Generated from YouTube’s automatic captions. Refer to the recording for exact wording.
The annual HOA meeting recording covers financial reporting, the 2027 budget, pool maintenance, neighborhood repairs, board terms, and possible community improvements. The discussion is described as informational. Residents ask for clearer financial information and share ideas and concerns about a proposed playground and how it could be funded.
Financial reporting and townhome contributions
Residents ask for more complete monthly financial statements and a clearer year-over-year view of operating cash, reserves, and expenses. Some financial reports appear available to management but are missing from residents’ portal views. Management agrees to investigate the visibility issue and update the posted financials.
Several questions concern the timing of townhome contributions and how delayed or lump-sum payments affect monthly reports. The board agrees that establishing an expectation of monthly contributions would make cash flow and financial statements easier to follow. Participants also discuss the difference between a negative monthly income statement and the cash available in the operating account.
The 2027 budget, reserves, and pool
The proposed 2027 operating budget anticipates fuller townhome contributions and increased reserve funding. Residents discuss tracking the HOA’s assets, expected replacement costs, and useful life, potentially through a reserve study or an asset spreadsheet.
The board describes plans to convert the pool to saltwater using available pool-maintenance funds, with the goal of reducing ongoing maintenance costs. Residents raise questions about equipment compatibility and corrosion. Preserving enough reserves for major pool repairs, including future resurfacing, remains a priority in the discussion.
Board terms and community participation
Participants review board terms, how vacancies are filled, and the difficulty of conducting elections or other official business without a quorum. Residents request more timely publication of board meeting minutes, meeting notices, and community updates.
Maintenance, drainage, and neighborhood concerns
Lighting: The board is seeking an electrician’s quote to straighten leaning light heads. Management also agrees to follow up with Duck River Electric about reported outages. The discussion distinguishes utility-serviced lights from lights maintained entirely by the HOA.
Curbs and development work: Residents ask about unfinished curb repairs. The board reports that the city is continuing to pursue the developer’s outstanding work.
Berm and drainage: Residents discuss damaged ground, standing water, fencing, and drainage easements. Ideas include finding usable fill dirt and low-cost ways to repair affected areas. Participants distinguish HOA rule enforcement from city building-code and drainage matters.
Other concerns: Pool-house fans, screening around electrical equipment, a missing stop sign, neighborhood noise, and recurring disruptive behavior are discussed. Responses include direct conversations, nuisance notices, and contacting law enforcement when appropriate.
A possible playground and future amenities
A playground near the pool is discussed as a possible capital improvement, with an estimated budget of $50,000–$60,000. The open area near the pool is considered because it offers more space and separation from roads and homes than other locations.
Funding examples include a temporary special assessment of roughly $17–$21 per month for about a year, depending on the project cost. Spreading payments over a longer period is also discussed. These are illustrations from the conversation, not finalized charges.
Participants discuss the need for a properly called meeting, a quorum, and homeowner approval before a capital project of this size could proceed. No final playground design, purchase, or assessment is approved in the recording.
Residents weigh benefits for children, visiting grandchildren, and future homebuyers against household affordability. Other ideas include a dog park, amenities for older children, and a long-term capital fund built through smaller regular contributions. The board asks residents to share their priorities and concerns.
Follow-ups discussed
Resolve missing financial reports and make the HOA’s financial position easier to compare over time.
Clarify townhome payment timing and work toward regular monthly contributions.
Publish meeting minutes and notices more consistently.
Follow up on lighting repairs, utility outages, and remaining maintenance concerns.
Refine playground options, gather community feedback, and consider affordable funding timelines before a formal vote.
Continue evaluating reserve needs and longer-term capital planning.
Transcript
YouTube’s automatic captions, with original timestamps. Captions may contain transcription errors.
But time is your time is not wasted.
So does the board of point there's a vacant spot at that point because there's several places in here that says the boards. Yes, they do.
Y and it's a continuation if there's if there's if there's not a quorum. It just is a continuation.
Yeah. But if you've got one leaving and one open spot, that means you've got two board members and you're supposed to have three.
Yes. They will appoint a person. Yes. If there's a vacancy, the other two will appoint somebody. Yes. Yeah. Yes.
All right. Okay. Um, I'll go through the packet still. If you have questions, uh, feel free to raise your hand.
Um, I'm not going to comb through every single line of every single column of the financial report in detail, uh, for
my own sanity and yours, but I will open this up uh, as far as previous year's 2026 financials. Any questions on those?
Again, this is not like official business. This is justformational.
Uh, Linda and then Matt, can we get the mic? Sorry, I forgot that's my cube. I'm just going to pretend you're famous. Go ahead.
Okay. So, the capital contribution that was um funded or received as revenue in
September, what is that for? And what bank account is that kept in? Is the capital contribution kept in a separate bank
account or co-mingled with operating funds?
Uh question, where's it coming from as revenue? And is it kept in a separate bank account or is it co-mingled with operating funds?
And if it's co-mingled with operating funds, how do you know how many c how much capital funds you have for future investments? So, the capital
contribution is a one-time um fee that new homeowners when they purchase in the name of them, they pay um it goes into
operating operating. Yeah, I read that. Okay. I just didn't understand what it was.
Yeah, it's just a one time whenever a house sells. Matt, so you're good.
So, I looked at the uh online current income statement. January, February, March, town homes did have a payment in which accounts for the 3416.
Yes.
But after that, there's never been additional funds from the town homes into it. And it is in your budget from 2026, correct?
Of 24,000.
They're doing one lump sum, one big payment. Who is controlling that one lump sum?
Um they are managed by also by claim property management. So it'll be done um when this month.
when this month.
And are you going to post it online this year? Yes.
Because you did not post last year's December's financials were never posted. Okay. And you have not posted August online.
And so my question for you is I can't see it done last year either. So when I looked at November's, there was never a lump sum in November either. Yeah.
Of town homes income into our budget line.
So my question is is when are you going to post that and when can I see it? I will post last year's um
right now because I I pulled up last year's. I pulled it up online just a minute ago.
Yes. If if there's a date missing, if there's a month missing, I can plug it in right now. I apologize. I didn't realize.
Yep. 2025. You're missing all of December. You end up actually stopped 10:3125. You missed November and
December and it's not online. And so my question is when I look there as well, which is I pulled that one up, there was no lumpsum
payment either from the town homes into our property. Yeah. And I will post those right now.
And last year they did an actual they were actually paying monthly from an overall standpoint, not in a lump sum.
Is it budgeted in a lump sum this year? Cuz all we have is a summary budget. can't stop.
And right now in our budget from month to month, it should have been a $2,000 a month. And I think I see why our net income is negative for the month
of$1,548 because we spent more than we brought in and the town homes haven't put anything in. That's my my concern.
Yes. I It looks like It looks like they're on here. They're 1231.
No, they're not on the portal. Nope. The file shows up on your end.
It does show up on my end. See, see right here 1231. Yeah, there's no 1231 a month.
Are you guys moving to a new I see you're moving to a new platform? We are updating our software.
I'll have to look into that cuz it shows on my end that they're posted. So, I'll have to troubleshoot that and see why you can't see them.
Okay.
I can see you don't see 1231 on there in under 25. No, 25. What?
And when did it change they were doing lump sum versus monthtomonth?
Um, let me see. I'll have to get with um I'll have to get with accounting on that.
Let me see.
The reason I ask is that it could put us in the hole from our budget standpoint, pulling reserves out, and all of a sudden at the end of the year, you're going to put a giant reserve in.
Yes. And as long as we have enough money to cover the negative of $2,000 a month,
my cons my concern is that 2,000 a month. Correct. And that's my my challenge.
Yes, they they will make the the payment and I'll get the financials updated.
Can we see can you put their bylaws online to see how that is recorded in their bylaws to show why they're doing it bump when it changed? So, their
bylaws are available to them. I don't think it's on your portal as proper um just because they're a different set, but I'll look into that as well.
So, as a side, we should be able to see their documents, too, since we're the master association and they're paying they're paying some money to us. Mhm.
So, we should be able to see where theirs I'm not disagreeing. I'm not disagreeing.
So, that's my question. I just don't see it. Yeah.
Um it's all I have from that standpoint on the budget.
Thank you. And it when because it looks like it changed from February and March because they were paying month to month
in February, March and then all of a sudden it went away.
Yeah, that's a topic that in our uh board meetings we bring up cuz when we're watching the the cash flow like actually through the accounts we see
those and that's something that regularly comes up um in our board meetings is like where's the town of houses at? When's that coming through?
And so we are watching the cash flow to make sure that it's we're not going to where we're operating negative. Um you you threw a thousand. My challenge
is is that in Dece in September Mhm.
you put $1,00037 into the reserve account, but that put us at a net income of$1548 for the month.
Why?
That's an automatic withdrawal each month that reserve contribution. So my my problem with that is that you then pulled reserve to put back into reserve.
I I I hear you because you you literally you took $1,037 to reserve and then you pulled
$1,54821 out of reserve to pay the monthly budget. Right.
That's assuming that the only amount of money we have in the bank is what's actually brought in that day. There's usually your operating bank account.
Yes, your operating does have a buffer.
So, you weren't in the negative. We just didn't bring in enough money on a different month that may be a positive down here. And that positive, it hasn't stayed in the operating.
It hasn't been positive since since February or March. Okay.
So, I looked at that cuz I was trying to understand.
Looks like a Ponzi. I'm going to be honest because if you're paying reserves and you're coming out of reserves, you're not going into reserves.
Otherwise, it shouldn't be an automatic.
It should be what's left over for the month, right?
Yeah. That doesn't math because the numbers that we look at just on cash flow and bank statements every month show we've never had a month where we've been negative on the actuals.
The contribution Yeah.
Uh from the town homes should be automatic monthly if it's budgeted monthly just like the contribution to the reserves is automatic.
Yeah. Is that an is that an expectation that the board can set with the town homes? Yes, it is.
Okay, we'll do that. That's a good call that is that. Yeah, that's been an annoying thing to deal with at board meetings to catch up on like when's it going to come
in? But so if it was coming in, if it was just monthly revenue like everything else, that make things a lot simpler, especially on these statements to read because in June you had a negative
$5,782 for the month and you put in reserves another,37.
You're looking at a different document that's in the packet.
I'm looking at what's on my Yeah, I'm looking at the packet. I'm not looking at I don't have a print out of the I I just went through I I want to look at your monthly statements because this
this here doesn't tell me everything month to month. It only tells me a snapshot and I would rather see
the yearly statement. So a year from from if we're going to have a meeting in October, it should be in October of 25 through October 26. How is our progression for
the year? Because I have a hard time judging. Is the HOA in a better spot today than we were from the documents?
From the documents, this is this is worthless.
Yeah, I'm gonna be blunt. I'm gonna be I'm trying not to be that blunt, but I can't tell you how we're doing financially as
an HOA. Are we solving? Is the HOA in trouble from this paper? So, I would
expect for the current budget, you can't see it.
You can see on She says that we have $23,000 but it doesn't but it doesn't statement
but it doesn't say what last year's end was.
No you can see where you're at pacing for the year.
Yeah. And the variance for the year were7,711.
Yes. But that town homes will offset that. That's my point. I I understand. Yeah. Let's understand.
Let's connect. Yeah. Cuz I I want to see this and and square this circle cuz it's it needs to make sense on paper here.
like it does when we're walking through it month over month. So that's that's a good call out.
But the balance sheet shows that we have a positive rate [clears throat] of $21,29 regardless of what each month shows.
And that's what I'm saying is the reality of $21,000 cash in the bank should be reflected when you look through the documentation.
And so if there's just a gap somewhere, we need to make sure we close that just for the sake of everybody seeing what's going on. for our next big year year meeting. It'd be
nice to have 2026 end of the year actuals. Actuals. Yeah, that's a great call.
The financials posted monthly would be fantastic instead of four of them posted in one month.
But they're running up.
So that's my point is that it'd be nice if we're going to have this once a year. Yeah. Right here in the front of the UK. The whole year. Yeah.
This is last year's. This is where we ended up at. This is where I was.
You're saying you're saying month over month or just a whole year?
Just a whole year. Here. Here's where we ended up on our cash reserves. Here's where we're at in our bank account. And here's where you're at today. That would have gave me an idea exactly where we're at. I wouldn't ask my question.
That's great. Sorry. It's a good suggestion.
So, you're saying on page whatever bal on the balance sheet page, you're saying the $21,000 there doesn't tell us that we're solving.
What? What happens? We have 27,000 last year. We're down to 21 this year.
Okay, that's my point. Yeah, we don't have Unless you went online and pulled up the budget, but I can't see the end of the year's financial.
Cool. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.
All right. Any other questions on the financials on that page?
Okay, moving on to the 2027 operating budget.
Um, on the pool, I'll mention this because it's relevant to this. U, we got a
recommendation from, uh, Pat at Rockville Pools, uh, to convert our pool to saltwater. Um, he said with the
amount that we spent on filters this year and chemicals, it would pay for itself pretty quick. Um the saltwater
pools apparently need a little bit less as far as filter changing and less chemicals. They produce their own chlorine and all that stuff. Um so that's something that we're going to
move forward with because between what was left over from pool maintenance this year, um it wouldn't take any increases for next year to be able to cover that.
And so the ant what we anticipate is to pay less in maintenance fees to the pool going forward with that conversion. And so, [clears throat]
um, I don't have a year-over-year in front of me, but the record by doing that, are you sure your equipment's rated for salt water?
So, any of the equipment, any equipment that is not rated for salt water would be the filters and pumps are part of the
cost of swapping over and the fence as well.
The fence rusting. What?
You're going to rust the fence with salt water?
Yes. cross that bridge when we get to it. Okay. As long as you guys are aware. Yep. Hey, why don't we have a question?
Um, sure. Yes. Yes, sir. [laughter] Please.
Hey, uh, who who takes the trash can to the road from for the pool?
A lot of times, Matt. Really?
I was wondering why did an empty trash can get taken out last this week? I did it because of Halloween. I didn't want trash on the tree from our stuff. I'm sorry. I brought it back.
Good man. [laughter] I was just curious. I went by and I was like, "Why is the trash there? The pool's been closed." I was just curious.
Good call. All right. Any questions on the 2027 budget?
This is anticipating all the town houses being sold next year. Um so by the end of the year having full contributions
from a fully occupied townhouse. Uh and that's most of that increase is going to reserve contributions because we are uh
there's a new uh Fetty May and Freddy Mack requirement coming out January 1 of 27. You have to have 15% of dues towards
the reserves. Y so that's why you see that big increase in reserves. It's not a bad thing. If anything, it's it's for better.
Um there's maybe there might I know there's two developers that still have a couple. One the the majority the most is seven. I think the other one might have two or three left.
Okay.
Um but yeah, you're going to make a lot tonight, aren't you?
I am. Has there been a reserve study done? There has not been one.
There's not. Do you have a list of assets and a and an idea of what their life and replacement costs are so that you know
has been talking about that? Um they'll probably evaluate if they want a reserve study done probably in the next year or so. Everything has been fairly new for
the last several years and with the turnover and getting everything into a groove, um they haven't done one yet.
But I always think it's a great idea for I think I think they're great. They're only going to list what you tell them are your assets. And and um I have a
spreadsheet that I created with a prior job that we had over 5,000 items in our reserve. And I can take that spreadsheet
and you can see how much you need to reserve for each item [clears throat] each year. And that helps with this funding. And and if the um
docu if if the new law in Tennessee says you have to contribute it to reserves, then we need to look to see does the this document allow us to take those
reserves for capital because once the reserve fund exceeds what we need y that is forecast out in the study then
maybe that can be used as capital to improve the community.
Yeah. the requirements uh from Fanny May Freddy Mack uh for um FSA. No, not for there. It's just a loan requirement.
Yeah. For which loan though? It's the any any Franny or Freddy? Okay. Fanny or Freddy? Fanny Freddy. Yeah.
So if if we have a loan with Fanny or Freddy. No, I believe it's only new loans.
Like anybody like if you wanted to sell your home, they will um call our company and ask for whatever they want if sometimes they want financial support.
Yeah. Yeah. Um that's and then they'll look at that's why I put it on the bottom. That way they don't even have to do math. It just says it exceeds the 15% um requirement.
Okay. So they won't loan to new owners if you're not putting 15%. So then it becomes the question I I don't recall cuz I wasn't looking at that. I'll look
at it whether or not the reserves can be used for capital improvement once they're adequately funded. Yep. Yeah.
I have a question. Does our um on our revenue where the homeowner fees are, does that is that just the fees that
that were due at the time? Like I pay my fees well in advance. Mhm. Is that included in this amount?
Which amount? You mean the budget?
Yes. So that budget number is based off of if every home paid their dues on time all 12 months.
So if if you've paid over that that's not included in No, it's not because we can't we can't like if you move the you would be refunded that money.
I was just curious because if I decided I didn't want to pay for 6 months, I could.
Yeah. So that would be that would be less of like drop it.
Yeah. That would be less of a 2027 budget issue. That' be more of a cash flow issue. So, that's some of the stuff that we manage on a month-to-month basis on the board. We're looking at
delinquent accounts and figuring out which ones need to have notices sent or whatever. And that's where we're trying to recover those operating expenses and
make sure we're cash flow positive every month. Yeah.
We had, sorry, we had one question back here with the uh the streets, the curbs. Yep.
Are we going to have more work done on those?
I called the city and I said, "How many times are y'all going to mark our curbs and do nothing?" Yeah. Uh, and they said they've still got Tommy on bond and so they're trying
to pin him down to come and [laughter] Yeah. meeting that actually [clears throat] city of Chapel Hill's
meeting the city of Chapville denied releasing this.
Yep. And so they're they're pinning him to the wall and trying to get him to address some of that stuff. So they want to take away.
Yeah. No, he's still in Tennessee. Brave guy.
Uh, [clears throat] Linda, um, how often does the board meet? Uh quarterly quarterly or sorry no every other month not quarterly every other month. Well the
last uh board meeting minutes that are on the website are from May of 25. Can we get the meeting minutes posted for all the meetings between then and now?
Y Mark are Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Wait for the mic.
No. Are you able to say how many other homes are behind or delinquent on their homeowner fees um
with the age? We don't we don't take action beyond sending reminders until what's the amount we said like the 250
300 300 once a home gets over $300 delinquent cuz some people are like I'm just going to wait and pay it after the fact quarterly or whatever. Okay, that's
that's on you. It costs us costs the claim mailing like cuz they're mailing late notices every month that you haven't paid. Um but yeah, once it gets
over 300, we're involving uh an attorney to send a notice to say, "Hey, we're going to take action and collect." Um
we've never had more than four or five in that. And some of the ones that that sat on there for a long time with foreclosures.
And doesn't that affect the quorum?
Like if they're delinquent, they're not able to officially be here to be recognizing.
They could Yeah, we haven't really had a problem with those people showing up and expecting to vote.
Linda, are the legal fees go back to them? Okay. Okay. So, generally it's a
percentage. So, you know, would you say that the AR amount is 5% of our monthly
revenue or 2% or 10%. I mean, if you've got five out of 200 and something, then you're looking at a low percentage of
AR. Yeah, it's very low. Sometimes it looks big cuz we've had a couple of them that were, you know, $1,000 plus, obviously, pending foreclosures. Mhm.
Um but like on a month-to-month basis, yeah, it's and and just just so that you know, part of the reason to wait until the 300 is
because a lot of times the courts will not even take you seriously if you bring a suit against a homeowner for such a
low amount. And that's why you wait to send it to legal.
Yeah. Any other questions on the 2027 budget before we move on? Cool. Thank you all.
Um there's some lovely bios that you're welcome to read that either we or our
wives wrote about us wives each of our respective wife singular.
So which two board members are staying on the deal?
Uh all three were up. So I got elected to the board in 2024. What's I was talking to Laura Beth about this beforehand. It's interesting at the beginning if you remember uh the whole
board which included Mark um and Dan and Stephen was elected to um staggered terms of one year, two years and three
years in order to to establish an offset so that we'd never have an entire turnover of the board in one year to
maintain continuity. And so Dan's expired Dan was up first I think this year. This this No, I'm I'm up this year.
I've been up for three years now. Yeah, this is the end of my second year uh officially because I was elected in 2024.
Stephen is on year it's a mystery.
It's a mystery. He's been here since the beginning.
Well, I took over came in when Oh, that's right. That's right. Myself, David. Yeah.
And then you stepped in for me and then Stephen stepped in for That's right. That's right.
So, it would have been David's turn that would have continued. So, stagger.
So, we don't have staggered anymore. So, the next time that there's an election, it's going to be all three or up for election and they're from that point, they're all two-year terms.
A board member can't run again. They can still run again, but then they're two-year terms there after.
Terms should have held replacements coming in, right? So, so like if you were to draw it out and say, okay, at the beginning
at year zero, it was one, one, two, and three. So that on year one, one person's
getting replaced and then year two, the problem is that first year after that, we didn't have a quorum and so we didn't vote in any new members.
We've never had a we've had a quorum one time in 2024 because Steven called his neighbor. I called a bunch of people.
Oh, that's Yeah, he came in the last minute. He's like, I got the proxy. Gave it to That was the first meeting we had in here.
Yeah. Yeah, it was that final testing take control board from the development.
Yeah, that's right. Well, that and that was hotly contested because it was the first one it was like there was virtually no announcement and then we
didn't have enough people and then it was like too bad. We held it over at the community center.
The second meeting we had to recall the meeting and at the second meeting quorum is 20% and we had enough then that's what they had to
to get the developer off the board and to institute a homeowner run board. So, um, great
questions. Any any general questions that y'all have? And then I want to talk about a playground.
I do have a question. And I know at some point you folks were looking at possibilities of
obstructive things to put in front of the burm to keep the the tracks for going for
idiots to call that they were off-roading.
What happened with uh any of the quotes or different things about like boulders or you don't like my finely built hence?
Well, I like it. I added to it, but you know, it works. It does work.
So, yeah. So, we we looked at quotes to have the land graded next to the burm and have boulders or something put there and it was going to be thousands of dollars.
It was.
Yeah. Because Steven volunteered his time and went and bought some Tposts and put them up with reflectors. And
do we have anything where we can fill in where they have gone through their I'm working on it, but it's expensive.
Is it long? You're put You're putting your lawn Are you putting your lawn liings in there?
No. No. some dirt of rocks. Want some rocks? Yes.
Just something to fill it in because it it you know that water just stays there.
Trying to do it without having to like use board money. Like I'm just board money
personally and [clears throat] trying to bring some dirt and throw in there.
Of course, you know, it's funny when people if someone were to add dirt or rock to it, but adding grass trimmings
I don't think someone doesn't help. I think that's shears when they went by. I think it blows it.
So So I saw that. Uh no, whenever I was seeing the big dump of grass trimmings added in. I saw that.
So we can decide to do whatever we want.
Um we've been trying to avoid spending thousands of dollars on a ditch that's not engineered correctly that we were stuck with.
Um and so if we want to take respons if if we want to take responsibility for filling in, we can. I'd prefer not to um
if we can avoid it, but like what Stephen was saying is like my suggestion would be spend 180 bucks renting a dingo
for a Saturday afternoon and just push the dirt back in, you know, flatten it back out.
So that's if if you know anybody who's a you know, contractor who does that kind of thing, let us know. Um, but yeah, I'm
I'm not trying to [clears throat] There's There's enough things we've been talking about uh a different solution for the ugly electric boxes besides
arbor bodies that get destroyed by bagorms. Um, something that doesn't cost $6,000 per site. We've been talking
about uh getting the janky street lights that are tilting straightened and fixed.
Um, and so there's other projects that are just like more important to us on the board than fixing a ditch. On a side
note, [snorts] if anyone is getting any concrete work done, they usually remove the dirt under it. Get with us on the board and we can
[snorts] get it dumped in there and taken care of normally. I got a quote on some concrete I was trying thinking about getting done. didn't get done. But the guy was talking about removing the
top 6 or 8 in of soil and I was instead of paying him to dump it, I was going to have a facilitator brought over there and then I was going to pack it down
myself. So if you know anyone who's doing concrete work and they're going to charge them to take dirt, get with one of us so we can facilitate using it and then we can just literally
work on filling in our own put that something like that on the website. I mean I noticed that this annual meeting was not posted on the website. It's not
on the calendar. Um there's none of that stuff out there, but that kind of request if it's on the website, people can see it.
I just thought that just now to be fair,
[laughter]
that's fine. But the annual meeting wasn't on the scrolling thing telling me how to pay and where to pay. Mhm. And it went on the calendar.
Yeah.
I have another question. I'm sorry. And I apologize because I don't know if this is in That's fine. any of our documentation,
but do we not have a drainage easement behind our homes?
Do we not have And the reason I the reason I say that, I'm not trying to cause any trouble, but the fences are budding budded up back to
back and then the water is puddling in the homes that don't have like I thought there was a drainage easement that you could not build on.
And I know apparently it's too late now because there's been multiple ones out there, but I noticed when the rain came in,
it's puddling up bad behind some yards because there's nowhere for it to drain. There's no way for it to drain.
On the drawing of my house, there is a it's called PDUE uh
easement, which is supposed to be plumbing something drainage easement. I don't know how that's enforced and that
would have been the homeowner's duty to say, "Oh, hey, yeah, I'm gonna do that." And I understand why they're back, you
know, they're butdding up, you know, so it saves the money.
But for the people who don't have fences, what it does is it creates a giant lake, creates it creates a river behind the
homes because that water has no way to drain out because the fences are Yeah. the when we had the concrete the
asphalt done I was able to be home when the foreman was out looking at the job and trying to figure things out. He
looked at he was talking about the challenge of paving in such a way that it didn't create massive lakes in the neighborhood. And if you go around you look at the different um drain covers.
There's like way different amounts of asphalt piled up next to it because of all the work they had to do just to get the water to not go backwards up stammer
because [cough and clears throat] and the guy who was doing the the work, he said the the again what we're stuck with
is a piece of land that was not graded correctly at all from the ground up. And so they said what they were supposed to have done on
a lot like this is great at gradually downhill, not have it be like where it comes down steeply at Dan's house and then flat because that just creates problems for
everybody. And that's where that comes from cuz you've got a downhill where the water all gets going.
Well, and it's going to cause erosion problems for Oh, we already got there's at least homeowners that chooses not to do a fence.
shouldn't be a responsibility of them to fix an erosion problem created by, you know, you I call it common sense.
You've got to have somewhere for that water to drain and it can't drain when the fences are, you know.
Well, the documents state when a request um when request for a fence falls within a drainage easement or utility easement,
the owner understands that they are installing within an easement and take full responsibility if there are any issues with drainage or access. And then
the other side of it is, and I'm I'm two years in Tennessee. I haven't studied Tennessee laws, but I'm from Texas. Most of the time, state laws say if you do
something on your property that causes your neighbor damage, then you're responsible. Water damage, you're responsible to take care of that. So,
there are remedies. It's just not very neighborly sometimes when you have to do something like that.
Yeah, you have issues. Again, why why I go back to the the bigger problem is if one person said, "I'm going to fix my drainage issue." and and fill that in.
You're It just It pushes the problem to the four other neighbors.
Doesn't that fence have to go through the board to get approved?
It does. And we don't say yes or no to drainage ements. That's a township ordinance thing. We we are the only thing and this is like just a good call
out. The only thing that the board enforces
is this and whatever operating rules are created in support of this. Um, we
aren't emergency responders. We aren't responsible for responding to littering complaints and so on and so on and so
on. And so the building code is something the city manages. We don't manage building code. We manage as far
as fences go. Mainly stylistically, we're not going to allow chain link fences and stuff like that, but like there is there is not a ton in here as
far as requirements for fences go. And it falls back to things like general principles. It's like if you build on drainage, that's on you.
So yeah, I I I feel the pain. And I go back to like we I've talked to at least six people who have severe drainage
issues and erosion issues. Especially if you go up onto the corners where the lots are on slopes. It's really bad.
Like really really bad.
Yeah. Yeah. All all the edges of the pools. So we're trying to address some of that. We paid for aation and overseating this year. So we're trying to get a little more root system to help
keep some of the water. But the the the issue we're just stuck with is just what the grading is on the homeowners like it's all personal properties.
Yeah. Yeah. So that stuff won't get Yeah. Yeah. That's right.
There's a drainage issues on the HOA property. Uh the pass through people.
Is that the pass through walkway or you talking across the street?
Uh directly behind my house between me and the red townhouse. That'd be the townhouse's property.
Well, technically it's the field that has a drainage issue, which is which is the corner house right there.
Town houses. Yeah, it either be the town houses or that corner house. Yeah. The one that we are tracking that the city's been messing around with is the one next to Matt's
house by the pool where they did some work on the the water lines that they screwed up and then they just dumped
dirt back down. They didn't seed. So, there's been a little uh fairy who's been going over there dropping seed every so I have no idea who it is.
They did put seed. I watched him put seed, but it washed away like 2 days later cuz it Yeah, just like they put seed in all of our houses in the middle of summer in a
drought. It's like good luck.
So, what other questions? Any any comments? Yeah, I want to talk about the teenagers. Oh, yeah. The teen are they teenagers or the kids?
Teenagers, but the one specifically I know that I've called law enforcement um for them to come out. I know that me and you've chatted about that just because it goes on for hours. It's obscenities.
you know, we've talked to him, Mark's talked to him, our Beth Johnson and their her husband has talked to him and they continue. And so I have a six-year-old who repeats it.
Um, so, you know, even talking to Mark, they just make up reasons. Even when I called the police, what did they say?
They were playing karaoke and I'm like, "Dude, it's been hours and it's going to like 11:00, 12:00." So, the last time I talked to Officer
Johnson when he came out, he told me if I called him again, he'd cite me for harassing the police.
So, okay.
He said, "Call the Chapel Hill non-emergency number, Marshall County non-emergency number anytime it happens and blow up the phone." And I'm like,
"Yes, sir." It's gone past obscenities, too, where they were taking the street sign that was down on our across our house and like physically pulling it into the
middle of the street where I'm moving it back and forth.
Yep. So that is so the group there the group of those kids there's I've I've talked to all of the ones that were involved in that and officer Johnson
talked to all of them and the ones who were ding-dong ditching were walked over to the houses where they were ding-dong ditching and had to apologize to the
homeowners and own that they did it and so they were told that if it happens again it's just law enforcement. That's and where's the parents in all this?
That's a great question. blackout. That's a great question.
So FYI, if you call the non-emergency number, it goes to 911 dispatch anyways.
Yep. But it's routed differently. So it doesn't come into dispatch as a 911 call.
That's correct. But the same group answers it. So it's not like it just goes to an office. The same office. That's right.
Same people answered and the same amount of attention will be given to you.
And that goes for any of that stuff, any of the harassment stuff. kids being stupid. Call the chapter 9 emergency number. [clears throat] There's nothing we can do as Okay.
I'm I'm trying the whole approach of wanting to talk to the kids, get to know them a little bit better, and be like, "Look,
do you realize what you're truly messing with?" Yeah.
Do you realize the more that you bang on doors, the more that you do that, someone's going to come outside with a shotgun one day and then what are you going [clears throat] to do?
Yep. I'm trying more of the personal approach with them and hoping that a change could happen.
Y so far and they responded very well.
Yeah. So far, uh my house and said, "Gentlemen, do you want to be treated like adults correctly?" Mhm.
Okay, let's act like adults. Yep.
And they were all like, "Yes, ma'am." I asked them more questions. Yes, ma'am.
Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. And I have not had trouble again. Yeah. if there's still stuff going on.
Now, um I one person I think Courtney Martin who lives over on the other side of Addison said that she had kids pound
pounding on her door, but I'm also like you've got little kids. They might have been coming like I Right.
the kids that were the issue, half of them are at my house every day now jump on the trampoline and playing baseball in the back. So, I'm like I can at least keep an eye on them that way. And I haven't seen anything personally.
[clears throat] Um, so like, yeah, if you if you hear something, call the non-emergency number and just don't let them hear the end of it.
Okay. Yeah.
Yeah. Cuz if it was in if it was in the single family homes, then you could say noise complaint. We could send a notice and all that stuff, right?
I mean, technically at that point, there's nothing that the board can do because it's [clears throat] getting down to a personal level on the parents.
And if anything, there might be something that the renters that the company that they rent through could be done.
Oh, absolutely.
Because if there's multiple complaints about things with the police than the renter people, you all have you all have the right to file complaints about nuisances.
And the board has the ability to send notice. Mhm.
We don't There's no such thing as getting the first notice you ever hear from the board and it being a fine ever.
That does this gives you the protection to say you have to have ample notice before there's ever any kind of a fine.
So people who call me say, "Can't you just find them?" It's like, "No, it's not how it works." I can mail them a notice. Laura Beth will mail them a notice. And that's like we've had people
like, "Oh, there's a barking dog." Our kind of like operating principle is if we have one neighbor who's complaining about one barking dog and we never hear from anybody else.
If it's like real serious then it's like okay. But usually what's happened in the past is we like yeah we heard this over here and we heard over here. It's like
let's let's just send a notice saying this you need to you we've got a noise complaint. So per section whatever of
the CCRs you need to put your dog inside or something. And there's also usually noiseances with the
city. So if the board isn't successful, then the board homeowner can take it to the city. That's right. That's right. Yes, sir.
So we just came through Halloween. Ybody with youngsters on Halloween? No. No.
Everybody came to my house was just so polite. It was great. I love Oh, it was fantastic. Yep.
Two bowls of candy. So back [laughter] in there.
Yeah. It was leftover candy from other things. So, I didn't care about the candy, but I'm glad the bulls came back, but that was a little bit.
Yeah. Overall, overall good. Good. Yep. Okay. So, uh Yes, sir. What's your name? I haven't met you before.
My name is These You mentioned straightening the light poles. Yeah.
Do you have a long time and a short time budget or agenda of fixing things around the property or making improvements?
Yeah. aka like building playgrounds or more lights any of that.
Yeah. So that would be we talked about that in our last meeting is like going to Linda's question early on is like where is the capital fund for capital
meaning like property improvements? Um right now the first answer to your question do we have like a line item for repairs and maintenance for repairs and
maintenance. So when we have the electrician come out and look and give us a quote for straightening all the janky looking lights that would come out
of repairs and maintenance. Um now as far as the playground goes that would be something where we have to say let's put that let's we have to actually start
contributing to a capital fund to do that which would be tracked on here in the capital fund line. But that's what I'm asking. Is there any plan? Is there
a short-term plan or a long-term plan of getting So, we're saving money for something like that or uh for which one? For the light post for the playground.
Any of the improvements around I [clears throat] mean I can come up with other improvements that So, so the things that are on our radar right now, lights, um ceiling fans in
the pool area, so they're not going like this. Um, we just did the ceiling in the pool area this year cuz it was just
nasty drywall and so we had actual sophet put in um
the some kind of a aesthetic screen around the uh the electric boxes that are just big gray boxes that have dead
trees all around them. Um playground is something that we've discussed. Now
aside any uh any ex any capital expense over dollar amount
12 it's 15 $15,000 but it increases 5% every year.
Yes. So 15 * whatever uh that has to come to the homeowners at a duly called
meeting for such a purpose where there is a quorum for a vote. And so, uh, I will talk about the playground. Um, the
board for the last yearish has been trying to figure out how do we actually do this? Um, how do we designate the
funds, [clears throat] raise the funds, and then decide on how to like what playground do we use, like what contractor, all that? Like what are the
options? Uh, and so over the last 6 months, we've been looking at like what would it take, what would a realistic budget look like? And I want to say it
was like in the 50 to60 50 to $60,000 range. You get one that's not tiny and not a giant jungle gym like
Henry Horton. U and so in order to say let's do that, we would raise those funds by doing either like a special
assessment that's like trickled out over the series of several months. Um so that it's not like I forget what the the economics on it are. Like if we were to say let's raise $50,000.
If let's say we wanted to raise that in one year, how much would that increase each homeowner's dues for that one year period while raising the money?
It's about $21 a month.
$21 a month for a year. Um and so that's the the raising of the money doesn't take a vote. Like the board can can do a
special assessment to cover whatever. um asterisk if there is a repair that is urgent like
if the pool breaks or like if something fails in the pool house or we can decide to spend over $15,000 for something
that's urgent like that. But for a capital improvement like playground that would be 50 to $60,000. We need to bring that to you all and 67% is what you need.
67% approval to approve it. You need 60 cents for the whole of the whole community or of a meeting. You need a super majority. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. We need a a supermajority to approve a capital expense over $15,000.
So that means 67% of the votes in a meeting like this. So and there would have to be a quorum.
So 67% of 73 people are present.
Yeah. Of those present of those who are present or represented at any annual or special meeting dually called for such purpose.
Yep. So be 67% of the people that are at the meeting or not 67% of all homes. That'd be nuts.
Yeah.
So I guess kind of the question is is there a laid out vision and do do we
vote on that vision of or make suggestions or how does how does that work of getting
That's a great question. Yeah. Um, as far as vision goes, um, kind of the map of the last few years has been like [clears throat] survive and get a
neighborhood that's not broken was like years 1 through 3, five, four. Like, okay, now that we're like on our feet
and we don't have a giant dirt pile that's getting dumped, the trash dumped on it, we have a street that doesn't have manhole covers sticking 3 in out of
the ground. We have a functioning community now. What's next? Okay, let's fix the things. And then now we're kind of in this like, okay, what does it look
like to improve the property here? What does it look like to find contractors who aren't just whoever? Find people in our community who we want to work with.
Um, and kind of making it ours is things like amending the bylaws. So again, it's these a bunch of the stuff that's in the bylaws is just stuff that the contractor
picked. It's not like we chose the rules. So, how do we amend the bylaws so they represent the desires of this
community and not some random person in the office?
Created from some other neighborhood, some other community. It was just adapted over by Dr. Horton and
Tommy the the board and they said here's the bylaws.
Yeah, absolutely. And just an FYI on the the street lights, uh, when phase one was complete and
phase two, which was Stamer Farms and so loud, I figured he'd be heard a
microphone. Uh, as as it was getting finished, I met with Tommy and [clears throat] was trying to show him
the distance between each light post for phase one, and it didn't match up for phase two. And I went to [clears throat]
town hall. I went to multiple places to find where it was supposed to be for the street lights to make sure Tommy did it.
And unfortunately, there was nothing ever in the plans. It was just not there. Yeah.
So Tommy did however he wanted to and that's why we have very minimal things for street lights
down the back half of Lauren Lane and on the back half of Addison.
Well, and the only one the ones we have there cuz David fought for them, right? I mean, Tommy didn't want to do it and that's why Yeah.
But phase one is so well lit and it just degrades. So, so going back to that your question is there a vision and how do we
decide on that? Uh the things that we vote on are like decisions to spend money, right? Capital improvements, things like that. And so the board like
any any resident like this, look at this as a corporation that you own a share in. Like you're an owner here. And so if you have ideas, send them to us. Like
this is the the playground is one that we've heard a ton about. Like people really want. It's like, okay, let's see what it would take to actually do that and put it to the community for a vote.
And so things like whatever you're whatever you'd have in mind, it's like what could improve, let's take all that stuff and if it's like sensible improvements that are just within the
operating budget, let's just do it. And if it's stuff that's like really appreciable improvements to the neighborhood that are real capital uh improvements, let's figure out how like
what do those look like and get to the point where our annual meetings have quorums where we can actually make decisions together as a community. So that's that's kind of how it works in my
mind is like we look at options and questions like our board meetings a lot of times consist of like what have what has the community been saying? What have we been seeing [clears throat] on the
Facebook group? What emails have we been getting in here? What conversations do we need to have? And then what do we do with that?
Have you have you have you done any you got to raise your hand before you start talking? I'm not that fast.
Any surveys that you email to the members to that ask them what improvements they want? I mean, I know you've heard a lot about the playgrounds
and I know there's been talk about a dog park up in that one field. Um, but h has
there been any survey of the members to find out what they want for capital improvements?
We haven't sent out a formal survey. Um, but we have done formal surveys here.
Especially at these annual meetings, we're generally asking for things and get recommendations, especially since the people who show up to these meetings are the ones that are, you know,
generally the ones who care more like want to see things through and have questions and stuff.
So, the only thing I have is I don't know if it's covered by the city or whatever, but that stop sign at Renee and Ryan. Yep.
It's been missing and I watch people blow it all the time, and there's nothing I can say about it.
We've got it. The contractor just needs to put it up. Yeah.
So, the contractor might be that guy. I say I'll hang it. Yep.
Yeah. It's in the box after this. Don't forget. Yep. Okay.
Nope. He raised his hand. [laughter] We'll come to you in a second.
That's right. Has there been any communication with Marshall County about Stevens Road? Is there not by us there? Not by us.
No.
Becker not her first. I can answer this question.
It just popped into my head this there's no stop signs to exit our neighborhood.
Are there supposed to be one there to exit? There used to be a stop sign years ago.
It's never been there. I've lived here since like 2021 and there was never a pole right there. I promise you cuz I watched it happen like we were exiting
out and people used to come out and cars would be flying. I just stopped cuz I don't want to die. Yeah. You know, I guess that's just me.
Yeah. Matt, I put a complaint into Marshall County. Yeah. He said it's it's on our list, but on the bottom of the list. They want Lewisburg fixed first.
Yeah. So, the response I got was we'll deal with it, but it's not on our list.
Yeah. There was an epic battle between Chapel Hill and and the county over that road before it was chip and tar back when it was just loose gravel. The wash the wash floor is so bad.
So bad. Both sides. Yeah. Horrible.
It's much better now than what it was on the terrible on the playground. I do want to spend a minute talking about that. Um any any thoughts, questions, concerns?
Uh like here, I'll just lay out how it would play out. is we need to vote to say, "Yeah, that would be a good idea to
spend $50 to $60,000 on a nice not McDonald's colored playground."
Yes. That literally conversation. He's like, "A lot of these look like McDonald's."
concerns about we get approval. So, at this point, if we want to do it anytime in in the next year, we would need to have a different special [clears throat]
called meeting like at the pool or something, try to get everybody there and do a vote. After which point, we would then say, "Okay, we're going to
start a special assessment starting at whatever point and then add that whatever $20, $21 to each homeowner's
dues over the next however many months it takes to build up that cash cuz as a board, we don't want to go in debt." That's I don't know if anybody likes
debt. I work for Dave Ramsey, so I think I'm obliged to say that I don't like going in debt.
So, right. I know. I knew you were listening.
Um, so, yes. Where is this going to be located at?
So, the property that the the section of property we've been looking at is is somewhere around the pool. That's that's
where we have the most space that's not butdding up against a public road. Um, and so anywhere else it's just there's either not enough space or it's like
there's a there's Steven's road right there. The only spot or on top of the burm, but that is terrible.
Yeah, that's wonderful. What are you talking about? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Any other question?
Yes, that playground off the top of my head.
No, we've actually been talking about it. Yeah. Right. But to be for all ages, not just the younger version that would
play in a playground, McDonald's playground, but have something for the middle and older kids like whatever it is, uh, basketball, pickle
ball court, anything like that that different ages could play.
Yeah. So, the last the last HOA I lived in, I was there when I was renting, but I was there when they did a whole like pavilion, right? So, they did like a
covered concrete area. So like those are the things where and that they've been there since 1995 and before they got that before that they had a pool and a
playground eventually a volleyball like a grass or a sand volleyball court. So like those are things that I think eventually we could talk through and again like send those ideas cuz I think
it'd be great to have a running list of like capital improvements that would number one be good to use and number two add real value to the neighborhood. Uh
because like right now, just to put it plainly, if we did put a playground in, this would be the only neighborhood
within 30 miles, 25 miles that has a pool and a playground.
Like the other ones, they either have a playground or a pool. That's usually what's that? Yeah. Right. So, if you want to go down to Henry Horn, you can,
but not they don't have a pool anymore that you can use.
Gotcha. Well, unless you want to spend the money on the hotel room that is there an additional liability uh policy that has to be
No, our current liability policy is pretty broad. Yeah. So, it would cover the pool is the most dangerous thing you could ever own. Mhm.
And so, unless you like do skydiving out of an airplane pools pool's basically like max liability and so anything else we can
So, it just falls under falls under the same thing. Yeah, exactly. We have a general liability policy. Yeah, that anything else. That was it. Yep. There you go, Matt.
Thank you for waiting, man. [laughter] Have we figured out what the cost of a dog park would be for to bundle it together as one big? Because I think you
can get more support if you have both a playground and a dog park because some people want a dog park.
I think we actually have more dogs in our community than people. Um I think u so yeah, that's one of the things we
talked about. How could we utilize like where would the place be for that?
That's we talked about utilizing some of that grass by the road by Stevens cuz it's like you got a fence in dog park like that would be a fine spot. So yeah, that's that's definitely an option.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. You could use that for a dog park and then if you wanted to add in the basketball court there, it might make sense gates or fence, whatever. But it's a big spot.
Yeah. And we're recording this and taking notes. So, like we're going to take all these ideas and put them down to like your point that it'd be great to
have like ideas and like, hey, cast your vote. Tell us what you think.
The lighting sending you that is the lighting is is the lighting. So, so as far as what's getting fixed on the
lighting side, um, we requested a quote from an electrician to straighten all of the heads on the light post.
But I mean, adding additional lighting.
So, if we want to add additional lighting, that is a substantial expense.
Yeah, like tens of thousands of dollars for just a couple.
Uh cuz yeah, it's it's obscenely expensive to do after the the grading and and everything's already happened.
Uh and so that's I think part of why Tommy was so reluctant to add the ones that he did on Lauren because it was after the fact and it was really
expensive. So yeah, we could uh I don't know that's if that's how we want to spend our capital uh first, but it
[clears throat] it should be on the list for sure.
So straightening the lights is one thing. How about replacing the ones that are out? Are there ones that are out?
That has been reported multiple times on on Stammer. Uhhuh. Yeah. Right.
And all those are duck rivers. So that's the other that's the other awkward thing is all of the lights that are phase one
and two phase one and two are all owned by Duck River Electric. Mhm.
We don't own those and that's like the electrical inside them. We own the post but as far as everything that lights up and all the
things that power it, the meter, that all belongs. So, if you look at our our uh our payments, we have a handful of
electrical accounts because each light has its own meter. Mhm.
And there's not the same amount of bills as there are lights in the neighborhood because some of them are just the city
or I don't know how those work. And then the ones on Lauren Lane that were added are ours soup to nuts. The whole thing
is is our responsibility. And so that's so the ones on Stammer are Duck River as far as light bulbs being out.
But if we've reported it and it's still not done, I mean the only people we know to report to is Beth, what do we do?
I called Duck River and they said they were going to send somebody to take a look, but I'll follow up with that.
Yeah, we basically just need to hound them. So we'll give that to Laura Beth. She loves doing that stuff.
Maybe they'll maybe they'll straighten it up when they replace. That would be I would love that.
[laughter]
It's just sitting on the top.
Yeah. The electrician the electrician that I talked to was just like are you kidding me? It's three set screws. Yeah. How like how do you screw that up?
No pun intended. [laughter] Just say Dr. Hortillan or something.
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Um, any other thought any other thoughts on the the idea of doing a playground and the way that I talked about it? Because it's
like I again I've never managed an HOA before. I've never been on a board of an HOA. I've never had a special assessment on me, but I'm like that could be
uncomfortable. Um, and that's like my main concern is I don't want like it makes me really uncomfortable the idea of like yeah, we're just going to drop
an extra $21 a month bill on y'all's heads. Like I don't like how that feels uh doing it. And so like that's where
I'm like I genuinely want your feedback on it. Like if we say yeah it's going to go towards a playground. Is that like no thanks?
I just had one question so that I understand. Where are you wanting to put the playground?
If you're looking across the street through the houses across the street at the pool, right? I'm sorry. Say it again.
So you're looking out your front door past those houses that big field before the pool. You know what I'm talking about?
That borders Stevens. So, not out your back door. Okay.
I'm thinking I'm standing on your front porch. Yeah.
And I'm looking across Lauren Lane out at the pool across the street. Right.
That lawn before the pool. That big area right there. Yeah.
Is probably the most suitable place where there's enough buffer around it where it won't create issues and won't be too close to houses. You just have to that little cuz I Yeah.
Okay. That's what I was thinking. I just wanted to be sure because Fellow Cemetery is Yeah. Not over there.
I mean, of course, we're not going to mess with that, but you've got the stuff in front and then that Yeah.
Yeah. That area is sort of in front of the pool. Yeah.
The thing as I've walked around that area, if we try to put it next to the pool, then it's like basically on top of somebody's Yeah. It's on top of people's
houses basically if it's next to the pool over there. But there's enough buffer where we could put it closer to the pool on the east side.
It's the only good spot. Yeah, it's really the only good spot.
You just walk around. It's like the only clear open enough spot to have a smaller playground without getting really close to someone's fence. Yes, sir.
So, with playground, what are we talking about? There's going to be swing sets, slides. What type of equipment are you thinking about?
Because I know with the older kids Yeah. Yeah.
Do they have like a a skate park or a yellow? Probably not a skate park. Okay. Um probably kind of standard all ages.
If you like you've seen the green and brown place playset at Henry Horton. It's a couple of slides. Dr. Horton.
A couple. We're the only one that doesn't have a playground. Was in Murphy'sboro. Yeah.
Cuz when I was going to buy a house, I went to those because they were gone. Yeah,
there was, you know, we were just like four little houses or five houses. So, they couldn't even look. I couldn't even go in and see the floor plan cuz my
house didn't exist. So, we didn't have a model house or any of that stuff.
And they all had I I was really surprised that they didn't do that in our area cuz all of them have playgrounds.
Yeah. And that's kind of where I was that's that's what I saw. I was like, there's nothing around here that has this. So yeah, Emily,
for people who are wondering, basically what what does the market look like for playgrounds, essentially there are playground building companies who build
playgrounds. They have like 20 models in each price bracket. Yep.
And all the colors that you could dream of, including McDonald's if you end up changing your mind on not sad gray and black McDonald's,
right? I know we don't need to go like millennial gray jean or whatever, right?
But if if they basically you tell them what you want, they'll be like, "Great.
These are the five options that will fit your needs and they're in your budget and then they're going to send us a package and we're going to look at it
probably on a PowerPoint and we're going to go woo. Ah, and if we all like it enough then we'll vote on it." That that's is that essentially what it's going to look like?
Yeah. So the we were talking about this last time we met on the board and it's like hey if we want to actually get down to this I don't want to bring 15 20
options and have you know a 50 person conversation about which one I would like to bring an option or maybe two options.
There's maybe like five being I'm much more concerned I'm much more concerned about a yes or no vote than a
which color do you like vote. Um, and I my past life was a designer and so I'm very concerned about it being tasteful.
Um, we don't need Sure.
Yeah. So tasteful. And then I've got a 10-year-old, a 7-year-old, a 3-year-old,
and a negative one week old in uterro. So I Yeah. So, I think it's
an easy statement to say you're you're kind of asking what's the vote? What would people want?
I'm ask I'm asking like not as far as a player, not what you want. It's like how does this hit?
Yeah. Do you want that? Like and not just do you want the playground because that is you will vote to tell us that.
What I'm laying out is eyes wide open. This is what that looks like. And this is Linda can tell you from past experience is like what does
it look like to raise capital when you're not a 6,000 home subdivision that has a million dollar a month cash flow
where you know a $50,000 playground is a substantial increase to what we've seen.
Like we've never raised dues more than a couple of bucks a year. And so a $21 increase is a substantial increase
relative to what we've done in the past and relative to what dues are right now.
And so my main concern is not do you want a playground or not? My main concern is how does that process you [clears throat] and if we get into that
are y'all like yeah it is what it is or is it like uh that's concerning. So, so you're I believe most of your new
families, younger kid, younger families up to the ages where they're in the teens or whatnot, they're going to be
for it and yay above teens up through middles. Yep.
Those parents would be like, "Yeah, sure. It'd be cool. The grandkids can come over." Sure. And then the families that are
much older who maybe won't get a lot of kids coming around, they probably won't want to pay for it.
And that's kind of what I'm asking cuz we have we have if you divide our community into basically the two demographics who buy houses in our neighborhood, people who need five
bedrooms, four bedrooms, and people who need a singlestory house. And so we've got retirees. I mean, we've got young families. And there's some in the
middle, but it is those two categories cover most of our neighborhood. And so this is when we were talking about when
when David was on the board, we had some variety. It wasn't just three young dads on the board. And so when I'm coming to
y'all for like we don't have anybody I have some gray hairs now, so I can't say that anymore. Um we don't have people
who've had who have kids with kids. We don't have people who are retired represented on the board. And so if you don't tell us, we won't know.
Uh, and so that's that's what I care about is talking about Yes, you would qualify. Yeah. Over here.
Are you talking about maybe a year in this increase? And then once that year is up, are you going back down to what it Yeah. Special assessment is for, I
believe, a a specific amount in a specific period of time. And there's always the option too if you'd like to do it in a year, but $22 a month is too
much or you get too much push back on it, then you set your special assessment for two years and you just push it out. That's 11 bucks. Yeah.
And it improves regardless if there, you know, grays like me and and I don't have children here, they come to visit, it
still is an improvement to the neighborhood that will help those folks or their children when they pass sell their home.
Yep. And that's that's how you present it to my research into the like what's around the area is that's kind of where I land is
it it needs to be a net positive for the neighborhood. Emily to sort of underline what Linda is saying how many totally do we have and we're closer to being uh you know
having our kids up and out than than than not. Um, it's still a benefit to us to invest in a playground because we've
told our children, "This is not the ancestral men that our your descendants will be returning to. We will be selling the house when you guys are big and
moving into a condo." And I want the next people to go, "Ooh, there's a park." Absolutely. Yeah.
It's marketability and value of the home. It's both things. So, you kind of look at it like from an ROI standpoint.
It's like, well, if I spent I think it's about 250 bucks for a household, am I going to get that back?
Well, it's I tried to do a feasibility study and it was really hard to but I'm like it's not the the bar to clear is not that high. Yeah.
You know, in order to get that money back now market goes up and down, so it's it's tough to that's why it's tough to do a feasibility study, but it's marketability.
Is that increase in HOA 42?
Say that one more time. What is the real money increase in the HOA fees on a monthly basis?
Yep. That so if we did a special assessment, it would be I know it won't be exact. Yep.
So I just ran the math. We have 244 units currently on the docket paying dues. That includes town houses and
single family homes. If we wanted to raise $50,000 in 12 months, that would be $178
per month per pay or payer for for 12 months.
Each home would have to contribute an extra $17. So plus 42.
That's Nope. Nope. I said times 42. 56 would be $68.
Yeah. So $68 a month for 12 months and then going back down to 42 and then it would go back for 12 months. Yep.
And so that's that's not the decision.
That's not going to get any use out of that.
Exactly. Exactly. And that's you know we catch you on the slide. I might be over there.
Yeah. [laughter] All right. Aaron, you hand your hand up and then we'll come to Linda.
Yeah. [clears throat] So about really about the only thing that that makes me hesitant on the idea
of moving forward at this time with something like that understanding all the caveats that are in place. We would have to get a vote, all that kind of
stuff. Um is just the fact that um literally everybody is spending $2 to $3,000 a year more than they were a year ago.
um with the increase in gas prices and all this kind of stuff.
Um you know, our grocery bill at our house almost doubled. Yep. Same.
Um and so it's like people don't necessarily have $17 or $18 a month to spare.
So we just have to be really conscious of that.
Definitely. Back uh Linda. And then back here, what's your name? Lexi. Lexi. Okay. Linda and Alexi. Okay. my niece.
Yeah, I was just going to say we're it's not going to affect us either. We don't have children either, but I'm for it. I'm fine with it. Cool.
Maybe not a year. Like cuz I agree 17's kind of a lot. I don't know if we could do a year and a half, two years. Yeah.
10 could be a little bit better, but what Linda called that is like we can we don't there's no deadline. Yeah.
We can do this however we want. And I think the bigger question like the bigger kind of philosophical question is like what does it look like to raise capital for any project? How long does
that take? What is our tolerance for up and down? Right. Um I think I think okay, this is just my thought. [clears throat] Uh it's been a rough year.
Food is Yep.
Gas is Yep.
You know, I mean, I've I've cut like my TV is just streaming services and I'm in
there going, "What's this? What's this?" Yeah.
Uh what else have I cut? Uh you know, just to be sure that I can make all of
the payments, you know, and u and I don't have a lot of debt is just the
house. So I'm not convinced right now that we shouldn't wait
and see cuz there is new administration coming USwise Senate House of Representatives
in C now Tennessee you know who knows we are weird people and [laughter] I
don't know what's going to happen with our group you know our states particularly sure But I would sort of
like to see the economy get a little better before we start adding the HOA fees.
Yep.
And Linda, I don't know if anybody in the neighborhood people have lost jobs
[laughter]
like that.
Okay. Some of the Well, there's several options on your capital that you can do.
You can you can make it longer. You can also do a if if you're wanting to do it by the end of year one, you can say it's
a two-year deal, but if you pay it all by the end of year one, you get a 10% discount on what the overall is. There's all kinds of ways to encourage that.
Y the other thing, too, is um to build a capital budget over time because we
already can see the playground isn't the only thing that we're going to want.
We've got the dog park, which is more than just a fence. There's a whole lot that goes to a dog park.
Um, is does the board want to consider and look at as part of the annual budget starting
in 2028 since you've already got 2027 budget that you budget the assessment even if it's a dollar a month out of
every assessment that is dedicated to a capital fund. So you're building that fund so you don't have to do a special
assessment and every year you increase that amount as part of your normal assessment.
That's a great point. Um, one of the things that Laura Beth has has talked to the board about is just like putting $42 a month HOA fee in perspective
just with the surrounding area how much HOA fees are. Um, it's like it's pretty cheap. And so, yeah, like just how do we just integrate this into the budget
versus saying we're going to spike a lot higher for a little bit of time versus saying let's just trickle it.
We're going to have a $3 increase in 2028. Cuz it looks like to me, I guess, you're leaving them the same in 2027.
So, in 2028, you have a $3 increase and that full $3 is dedicated to going into a separate
capital fund account that's maintained separately. That is for these sort of things. Unless of course your expenses increase so much that you have to increase them.
Yep. And that's uh your point earlier that you were asking about uh as far as having line items out all the things.
The main thing that we've been keeping an eye on is the pool cuz that's the big ticket item. That's like when the plaster decides to go, it's not a cheap job, right?
And so that's where we've been saying, hey, let's just have the cushion in the reserve to handle that whenever it
happens. so that we can start thinking about other things because I don't want to start saving for other stuff that and and be surprised by something sooner
than well let's get together on that spreadsheet I have only other question I had I'm going to take it to a different topic folks for just a second is what's
the update on the library that we I'm going to start I supposed to have this last week I'll get started on now I should have it this weekend we're trying
