Board Meeting Sept 14

All motorcycle club kidding aside, there was some important business conducted at the board meeting the other day. Here is my spin on it.

Mr. President's opening statements included the following, "Everything is now stabilized, and changes will begin go into effect". Good Lord! We thought all the changes were done! It's discouraging to hear, essentially, that we ain't seen nothing yet. Mr. President elaborated little and moved on rather quickly. I dread to think what else he has in mind for us.

A new pedestrian gate code has been assigned. Residents must get the code from the Office, and in doing so, sign an agreement to keep the code private.

Funds to initiate a local foreclosure were unanimously agreed upon. The accounting firm that conducts our annual audit was unanimously agreed by the Board to continue for 2010.

The Board finally agreed to put power into the Marine Storage Yard for the group of boat owners who pay an annual fee of $500. They will now be able to charge their batteries without bothering the kind resident at Parkway 7 to subsidize this effort.

One of the most contentious items on the agenda concerned the new parking restrictions. One resident feels he deserves a designated spot on the common grounds for his truck. Much discussion followed, and many people in the audience appeared to be much against designated spots, and well as controlled parking in general. Again it was brought up that the rules are being grossly amended while the majority of our membership is away up North. More than 15 residents were assigned continuous parking permits by name and location.

The outsourcing of our financial books to a new accountant was voted upon in preparation for the new TOPS program will be be passed in October. The monthly fee for the program is $800 a month, with extra fees for set up and coupons. Monthly coupons for maintenance payments should be going into effect in January 2011 when all residents will receive the coupon payment books. No more checks will be written to our office at that time. Confused? I'm sure everything will be explained later.

Security cameras have been set up around the park. Without going into detail, the 2010 Hillsborough County Neighborhoods Grant, submitted by Chet Hindman, paid for the eight cameras, with very little cost to the community. We learned that our president in Canada has already been privately viewing residents' actions in the park, via the internet. While some expressed indignation to learn that they are already under surveillance, other residents in the audience expressed the desire to also have access to this feature, which could be accessed with a password. Several board members did not want this discussion to continue much further.

New Rules were recently distributed to all association members. Several rules in the packet were never publicly discussed or allowed shareholders' discussion in a public forum. No response was given to the question "Are motorcycles now allowed to be driven through the park?" Why was no response given?

A new stove was unanimously approved for the kitchen at a cost no more than $3,000. Later on, a kitchen renovation will happen. The same committee who studies our pipes and street conditions has been assigned the task of coordinating kitchen improvements. Maybe that can be rethought.

Next board meeting is October 20 at 2:00.