most of the sched-

uled events and view them as an excel-

lent opportunity to provide an update on

South Down, answer questions, and hear

your perspectives. The three meetings

that I have attended to-date have been

productive and enlightening; I have en-

joyed them immensely. I look forward to

meeting the other Village Owners. I am

considering scheduling a ‘town meeting’

to provide Owners another option for

meeting with me.

Social Events:

The South Down/Long Bay Fireworks

event is scheduled for Saturday, June 29,

with a rain date of Sunday, June 30.

Owners have told me that the Tuesday

Conclusion on Page 6


Washer & Dryer: We just swapped out our older Hotpoint washer and dryer and both still worked fine when we

took them out. They are free for the taking as I think they are original from the condo which was built in 1987 or

so? call or text Kevin - 603-657-5998

Storage unit wanted for the months of July and August: We are renting out our condo and are looking

to see if there might be room in someone’s storage unit to park a EZGO 6 seater golf cart for about 5 weeks out of

the 2 months in July and August. I would just be putting it in and out a handful of times as we will be up and using

it while we are up for the weeks it is not rented out. It is about 12 feet long and normal golf cart width. We are just

trying to free up space in the garage for the renters when they are there and we don't want them using it. Let me

know and I would love to work something out if possible! Kevin 603-657-5998.

Free GE profile side by side white: Free fridge. Great fridge for extra or original. Just sold home in Ct and we

don’t need three! Call or text Susan Allen (203) 240-5251

Looking to rent a gas 4-person golf cart for one week: We're new to SDS and don't have a golf cart yet,

but looking to have one for the July 4th week (Sunday to Sunday). I would offer $150 plus a deposit. Please text me

at (617) 571-5371.

Southdown or Long Bay Slip Rental Wanted: Slip rental needed, please. See a couple slips still unoccupied,

would love to rent one for June 27th to July 7th, or a portion there of. Would pay a very fair fee, and throw in some

of the freshest lobsters you've ever had for a sweetener. Thank you. Please call 978-857-3900.

Ethan Allen Couch: Gorgeous, like new Ethan Allen Couch. This tight back couch is large and comfy with 3 cush-

ions and measures 85". Features include a beautiful 100% cotton English garden print, saber legs in back and

turned legs in front all of wood, ruching, piping. 84x39x34 inches Asking $500. Contact Leonard @

617.320.4854. See pictures here: https://nh.craigslist.org/fuo/d/laconia-ethan-allen-couch/6902011757.html

Furniture: Tables, dresser, full sized bed, 2 couches new, but cat has scratched arms. Text Andrea at (508) 932-

5444.

Oak computer table: Oak computer table with slide out for keyboard. Beautiful good size $10.00 Call Susan

Allen (203) 240-5251.

Faux wicker patio set: Grey faux wicker patio sitting set Perfect condition, navy cushions Loveseat, two chairs ,

coffee table Call Susan (203) 240-5251 100.

Sofa and loveseat: Pale sage sofa and loveseat great for vacation home. Small area on back with pulls but no

stains. Please call Susan Allen (203) 240-5251 175.00

In Search of Storage Rack Space : Would like to purchase or rent Kayak/Canoe Storage rack for 2 kay-

aks. Contact me at Email: [email protected] or Mobile: 617-301-2405.

Jet Ski Mooring: Looking to rent a Jet Ski Mooring for the 2019 season Please contact Norm @

[email protected].

Kayak storage: I am looking for storage to rent or purchase for two kayaks. Please contact Cathy at 207-512-

0708.

Deeded Boat Slip For Sale: Deeded Interior Boat Slip for Sale offered at $149,000. Call 603-520-1633

Comfortable couch for sale: We just moved here from Boston d find ourselves with 1 too many couches. It’s

just over a year old. Color: Grey. Dimension: 120” x 84” x 36” Price: $500. Email [email protected]

Dog walking services available: Does your pup need to go out while you are on the lake? Call Elizabeth at

(603) 361-2040 to schedule a time for your dog to play when you are away.

Kayaks: Two kayaks- perfect condition Single seaters with paddles 100 each or two for 175. Call Susan at (203)

240-5251.

Various appliance: Ge profile washer and dryer. Great condition 75 for the pair Ge profile fridge, automatic ice

maker. Side by side. Works great 50. Call Susan at (203) 240-5251

https://nh.craigslist.org/fuo/d/laconia-ethan-allen-couch/6902011757.html


South Down/Long Bay Karao-

ke weekly is amazing, with

professional quality singers

and equipment. We are consid-

ering a South Down communi-

ty garage sale, where owners

interested in participating can

sell their items from the drive-

ways and/or garages; it would

be a fun way to meet neigh-

bors and move some junk (I

mean valuables) around.

I hope to see you soon – ei-

ther out in the community, at

your Village annual meeting, a

town meeting, or the SDRA

annual meeting. As always,

your Council rep and I wel-

come your questions and sug-

gestions.

Yours,

Frieda Yueh - President,

SDRA

[email protected]

914-474-6606

From Page 4...

mailto:[email protected]

july / august 2019 sdra president s letter by: frieda yueh › 0c87051c › files...quired, and make...

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