Aida's Questions

I have extracted Aida's questions and placed them here, as they go beyond the security issue.
Following the questions are excerpts of two emails sent to me, which address some of the questions and offer
help in getting others answered.
It is hoped that under the category of improving the forum they will engender some meaningful dialog
among our fellow Costambarians, both those currently in the DR and those of us who are temporarily in the 'diaspora' .

First, Aida's questions:
1- Has planta bought Hotel Bay Side?
2- If not what those APC know about the two out side armed security officers whom guarding the Bay Side Hotel 24hrs.IN COSTAMBAR?
3- How many none paying residents have been taken to court to be forced to pay their past and present maintenance fees?
4- What is the result of these court cases?
5- How many members have joined APC/how many have stopped paying APC.
6- What is the financial situation of APC/ how about putting up the last 6 months of financial report on the web site.
7- Two months ago a beach visitor was killed at the beach, could we have some information about that? was that incident included in the monthly security report?
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Next, Ann Walsh's response:
I do believe that San Felipe has bought Bayside and intends to turn it into offices for the staff - but as I've been away for a while I'd like to hear confirmation from someone else. The Board has not been notified officially of this - there's no reason they should.

Only Yash Aggarwal knows the full outcome of the court cases. I think none have been successfully concluded but you know how things drag on. And Yash was away for a while...

Ron Moran is the Treasurer and (Submarine) John Mandolio is now working with him. The books have ALWAYS been accessible to APC members. Personally don't think we should publish Financial reports on the site for the world to see.

Many more members have paid up and none stopped paying - I 'm sure office has the figures.

I'm assuming Aida is referring to the knife fight on a Sunday at the beach which resulted in a death and which the Police/Politure arrested the killer. We'd have to ask Sandro Falla if he included it, but technically the beach is not within APC security, especially on a Sunday.
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And Barb's comments and offer to follow up:
Unfortunately there is only one or two board members that read the forum. Perhaps these questions would best be addressed at General Meetings. One option would be to print out the questions and have the appropriate APC member answer them and then post the info on the forum. I agree with Ann - the the financial information should not be posted on the forum - it can be viewed at the APC office.

I agree that any information regarding Bayside should be posted but who is responsible for this and where does one find this information if the Board has not been notified? I can ask Don if he will get the office to email the figures of non-paying and paying members and post the figures only - no list of names etc. and the Security Report.

Ann, it would appears, is the only Board Member brave enough to be a part of the Forum and she is away until the end of July. Once she is back I'm sure the information will more accessible.

I will see what I can do in the mean time to get some info from the APC Office.
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The Forum was suggested by the APC Board as a venue for the community to discuss various topics, resolve issues, ask questions, get tips and advice, and more. The Costambar Community Forum is not, however, administrated or monitored by the members of the APC Board and the direct questions for the Board cannot be answered by us, the administers as we are volunteers and not board members. We felt that by changing the name to reflect what the Forum was designed for – the community – would help clear up impression that the Forum was APC administrated. The Forum is linked to the APC Costambar Web Site for easier access and the URL had to include the Web Site’s URL. As stated on the Home page, discussions of varying points of view are encouraged but direct questions for the APC Board must be directed to them.

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I have read all the above opinions carefully and digested all the points of view expressed about this subject.
Personally, I realize APC (or its Board members) cannot be expected to constantly be running a "news service".
One suggestion above is that if one has a question, one ought to go to the APC office or e-mail the pertinent Board member for answers.
The first suggestion is a physical impossibility if one (like many of us now) is out of the country and the second also seems somewhat utopic as well, since it has been said that "no Board members access the Internet or the Forum, but for Don Docker and Ann Walsh".
If a person can get answers to any questions by either of the means suggested above, ask yourselves: "what is then wrong or undesirable for the rest of us to get the same answers via the Forum, that such person obtained personally?
Openess is the best way to build trust among the governed by those who govern.
I for one, dislike returning to Costambar and being presented with consumated facts about which I knew nothing and by then, may not be able to do anything about either.
If we refrain from asking questions for the sole purpose to needle or annoy, overwhelm the Board with such things and limit ourselves to inquiries about bona fide situations we should all be informed, then, I can honestly see no reason why the APC Board should not publish on this Forum the information requested in good faith.

Raf

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I have thought much about the statements that APC is not responsible for knowing who owns the old Bayside Hotel and I don't know if "responsible" is the correct word. After much thought, I feel that since the Bayside is in Costambar as we all are, then the same rules apply to it as to us. We wish to know who owns each property and each owner has to pay maintenance wouldn't that apply to the Bayside as well?
We owe a thank you to Liana who first brought up the ownership of the Bayside. Liana how did you know about this? Would you mind sharing?
I am also bothered that the Board does not wish to make use of the Forum! Why not? I, like Raf, hate getting to Costambar and finding out that many things have taken place that I know nothing about and at the point of re-entry am powerless to do anything about anything. It really does not have to be that way.

I could not agree more with Raf Aida and suzb
I am full time here but dont always know what is going on in my own community, so the winter people dont really stand a chance of knowing.
This forum is such a usefull tool if used the correct way, the last APC meeting i went too went on for quiet some time by the time it got to the end of the meeting there was no time to answer questions.
Aida had a list of questions if i remember it was 16 in total, these were not just Aidas they were from the previouse forum that she had collated ready to ask, it would have been so much better if they had been answerd as they were asked on the forum.
There is no shame in saying i dont know, let me find out and get back to you.

I understand that you cant make anybody use this forum but come on board members, its the same as the last 2 forums
Only Don and Anne read and reply to anything on here!!!! thats not fair on the 2 of them and its not fair for the community of Costambar full or part time, we are all residents and have a right to know whats going on here

Sue

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That was good work Aida :-) We can thank you and Liana for the information. It certainly should not be a secret. It behooves us all to know, once we do know who owns the Hotel maybe we could prevail upon them to clean up the mess. Guards are good, clean-up would be even better.

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This is to inform the readers, although I won't take part in debade or cross examination. The meeting that was slated for tonight will not take place because there is no quorum. It will be scheduled for a time in August when we have enough people.

As to Aida's questions. There seems to be a will that answers should be obtained although I see no useful purpose being gained by doing so. My reading of the questions are they should directed to the Project Manager, Bethania since she was hired to run the day to day operation. I've heard people call her "the girl in the office", when her qualifications are way beyond that and she resents being talked to in that fashion.

I spoke with her this morning and she agrees she is the one responsible to answer. She will respond to Aida with a letter in Spanish. But please remember she is now alone in the office and the response will take her away from other things she has to do. Please think out why we need these questions answered before we are inundated with them. Idle curiousity or malice are not valid reasons.

Each person on the Board has responsibilities as set out in the Constitution that requires that the Board answers to the membership once each year. We have exceeded that through Town Hall Meetings and the Web Site, but it is my sense some contributors are not acting in good faith, but are politically motivated.

My responsibility is as Secretary to the Board. Those of you with experience in Boards of Directors know I am responsible for all aspects of Board Meetings and provide legal/political support to the President. It is an administrative support role. I was one of the people who thought we should communicate more openly with the membership.

I am responding although there others who believe the Constitution is clear and other members believe that no other Board has set itself up to attack as we have by openess. I believe the openess is being abused for personal reasons that have nothing to do with the operation.

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In reading Aida's entry and that of Raf, as it relates to Bethania's response, I have taken both copies had them translated and will show them to Bethania for her reaction. I thought the Raf entry was professional. The other raised more issues than it answered.

I asked Bethania how long it took her to prepare the response and she said "about four hours". That's time she isn't doing her regular job, so I hope the answers are worth what we're loosing in productivity. Personally I can't see how any of the questions will benefit the administration of the project, although they may be of general interest and should be answered as time permits.

To clarify a couple of issues, Bethania did not respond on behalf of the Board. She responded with respect to those issues which come with her job as Project Manager. She has a job description in the office. She did not nor was she expected to clear her answers through the Board. Secondly it seems hard for our membership to understand that we are each "APC" so when there is criticism of the general membership that is "APC". When it directed to the Board, please say so otherwise the comments don't make sense.

I note a lack of participation in the Web Site. Any ideas?

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I took Aida's response to Bethania who read it and just shook her head and then put it on the desk. She has attempted to answer the questions to the best of her ability. Those questions do not, in themselves, lead to any useful solutions. At best they are a product of an idle curiosity, and at worst harassment.

For the most part this is cross examination and debate which are methods used in Common Law Courts under careful supervision and with the participants knowing the rules. This approach is advesarial, confrontational and yields nothing of value. It is also in violation of the stated guidelines for the use of this site.

At first I had no intention of responding, but since I was one of the people responsible for the decison to start the Web Site I have to live with the results however distasteful they may be. I won't be taking Aida's interrogation to anyone for a response in the future.

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Apart of the information already given by Aida about the meeting with the power plant San Felipe, we received other information that might be interesting for the residents too.

We asked about the land that according to the different news papers was sold to the plant.
They informed us that the land in question is the land where the plant is settled and also the fuel deposits.
The authorities/City Hall is interested in selling the land to the plant instead of only receiving rent for the use of the land. The plant hasn’t bought the land yet, but they are working on it.
The land from the fuel deposits up to the main entrance road to Costambar belongs to the Heinsen family and is not included in the above mentioned land.

We asked them also about the future plans.
They told us, that the plant is going to stay. They have met with the Cluster Association in Puerto Plata, who has worked for the remodeling of the end of the Malecon (la Puntilla) and the harbor in order to make the area more attractive to the tourists.
These plans only include to move the old power plant (Haina) and to beatify the harbor area at that side of the bay.
The other side of the bay, next to Costambar, where the barrio Aguas Negras is situated is planned to be the industrial part of the harbor.
These are future plans and are not going to happen very soon, because of the high costs of moving all the people in Aguas Negras and to build the industrial harbor etcetera.

According to the plant they are forced to use the kind of fuel, which is sold to them by the authorities in the country. They cannot choose to buy and use a better quality of fuel even if they would want to do so.
They admitted they have problems every now and then with black smoke because of two reasons. 1: because of the fuel quality. 2: because of the bad distribution of the electricity. The level of demand is very unstable because of the bad lines and installations in the country. That affects the way the power plant works.
They told us they are controlling the pollution level very often and for some reasons they don’t understand, the pollution level is always much higher from Mondays to Tuesdays than other days during the week.
They don’t use scrubbers, because no law is telling them to do so.
They also informed us, that pollution might come from other places too. The power plant in Puerto Plata – Haina – is much worse (according to San Felipe) and the city is in general much polluted, because of the traffic (bad fuel) and many individual generators in the area (and bad fuel).

The information does not express my personal opinion; it is the information given to us by the management of the power plant.
As personal opinion I just want to ad that we only had a week or so during this summer with problems like black smoke and dust. It was actually far worse during the summer of 2008.

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