Sorry to have been slacking on the blog. The holidays and work slowed me down on some Foxchase items.
I am trying to schedule a homeowners meeting in the near future. Please keep an eye out for a notice in the mail.
Lastly, you should have received your annual dues statement. Please note that the officers elected to raise the dues by $10 in 2010. This decision was made to avoid triple digit increases like we had a few years ago.
The additional funds will be placed in the road fund. I anticipate we will have some repairs again this year, and ultimately we are still saving to totally resurface phase I and II.
Scott
3 comments:
I have a question. As I understand it, we are being assessed extra money for a 5 year period for road repair. My understanding is that the city does not maintain our roads because we are a "gated community." Am I correct? If so, I'm having a little trouble understanding the gated portion. The community hasn't been gated in a long time (it's not working). It hasn't worked in such a long time that I honestly don't remember my code to open it. If we're paying an extra assessment for the privilege of living in a gated community, when will the gate actually work?
-Bob Karcher
Bob
Thanks for the comment. The dues were never raised because we are a gated community. They were raised because they were not adequate to cover the costs of running the neighborhood and to cover the liability of the ownership of the roads. I will do my best to summarize what was decided at the last homeowners meeting.
As you may know, the roads in Foxchase are privately owned and all maintenance of the roads are the financial responsibility of the homeowners association. As I am sure you have noticed, we have had constant repair issues with the roads, and will most likely be repairing them again this year. This has put the association under tremendous financial stress, as the homeowners dues collected thorough the years have not been nearly enough to cover the liabilities. In fact, in 2008, we literally ran out of funds to complete all the road repairs we wanted to complete. Fortunately, we were able to complete the repairs in 2009, but each dollar spent on repairs takes away from our savings nestegg.
At the last meeting, it was the consensus of the group that we need to move towards changing the roads from privately held by Foxchase to publically held by the City of Opelika. Most residents feel that the long term financial liability of having ownership of the roads is must too great for a small neighborhood like ours to bear. To turn over the roads to the City of Opelika, we need to first install an additional surface layer of asphalt over the existing roads. It will take us several years to save the funds to perform this work. The other item that needs to take place in order to turn over the roads is the removal of the gate.
While we are several years away from being able to turn over the roads, (it may take us more than 5 years to save enough money) the consensus of the group was that we should not spend a bunch of money on the gate when it will most likely be removed in the future. From a personal standpoint, we have lived in Foxchase since 2005, and the gate has never functioned properly. In my opinion it is antiquated and has not received proper maintenance in the recent past. Bottom line is there are not any immediate plans to address the gate.
Lastly, we discussed at the meeting the possibility of security cameras being installed in the neighborhood. Most people thought this would be a good way to counteract the removal of the gate. Hopefully we can afford this system in future years.
Please give me a call if you would like to discuss this further. 334-745-3156 Scott
Scott,
Thanks for the clarification. I have a better understanding of the situation. I regret that I could not attend the last homeowners meeting. I would have had a better understanding had I attended; however, I can see that I agree with the measures that were taken. I appreciate the feedback.
Bob
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