The
2004 Proposed Action List
contains the 2004 goals for the Hawthorn Park Board of Directors.
Click here to view it.
The
Board of Directors for Hawthorn Park had their regular
monthly meeting on
August 26, 2004. Here are the topics
and
highlights of the meeting. Reminder: All association
members are invited to attend these regular Board meetings.
Please note:
These are not the official meeting minutes.
Goodbye
Charley -- We are all thankful that Hurricane Charley
missed us. The near miss should serve as a wake-up call to be
better prepared for bad storms. The community will be polled to
determine the interest level in getting a group discount on storm shutters for
our homes. Peg Mazza
found an installer who will offer a quantity discount. Bill Smith will create a flyer on
this to go out with the Hawthorn
Herald. Anyone who might like more information on this
program should please contact Jeanine
Balsis.
Financials -- Mike Hogan and Bill Smith met with the accountant
at Harmony Management to dig
deeper into accounting practices and reporting formats. This was
discussed at the Board meeting and these decisions were made:
- The Contingency Fund is
not a Reserve Fund. Hawthorn Park does not have a Reserve Fund,
which implies that money is reserved for earmarked purposes in the
future. Our Contingency Fund is available to handle unexpected
expenses and special needs not anticipated in the budget. It was
decided that the Contingency Fund ("savings account") and the General
Operating Fund ("checking account") will not be combined, and the
format of the Balance Sheet
will not be changed.
- In the past we have occasionally had a problem with bills not
getting paid on time due to artifacts in the accounting
processes. Mike Hogan,
working with Jerry Lemerise
and others at Harmony Management, proposed (BOD approved) we move
to an accrual method of accounting,
and to itemize every payable invoice every 30-days. It is
believed that this will resolve the problem.
- There is an old outstanding developer
loan on our books. At the BOD's request last month, Jerry Lemerise researched this
matter and discovered a straightforward way to potentially resolve
it. The solution involves writing a letter to Neal Homes, which Bill Smith will do with input from
Harmony.
Background Checks --
Homebuyers in Hawthorn Park must be members of the Homeowner Association, and that can
only happen if the Homeowner Association accepts their
applications. There are three issues:
- The cost to run the background checks, supply the cookies, and
make the welcome signs exceeds the current $50 charged to
homebuyers. The BOD voted to
raise the fee for homebuyers to $100 effective immediately.
- The process has broken
down on approximately ten recent home sales. New buyers are not
being screened prior to buying. Jerry
Lemerise will speak with Helen at Harmony to try to get a handle
on where the process has broken. Bill
Smith will speak with a couple of Realtors to investigate.
- We currently have no screening
process for renters. We tabled this issue for future
discussion.
FSBO
-- Reminder: In a private home sale the seller is responsible for
providing a complete set of Homeowner
Association documents to the buyer. Anyone needing a set
of documents may order it from Harmony Management for a cost of $50.
Association Dues -- In light of
increases passed on to the Association from its service providers, the Association Dues are likely to increase
slightly in 2005. The BOD also discussed the cash-flow
advantages (Hawthorn Park) and the budget management advantages
(homeowner) of moving from
semi-annual to quarterly dues payments. Decisions on these
items will be coming up. If you
have opinions, please share them with Bill Smith or any Board member.
Annual Picnic -- Peg Mazza gave a brief update on the
status of planning the annual picnic
to be held Sunday, October 10th. Subcommittees have been
formed, and the next planning meeting
will be held Monday, September 20th, at 7:00pm at Art Stadlin's house.
Matching Funds Project -- Vince Meli reported that the County decided not to provide
beautification funding to any organization that received a
grant last year, (we did). However, members of the community
would like to see some improvement to the entrance. Peg Mazza agreed to organize a mulch
work team to spread some new mulch around the entrance plants. Jerry Lemerise offered to get the
mulch at a wholesale discount. George
Sinclair (not at the meeting) and others may be interested in
proceeding with the uplighting project through sweat equity and
donations.
Len Lesjak (not at the meeting)
submitted a briefing on the water
project in our area: A crew supervisor informed Len that the project is on track and
scheduled for completion toward the end of 2004. In case you
didn't notice, they are installing two pipes. The smaller pipe is
for reclaimed water for irrigation and the large pipe is a new drinking
water supply line to replace the older line. This new line should
fix water pressure issues that some folks have had. The
interconnection between the piping on 75th
St. NW and 9th Ave. NW will be quite involved. Therefore
the work will mostly be done at night
to avoid traffic problems at this critical crossroad.
Kathy Lesjak (not at the
meeting) submitted a status update on the newsletter: The next issue of the Hawthorn Herald is
now printed! All residents will find it on their door
knobs sometime next week.
Len Lesjak and George Sinclair have previously
requested that the large oak trees on
common property (between their homes next to the front pond) be
pruned. In light of our close call with Charley, they submitted
another request for action. Bill
Smith will include the discussion of pruning common area trees
on the September BOD agenda. Payment for this would come from the
contingency fund and would consume about half of the fund's balance.
