Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Special Assessment Reminder



Beyond Repair - MDS community fencing looks as bad as it does for two reasons. Before their replacement,the oldest sections at the rear of the community were over 15 years old and had simply worn out. The newer sections - the ones closest to the entrance - were so badly and cheaply constructed, they are unrepairable. The special assessment is about replacing the newer, unrepairable sections.
Cost & Benefit - A Home Owners Association (HOA) funded replacement project, which ultimately will cost $140,000, started two years ago and to date the older sections have been replaced - the most recent being the fence beyond the park, which has also been painted in earth tone colors. If you have not already seen it, do take a look. If you look closely you'll see that the new fencing is of significantly better construction and materials, so it's expected life should be in excess of 15 years.
Addition Funding - The HOA have proposed a special assessment of $300 per homeowner to complete the fence replacement in 2013, which includes repainting. The special assessment, requires homeowners to vote their support. The special assessment covers the additional cost to complete the project. Replacement to date has mostly been funded from the HOA $80,000 reserve fund, which was in large part  contributed to the HOA by the early MDS developers. Reducing the reserve fund to an estimated $30,000 by the end of 2013 minimizes the special assessment charged to the homeowners.
Your vote is essential - the Special Assessment approval vote will take place at the Park Pavilion at 10:00am on September 29th 2012. 
If you can't make the meeting - you should already have received absentee and proxy vote forms with the letter mailed out to all homeowners - filling either of these in allows you to vote if you can't make the meeting. You can also download these forms from the web site. 
More information - additionally, you can view the fencing project Blog - just click the fence picture under Homeowners Information on the web site page. You can post comments on the Blog, which Philip Hall, the HOA Board Director responsible for the fencing project, will reply. 
Through a visitors eyes - If you'd like to see the fence through a visitor's eyes, view this YouTube video clip by clicking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX_Q5WQ4WO8&sns=em

Cormac & Maggie O'Reilly

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