The Woodmen Hills Metropolitan District board met Dec. 16. The meeting highlights follow. Athletics and program director hiredThe WHMD hired Theresa Odella as the athletics and program director for the parks and recreation department. Odella has a master’s degree in sports and science, and is a ball of fire, said district manager Larry Bishop.”She knows how to organize and reach out to the community,” he said. “She has great ideas about senior programs and how to include all the kids.”Overall, the parks and recreation programs generated more income than was anticipated, but some programs did not break even.”We’re going to make sure they break even or look at different programs that might break even,” Bishop said. “Theresa’s idea is to reach out to the community and find out exactly what the interests are for summer programs.”Odella starts Jan. 3.New rules for utility hookupsBishop said the district has never had its own rules and specifications for hooking up a new house to the district’s water and sewer infrastructure. The district has been requiring builders to follow Colorado Springs Utilities rules and specifications.”If you get to the point where you’re in some sort of contest, and you don’t have your own rules and specifications in place, you’ve got a little bit of (legal) exposure,” Bishop said, which is why he has been working on rules and specifications, based on CSU standards, for the board to adopt.”It’s important to protect us … from a developer doing slipshod work that we end up having to clean up. Every district ought to have them.”Backflow prevention program in the worksSprinkler systems are capable of drawing water contaminated by herbicides, pesticides and other poisons used in gardens and on lawns into the drinking water system, a process known as “backflow.”Because backflow is a public health and safety issue, Bishop said he has been developing a backflow prevention program for the past three years, as time permits.Under the future program, every homeowner’s sprinkler system must have a backflow preventer, he said.Backflow preventers usually have a removable baffle that’s likely to fail in cold weather, so the preventers will need to be tested every year. To meet the testing requirement, someone on the district’s staff will need to be certified as a backflow prevention tester, Bishop said.”There are a lot of little things that make a district hum and one of them is a backflow prevention program,” he said.Covenant reviewThe district hired covenant attorney Leonard Rioth to review the covenants for each filing.Bishop said Rioth promised to deliver his written review of the covenants by the end of December.The board decided to hold a town hall meeting on the district’s plans to update its service plan. The meeting will be held Feb. 23. Time and location will be determined later.Board meeting date changeThe board voted to meet the fourth Thursday of the month in 2011, except for November, when the meeting will be held the third Thursday.The meeting time and location remain the same: 6:30 p.m. at Woodmen Hills Community Center West, 11720 Woodmen Hills Dr. in Falcon.The board’s next meeting will be Jan. 24.
