Minutes: 06/28/2010

MEADOW WALK BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
June 28, 2010, 6:30 PM at the Fruitville Branch of the Sarasota Public Library

Directors Present: Gary Walsh, Joe Stewart, Shana Bickel, La Nae Duchesneau: Meeting called to order at 6:40 p.m.

Finances
We started by going over the financial information of Meadow Walk.
There are 10 houses currently in foreclosure. 4 of these houses owe us the majority of past due HOA fees, totaling approximately $6,240.

Debbie, the lawyer for our community, is working aggressively on these collections and we are not only charging interest but also legal fees if they are incurred.
In July we are scheduled to collect $8000 in HOA fees with a total of $14,000 by the end of the year.

32 houses have paid their fees in full, with 32 who have opted to pay in 2 installments. Bills for the second installments will be mailed out on July 1st and will be due on July 31st. After that, interest will start to accrue.

In the last 6 months we have collected $39,600, a lot of this was past due fees plus interest and legal fees. In the same last 6 months we have used half of our budget. We currently have $22,800 in the bank.

Homes that have large outstanding balances due are having liens put on them. Currently we have liens on 4 homes.

We are in good shape financially, and have enough money in our account to carry us through the end of this year.

Modification Committee-
It was discussed that Mr. Bennett’s deck was approved, as were various painting projects. We also went over the procedures to approve improvements if modifications were requested.
Don’t forget, modification forms are available on the internet.

The Front Entrance to our Community-
Gary and Joe made plans to get together and assess the front island as you drive in and it was discussed to level the area and make it flat so no fall off occurs after heavy rains and to get plants that thrive in the shade.

Pot Hole on Deer Creek Crossing
We are going to write to the county again to fix the pothole on Deer Creek Crossing. We have written to them once but there has been no reply.

Wetlands-
It was brought up that the canals behind our homes are not holding water like they should and there is the problem of erosion of the banks.
La Nae is sending pictures to Joe and the rest of the board members to document how much erosion of the banks there has been in the last 10 years.
Joe will meet with the county to discuss this issue and how to resolve it.

The canals are all up to specification after putting in 2200 plants last fall and we have 5 years until they are scheduled to be checked again. All of the flowers, bushes and trees have taken hold and are flourishing.

It was also mentioned that we can save $1500 a year if we move to have our canals checked every other month instead of monthly now that we are in compliance. We no longer have to fill in reports. We will be looking into this at the end of the year when our contract ends.

Front Wall
All the cracks in our front wall have been sealed, they were pretty minor and most of them appeared down by the construction site. These were different cracks than the last time we repaired the wall. Joe spoke to the county about power washing the wall when they are through with the construction project.

Jimmy did a very nice job on repairing our wall and used good quality paint. The cost is $800-$900 to power wash the wall and touch up any cracks. This is cheaper to do on a year basis then making it a bigger job that would cost $9000. Our wall is now in shape to last 8-10 years and it is holding up well.

New Business
Again it was brought up that people are parking on the grass, there are more front lights that are not working, there is a home who has a tire swing in their front yard, and there have been people driving golf carts across peoples lawns and breaking sprinkler heads. All are a violation of our bylaws.

It was also mentioned there are people lighting fire crackers causing dogs in the neighborhood to go into barking frenzies, kids are running through the preserve and breaking planting and leaving garbage. Letters of warning will be going out to the homeowners and there will be a reminder of common rules included in the July bill for the dues. In one case, it is a tenant who is renting the home, and a letter will be going out to the landlord, with a copy going to the current tenants.

We now have 2 rentals in the neighborhood and it was mentioned we may start requiring a form to be filled out with the renters information so we have current information on who is renting in our neighborhood. Also a requirement that renters have a copy of our rules and regulations with a warning that they can incur fines if our rules are violated.

When our neighborhood was built there were no regulations about renters in our bylaws. We may have to create an amendment where renters will need to be approved to rent in this neighborhood.

Tom Bennett mentioned that he has called and emailed the county to request that they open up Palmer after 5 PM when the construction crews leave and on the weekends. Joe Barbetto who is in charge of the construction said he would pass the request onto his construction guys and as yet we are waiting to hear back. We will be posting to our website the email addresses of county commissioners so if you would like to email them with this request, or another, you will be able to do so. The board plans on writing a letter on our letterhead to see if we can resolve some of these issues.

It was also mentioned that detours are to unsuitable roads and there are too many roads closed down at one time in the area.

The county has plans to dig up Palmer road to put a drainage system under the road. It was mentioned that cars are going around the barriers and driving down Palmer when construction has stopped. Please be warned, tickets are $166 for doing so should you get caught.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:50 p.m.