Vol. 15, No 14
540.972.2237
LOWA.org
Thank You for Your Questions
by Jennifer Zukowski, LOWA Board Secretary The Board would like to thank the many members who attended the Jan. 16 meeting for your questions and for sharing your concerns about the Clubhouse Area Recreation Complex (CARC) Project. As Secretary of the Board, I am responsible for responding to your concerns. I will begin by addressing two of the most frequent questions received by the Board. Q: Why weren’t funds earmarked in the reserves for the CARC project? A. That is an excellent question. Like over 90 percent of HOAs across the United States, LOWA collects Contributions to Reserves using the Cash Flow Method. Miller Dodson Associates, LOWA’s reserve specialist, calculates the amount based on three years of expected repairs and replacements. This means we collect funds as we need them and do not collect funds for replacing components 30 or 40 years out. If we did, our assessment would be signiſcantly higher Last year, in response to member concerns that the Board had not earmarked funds for CARC, we voted to earmark funds from the New Construction and Renovation Reserve for CARC. The earmarked funds were placed in Repair & Replacement Reserve. Since we are replacing the existing bathhouse/ ſtness center, pool and beach bathroom, these are eligible projects. There is now $301,865 earmarked for CARC in Replacement Reserves. We have also earmarked $144,357 for CARC from the sale of the Germanna House and Association-owned property on Liberty Boulevard. In addition, there is $11,700 in the reserves for replacing the basketball court fence for a total of $457,922 earmarked for CARC. HOAs are always being pressured to reallocate funds collected for one purpose to another purpose, which is why it is so difſcult to collect funds for a speciſc project such as CARC. There is another aspect to this. LOWA fully funds its reserve study. Many associations do not collect sufſcient funds in order to keep the annual assessment artiſcially low. The effect of keeping the assessment artiſcially low results in funds not being available when they are needed. To delay the CARC project any longer would require even more funds due to higher construction inƀation rates. (Refer to Bob Hoh article, Should We Delay the CARC Project, in the Jan. 12 edition of Lake Currents, page 6.) Q. The Flat Run forebay project is critical to the health of our Main Lake. Why are we postponing the project in favor of CARC? A. The Flat Run forebay project is indeed critical to the health of our Main Lake and we have every intention of moving forward with the project in 2018. The Board has already set aside $138,000 in the Capital Spending Plan. Last year, however, we learned that we are unable to build the forebay where originally planned due to RSA identifying buried sewage pipes in the original construction area. The delay is not because Flat Run is a lower priority, but because we need to reassess our options for completing the project. Caring for our lakes, including the Flat Run sediment problem, remains at the top of the Board Goals. Please continue to email Board@lowa.org with your questions and concerns. We welcome your comments, and will address them in future editions of Lake Currents.
President's Letter 2 Agendas 2&4 Association News 2-10 Board Minutes 3 General Manager's Column 3 Calendar 9-10 Viewpoints 18 Orange County News 25 Classiſeds 26-27
/LOWAssociation
January 26, 2018
Board of Directors Now Accepting Candidate Applications After serving the Association on the Board of Directors since 2014, LOWA President Larry Morlan has resigned and stepped down from the Board effective Jan. 12. LOWA Board Members and Management would like to thank Larry for his leadership and service; and would like to acknowledge all that has been accomplished under his leadership. During his time of service, the Association has seen the upgrade of Sweetbriar Pool and the addition of the Covered Ring to the Equestrian Center. Larry can also count the introduction of electronic voting among the many successes achieved by him and his fellow board members. Larry has been a steadfast, professional and diplomatic leader who has conſdently guided the Board during his time as president. Larry has stepped down for his own personal reasons, and in parting, he shared the following sentiments: “Joyce and I would like to thank members for the literally hundreds of emails, letters, calls, and personal visits of support we have received. Serving the community was our total pleasure. This show of support truly represents the caring community we moved into in 2012. We ask that this same support be shown to the current volunteer Board of Directors as they work on behalf of us all. They are the unsung heroes.” Larry’s departure creates an opening on the board. LOWA Members may apply to ſll the board vacancy for the remainder of this BOD session, until the election at the Annual Meeting in September. The Board will select the new Board member from the pool of applicants and will seat the new director at its Feb. 3 meeting. Applications can be found on LOWA.org (both in the newsfeed on the homepage and on LOWA.org/forms) or applicants may obtain one from Member Services in the Holcomb building. Members in good standing can submit their application to the General Manager’s Ofſce until Feb. 1 at 4 PM. If you have any questions, please call the GM’s ofſce at 972-2214.
Thank You for Your Service Larry Morlan was appointed to the Board of Directors in Oct. 2014 to ſll a vacancy. He was reelected to that seat in Sept. 2015, and became Board President in 2016.
January 31 GM Proposed FY 2018-19 Budget Presentation 7 PM, Community Center
February 5-9 Private Golf Lessons, Community Center Info: Rea Hargraves – 972-2230
Thursday, February 1 Deadline for Board of Directors candidate applications to General Manager’s Ofſce: 45PM
February 4-10 LOW Restaurant Week See page 10 for details.
Saturday, February 3 LOWA Regular Board Meeting 10 AM Community Center
February 6 LOWLINC Speaker Series District 5 Supervisor Lee Frame 10:30 AM Community Center
Sign up for Electronic Receipt of Ofſcial Notices Get emails for assessment invoices, electronic voting, boater registration and more… WWW.LOWA.ORG/FORMS Members: Lake Currents can be read online at: LOWA.ORG/LAKECURRENTS