2024 Annual Meeting Minutes

Tamarac HOA Annual Meeting

Saturday, October 5, 2024

MINUTES

Board Member Attendees:  Jean Long, President; Kathy Strasser, Vice President; Stu Smith, Treasurer; Judith Gardner, Secretary; Mary Bartlett and Randy Vinson, Administrator.  There was a total of 45 attendees.

Jean Long called the meeting to Order at 10:00 a.m.  Jean welcomed the group and introduced Board Members.

Minutes from last year’s annual meeting were provided to all attendees.  Diane Welch moved, and Lisa Holland seconded the motion to accept last year’s minutes – Unanimously approved. 

New Business

  1. Ursula Strephans was nominated by Jan Anfinson from the floor as a new board member –  she is a home owner since 2017.  Has worked in non-profit organizations.  Ballots were handed out and are collected at end of meeting.  Since the nomination was not received prior to the meeting, it was decided that the board must approve the expansion of the board to 7 members from the current 5 members (as we are required to have an uneven number of board members).  It will be discussed at our November board meeting and, if approved, we will invite Ursula and others to submit their names for board consideration.
  2. Jean requested that people use the email account to report issues rather than calling her.
  3. We are losing our website coordinator.  We need a volunteer to take over. No one at the meeting volunteered.  We will reach out to all homeowners for a candidate.

Committee Reports

  1. Architectural Committee (Kathy) – Introduced the committee members; Jody Rhodes, Diane Welch and Cecile Woodward.  Goal is to maintain compliance with the Tuscany look of the community.  Some people have requested cacti which are not on approved list as not within the Tuscan ambiance.  We had 7 home sales so far this year.  Had 17 issues to be resolved.  We had 7 awning repairs.  The HOA owns part of the wash in the Moon Valley Park which must be maintained within City guidelines.  We updated the architectural guidelines.  If no comments by November 1st we will consider these changes approved.  Updated the tree and shrub list to include drought tolerant plants.    The next project is painting of flashings.   There are about 24 homes that the committee will be working with.  Also working on sidewalks and trip hazards.  The HOA is responsible for sidewalks parallel to the street, however homeowners are responsible for the sidewalks from the street to their house.  Also, repaired leaking utility boxes. Jean maintains the day-to-day relationship with the landscapers.  Jeremy (our handyman) takes care of sprinklers.  Stu takes care of relationship with Broken Limb (trees). Question:  Any updates on wall along school property?  Jean has been in touch with the school, and they are taking a “wait and see” attitude. Question:  Can we change guidelines to include cacti?  The TAC will discuss it but we just updated tree and shrub list.
  2. Pool & Park Committee (Jean).  Tiles are coming off the pool and need to be replaced.  County inspected and required us to replace missing tiles.  Jean is obtaining bids from pool companies to replace tiles.   This will probably take place the last week of October at which time we have to close pool, drain and fix.  The pool park needs some landscape lighting just to make it safe and this will be added.
  3. Tree Report (Stu) – Week of October 7th Broken Limb will be here to address trees with broken limbs, etc.  Big tree on south end of 7th Avenue will be taken down.  One tree on lot facing Tierra Buena is also dead and will be removed.  Stu has obtained bids and is negotiating with lowest bidder (Broken Limb) – fees will be $5500 for work needing to be done.
  4. Paint & Parking Report (Mary):  We have new painting company starting next year – strictly based on cost.  We have 14 houses scheduled for 2025 starting in January.  Homeowners will receive letter in January and work should be done by March.  New company is Copper Valley Painting – have 7 crews and have been highly recommended.    If you have questions, contact Mary.  Parking has been much better this year and Mary thanked members for complying with rules.  Please notify Mary if any visitors’ cars will be parked for more than 48 hours.  We do have some owners that have 3-4 cars – two cars must be in garage.  No RV’s, campers, trucks can be parked overnight.  Question:  Is new painting company going to paint front doors – A.  Yes, they are.
  5. Financial Report – Stu:  Capital Budget Reserve is for major capital improvements/replacements, or un-budgeted, unplanned expenses.  Current Expected expenses:  Pool tiles; wash clean up.  We project to have $112,000 by end of year.  We don’t anticipate another raise in dues before 2028 to go towards the capital reserve.  Handout was provided.
  6. Financial Reports – Randy:  Handed out financial report.  2023 ended with a surplus of $7600.   $4400 of this amount was from disclosure fees from new homes.  Operating budget for 2024 $127 operational; $27 to Capital Reserve (mostly dues to increase in utilities).  Good news is our budget is right on track and there will not be an increase to HOA dues for 2025. Randy handed out 2025 Budget – Painting expense was reduced from $50K to $31K due to renegotiation of contract. Q.  What is deferred income?  Answer:  some people pre-pay their future HOA dues for an entire year.  Landscapers will raise fees in January and has been budgeted for next year.  House painting has cost 27% of our budget and has now been reduced. Stu handed out a projected budget for future years.

Other Business

Question:  How did artificial grass help with budget?  There were 6 homes that changed to artificial turf, but other costs still increased due to water, landscaping, and sprinkler repairs fees which all increased. 

Question:  Gravel is 1/3 of price of artificial turf.  Jean mentioned that we must keep up a good appearance and some (rentals) have bare lawns and need to address the issue. 

Comment:  Someone put sleeves on the pool handlebars, and it is much appreciated. 

Comments:  6th Drive is again becoming the preferred route for school kids.  The one child causing problems has been trespassed (cannot be on property).  It is his last year that he will be at that school.  Kids are throwing trash over the wall on the school property into homeowners’ properties. 

Question:  What part of front yard is HOA responsible for?  Sidewalk up to the house and next to house is homeowners’ responsibility. 

Question:  If sidewalls in the backyard are lower than back wall the homeowner can be raise them with permission of both neighbors ( on each side)  and must be submitted to Architectural Committee for approval.

The drawing was made for a free month of HOA dues and was won by Kay and Brad Ames.

The meeting Adjourned at 11:17 a.m.

Election Results – Jean and Stu were re-elected to the board.