AUGUST, 2021
www.diamondheadms.org
VOL. 38, NO. 8
From the desk of the President BY ERNIE KNOBLOCH
he deadline for this article is July 10th so some things may have changed since this article was submitted. The May financials do not look similar to any previous ones. We received the Peoples Bank settlement of $875,000 and debt that we had of $669,000 for the Covid 19 Payroll Protection Plan was forgiven. The income and debt relief are both ONE TIME EVENTS. The Tee to Green magazine is one that’s free in most golf shops in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and east Texas. The cover shows two wood carvings of cardinal birds by the #10 tee on the Cardinal course. Both cardinals are a vivid red color. The updated painting was done by a local volunteer resident. Jerry Jones is thanked for his help which provided some excellent publicity for our community. Diamondhead has the highest number of participants of any facility that I can find that sponsors the U.S. Kids Golf Program. That’s another
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plus for our community. You may know that when a property owner does not pay taxes (taxes, not POA dues) on a parcel of property for three consecutive years, the Hancock County Assessor holds an auction in an attempt to sell the property. If the property is not sold by the Assessor, the property goes to the state of Mississippi state and is removed from the tax rolls. The state does not pay local taxes or property owner fees. Recently we had an interesting situation. A local realtor representing an out of state company, contacted the POA and asked if there were any back dues owed on 4 parcels of property here. The question was asked because the company was attempting to sell the properties. The POA had no records showing that the company ever purchased the properties from the state. That made us wonder if other companies/individuals had bought properties directly from the state and never let the POA know about the purchase. The only way the POA finds out that a com-
DEADLINE FOR THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF DIAMONDHEAD NEWS IS AUGUST 10TH
pany/individual has bought property in Diamondhead directly from the state is when the company/individual contacts the POA and the new owner is then entered into the POA database. The majority of new owners do contact the POA, but obviously not all do that. Working with the Hancock County Assessor and state records, we’ve identified 6 companies, mostly out of state, that have purchased a total of about 25 properties in our community, and never contacted the POA. In addition, we have identified 11 individuals who have bought properties directly from the state and never contacted the POA. We have started a process to collect a total of about $65,000 in back dues owed to the POA. We have also arranged for the Hancock County Assessor to provide the POA a list every August of all properties in Diamondhead that have been sold by the state to companies or individuals within the last year. Play on the golf courses and the tennis courts continue to increase and the summer camps are well attended. The pools are being used on a daily basis. The football/soccer fields at the end of Noma
Drive are being prepared for play in the fall. As of the submission date for this article the additional furniture of Latitude 30, even though the order was placed in April 2021, has not been received. The furniture is somewhere in the “supply chain.” Trivia on Wednesday evenings in the Club continues to attract a large number of participants. If you’ve never attended, consider showing up to watch and eventually
become part of a team. The Oak Room continues to have a high level of usage. Reservations are recommended on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. The AC units in the Community Center were constantly needing repairs. The Board voted to replace the units with newer, more efficient units which should lower the electrical costs of the facility. The SEER ratings of the new units are considerable better than
what was in the facility. The July 4th hot dog and fixings actually ran short of food towards the later part of the day because of the large number of participants. Due to the increased usage of our food & beverage areas by a wider age group, the Board felt that pets should no longer be allowed in food & beverage areas. Obviously, this does not apply to certified serv-
SEE PRESIDENT, PAGE 4