HONDA CLASSIC: Another successful year! Hope you were able to enjoy the activities.
By the time you read this, Marlwood Park should be turned back over to the residents. I’m happy to report that the renovations to the park that I mentioned a couple of months ago can now begin (if we can just keep the basketball court from being vandalized again.)
JOG ROAD: The road should be open by now. We are all hoping it won’t impact PGA residents or traffic on Ryder Cup Blvd. but we’ll have to wait and see. Just be sure to pack your patience when leaving the community via Northlake Blvd as there will now be an extra intersection (the south side of Northlake Blvd) entering the traffic pattern and the light may take a little longer to change. Likewise, don’t speed south trying to make the light! There are still residents from the Preston community trying to get out. They are blind to their north, especially with cars speeding toward the south and coming over the hill; and they have gate traffic coming in from the south. As always, just drive carefully.
IT’S NOT ONLY MONEY: The Board is presently working on the 2014/15 annual budget. For the past three years the assessment has remained at $700 per lot for the year. Some line items have been re-structured such as the phone and computer equipment at the guardhouses being put under one “bundled” package to create a savings but there are other areas where costs keep going up. You will see another increase in Legal and Insurance line items. Owners who are delinquent in their assessments pay legal fees and costs; however, when a bank forecloses or a bankruptcy is filed, the POA has to pay any legal fees incurred by the association while trying to collect the debt. In addition, lawsuits drive up both of these line items. Nevertheless the Board is making every effort to keep costs down without adversely affecting the community’s appearance. The management contract was just renewed without an increase. The contract includes all the administrative expenses for running the day-to-day affairs of the POA as well as the routine grounds maintenance, irrigation, pest control, etc. for the common areas. The ‘office supplies’ in the budget relates solely to those items used at the security gates, all other office supplies are paid for by the management company.
I will report further when the draft budget is finalized but one thing that will be different this year is the option to have the assessment deducted automatically from your bank account. A form to have this done will be sent with the assessment notice on June 1st.
A FINAL THOUGHT: I would be remiss if I didn’t again tell you how much the POA staff appreciates the residents’ patience. We only have a staff of four (for almost 5,000 homes) and although I make jokes about finding the signs that tell everyone to show up for barcodes between noon until 2:00 when half the staff is at lunch, I know it isn’t intentional. This year there were a few days when the lines were long (especially the first 10 days of January when returning snowbirds were here with rental cars and tenants were arriving) yet everyone waited patiently. Next year maybe Santa-Stein will buy us all skates but until then, I just wanted to thank everyone for their patience and, most importantly, their smiles!