Special Assessment

During our recent vote and discussion on whether to increase our HOA fees, many passionate ideas were voiced, ranging from shutting the HOA down to making the most of the land by investing in it. During this meeting it confirmed to us the need to gather feedback from you and to be better at communicating your desires to each other. We want to let you know that we are listening and that your opinions are valued.  We are confident that as we gather feedback, explore your ideas, discuss the ideas with the city for approval, and share our findings, we will do something great together.

To accomplish this we are working on a few different things. First, we have been organizing volunteers from the neighborhood who have offered to act as block captains for different areas of the neighborhood. They will be contacting the homeowners in their vicinity to gather insights on what each of you expect regarding standards for our neighborhood, vision for our land, and plans for moving forward. We hope to be able to take this feedback and synthesize it into a vision for what the common consensus is for our neighborhood. We realize it will take time to determine what we all want as a community. Thank you for your continued feedback and support.

Additionally, we have been working on putting down in writing the answers to frequently asked questions. You can expect to receive those explanations in a series of emails over the next few weeks. We will also compile them into one online location for future reference.

In the meantime, unfortunately, as we discussed with those who were able to attend our recent meetings, the balance of our available funds is running dangerously low. With the expenses that we foresee for the remainder of the year, we have limited options. In the spirit of full transparency, our balance at the beginning of this year was $585. Dues payments came in during January and February. After paying expenses for the year to this point, our checking account currently has a balance of $2599. Upcoming expenses are projected to be as follows:

Watering Detention basin: $1000

Lawn treatments for Detention basin @ $120 each for 2 more treatments: $240

Mowing Detention basin @ $60 each week with 16 weeks remaining (through October):$960

Liability and HOA Insurance: $1600

Snow removal for sidewalk along detention basin and pathway @ $78 per occurrence estimated at $500

Bookkeeping fees estimated at $800

Property taxes estimated at $200

10% reserve fund as required by law: $1000

                As you can see, that leaves us with a deficiency of funds in the amount of $3701. We understand that this is not fun news. It is certainly not fun sharing it. Unfortunately, it is our current reality.

Our By-Laws include a provision for special assessments when appropriate: Subject to the restrictions set forth in the Declaration, if any, the Board of Trustees shall determine the amount of the annual assessment and special assessments of the members (Article II, Section 9). It is the opinion of the Board that it has become necessary to put in place a special assessment of $45 per lot to cover our expenses for the remainder of 2014. We cannot ignore the true costs associated with homeownership in our neighborhood. Please send your payment of $45 by August 31. You may send it to our P.O. Box, deliver it to a board member, or use the button on the right to pay via Paypal.

This is of course only a temporary fix. We will need your input in order to find a better long term solution that is appropriate for our neighborhood. We appreciate your help as we work through these issues as neighbors. Again, we feel strongly that as we reach out to each of you via our block captains and come up with a shared vision for our land, whatever it may be, we will all be proud of what we decide together.