Our Village

There seems to be a course correction on our swing bridge assessment. LIV board members not on the Bridge Board pushed and apparently received legal backing that the September 2ND Bridge Board’s motion to assess each of the 1024 LIV owners and 27 outside property owners $300 was not valid, so the Bridge Board on September 15th rescinded their motion. It is now pending further review.
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During a special September 2nd meeting, the Bridge Board voted unanimously to accept the swing bridge foam bid from Brazos Urethane of Texas City at the cost of $387,317 plus tax, thus making the total $419,270.65. Prior to the vote there were these questions and statements. Director Vasquez asked if this would have an affect the on the bridge insurance and the Board President said he didn’t see how it could since it was an improvement.
Director Steffensen was in the audience and later asked since it appears an improvement, might it not be wise to inquire if may lower the bridge’s insurance costs and the response was we will find out.
Pat Burke asked if the added weight of the foam will affect either the performance or the level of the bridge. The Board's response was by adding 90,000 pounds of foam, the level of the barge will lower approximately 5 inches and the performance should be nil, but it might influence cable wear. Ms. Burke asked how long will the foam additions last and the response, "indefinitely".
The President said work is expected to start in January or February after the assessments are collected at the end of this year and while Brazos Urethane uses two weeks to fill each of the barge’s sixteen internal compartments, the bridge will not be closed. The worse that may happen is that one lane on the bridge might be closed.
It was asked how much a new bridge would cost and the best answers were  twenty-five years ago it was one million and nineteen years ago it was five million.
The Bridge Board voted unanimously to assess each Island owner $300 (total $315,300) and the remaining $103,970.65 will be paid out of the Bridge Board’s emergency fund. Prior to the vote there were these questions and statements.
It was disclosed that there were 1051 property owners on Long Island, twenty-seven of which who own property outside of LIV. Ms. Burke said that the Declaration and Bylaws state that all assessments are to be done using tax appraised values of the properties. To note after looking through the Declaration and the Bylaws I found tax appraised values are to be used towards voting power, but nothing pointed towards assessments.
Below are the sites of the contractor who will do the foam procedure.
http://brazosurethane.com/contact.html
http://www.brazosurethane.com/

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