Secretary's Comments

As you see when you read the Board Meeting minutes at the right, the board has agreed that we will change the frequency of the newsletter from monthly to quarterly.

We found that the process of collecting the information, preparing the newsletter, reviewing and approving the newsletter prior to publishing took nearly an entire month.

The Association business is proceeding in a business-like manner. We stay within the operational budget published at the Annual Owners Meeting, and we schedule and complete the capital reserve projects planned for the year. This means that there is a declining need to inform owners on a monthly basis of fast-breaking updates and changes.

When we first published the revamped capital reserve study for the Association, in year 2000, we knew that we had two very large projects ahead of us for which we had inadequate funds. These were the reroofing of the units and the siding maintenance. There were many other projects that we knew had to be done as well, but we had only rough estimates of their cost.

As you remember, in order to plan for the reroof project, we asked the owners for two annual special assessments; we committed, in return, to keep quarterly dues capped at no more than $640 for the following three years.

In 2001, we were stunned to learn that we had grossly underestimated the cost to replace the roof-top decking. We responded by delaying the siding-maintenance project in order to pay for the roof-top decking without raising dues.

Now in 2002 we are thrilled to learn that we overestimated the cost to replace the roofs of the Phase III units (see the meeting minutes at right). This could have allowed us to complete the siding maintenance on schedule. However, in view of the fact that we have experienced a more profound and rapid deterioration of the roofs than was forecast to us in 1999, we elected to use this windfall to accelerate the reroof project instead. Thus, all the roofs will be complete in fiscal year 2002.

Siding maintenance will proceed according to the schedule as amended in 2001. This means that we will power wash and oil units in stages. We expect to complete the oldest units late in 2002, and do the remaining units in 2003.

Each subsequent year that we refine our capital reserve study it becomes a more accurate predictor of our costs for the succeeding years. It allows us to plan more accurately, as well as to forecast more accurate estimates of the quarterly dues amounts that will guarantee fully-funded operational and capital expense budgets.

Here is a summary of the Capital Reserve Schedule, as of 2002. These are our best estimates of when major maintenance work will be done and how much it will cost. Based on this schedule we can expect quarterly dues to remain at $640/quarter throughout 2003. In 2004 we expect quarterly dues to drop to $550/quarter or less. Then they will then gradually increase, year by year, primarily reflecting the increase in the cost of living, until by year 2009 they will be back up to about $640/quarter.