Have
a great
Thanksgiving
Day!
Information about North Merritt
Island events may be found at www.nmihoa.org.
____________________
A NEW COMMUNITY CENTER
will be built on North Merritt Island!!!
Thanks to all who wrote, called and attended the November
10th Brevard County Commission meeting to support their community! Your input helped us have this passed by the County
Commission.
It will take ~ 18 months to construct and may begin within
the next 90 days.
The funding is from our Parks Referendum money...there was
still some left over after Mitchell Ellington was built. Due to the building slowdown, we can get this center done for
a reduction of 40% from the usual cost of this structure.
It will have a gym, meeting rooms, an auditorium and will
be hurricane strong at 170 mph. This center will serve as a staging place for Emergency Management,
Red Cross and FEMA to serve this community in the event of a hurricane or other disaster.
Thanks to our Commissioner Chuck Nelson for his attention
and support. This Community Center will increase our property values and quality of life here on North Merritt Island.
Hooray!!!
_________________________________________
Please keep your auto doors locked and your
garage doors closed and locked at night. There have been some thefts in the community...mostly due to careless doors
left unlocked. Please don't become a victim...LOCK UP!
____________________________________________
Please remember that the USPS does not allow
signage to be posted on the cluster mailboxes in our community. In fact, there is a hefty fine that our HOA would have
to pay of levied. Please encourage everyone to refrain from posting notes on our mailboxes.
______________________
Our Annual Association Membership dues
are due on January 1, 2009. APM has sent invoices and a corrected letter of explanation to all members.
We may pay all $600 of the 2010 annual
amount due in January 2010, or $300 in January and $300 in (probably) June 2010. If anyone has special
circumstances, please contact APM or a member of the BoD. Please remit dues so we may continue to fund our community.
___________________
Copies of SLHOA Bylaws & C&Rs:
All homeowners in SLHOA should have received a set of the Bylaws and C&Rs for
our association at the closing of their home from their Title Company for free. If you do not have these important
documents, please call your association board members and request a copy (this may be at a fee for the printing). A
rough copy is also available to download from this website under "Governing Documents". You may also request a
"Welcome Book" from the current board Vice-President, Chris Gerace, who has been given one to copy for the community members.
Each SL homeowner signed a document at closing declaring they had read the Bylaws,
Covenants & Restrictions of the SLHOA and agreed to abide by them as a member of the association. This means
that everyone is legally responsible to know the rules of the community and to follow them.
Since every association grows and subsequently needs to refine their documents form
time to time, our 17 year old community appointed a committee of volunteers to do just this in 2004; the Bylaws Committee.
This committee generated an excellent update of our Bylaws and C&Rs excluding
the original developer and illegal items that were included in the documents, that would help our association run
smoother and be more cost effective. This update was reviewed and approved by the association attorney and each item
was presented in detail at a board meeting to the members of the 2005 board and membership in 2005.
At the July/August 2005 Board meeting, this revision
was approved by the board of directors by unanimous vote. We have been waiting 4 years to have
these corrections presented to the members for a vote.
We all look forward to a distribution of the proposed Bylaw and C&R changes that
were completed by the 2004 SLHOA Bylaws Committee, presented to the BOD in 2005 and the opportunity to vote
on them.
As soon as we can, we will put a link on this site to the revisions.
_______________________
SLHOA Annual Assessment History: From 2002 to Today
The association was initally maintained by the developer, who subsidized approximently 1/2
of the expenses (approximently $250 per unit per year) until he turned the HOA over to the community in June 2002, at which
time all the members' money had been spent, there was little in the operating account and no reserves or contingency funds at
all.
The community then needed to
reduce expenses drastically until an increase of revenues was accomplished through regular increases in assessments, or a
special/corrected assessment. The first two years of our member controlled HOA were complex, as many residents were
not familiar with common subsidized developer support and were surprised that the actual cost of maintaining this large community
was closer to $500/year, rather than to the $250/year they had been accustomed to paying for nearly ten years. They
were also dismayed that there had been no reserve funds built up over those ten years. That was unfortunate, but not
illegal.
A
revised budget for 2005 was passed on October 18, 2005. The new amount for 2005's annual assessment is $500.00, with
an added $100 to be put toward the Road Reserve (now required by law) that was started in 2004. The total assessment
amount was then raised to $600.00 per year, per lot.
At the January 17, 2006 Budget Meeting, the 2006 Budget
was passed and the annual assessment remained $500 per year for operating and other scheduled reserve items (gazebos, stormwater
system, bridges, etc.) plus $100 per year for the Road Reserve to total $600 per year, per lot.
In
addition, a 2004-2005 Financial Review (required by our Bylaws and appropriately performed by a financial firm unaffiliated
to APM) was read to the membership attending this budget meeting. It reflected appropriate management of our monies.
On February 16, 2007 the '05-'07 Board passed the 2007 Budget and the Annual Financial
Review (to date of change of Directors) was read to the members present at the Budget Meeting. If a member wishes
a copy of this review, please contact the Treasurer or APM.
Due to careful management of our finances, and responsible savings by past
BoDs, annual assessments have remained at a total of $600 per lot per year to date.
The February 2008 Annual Budget Meeting was held and dues remained unchanged, although
the Budget itself required correction by APM and resending to the membership. It was finally passed by the '07-'08 BoD.
The February 2009 annual Budget meeting was held with a balanced budget submitted
to the membership. If anyone has not received a 2009 dues invoice from APM, they should contact Lee Tibbitts
(see Board Contacts on this website), the current President, or APM.
According to our Bylaws, a written notice of the Annual Budget Meeting to each
member must be sent by USPS mail including the proposed Annual Budget 30 days before the scheduled Budget Meeting,
along with a notice of the date, time and place of the Annual Budget Meeting.
During this Annual Budget meeting, the members may freely ask questions
and participate in the formulation of the Budget. No other business may be conducted at this meeting.
At the budget meeting, the board may vote to leave the dues as they are ($600 per
year - $500 for annual dues plus $100 for Road Reserves [actually not sufficient to fund our road resurfacing at thisi
point] = $600) or increase them 10% ($550 for annual dues and $100 for Road Reserves= $650) without a vote by the membership.
Any increase over 10% from the base rate requires a vote by the membership.
The board could vote to decrease the annual dues at a budget meeting...which
would be a very unwise choice. With all services and materials increasing in cost in the next several
years, our dues should not be artificially reduced, so as to leave us vulnerable to deficits again.
According to our current Declaration of Covenants & Restrictions, " The assessments
shall be payable in one annual installment on January 1st of each year" (Article III, Section 3.3). However, the
association has in the past, provided options for dues payments for those who have special situations. Evidently,
this current board has also decided on a flexible schedule for dues remission, which may be helpful for many. Anyone
who wishes to discuss these options may call APM.
The 2008 Annual Financial Review of the previous year's finances (From January 2007 through 2008) has been
completed. This brief Review may be available on the APM website.
(11/12/09)
______________________
Editorial 2 Cents
Once again, the "Highlights of Board Meetings" posted on this website
New Community Bulletin Board are directly from the notes taken by non-board residents in attendance with occasional
audio taped backup.
There is every honest effort to make these notes as correct as possible in
terms of substance, with as many direct quotes as can be added, but names usually excluded as a courtesy. There
is absolutely no effort to deceive or mislead anyone. If there is an error in these notes, please accept our sincere
apologies and corrections will be made as soon as possible.
These unofficial meeting highlight notes are presented to the community as quickly,
clearly and completely as possible with sidebar notes added to inform those who may not be aware of community history
or current law.
Please also read the "official minutes" of any meeting, on the official website
managed by APM. Due to suggested areas of difference between these unofficial notes and the official meeting minutes,
we may take the suggestion of one resident and archive these notes on this site for easy comparison.
All of us want the best for our community. We all must put aside personal
differences and do what is right for everyone together. It is in a spirit of tolerance and generosity that this website
continues to provide the community an honest view of the current events that may affect each of us.
Sincerely,
Volunteer Community Web Curators
(11/12/10)
_______________________________________________
