I had a good visit with District Ranger Joe Neal and Eric Ozog at the Skykomish Ranger station this morning. Cameron Elias asked if he could come along and was there as well. I simply apologized for our actions and asked what we might do to make things right. I left with the following instructions to pass on: We are to put 1 foot of weed-free top soil over the blue clay that was dumped in the USFS parking lot and then later pushed over the side. In May or June we are to straw and seed with a special seed mix. Eric Ozog will get back to us with exactly what seed mix. USFS will pay for 1 load of 1.25 minus gravel which we will be responsible for picking up and spreading. They would also like to see some large boulders placed in a line along the back of the lot to discourage any more dumping, garbage, etc. The famous lost contract was also discussed and Ranger Joe remembers getting it from me last year and passing it on. He is going to make a couple of minor changes to it and email it to me this week so MB can sign a new copy and return it. He mentioned that one change he wants is that we brush cut their section of road only once every 3 years. I asked what kinds of fines were attached to the tickets that the USFS had (with MBs and MHs names on them) and they said it was up to $5,000.00 and 20 years in prison. Ranger Joe Neal offered that if we complied with these measures, they would tear up the tickets, even though they rarely had cases like this that would be so easy to prove. So... we got lucky - this time. I doubt it would fly this way again in the future. LK Since only us up river from the mudblob have a stake in it.AND we are the only ones who HAVE to pay for it: Then I say we call all the shots! David So Dave, whats your vote? Call Hoppy or not? Mark bollman OK, but either way ... at this point only two of you have told me to call Hoppy. From: Lynne Kelly To: Mark Bollman ; Tom Grenier ; Jim Blair ; Zan Oliphant ; Anita Shultz ; Gary Hubbard ; Dave MacFarlane ; Patty Harbaugh ; Julia Akin ; Phil Reichel Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2014 11:41 AM Subject: RE: Muddy Road Actually, I abstained. I think calling MH out now is a waste of money, as spending the 5K last week clearly was. He worked on the road then when it was in better shape than it is now, and now that money is gone. I think we should not spend money on moving mud in the rain unless/until the road is blocked. Even then, we are looking at a never-ending cycle of moving mud from the toe and watching more come down. Remember, the expert (John Pennington) says this slide has not even happened yet. Do we want to have zero dollars left when it does? Since I am not affected by the slide in the same way most of you are, I abstain. Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 10:43:30 -0800 From: markbollman@yahoo Subject: Muddy Road To: blynnekelly@msn; thomasgrenier48@hotmail; carnuck@hotmail; [email protected]; cbur82@aol; garydhubbard@hotmail; bkctryskier@yahoo; Pattynharv@yahoo; juliarakin@gmail; pereichel2000@yahoo Hearing rumors that if road is not already blocked by mud it might be soon. I am not there so cant report on actual conditions. Phone calls, texts and emails are asking Prez whats the plan? but only advice I have for folks at this point is take the dog and evacuate. So heres where I think we are. Last checking account balance I saw was about $18,000. We encumbered $5,000 for last mud-clearing effort but no invoice from Sky Valley yet so dont know how much we spent, plus there is the disputed $3,400 balance from January. We voted to pay Harmsen the past-due $1,490 and we owe a few hundred to Everett Herald and Monroe Monitor, plus Adams & Duncan and the bookkeeper. So do the subtraction and decide if you think we have about ten grand left to play with. Trackhoe + Dump Truck = $235/hr plus $125 move-in fee + tax = approx. $2,500 - $3,000 per day to move mud. No promise how long it will take to clear a single lane or how long it will last. But at this point thats the only option I have to offer and when the checking account runs dry were dead in the water. Reserve/Savings is already wiped out. Alternative is to do nothing for now and accept that the road is closed at least until it stops raining. Now I understand everyone has brilliant ideas about what we coulda or shoulda done but that doesnt help us right now ... today ... tomorrow. I dont have another contractor lined up or any other equipment or a magic wand. Like it or not, Sky Valley is the only option I have on the table and Hoppy is only offering us two-man trackhoe-dumptruck option. Tom said hes ready to call Mark back. Anita and Lynne said not yet. If five more of you tell me to call Hoppy back I will. For faster results please call 206-940-8855 and leave me a message. Meanwhile, my answer will continue to be that the board has not decided to do anything yet. Fair enough? Still no answer from Jim, hes just as torn as the rest of us. So still only have three votes to call Hoppy. Im leaving email land now and cant promise when Ill be back on-line so anyone who wants me to call Hoppy please call 206-940-8855 to tell my voice mail. Meanwhile we remain stuck in the mud for now. From: Jim Blair Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2014 12:11 PM Subject: RE: Call Hoppy? Im torn because I would sure like to have easy access to my place but the weather report is saying light rain, heavy rain and snow next week. What do we have in the bank and what good will scraping the road do without putting something down to hold back the tide? Jim Blair It is pretty ironic that BS almost single-handedly quashed the replacement of the Canyon Falls bridge by starting a rumor that Fred Slusser was going to freeze our accounts (as if he could). I bet BS is really wishing he had not done that right about now... Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 13:02:11 -0800 From: pereichel2000@yahoo Subject: Re: including whole group To: markbollman@yahoo CC: blynnekelly@msn; thomasgrenier48@hotmail; cbur82@aol; carnuck@hotmail; [email protected]; bkctryskier@yahoo; juliarakin@gmail; Pattynharv@yahoo; garydhubbard@hotmail I personally think it would be interesting to see Bill sue us. We (the board) is responsible to manage the road the best we can with the resources we have. As far as I can see there is no mandate to keep the roads open no mater what comes our way. Bill should realize that if there was a flood -- he might not be able to use the roads. Would he expect us to -- what, spend a million dollars to move the roads or raise them? I think not. We are not magicians. We can only do what we think is right with our limited resources. An absolute requirement to keep the road open is not possible. Should the board initiate a lawsuit against former members of the board that didnt vote for a million dollar assessment, so we would have enough money in the bank for an emergency like this one? (I think not.) I can appreciate the emotions of the moment -- but folks need to move or chill. It isnt going to get better before -- say -- April?? phil I personally think it would be interesting to see Bill sue us. We (the board) is responsible to manage the road the best we can with the resources we have. As far as I can see there is no mandate to keep the roads open no mater what comes our way. Bill should realize that if there was a flood -- he might not be able to use the roads. Would he expect us to -- what, spend a million dollars to move the roads or raise them? I think not. We are not magicians. We can only do what we think is right with our limited resources. An absolute requirement to keep the road open is not possible. Should the board initiate a lawsuit against former members of the board that didnt vote for a million dollar assessment, so we would have enough money in the bank for an emergency like this one? (I think not.) I can appreciate the emotions of the moment -- but folks need to move or chill. It isnt going to get better before -- say -- April?? phil Im having a hard time understanding why those--whom I sometimes love-- are having issues only because of Hoppy. Right now he is all we got. And if the slide blocks the road we are more than screwed; as the only place we have to dump dirt is upstream. Once we cant do that we have to go to Cadman and pay 4/yd X 10 yd truck X # of trips.OUCH! Nice to have a thinking fellow on the brd. David Fun stuff from our best buddy BillS. I’m building that bridge. —Z To the property owners of MIR especially the 290 beyond the slide. I know some of you do not like me for whatever reason. However or community is in crisis now and we have a board that is acting in a gross negligent manner. Here are the Facts in case some of you community members did not know. 1. On January 18th 2014 the board held a private meeting closed to the membership. They did not notify the membership of this meeting as required by the bylaws. They have tried to pass this meeting off as just a friendly gathering. However, when two community members showed up they were told they were not allowed in because it was an executive session of the board. When the President, Mark Bollman, stopped by my house to ask for certain information from me I confronted him about the illegal meeting. His response was that it was not a meeting because they made no decisions. Since that time it has become apparent that they voted to go to the attorney to seek a ruling on who has to pay for the slide. They made a decision to agree not to talk to anyone about the meeting. All these acts constitute a illegal meeting by the board. There are no minutes of this meeting. This is gross misconduct on the part of the board. 2. On January 28th 2014 Lynne Kelly took it upon herself to contact another contractor to solicit a bid for fixing the slide and other general road maintenance work. She also went so far as to send this contractor a copy of Sky Valley Excavations current contract, list of pricing on equipment and labor as well as the last 10 invoices that were billed to MIR for the work done on the slide. In doing so she violated the contract with Sky Valley Excavation and MIR. She did these things prior to the Feb. 1st meeting of the board without their knowledge. Of course this could have been something else discussed at the previously held illegal board meeting. The on Feb 1st your board passed a motion to check the validity of the contract between Sky Valley Excavation with the attorney, thus spending unnecessary dollars. The later postponed this action. The voted to seek three others bids from other contractors. Wow! What a coincidence! . On Feb 3rd. Sky Valley Excavation was contacted by the very contractor that Lynne Kelley solicited for bids and pricing. He sent Sky Valley Excavation a copy of the emails that were sent to him by Ms. Kelley. This other contractor called her actions very unethical and is willing to be a witness for Sky Valley Excavation. 3. These actions that were taken by Lynne Kelly and the board are in complete violation of the contract between Sky Valley Excavation and the board. Sky Valley Excavation has a legal and binding contract through Jan 8 2018, which was voted and approved by the board and signed by the President. 4. At the Feb 1st meeting the board also took a vote to only pay Sky Valley Excavation for partial payment for January invoices, without discussing it with Sky Valley Excavation before the vote to work out any issues the board may have had. 5. Sky Valley Excavation has retained a lawyer which has sent a letter to Mark Bollman and the board members regarding their actions to cease the solicitation of other contractor’s bids. Their actions are in violation of Sky Valley Excavations contract and may constitute further legal action. Sky Valley Excavation has requested that the board demand the resignation of Lynne Kelly over these actions. 7. This vendetta by Lynne Kelley results from here being sued by Sky Valley Excavation years ago with Lynne Kelly being the losing party. 8. Even with all of this going on Sky Valley Excavation has not refused any further work by the board to this date. In fact there was a vote taken at 7:30pm on Feb 13th to bring him into make the road passable. He worked the following day for 3 days throughout the weekend. 9. Sky Valley has 3 proposals at this time to fix the landslide and was going to present them to the board and the community at the board on the Feb 1st. But after the board voted to only pay for partial payment to his January invoices he left in frustration and was not able to give those proposals. Of course Lynne Kelly is using the report from the PUD hired engineers that absolves PUD of any responsibility for the slide to prevent the board from hearing other ideas. 10. The President was given a formula for a special assessment in December. The President and the board refused to consider it at the January meeting. They waited till the February meeting to pass a Special Assessment, and it will not be going out until April 1st. Some of you will see your yearly invoice be close to $1000.00. What this means is that even more owners will not pay than already do not because they will be overwhelmed by the cost. If they had done the special assessment in December of January people would have been able to handle it better. It also means there will be no money coming in until May or June. In the meantime the road is virtually closed, homeowners past the slide have to walk, homeowners past the slide are having their property values suffer, property owner past the slide have no emergency fire service, no emergency PUD service, and may suffer from insurance issues for their properties. In 2006 after the flood we faced the same situation. No money. Mark Hopkins came into the community as soon as he could, repaired the road around the pool of Sunset Falls so PUD could get in and restore power, and then he worked to get us a one lane road in where the road washed out between the trestle and the rail road bridge. He did this by extending us credit because he trusted the board that he would get paid. He has stated he would be willing to do this again except he does not trust the current board, especially Lynne Kelly with all she is doing to violate his contract. The board has continually challenged Mark Hopkins concerning his invoices, as they should, but not to the point where they refuse to pay him for work they authorized. He is willing to extend credit again but changes in the board have to be made and guarantees for payment would have to be negotiated. He has told several board members this, but again they have taken no action. The board voted to spend money and charge the cost to all the side road owners to put a culvert under Anita Shultz’s drive way. This has never been the policy of the board. New culverts across driveways are the responsibility of the owner of the driveway. This action was omitted from the minutes of the board meeting and the board approved the minutes. This is falsify the minutes. In January the Payton Creek bridge, per the certification report, is supposed to be recertified annually. It has not been done because according to Lynne Kelly ”annual does not mean yearly”. Currently this bridge is not certified and the signs with the weight limit should be taken down. This is putting the community at risk for liability against the advice of MIRCC’s attorney and engineer. All of this is due to the gross negligence of your board and particular the executive portion of the board. Mark Bollman, Lynne Kelly and Anita Shultz. There are lawsuits being threatened. Is the board going to insist on spending money to defend these suits just to protect these three members who are leading the organization and our community? The 290 owners beyond the slide need to stand up. If you wish to help please make contact at saveourmir@gmail. Also, please attend the March 1st board meeting. A request has been given to the fire department to open up the bay so we can all fit inside. We need to take our board back! Bill S On Feb 13, 2014, at 2:50 PM, Lynne Kelly wrote: Hi again John, Another serious matter has just come to my attention. Does your department have any suggestions for getting propane delivered to the many homes east of the slide that rely on it for heat? Wed be interested in other types of fuel as well, since there are generators and other types of demands... but I believe propane is the big one, now that folks are starting to run dry and there is no way a delivery truck can get through the slide area now. Thank you, Lynne From: [email protected] To: blynnekelly@msn CC: [email protected] Subject: RE: Sunset Falls landslide Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2014 18:06:41 +0000 Good morning Lynne Hope you guys are doing okay out there. I am attaching an answer to your question, from Mr. Owen Carter in Public Works. His name and contact information is included. I really appreciated his quick response and answer. JP> The Washington State Constitution 18th Amendment requires that County Road funds can only be expended on public county roads. To convert this road to a public road Snohomish County Code (SCC) Title 13 lays out the steps for a road establishment. SCC 13.90.020 provides the process of establishing a new county road. This sections state that 1st the County Engineer has to consider the establishment as a public necessity and the interest of the county would best be served by establishing such road as part of the county transportation system. The road has to be constructed prior to establishment to meet Snohomish County Engineering Design and Development Standards (EDDS). Without knowing what the roadway volume is, if you assume that the Average Daily Traffic is between 91 and 2000 vehicles, the standard would require 24 feet of paved surface, a 5 foot separated walkway with 60 feet of dedicated right of way. To establish the road the Engineer will prepare an Engineer’s Report and the County Council would hold a public hearing and would have to ultimately decide if establishing the road would be in the best interest of the public. If the homeowners association would like to pursue this, I would be happy to meet with them to explain the process and discuss the standards. Let me know if you need anything else Owen Carter, P.E. | Deputy Director/County Engineer Snohomish County Department of Public Works 3000 Rockefeller Avenue M/S 607 Everett, Washington 98201 Phone (425) 388-6460 FAX (425) 388-6449 email [email protected] WEB snoco.org John E. Pennington, M.A. Director Department of Emergency Management (DEM) Snohomish County DEM Emergency Operations Center 720 80th Street SW: Building A Everett, WA 98203 (425) 388-5070 (425) 423-9152 (fax) On the Web at snoco.org On Facebook at facebook/SnoCoDEM Via Twitter at twitter/SnoCo_DEM NOTICE: All emails, and attachments, sent to and from Snohomish County are public records and may be subject to disclosure pursuant to the Public Records Act (RCW 42.56) From: Lynne Kelly [mailto:blynnekelly@msn] Sent: Monday, February 10, 2014 7:12 PM To: Contact EmerMang Subject: Sunset Falls landslide Hello John and Tammy and Mark, Can you please tell me what the steps are for abandoning the MIR road at the landslide? And having the county take it over? We are not planning on going that route yet, but the board is apparently about to be sued and we are trying to put together a list of ALL our options so that we can save money on attorney fees and put it toward the road instead. The wet snow is certainly not helping - our snowplow is too wide to get past the slide, so if/when folks finally get by there, they slip and slide the rest of the way home. Thank you for any contacts you might provide. Lynne Kelly 360-793-2755 If you are actually going to ask MH back out here with no work instructions or dollar limit, I take back my abstention and vote hell NO to having him work on the road. (lynne kelly) My truck went up and down the muddy hill today. After I left a Subaru got stuck and abandoned blocking the narrow spot at the mud slide so no one was getting in or out. Sheriff was called but I dont know if its gone yet. Five of you said to call Mark Hopkins back to clear a single lane: Tom, Gary, Julia, Dave, Jim Three of you said No: Anita, Phil, Lynne Zan abstained, and I think Patty told Anita on the phone that she probably would too. I have been watching MH work and the mud is coming down faster than he can haul it away, and more mud comes down every time he reaches in and scoops out mud. Weather forecast is for more rain every day, for over a week. PUD has granted millions of dollars in contracts that are scheduled to commence in 2 weeks, all of which are at the falls or east of the slide. Many of these dam studies involve heavy equipment. I suggest we sit tight and let PUD burn up their dollars on the road. We are going to soon be judged by 476 property owners for burning up every last dollar we have in a futile attempt to move a never-ending supply of mud, when we were forewarned by multiple experts. We wont have any money to make the repairs we voted to get bids for at our last meeting: 1) Remove the concrete culvert to the east and grade the ditch to flow eastward. 2)Construct a French Drain as described in the report. 3)Improve the drainage at the hairpin curve by removing all loose sediment from the inboard ditch and create a drainage path to a temporary sediment pond. 4)To design, install, and maintain adequate temporary erosion and sedimentation control measures. Passed 9:1 This slide hasnt even happened yet and we are acting like children who want their candy now. This is no time to stick our heads in the sand. Would a different group of 11 board members make the same decisions we have? Are we opting for a reasonable course? LK From: cbur82@aol Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2014 14:43:03 -0500 Subject: Re: Muddy Road To: markbollman@yahoo; blynnekelly@msn; thomasgrenier48@hotmail; carnuck@hotmail; [email protected]; garydhubbard@hotmail; bkctryskier@yahoo; Pattynharv@yahoo; juliarakin@gmail; pereichel2000@yahoo Board Looking at the financials that Mark showed to everyone MIR had 18.000 in the account minus 5000.00 last Sky Valley invoice, 3400.00 Sky Valley disputed invoice, 1490.00 Harmsen that leaves 8110.00 and we still dont know the amount we owe to Adams & Duncan, Monroe Monitor, Everett Herald and some of you voted to send Sky Valley out to clear a lane, with no amount approved, and with days and days left of heavy rain. REALLY!!! Good Thinking.. Anita Thanks Lynne, interesting idea ... wonder how long we could hold our breath with a blocked road and stare down PUD when they have contractors requiring access. Would have to be willing to stick it out, hold firm together and not be the first one to blink. But I dont have any better ideas at this time as I sit at Sunset Falls guarding the Road Closed sign in the dumping rain today. From: Lynne Kelly To: Anita Shultz ; Dave MacFarlane ; Gary Hubbard ; Janice Dobbs ; Jim Blair ; Julia Akin ; Mark Bollman ; Patty Harbaugh ; Phil Reichel ; Tom Grenier ; Zan Oliphant Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 12:21 PM Subject: Consider this I have been watching MH work and the mud is coming down faster than he can haul it away, and more mud comes down every time he reaches in and scoops out mud. Weather forecast is for more rain every day, for over a week. PUD has granted millions of dollars in contracts that are scheduled to commence in 2 weeks, all of which are at the falls or east of the slide. Many of these dam studies involve heavy equipment. I suggest we sit tight and let PUD burn up their dollars on the road. Greetings Board Members: In the last two weeks I have been approached by four different property owners who expressed an interest in joining our board. I was sorry to learn that not one of them had actually read the most important documents that govern our corporation: Bylaws Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law Decree Affecting Title I plan to direct these well-meaning folks to our web site to print out their own copies of these three critical documents. If they are still interested in joining us at our March 1st meeting I hope someone will please ask each prospective board member if they have actually read and understand these documents. If they have not, please respectfully ask them to get back to us when they are better informed or please vote No if they insist on being nominated. Meanwhile, I would like to suggest that we place these three documents in a much more prominent place front & center on our web page. You all know I have little interest in web sites and find most of whats posted to be a waste of cyber space, but if we are going to maintain a web site the most useful thing it could do for us is present these pertinent facts in an easy-to-find place for all current or prospective property owners. If youre not sure what Im talking about, please go to our official web site and see how far you have to dig to find them. Also notice all the irrelevant fluff you have to wade through to get to them. For example, how can leash laws, meaningless road standards, the Galt report, or any of the other out-dated class-action documents be more important than our bylaws and Judge Wynnes orders? Thoughts, anyone? Mark bollman Hi Mark/all, I think bringing on new board members during a time of crisis is a bad idea. If we do that, what we will get is pissed off land owners on the board. This person(s) will only be concerned about their own self interest, and will attempt to manipulate our votes. When the crisis is over, they will resign. We have a good team now - why add a wildcard? Just my thoughts. Cheers, —Z Thank you for all your work, Tom and Mark! It could not have been much fun out there all day in the rain. From: thomasgrenier48@hotmail To: bkctryskier@yahoo; carnuck@hotmail; cbur82@aol; garydhubbard@hotmail; janmardo@yahoo; juliarakin@gmail; blynnekelly@msn; markbollman@yahoo; pattynharv@yahoo; pereichel2000@yahoo; thomasgrenier48@hotmail; [email protected] Subject: Road is open Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2014 19:37:45 -0800 The road is open again. Our contractor has made an effort to direct the mud away from the road surface. He has left his hoe on site so dont panic. Tom I say lets count all three of Phils votes. Patty From: Phil Reichel To: Zan Oliphant ; Mark Bollman Cc: Lynne Kelly ; Tom Grenier ; Blair Jim ; Shultz Anita ; Gary Hubbard ; MacFarlane Dave ; Patty Harbaugh ; Julia Akin Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2014 10:41 PM Subject: Re: bad idea in a crisis I vote to consider it last-- phil I feel we dont need to add members at this time, -- and we are not compelled to do so. The previous motion was to consider filling the vacancies. We still have yet to vote to actually do it. phil On Saturday, February 15, 2014 10:32 PM, Zan Oliphant wrote: Oh, I would put it on the agenda wherever you had it last time when we voted for a new board member. I’m not tracking on the first or last thing - so no opinion on that from me. I don’t think it matters. Any potential board member that has not read the bylaws, and the judges decision will get an instant NO vote from me. I had to fight for three months to get on the MIR board. I read everything multiple times. I got three no votes, and those three folks resigned right after that. Then there was an attempt with legal threats to get me (and others to resign). You all know the story. Let’s just say any prospective board member will need to know their stuff to get a YES vote from me. Cheers, —Z On Feb 15, 2014, at 9:43 PM, Mark Bollman wrote: Zan, I agree ... but if board wants to take on new members at this time I cant stop it and the motion passed 8 to 2 last month. So only thing I need your opinion on now is put it FIRST or LAST on the agenda? From: Zan Oliphant To: Mark Bollman Cc: Lynne Kelly ; Tom Grenier ; Blair Jim ; Shultz Anita ; Gary Hubbard ; MacFarlane Dave ; Patty Harbaugh ; Julia Akin ; Phil Reichel Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2014 8:32 PM Subject: Re: Important Documents Hi Mark/all, I think bringing on new board members during a time of crisis is a bad idea. If we do that, what we will get is pissed off land owners on the board. This person(s) will only be concerned about their own self interest, and will attempt to manipulate our votes. When the crisis is over, they will resign. We have a good team now - why add a wildcard? Just my thoughts. Cheers, I vote to consider it last-- phil I feel we dont need to add members at this time, -- and we are not compelled to do so. The previous motion was to consider filling the vacancies. We still have yet to vote to actually do it. phil Zan, I agree ... but if board wants to take on new members at this time I cant stop it and the motion passed 8 to 2 last month. So only thing I need your opinion on now is put it FIRST or LAST on the agenda? From: Zan Oliphant To: Mark Bollman Cc: Lynne Kelly ; Tom Grenier ; Blair Jim ; Shultz Anita ; Gary Hubbard ; MacFarlane Dave ; Patty Harbaugh ; Julia Akin ; Phil Reichel Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2014 8:32 PM Subject: Re: Important Documents Hi Mark/all, I think bringing on new board members during a time of crisis is a bad idea. If we do that, what we will get is pissed off land owners on the board. This person(s) will only be concerned about their own self interest, and will attempt to manipulate our votes. When the crisis is over, they will resign. We have a good team now - why add a wildcard? Just my thoughts. Cheers
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 23:07:23 +0000
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