Chestnut Oaks Owner’s Association - Budget Meeting @ Mason Municipal
Bldg.
Tuesday October 21, 2003
Call To Order
The meeting was
called to order at 7:04 pm by Kirk Appell.
Attendance
Board members in
attendance were Kirk Appell, Ron Vorbroker, Corrie Metz, and Marianne
Fleckenstein. Towne Properties was
represented by Christy Ryan. Michelle
Sisk was absent.
Approval Of
Prior Meeting Minutes
No corrections to the
meeting minutes of September 3rd, 2003 were made. A motion to approve the minutes of September 3rd, 2003 was
made by Corrie Metz, and seconded by Ron Vorbroker.
Motion approved unanimously.
Managers Report
A managers report was
provided by Towne Properties for review. This
report was given by Christy Ryan and reviewed by all board members.
Financial
Report
The cash in
operations is $6,442.29. The
reserves are $19,864.23. Year to
date income is $34,711.99, and year to date expenses are $31,138.91.
Election of
Officers
A motion was made by
Ron Vorbroker and 2nd by Marianne Fleckenstein to approve the
election of Kirk Appell to the office of President. The motion passed unanimously.
A motion was made by
Kirk Appell and 2nd by Corrie Metz to approve the election of the
following offices:
Vice President - Ron
Vorbroker
Treasurer - Michelle
Sisk
Secretary - Corrie
Metz
Member at Large -
Marianne Fleckenstein
The motion passed
unanimously.
Old Business
A.
Perimeter Fence Decision.
An official land
survey was conducted by Henderson and Bodwell of the neighborhood perimeter on
Butler Warren Rd. and Socialville Foster Rd.
Based on where the survey stakes show the end of homeowner property and
beginning of easement to be, it would be very difficult for a fence to be placed
in easement in a way that would be both aesthetic and functional.
Some of the homeowner placed fences along Socialville Foster are actually
over the property line on easement, where as the developer white fence along
Butler Warren is actually placed on homeowners property.
Therefore; the board came to the decision that no fence would be
re-placed and that the current, developer placed, white fence would be turned
over to the homeowners whose property it stands on.
Those homeowners may choose to maintain that fence, replace it with a new
fence that meets the Associations Protective Covenants and Restrictions, or take
the fence down. A separate mailing
is being sent to this effect.
A motion was made to
approve this decision by Ron Vorbroker and 2nd by Marianne
Fleckenstein. The motion passed
unanimously.
B. Drainage Issue
/ Township Response
After the heavy rain
in late summer that caused overflow of the storm drains many homeowners
expressed concern. The township
came out and did a walk through with board member Kirk Appell and provided a
list of things to be fixed that may ease this situation during periods of heavy
rain. The list included things like
clean out of the pipes in the retention pond.
The items on this list was reviewed by the board and an estimate for this
work was provided by our grounds maintenance company and approved for completion
by the board. This work has since
been completed.
C. Letter to
Previous Homeowner on past due fees.
A request was made by
a former board member to send a letter to a foreclosed homeowner with a large
past due debt to the association. The
letter was to inform the individual that a 1099 would be filed on this debt if
it was not paid in full therefore requiring the homeowner to claim this on his
taxes. The board discussed this
request and decided that it was not in the best interest of the COOA to pursue
this. A motion was made by Ron
Vorbroker and 2nd by Kirk Appell to not pursue this issue any
further. This motion passed
unanimously.
New Business
A. 2004 Draft
Budget.
A draft budget was
provided by Towne Properties representative Christy Ryan.
This was reviewed by the board and a motion was made to approve this
budget by Ron Vorbroker and 2nd by Marianne Fleckenstein.
This motion passed unanimously. Additionally
it was discussed that our reserve budget is underfunded based on some potential
future expenses that our neighborhood could incur (example: dredging of the
retention pond estimated at $40,000). The
board had been maintaining $25/year of the assessment per homeowner for a
possible fence. This money will be
re-allocated to the general reserve fund thus keeping the assessment from going
up this year. The breakout on the
reserve will be included in a community letter talked further on.
B. Community
Letter
It has been decided
that a letter will be drafted and sent to all homeowners along with the yearly
budget and assessment coupon. This
letter is intended to provide further detail about what has happened in the last
year and upcoming plans for the future. This
information is also always available via the meeting minutes on the web at www.cooa.org
for those who have internet access. Other
information regarding who to contact for issues, as well as a page explaining
the reserve budget will also be included in the letter.
C. Community
Issues
There is a dead tree
in front of the retention pond and a fee of $90 has been quoted by Ground
Masters to remove it. It has also
been brought up that there are several dead trees on homeowner properties
throughout the neighborhood. A part
of the aforementioned community letter will ask homeowners to please be aware of
and take care of these things. If
you have a dead tree in your yard (this includes the boulevard in front of your
home) please do the right thing and remove it.
These trees are very unsightly and could fall during bad weather and
cause damage. It helps your own as
well as others home values to keep your property clean, and maintained.
D. Nuisance
Procedure
It has been brought
to the boards attention by several homeowners that the residents of a certain
property in the neighborhood have caused several nuisance type issues.
The board rule for handling a nuisance requires for these complaints to
be made in writing to Towne Properties representative Christy Ryan.
This can be done either individually by a homeowner, or by way of a
petition. The complaint letter
and/or petition need to state what covenant or restriction is being broken and
by whom. If and when the board
receives either multiple individual letters and/or a petition then the board
will send out a letter to the homeowner regarding the complaints and a request
for them to be resolved. Additionally
the board has stated at meetings that if a homeowner feels that they or their
property are at risk due to individual(s) behavior that they should always call
the police. That is what they are
there for and if the same individual(s) are repetitively causing issues then the
police reports will provide additional grounds for dealing with this problem if
necessary. Make sure if you call
the police that you request a report to be filed or it may not happen
automatically.
E. Rental Property
Several homeowners
have asked about the Associations Protective Covenant or Restriction regarding
renting properties in this neighborhood. This
has been brought up several times. The
current Covenants and Restrictions do not prohibit a homeowner from renting a
property. If there is enough
interest in changing this, it can be done.
It would require door to door signatures and a certain legally required
percentage of homeowners would have to agree to this change by way of signature
in order to process this change. Legal
fees for document preparation and change would be incurred as well.
If a change to this effect was made the homeowners currently renting
properties would be grandfathered and so would still be permitted to rent until
a time at which they sold that property to a new homeowner.
The new homeowner would then be prohibited from renting.
If the interest in pursuing this grows a committee would need to be
formed to do the foot work of getting the legally binding form signed by all
homeowners. If you have an interest
in pursuing this please plan to attend the next homeowners meeting to discuss
it.
Next Meeting
Date
The next neighborhood
meeting will be held on January 13th, 2004 @ 7pm.
Place TBD. Please watch the
web and/or neighborhood signs for final details.
These are usually posted at both entrances 2 weeks prior to the date.
Adjournment
The meeting was
adjourned at 9:21pm.
