1105 Massachusetts Avenue Condominium Trust
Board of Trustees Meeting
November 14, 2024
The meeting of the 1105 Mass. Ave. Condominium Trust Board of Trustees was held on Thursday, November 14, 2024 at 6:00 PM via Zoom.
Present for the Board of Trustees were John Giannacopoulos, Rick Landau, Roger O’Sullivan, Peter Sullivan, Brad Settle and Bev Thornton.
PREVIOUS MONTHS MINUTES: The minutes of the October 24, 2024 meeting were approved as presented.
LAUNDRY PROPOSAL: We requested more versions of the proposal that include installation of bases for the machines. We need details on the bases and also want the high, medium and low and delicates (4) options on the dryer., also to know how many minutes you get for the 25 cents
YEAR END BONUSES AND INCREASES: Amounts were discussed and increased from last year. All agreed.
FINANCIAL STATEMENT AND ACCOUNT STATUS: The October financial is not yet done. It was asked since Laura is on leave who reviews the financial statement, Bev reviews the financial statements.
BEUDO: Roger reported that we are in phase one of BEUDO and that there is an executive officer in charge. No changes right now, but Phase 2 might affect us.
UPDATING DOCUMENTS: We will see what we can do in our rules versus needing a vote of all owners. Ask the attorney specifically if we can change our late fees via the rules.
ELEVATOR CONSULTANT: Need an update from VDA on the follow up to the report and also the price to write the specifications. It was asked if we should set up meetings with VDA on a regular basis to get this moving forward. We need to have them get involved with Staney because we are on borrowed time with the existing controllers.
YEAR END FINANCIAL: No questions on the year end financial.
CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY ACT: Bev asked for information from all Trustees so that she can file the records.
TOILET FEED LINE NOTICE: The notice was approved and will go out when we have a price to replace them within one stack.
INCREASED SECURITY FRONT ENTRANCE: We are looking into replacing the inner security door and/or the frame. We have had problems with the striker on the front door. We are moving forward with the extra butterfly box for the front outer door. We are also investigating installing magnets on the exterior doors.
OTHER MAINTENANCE ITEMS: The concrete work was done on the hole for Eversource and we are waiting for the metal grid to be completed.
The insurance from the toilet feed line damages is not quite worked out. We believe one unit is not willing to put a claim into their homeowners insurance.
There has been no response from Eversource after receiving our attorney’s letter regarding their bills for costs during their work in the substation.
ELECTION: The three people who were running were appointed to the board to fill the vacancies. All in favor.
ANNUAL MEETING PREP: Peter will talk about 2G renovations, Brad will address EV stations and laundry equipment, Myra will talk about Eversource and the elevator, Bev will talk about the front door, Roger will update everyone on BEUDO.
Bev put together a spread sheet to show future costs needs in case we need to do a supplemental assessment. We will introduce this idea to the owners.
JOHN EVANS LAWSUIT: We were served by the sheriff's office that John has filed suit. This information has been forwarded to the insurance company to assign legal support to us.
Respectfully submitted,
ELN Management
Myra Finn Miller
1105 Massachusetts Avenue Condominium Trust
Annual Meeting of Unit Owners
November 14, 2024
The 1105 Mass Ave. Condominium Trust meeting of Unit Owners was held on Zoom on Thursday, November 14, 2024.
Present for the Board of Trustees were John Giannacopoulos, Rick Landau, Roger O’Sullivan, Brad Settle, Peter Sullivan and Bev Thornton.
Also attending were Tom Pardee, Michael Ho, David Seipp, Christine Hwang, Sera Miller, Boo Lunt, Franne Rosenthal, Mojan Foroutan and Marge Mulkerin.
There were 14 owners present representing 19 units.
Everyone was welcomed to the meeting.
Everyone introduced themselves.
The Board reviewed the list of accomplishments for the prior year.
Peter Sullivan explained what has recently been done in the Trust-owned unit. 2G is a one-bedroom unit. The unit was renovated and is currently rented.
Brad Settle explained how we researched rebate programs for electric car charging stations. Most rebates are for purely residential and we are a mixed-use building, and we don’t have extra parking spaces. We also don’t have deeded parking. We are not looking at installing charging stations right now.
We replaced the roof over Boston Burger, it was our final big section of roof to do!
Myra gave a rough history of the Eversource substation (the hole in the ground) located on the property (which has impacted access to the rear entrance and parking spaces from Remington St.)
We are investigating better security for the front and back doors. We have ordered a second butterfly box for the front exterior door, which will be locked for several hours overnight. The rear exterior door will also be locked during overnight hours with ability for owners to access with their fobs.
Elevators: the elevators are aging, and we have hired an elevator consultant to examine the refurbishing proposal from our current elevator servicing company.
Roger O’Sullivan addressed the BEUDO issues with the City of Cambridge. The city is trying to reduce its fossil fuel footprint. It called for all residential buildings to eliminate fossil fuel by 2035. There are many issues associated with the ordinance compliance and they are being addressed. One is the fire department requires a backup system for running elevators and that conflicts with the ordinance. Also, Eversource cannot provide the amount of power needed for all of these changes.
Brad talked about laundry equipment. We currently own the washers and dryers in the building, as they age, we are having trouble finding replacement machines as well as getting machines that use tokens. We are reviewing proposals from several companies that will provide and service machines on a long-term lease. We will no longer have to do maintenance on the equipment.
There were questions as to when this will happen and also what happens to tokettes that people have in their possession. Refunds will be issued for previously purchased tokettes. The price per wash/dry load is going up to $2.50 (from the current $1.50)
Plumbing: In the last few months there have been several occasions where toilet feed lines have let go and burst. We want people to inspect the lines within their unit; it is unit owner responsibility to maintain plumbing in good working order. Management and the Board are working on ways to proceed with the inspection and plumbing work.
Bev thanked Myra, Elder and Jose for their hard work.
Finances: We are able to pay our bills, but we have some major expenses coming up. Elevators could cost up to a $1,000,000, Security upgrade costs are pending, and the issue with the hole in the ground Eversource substation costs have impacted our reserves.
A few years ago, our reserve account was very low, and we replenished it with an assessment. We currently have around $800,000 in reserve, but these projects will deplete the reserve. We are discussing a supplemental assessment so that we don’t fully deplete our reserve. More information will be forthcoming.
There was a question about the pipe replacement work. It has been on hold due to other plumbing projects and medical leave for our plumber.
David Seipp thanked all of the Trustees for their hard work and for volunteering to do this job.
The meeting was adjourned.