February 2000
The Annual Meeting of our Association is on April 12, 2000 at 7:00 p.m. Among other matters, the current terms of two Directors will expire.
Over the last nine years, the Association has installed: new roofs, new garage doors, painted each home on a five year schedule, remodeled the clubhouse and replaced the jacuzzi. Consequently, property values have increased significantly.
Presently, we are replacing the landscaping mix to curb runaway costs in landscaping maintenance. Landscaping costs have accelerated from 36% of our operating budget to over 46% of our operating costs. Decisions like this are difficult; however, they will keep the Association Assessments from growing faster than inflation and property values increasing. If you are analytical, and have management skills, your talents are needed.
Directors make decisions, which can affect your property values, if you have the time and background to contribute please take your fair turn at continuing the improvements we all enjoy.
The Association is blessed with many capable, talented and capable people. Please consider serving as a Director. Call our Property Manager, Marysia Leu, and she will send you a form so you may place your name on the ballot.
As you know, the homeowners, at their expense install patio cover. Some of these patio covers are over twenty years old and at the end of their useful life. Owners who have removed these covers are finding some serious problems. It appears that the manner in which these patio covers were attached to the buildings has caused extensive damage to their building. Repairs to the building exterior caused by homeowner installed patio covers is billed to the owner.
As an aside, patio covers in accordance with the Rules & Regulations Manual are not allowed to be attached to the buildings for just this reason. If you have a patio cover, you may want to get it inspected before it causes a costly repair. In one case, a homeowner installed patio cover caused extensive water damage to the interior of a unit as well as the structural wall. Call John Marsh if you have a question on the integrity of your patio cover.
The League of Women Voters will be holding an -informational meeting on the upcoming voting issues which will be place on the ballot. The public is invited to attend the meeting at the Association Clubhouse on Monday, February 7,2000 at 7:30 p.m.
Keeping Villa Monterey green clean and well Groomed comes at an increasing cost to your Homeowner's Association.
Despite the careful attention, diligent management, and hard work From landscape committee members during the past decade, Landscape cost continue their relentless growth upward -Now Pushing upward to 70% of our total operating budget.
Increasing landscaping costs have not been passed through to homeowners, since there has been only a 2.5% increase in dues.
For more than a decade the landscape committee has worked diligently to enhance the appearance of our community. Some homeowners say that Villa Monterey looks Eke a garden or a park. Homeowners generally agree that spending money to keep our community green and well-groomed is money well spent.
Yet most homeowners are surprised to learn that keeping our community in such a favorable condition costs so much of our operating budget. Maintaining and enhancing the landscape is the biggest, fastest growing category of our operating budget.
Even worse is the fact that spiraling landscape costs are so disproportionate. lie simple economic fact is that if landscape costs are not checked, such spiraling costs become a predicament that will prevent prudent investment in other areas of our property- Indeed, spiraling landscaping costs will prevent or defer needed maintenance in the future.
© Copyright 1999 Villa Monterey HOA
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