Town of Georgetown
Affordable Housing Trust
Minutes (approved 9-Feb-11)
Date: 19-Jan-11 6:00pm Town Hall 2nd floor meeting room
Attendance: Tim Gerraughty; David Surface; Paul Nelson; Phil Trapani: Chas Waters (late)
Guest: Mike Farrell; Lori Nickerson; Andrew Ciano
Minutes
DS made a motion to approve the minutes of 6-Dec-10 as amended; PN 2nd Vote 4-0
Update on HPP
Mike Farrell said he spoke with Lynne Sweet and she questioned as to why the Trust wanted to spend money on a HPP when we are already above 10% on affordable units. He said Chas would have a better explanation so tabled till later.
Recording with Registry of Deeds / Land Registration Office
Paul Nelson said there was a charge of about $75 to file in Salem. There was discussion regarding the need of this and the board decided it would continue for now. Paul to call and find the exact fee and get a check from the Trustees and get recorded.
201 Central Street
CW recapped where we were at the close of our last meeting regarding the deed rider, down payment and possible issues.
CW asked if Ms. Nickerson received the information that PN emailed and she said yes. CW asked if she had any paper work for us and she gave the Trust an excel sheet of all improvements from May 2004 to present as well as copies of receipts.
Mr. Ciano said he spoke with legal council (John Burns) and Ms. Nickerson did not have title insurance it was purchased by the bank at the closing, but it was only for the banks protection and she had not purchased a separate policy for herself.
DS said that if a purchase was not possible to be arranged there was still a chance that the banks’ policy might still cover a portion of the difference.
CW said that Ms. Nickerson had contacted the town 4 years ago regarding possibly selling and K&P review said there were issues with the deed rider, but did not give any direction or possible solutions to move the issue forward. He said that it is his goal and he hopes the goal of the Trust to not leave this open ended again and give Ms. Nickerson direction at this meeting and provide a speedy process to an end solution.
CW polled the Trust to see if they were in favor of a buy down. TG-yes; DS- Yes; PN unsure if spending approx $100K on one unit was beneficial instead of spreading that appoint out to aid many units; PT – not sure that $ spent on buy down is the best use of funds; CW-yes.
There was discussion about what “improvements” were and if the qualify as “capital”.
PN said that if you use the formula the max selling price for the unit based on his discussion with HUD would be $160K. That means in general terms that if all the improvement were deemed capital we were looking in the area of $100K buy down to make the formula work. It was debated if $100K to retain a unit as affordable was in the best interest of the Trust.
There was talk about the closing cost being in the range of $10K and who would bear that cost.
DS made a motion to make an offer of a buy down in order to retain the unit as affordable stock PN 2nd vote 5-0.
Mr. Ciano was asked and agreed to e-mail to CW an affidavit of improvements that he would then forward on to the Trustees. PT asked for a time line so that Ms. Nickerson was not delayed any more than necessary and DS thought that the Trustees could have an offer ready in 60 days if the affidavit was received in a timely manner.
PN agreed to obtain the definition of “capital expenses” to see if each item on Ms. Nickerson’s list qualified, and report back to the Trust next meeting.
CW agreed to contact K&P to engage them (on the Trust’s account) to prepare an “offer” to purchase a buy-down of the property, and advice about the process. He will report back to the trust next meeting.
Ms. Nickerson and Mr. Ciano will be invited to the next meeting to continue.
PT left to attend another meeting.
Update on HPP
CW said he spoke with Lynne Sweet (LDS Consulting) and had invited her to our next meeting. He asked that we think about engaging someone after the HPP is created to aid the Trust in expediting our goals as we are a volunteer board with no expertise in affordable housing.
Affordable Housing SOP
We reviewed the e-mail from PN dated 11-Nov-10 and CW asked PN to update it to more of an outline form and to include timetables. PN agreed to prepare the draft SOP for next meeting.
DS made a motion to adjourn 7:29pm (PN 2nd) Vote 4-0 in favor
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