Minutes: 12/07/2011

MEADOW WALK BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2011 ANNUALMEETING
December 07, 2011, 6:00 PM at the Fruitville Branch of the Sarasota Public Library.

Meeting was called to order at 6:15PM. The minutes were read from the last annual meeting, moved to be accepted by Betsy Dane, and seconded by La Nae Duchesneau.

Directors Present: Gary Walsh, David Bennett, Betsy Dane, Tomas Jasek: Meeting called to order at 6:35 p.m.

Financials
We are in a positive financial position. We can now do projects around the neighborhood and we do not have to raise HOA fees. We have $20,818 in the bank and $5,222 in outstanding dues and fees. Currently we have 3 homes in foreclosure and 3 homes that have not paid their dues.

We have been very aggressive going after our monies due from foreclosures and are liening these properties. Banks are still balking at paying but they must pay the HOA or they cannot sell the home.

The budget for 2012 is very similar to the 2011 budget, not much has changed. We have gone back to using 65 homes for our budget and not the 60 homes we once had to use to figure out the HOA dues. Our 2012 dues will stay at $500 per household.

Our Neighborhood
Our lawn service went down this past year and he now includes trimming the palm trees in the front island once per year. That had cost us $700 prior to that. We lost our sprinkler company, so our lawn company has taken over that responsibility, and checks them regularly. He only charges us for parts.

We still get many solicitations from other lawn companies, but we have found that they underbid and then underperform. We like the company we have now. They are reliable and do a good job and have now lowered their price and included more, so we decided to stay with them.

We redid our front island in 2011 and have set our sprinklers to go off 3 times a week for the new plantings so they do not die. Those little plants in the front will provide ground cover come spring and the entire island will be colorful once the plantings start blooming.

Our lakes are doing well, just not enough water. We are still having erosion issues and we will be getting a company to walk around with us after January 1st to consider possible solutions.

It was brought up that can we put plantings or possibly rocks to prevent the erosion. It is something we will look into but we will have to consider the cost of the project. Rocks are extremely expensive.

It was also mentioned that Swift Mud has interns and perhaps we can call them and see if an intern can take on our project for free or very low cost.

It was also brought up to have screens or grates on the runoffs on the street so garbage won't go down into the lakes. The board promised to look into that option, however, it was discussed this could create a blockage and was not a viable option.

Lastly, it was brought up that some lights were broken at the front entrance; and that will be checked on. Some lights were broken with the new plantings but those had been fixed so it is unclear if we still have broken lights.

We had estimates to redo the front entrance from $12,000 to even $14,000. To remove the lava rack was the major expense. We wanted to remove the rocks due to kids throwing them at passing cars. We finally went with the bid for $4300. Once spring is upon us the island will be full of color and everything will be very durable to our Florida weather.

HOA MEETINGS FOR 2012
March 28th 630PM
June 25th 630PM
September 25th 630PM
December 18th 630PM
(All to be held at the Fruitville Library)

Final Notes:
L a Nae Duchesneau, our secretary, fulfilled her term of 2 years on the board and did not run again. Gary Walsh, our President, fulfilled his term of 2 years on the board, he ran for re-election, and got voted back in.

John Finley was voted onto the board to fill the empty position. Who will fill what position will be decided later and announced at the next meeting.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:45 p.m.