The GSPOA board of directors will meet on Monday evening, October 2nd, at 6PM via Zoom, in preparation for the Annual General Meeting this weekend. Agenda for this call:
The 2023 Annual General Meeting (AGM) is set for an in-person meeting at the East Whatcom Regional Resource Center on Saturday, October 7th, 2022 at 1:00 PM PDT.
AGM information and proxy forms, which have been mailed to members, must be returned by post or email by October 5, 2023. Failure to secure a minimum of 50 proxies or in-person member attendees will cost the Association considerable expense to hold a second meeting, so please return your proxy or plan to attend on October 7th.
The following items of business are presented:
Meeting materials:
AGM Documents, including Annual Report, Financial Statements, and the 2023-2024 Budget are password protected. The password is listed on the paper copy of the meeting notice mailed/emailed to each member. If you have misplaced your notice, please email info@glaciersprings.org with your name and Glacier Springs address, and we will re-send the password to you.
Just a quick reminder to property owners and residents about two upcoming meetings. Information about both can be found in your AGM notice mailed/emailed earlier this week.
An information session has been scheduled via Zoom for Monday evening, September 25th, from 6-7PM. See this link for information, a registration link, and to submit your questions in advance:
Water system informational session – September 25, 2023 – 6-7PM Pacific via Zoom
As mentioned in the AGM notice sent on Tuesday, the association’s Annual General meeting will be held on Saturday, October 7, 2023, at 1PM Pacific at the East Whatcom Regional Resource Center. Check back here for associated documents, which will be posted by Saturday, September 30th. And please remember to return your proxy form if you are unable to attend in person. Thank you!
As mentioned in previous communication, we will be hosting an optional informational session regarding the water system. This session is scheduled for Monday evening, September 25, 2023 from 6:00-7:00PM Pacific.
The purpose of this info session is to provide an update on our water system remediation efforts and potential plans going forward. It will include representatives from the Department of Health as well as our water system operator and the engineering firm we have been working with for the first phase of these efforts. The meeting will be held via Zoom. Advance registration is required, but it is open to all community members. We will record the session and make the recording available via our website for anyone who cannot attend on September 25th but wishes to view it later.
Registration/Q&A links and general info are provided here: https://glaciersprings.org/WaterInfoMeeting
Please Register in Advance:
Please visit the link above for information and a link to the registration form, or enter this link into your browser: https://washington.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0OfWys9-Q6iSE0MAfekOcg
Q&A:
To make the session as efficient as possible, please submit your questions by Monday, September 18th. We will consolidate questions submitted in advance. The link to submit your questions is also available at https://glaciersprings.org/WaterInfoMeeting, but is provided here as well:
This is a friendly reminder that Glacier Springs Property Owners’ Association (POA) dues were due on March 31. Reminders for unpaid balances were sent in April, and final notices were mailed this week. After August 31st, the GSPOA will be conducting a thorough review of all outstanding POA dues. Any balances remaining unpaid after this date may result in further actions being taken, including the placement of a lien on your property. A lien is a legal claim against your property that can affect your ability to sell or refinance your home or property.
We recommend that all property owners ensure that their current mailing information is shared with the GSPOA at info@glaciersprings.org. We also recommend that you ensure that your mailing address on the official Whatcom County Assessor & Treasurer site reflects a deliverable address. If the mailing address listed on the Whatcom County site is the same as your Glacier Springs property address, your invoices may be being sent to that address, which is typically undeliverable, as USPS does not deliver to Glacier Springs. It is the owner’s responsibility to ensure that the GSPOA has your proper/deliverable mailing address. If you have questions about your dues balance, contact accounting@glaciersprings.org.
The 2023 Consumer Confidence Report for the Glacier Springs Waster system is now available for all property owners. Click here to download a copy. A special thank you to Larry Watts and John Mercer/Water Systems Services for their efforts this year.
Hello everyone –
First off – not a lot of change in the past two weeks in terms of test results; now that things have stayed drier, we have continued to have clean test results. The boil water advisory is still in effect, however, per the DOH.
Second, and more importantly, an update on our remediation efforts:
Two representatives from the DOH were up last Wednesday for a site visit to the storage tanks and the spring boxes at the source. This visit has been planned since we had our first unsatisfactory test result – not due to any recent changes. On the whole, DOH has been very complimentary of our handling of the situation so far, but the visit did result in recommendations that were unexpected.
The DOH recommended we redesign and replace the spring boxes at the source and also implement a plan for water treatment. This would mean installation of either a UV or chemical/chlorine treatment system. They had concerns that our system, as designed nearly 50 years ago, would not be approved under today’s standards. They also felt that our current plan for remediation work would be insufficient to solve the issue long-term. For these reasons, we elected to put the originally-planned work at the source on hold.
The Board has formed a task force to respond immediately. We are working with our water operator and the Department of Health, and have reached out to contractors to identify water system engineers who might review DOH’s recommendations, review the current system, and suggest solutions. The board’s task force will meet weekly to advance this work.
Once preliminary information is collected, we will call a special meeting of the Association. This meeting will be scheduled as soon as we can confirm that we’ll have at least one engineering firm’s review of the system. This will give all of you the chance to hear about the challenges, proposed remedies, and costs, and hear the Board’s recommendations for next steps. Whatever course of action we take, it is extremely likely the membership will need to approve.
I realize this is not the news we were hoping for, but the health of the system and of our community is the top priority. Additionally, it is important that we solve the current water challenges for the long term. This infrastructure is the most important asset of our community, and we treating this with the highest care.
Please be on the lookout for more information soon.
Hello everyone! We’re back to a bit of better news these past two weeks – The most recent sampling results were submitted. All 9 of these results are clean, as were the 8 testing locations last week. The main thing that has changed between this round of 9 samples and the previous round of 8 samples on 4/28 (that all had trace coliform hits) is that the weather had improved and the area around the spring boxes had begun to dry out. This further supports our assessment that the bacteriological hits are most likely coming from surface water contaminating the spring boxes near the spring source.
That said, the go-forward plan is still the same. The association and its contractors are still waiting for things to dry up enough to get started on the spring box maintenance project. We’re super hopeful that the upcoming stretch of good weather will finally allow the remediation work to be competed.
Hello, everyone –
Unfortunately not the news I was hoping to be able to share today – after several weeks of clean test results, the results which just came back from the lab showed the presence of coliform again (negative for E Coli, however, which is good). The working theory is still re-sealing of the spring boxes up at the source, but as the road to the source is still soggy, (and therefore the contractor cannot get the heavy equipment up there yet) that work has not yet been completed. I’ll be connecting again later today with our water operator for an update or any estimates they may be able to provide, but at this point, unfortunately, we are not able to recommend lifting the boil-water advisory.
Thank you, again, for your continued patience.