Rich, I feel your anxiety and anticipation with all lof this. As you know I came into this community almost 3 years ago this May. I began to hear about the problems and concerns with the community and the board from you, which I appreciated hearing. Since I had came from a community not far from here where I was on the board for 10 years, I had some experience in these matters of the board and how it's run. I befriended you and over time decided that I should lend my experience to Bella Vista's board. Now, I'm on the inside and can easily see things a lot clearer and with complete understanding. I'm going to address each one of your concerns below now.
Nice explanation but you failed to mention when the breach of the Berm was first brought to the boards attention 2 years ago-it would have been cheaper to fix. It did not wash out during one down pour it became worse over time.
I know you don't want to hear this time worn saying, but, 'If you would have came to the meeting you would have learned.' yaddah, yaddah, yaddah. This whole story was given to the audience in attendance last night and it was a history lesson again that I've heard before but each time I hear it I remember more and it becomes obvious as to why it is taking so long to get the repair done. The berm is just one piece of the puzzle. Yes, we could have dumped and filled the breach but it would have been a temporary fix unless it was done properly. Point here is that no one made an effort to get a decent bid proposal to do it correctly. I made an attempt with one business person but stopped after learning of the bigger problem we have with the collapsed pond itself. If you were to look at the original engineering and survey documents (I put a link to a pdf up here yesterday) that I located yesterday, you'd see what the original design was. Now, over 9 years, going on 10, the sides have collapsed and the berm is busted, and who knows what else. Gharari Associates did the research for us last year on this and put in a bid on rebuilding the pond, meaning bringing it back up to the height it was and rebuilding the berm using a reinforcing underlayment so as to keep this problem from happening again or too soon. As soon as the water receeds to where Gafarhi and the board feel it's best to make this repair and rebuild, we'll give the go-ahead.
The problem I have with the whole reserve thing-I have sat in meetings and listened to the woes me's-how are we going to pay legal fees? This right after the announcement we are saving thousands on landscaping! Why is there a reserve? I thought a good budget would leave very little money left.
Legal is always at the forefront of anything. We have to make sure we are in compliance so not to cause liability to the association of course. Once that's decided one can go on with making plans to solve the problem at hand. Reserves, hmm, how do I explain it to the lay person. There are links on this Neighborhoodlink.com site under 'Resources' that I have perused many time and a few of them talk about reserves and a reserve study and why it's needed and so on. Basically, one sets up reserves accounts for projects or asset items that will need repair or replacement over time. A study determines how often the need is for repair or replacement and then you go about figuring out how much to set aside each year to pay for these items. Case in point. The wall. It will need painting after 5 to 7 years. A line item under the reserves accounting will show this and the budget will show how much is set aside each year for this and when it's time to do the job, the funds will then be used and then we start all over again.
Last night at the meeting I brought up the need to make these line items and to budget these things properly. It has never been done and hence why there is so much confusion.
A good budget therefore should contain reserve accounts to show monies separating annual operating expenses from future expenses. A good budget will also be figured as close to possible so as to not have excess money in the checking account at the end of the year but enough to cover reserves, unless, and here's something else that Sharman added last night. Once we set up reserves and move the money from the checking into their proper line items, this money would then be moved from the checking to the reserve account, and then we could look into putting this money into income producing instruments such as CD's if possible. I want to study this option more myself.
So are the people doing the budget exaggerating the numbers to keep building the reserve?
No, I would not make that assumption. My feeling is that no one was given the direction to set up reserve accounting and separate the excess cash showing in the checking account from future expenses. Soon we'll see this happen. I feel we are on the right track now.
I just wish things were alot more transparent.
You and me and probably a lot of other people too. I'm trying as hard as I can to do that here as I cannot seem to be able to get together a newsletter to communicate all of this to the residents on a regular basis. I hope to be able to one day. That's my ultimate goal, a regular quarterly newsletter.
Not accusing anyone of anything but Jesus Christ-the pond ,the lake-enough of hearing about this. Fix it and move on.
We are now only waiting on the water to receed. Believe me, we all would like to get this behind us. It's been a long and challenging road for those involved. It will be done.
Is this why 6 months ago the board agreed to pressure wash the entrance and it has not been done?
It has not been a priority is all I can tell you right now. I haven't forgotten it though. We still need someone to go ask the residents if we could use their water for a first step. I have thought about this hard and feel maybe if we offer to pay their water bill for that month it would be a good faith effort. It's me or Sharman I feel that will have to take on this task.
Should we start asking Obama for a stimulus package for Bella Vista?
Hey, everybody's else is doing it, might not hurt to ask. Would you like to follow up on this for us. 
On more than one occasion, in a meeting we have heard- once we fix it and they sign off, we are clear.
That is correct. To be more precise, it's the aquatic planting around the little canal and down past the little footbridge that has to be planted and accepted for inspection by SWFTMD. Then, we will get that permit that was issued in the first days of our developement signed off to us and we can be done with it. But, then how much will it cost to maintain this area? Dying trees, etc. That I feel is where the Contingency fund or account comes in. A contingency account has just a little money in it for those unexpected repairs, like wall crashes and sign damage and lighting repair. So, not only do we have reserve accounts but there is a contingent account. We have the contingent account set up in the budget and Sharman helped the board forecast how much to keep in it for the year. You can never be exact with a contingent account as you can imagine.
Now you want to budget 2,000 more a year toward lake maintenance, just in case. Sounds like another increase headed our way..............
No, you've already been paying for this over the years but no one realized it. Board members in the past knew we'd something was in our future to spend funds on but they just didn't know how much or when. Now, it's all coming to a head. The excess funds as we might call it in our checking at this time will be used for this pond repair. We'll keep the dues the same and budget our reserves for future pond upkeep. How long a time do we set on for repairs again? That's my thought last night and today. Do we wait 10 years again or do we need to think more in terms of yearly or bi-yearly or what? Hopefully Gafhari and Associates can give us some information on what to expect. I'm hoping we form a good relationship with them and they will continue to help us maintain our pond and keep it up as it was intended. It serves a functional purpose also as you might well know. The smaller portion of the pond on the North end takes in storm water. The berm filters the trash when the water is high enough to flow over it. I can forecast on dry seasons that we'll form a cleanup comittee (you and me again) to go over and clean up the trash that has accumulated. The latorial shelf at the far South end filters via the aquatic plants, the water before it goes over the metal damn and into the wetlands. This was all setup to help keep our community from flooding. Was it a perfect design? I don't know but in theory it seems like it would work and maybe it does. We'll have to monitor it more often in the future I guess.
I hope I've answered all your concerns here and that we've also educated some residents along the way.
