April 2009

Greetings Burnett Ranch Landowners,
Spring has come to Burnett Ranch! And with it some rain. Not enough, but some is better than none. The landscape is certainly greener, and less dry. The river remains low. Here’s hoping for more rain. We have been intermittently under a burn ban, between rains, due to elevated fire risk, so please continue to be aware and careful.

The Annual Park Association Voting Meeting will be held at 11:00 AM, on May 16th. Please plan on attending. A main dish will be provided for our potluck picnic. Bring a covered dish and chairs.

Board meeting minutes may be read in their entirety on our website www.burranch.org. Highlights from the Board Meeting held March 28th, 2009:

• Committee reports :

  Nominating: Ed Pope made a request for nominations. All Board members attending indicated they were willing to run for their offices again. No other nominations were offered, but they are welcome, and may be submitted to Ed Pope.

  Financial: A financial review of the books by Margret Roach and Rita Peck found the books in good order and made recommendations.

  Park Maintenance: The Board has retained Leslie Howe, for legal counsel, in response to the Sandy Point park entrance being blocked with a locked gate by the two landowners at the end of this road. Ms. Howe came to present her findings on this matter to the board. To summarize: Ms. Howe and the Burnett Ranch Park Association hold that the two parties have illegally blocked access to the park at this location. Our plan to address this is:

  1. Leslie Howe will send a letter to the two landowners, explaining our position, and requesting them to remove the locked gate, or allow the park association to purchase or replace the gate, and utilize our own lock, using the same key as the other park entrance. (This letter has been sent.)
  2. Meet with the County Commissioner and County Attorney, who have offered to help settle the issue in an attempt to resolve the dispute.
  3. Engage in formal Mediation with the parties.
  4. Engage in Binding Arbitration with the parties.

  Leslie also recommended that we obtain a new survey of our park.

• A park clean-up day was scheduled on May 2nd, from 9 AM to 1 PM. All members are invited to come and to bring appropriate tools and equipment, such as wheelbarrows, rakes, shovels, trailers, and trash bags
• A section of steel cable was stolen from the park boundary posts near the main entrance. Steve Mason has offered to help Ed Pope replace the cable.
• Cary Camden explained that the Burnett Ranch website was down, temporarily, due to a change in providers. He will be improving and adding to the website. We encourage everyone to check out this site, and are hoping to expand the site to include a forum, message board, and other features. We would like to reduce paper newsletters, as much as possible, and to encourage all members to receive the newsletter by email. Current email addresses are requested, and are being compiled into a mailing list.
• We are working on a plan for park security during high use periods. Ed Pope will obtain bids and present these at the annual May meeting.

*****If you haven’t already paid, annual dues are payable now! If you still need parking stickers, please provide your name, address, phone #, make/model/tag # of vehicles, section & lot #, along with any dues owed. You can down load the form here. The current dues are $60.00. Thank you for supporting your park.

Board Members for 2008-2009

Ed Pope	President	512-468-8191	edwardpope@gmail.com
Rita Peck	Vice President	512-847-6512	spinner6116@yahoo.com
Loretta Robinson	Secty./Treasurer	512-842-3305	lorettakayr-2@lycos.com
Rose Burke	VP, Communications	512-627-7673	zenroze@gmail.com
Margaret Roach	Sgt. At Arms	512-280-0242	roaches@austin.rr.com

Section I	Kinda Van Den Nieewenhuysen	patrickvdn@hotmail.com	512-751-1689
Section II	Adena Sanders	mitch_sanders@dell.com	512-627-9845
Section III	Jeanette Kinard	jkinard@centraltexasattorney.com
Section IV	Cary Camden	section4@camden-family.com	512-249-5097
Section V	Rand Schwarz	rand@tjrand.com	512-847-7034