Events

Q1 Board of Directors Meeting

Date
Saturday, February 11, 2023
Time
1:00pm- 2:30pm
Location
Gig Harbor Library

Minutes

Board members present: Jordan Moore, President, Brynn Graham, Secretary, and Joel & Susan Mott, co-Treasurers.

Attendees: Six homeowners were in attendance.

The meeting was called to order at 1:07 p.m.

The meeting began with introduction of the board and members of the audience.

Old Business

There was no old business to discuss.

New Business

Landscape Committee report

Susan and Joel provided a report from the landscape committee including a run down of who comprises the committee: Howard, Cecilia, Joel and Susan.

The committee has removed invasive plants, weeded the sidewalk strips along Briarwood Lane when needed and cared for the Heronwood signs at the two entrances to the neighborhood. This includes planting 100 bulbs at each sign, which will bloom in the spring, and transplanting sword ferns from open space within the HOA to the lower sign to take advantage of the space created by the city when it cleared the right-of-way as part of its mowing/sidewalk project.

The committee is looking for people to help water these plantings during the summer months. If people want to volunteer, please contact the board.

The group cleared additional vegetation, taking 5 loads to dump. It is estimated they have spent 40-50 hours of labor doing this work.

The committee would like to set a community work party date for the neighborhood to join and assist with some of the larger invasive species removal projects.

Treasurer’s Report

Susan provided a brief review of the interim annual report from 2022 that was included in the annual dues statement sent to all owners.

The 2022 end of year balance was: $6,840 revenue; $3,700 expenditures. Resulting in a $3,200 net cash flow. As of Dec. 31, 2022 there was $4,575.44 in the bank.

2023 budget review: Fees collected by the HOA to pay the BAT Lady for its backflow testing services will be held by the HOA in its account, but are not part of the budget because these are pass-through monies to pay for the discounted service offered by the company.

Susan reviewed total dues collected for 2023 noting 54 of 57 lots have paid resulting in $6,887 in new deposits.

Already this year there were four expenses totaling $935:

With the 2023 due increase annual dues are expected to bring in $7,182 in revenue. Minimum required operating expenses are expected to be roughly $2,000 (this includes required insurance cost, post office box rental, postage, office supplies, printing, Quicken annual subscription for accounting purposes, estimated reimbursements and state registration annual report cost). HOA 2023 Budget DRAFT v2 to Board 2023.01.11.xlsx

With these recurring costs removed, the remaining available balance is $8,882. The Treasurer’s proposed keeping $2,000 in reserve as a carryover balance for emergency or unexpected costs.

Discussion ensued about how to continue required maintenance of shared HOA open space areas, as outlined in the HOA governing documents. Neighbor Greg Wolfe has performed this ongoing maintenance of the HOA open areas at a significantly discounted cost for 14 years. He informed the board he will no longer do this work after March 1, 2023, saying he was ready to “retire”.

In preparation, the Treasurers contacted three landscaping companies to request bids. They were provided a scope of work that included what Greg currently does, plus the addition of maintaining the vegetation around the two signs and weeding the sidewalk strip along Briarwood Lane.

Bid Review

  1. Angel $850/month ($750/month if no sidewalk weeding) (not licensed and bonded yet, but said he planned to get it).
  2. Miguel $500/month ($400/month if no sidewalk weeding) (verbally said licensed, bonded, insured)
  3. Juan $500/month (no second price offered for no sidewalk) (verbally said licensed, bonded, insured)

The Treasurer recommendation was to move forward with Miguel based on reviews, his professionalism and good communication. DIscussion followed about the annual cost (as proposed $6,000/year), the impact on the budget and concern that at the current annual dues assessment amount, there would not be enough money to cover landscaping costs and maintain the proposed $2,000 carryover that would be available for unplanned expenditures like tree removal from open spaces should a need arise.

After discussion it was determined for 2023 there was enough money available to hire Miguel at the $400/month rate for work in 2023, which would total $5,300. In future years the full cost of maintenance will exceed and budget and would require annual dues increases.

MOTION: Jordan made a motion to hire Miguel at $400/month cost for the period of March 1 to Dec. 31, 2023 to complete the landscape maintenance previously done by HOA member Greg Wolfe at a significantly discounted rate for 14 years. The work would add the weeding/maintenance of the Heronwood sign areas, but not the sidewalk strips. Joel seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

Discussion followed, noting the current budget is a “break even” budget and does not allow for the set aside of monies to cover added costs for things like the purchase of beauty bark to spread in open areas, the purchase of gravel to line the path into the pond or similar ongoing maintenance costs.

It was agreed there is a likelihood that annual dues for 2024 will need to increase again at a minimum by 5%. If an increase greater than 5% is needed, a vote of the HOA membership is required.

HOA owners in the audience suggested the board present a prioritized list of options for dues increases and context for why an expenditure is needed to justify the proposed annual assessment increase.

The board agreed this was a good plan and will proceed with developing three options for review and consideration by the membership before proposing a potential due increase that would require a vote of the full membership.

The board hopes to send out a survey to all property owners via email to gather feedback on priorities to help shape these options.

Preliminary ideas proposed by Susan & Joel for consideration which would require dues increases in the future included:

Lawn Mower

The board agreed to postpone a decision on what to do with the HOA-owned lawn mower currently stored and maintained by Greg Wolfe who used it to mow the common areas. The board will ask Greg to see if he can continue to store it until a decision is made on how to proceed.

A question was raised as to what the HOA’s insurance covers. The board did not have an answer. Jordan agreed to look into it before it renews in the spring to see what the coverage includes.

2023 Elections

Brynn noted the May 11 annual meeting is when board elections occur. Each term is two years. Brynn suggested sharing information with the membership on the positions to encourage people to volunteer and submit their names for consideration for the slate. Anyone interested in learning more or volunteering can email the board at board@heronwood.org.

Reimbursement Discussion

A discussion was held about the need to set up a process to notify the board in advance about anticipated reimbursement expenses arising from the volunteer work done by the Landscape Committee. It was agreed that a certain dollar amount should be set aside for the committee to use for reimbursement needs, though the amount was not finalized at the meeting due to the decision to hire the landscape company and the limited budget available.

The next meeting is the annual board meeting May 11 at 7 p.m. The meeting will be via Zoom with an agenda and Zoom link to be sent out via email leading up to the meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 3:13 p.m.