The Huntington Homeowners' Association

St. Petersburg, Florida

Board Minutes for 2023

February 19

The board of directors of the Huntington HOA met at 1:22 p.m. Sunday, February 19, immediately after the conclusion of the association’s annual meeting.

Officers: Phil Foley nominated Tim Baker to continue as treasurer. Lola Walker seconded the nomination, which was approved.

Tim Baker nominated Jackie Collom as secretary. Phil Foley seconded and the nomination passed.

Mr. Baker nominated JA Booker to continue as vice president. Mr. Foley seconded and the nomination was approved.

There were no candidates nominated for president. Mr. Booker and Pam Haigh did not attended the meeting. Mr. Baker said he would ask if either one of them would be a candidate for president.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:28 p.m.

Tim Baker

Treasurer

May 21

The board of directors held a regular quarterly meeting by the pool on Monday, May 21st, at 7:30pm.

Board Members Present: Jackie Collom (10), JA Booker (23), Tim Baker (16), Philip Foley (15), Gabrielle Schlichting (20), Pam Haigh (27)

Other Members Present: Lisa Palmer (9)

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 p.m. by President JA Booker (23).

Approved Agenda.

Approved minutes from annual meeting and previous quarterly board meeting.

President’s Report:

Introduction: JA Booker (23) gave an introduction, thanking board members for meeting with

him previously and being agreeable to the new day of week and time for board meetings.

Communications: Jackie Collom (10) will be sending coordinated correspondence regarding status of ongoing projects and other updates in an effort to keep everyone as informed as possible.

Actions taken since the last meeting: we have entered a gate maintenance contract with TEM, approved Unit 27’s window and door replacement, and are adding new dumpster signage with instructions for cardboard and oversized items. Phil Foley (15) expressed an interest in seeing signage at the sidewalk regarding pet waste, possibly metal signage citing city ordinance requiring pickup by pet owners. Lisa Palmer (9) has some signage she purchased on Amazon that she’ll donate as round 1 of the campaign to improve the problem.

Treasurer’s Report:

Tim Baker gave a brief report on the year’s expenditures and a few items which exceeded budgeted amounts: insurance renewal (budget: $5700, actual: $6600), water (budget: $2900, actual $3400), and cable went up unexpectedly by $1000. Water budget overage can be largely attributed to the lack of rain this year.

Wall painting project: completed for $4000 under budget.

Gate maintenance project: cost is $2000, expected to save money in the long run as that price includes 2x/yr maintenance, repairs at a discounted rate, and service calls with a maximum of 24 hour response time.

Gate electrical upgrade: placed a wire within conduit for $700.

There were also sprinkler repairs.

Old Business:

DeLinz: Lola Walker (21) has arranged for two service persons from DeLinz to clean our dryer vents Thursday, May 25th. It will cost about $2500. Lola was unable to attend the meeting but Gabrielle Schlichting (20) spoke on her behalf that it should go much more quickly this year with two service persons.

Landscaping: JA Booker asked for feedback on the landscaping services and there were some complaints about blowing direction into some patios, lack of attention to bushes, and leaf accumulation under the ficus tree with no removal. Pam Haigh (27) recommended a special project for landscaping to resolve overgrowth issues and develop a long term plan. This will involve a planning committee, which Pam is interested in being part of.

New Business:

Unit 1 window replacement: the current proposal has issues with grid layout and other problems. Anderson is working on revisions to the plan, and the board will wait to approve until the new plan is available for review.

Garage door painting: Tim Baker has gotten pricing on doing so at $100/garage door. Phil Foley asked that we consider painting all green doors (i.e. front and back doors) at the same time since many of those are also fading and would be part of the painting project slated for 2026 anyway. Tim believes it may be more affordable to paint all of the doors now rather than waiting for costs to go up and include them in the paint project in 2026. He also suggested announcing prior to the next meeting that we will be discussing this to allow for additional input. Our current bid is good until the fall.

Volunteers to walk property for rot/damage assessment: JA Booker asked for volunteers to walk the property and conduct an assessment; Tim, JA, and Pam will do so.

Brick repair: Jackie Collom asked Tim if there was any brick work scheduled as she has issues in her patio that she’d like to have resolved when there is a larger job to piggyback on. Tim will add that to their assessment walk through.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:24 pm.

Jackie Collom,

Secretary

August 21

The board of directors held a regular quarterly meeting by the pool on Monday, August 21st, at 7:30pm.

Board Members Present: Jackie Collom (10), JA Booker (23), Pam Haigh (27), Mark Welton (12)

Other Members Present: Herb Haigh (27), Lisa Palmer (9), Anne Marantz (8), Joe Maka (18), Lola Walker (21)

The meeting was called to order at 7:37pm by President JA Booker (23).

Approved minutes from previous quarterly board meeting.

President’s Report:

Signs: New signs at dumpsters appear to be working and have mostly resolved the issues. Although, special item pickups seem to be taking weeks to actually be picked up.

Window approvals: Unit 1 windows are nearly completed. Any new window projects will require approval.

JA Booker asked for volunteers for a landscape committee. Committee members are: Pam and Herb Haigh, Lola Walker, Anne Marantz, and Lisa Palmer. They will seek landscape design proposals for the community that may possibly reduce overall water usage and maintenance needs in the long term.

The community contact list is being updated by Jackie Collom. This will be made available to the community. She will also be creating a list of currently and previously used vendors/contractors.

Treasurer’s Report:

Tim Baker has submitted this report electronically. (PENDING) (Note: the August treasurer’s report is available under the Finance tab).

Old Business:

Gate: The gate was structurally broken in the most recent gate issue. A bar at the back of the right gate (that assists the gate in opening) had bolts that had rusted off and the bar had wedged itself in a way that prevented the gate from opening or closing. Our service company was contacted on Saturday and arrived Monday to diagnose and resolve the issue. Going forward, community members will contact one another after an attempt has been made to reset the gate to prevent multiple members from repeating troubleshooting steps unnecessarily.

Landscaping Contractor:

Mark Welton contacted over a dozen companies to find a new landscape maintenance company for our property. Most were not at all interested in the job. Our new landscape maintenance company, Buzz Cutz, works very hard. His rate is an increase of $300 per month but this was expected after our costs for maintenance had not had an increase by our previous company for many years.

New Business:

Trees: The large tree on the property line near the pool is dead. A large branch broke off earlier this summer. The adjacent owner has been contacted and has no interest in assisting with its removal. It was recommended that we contact the city to see if there is any assistance they could provide with regards to its removal.

JA Booker will meet with our tree trim company in the next couple of months to get pricing on cutting back the trees on 4th Ave N that are touching or nearly touching roofs. The current budget will allow us to trim trees in early 2024. He will get pricing on removing the dead tree at that time, as well. This will be discussed again at the Fall 2023 board meeting.

Gutters and drains: It is time to clear the gutters and drains. The seams in the gutters will likely need to be resealed. Clearing gutters and drains that are original to the community are covered by the HOA, those installed by owners after that, including the French drains, will be the responsibility of the individual homeowners to clear and maintain.

Garage door, door trim, and gate paint: Garage doors are faded, those that face east are the worst. JA Booker suggested that we go with a very close stock paint color at the paint store to ensure it is an easy match going forward. Since we will be painting all doors at the same time, the entire property will match. Currently, there are color variations due to irregular color matching. Gates and dumpster enclosures will need to be touched up at the same time. This will all be included in the same quote. We may do this work as a separate budget item from exterior wall painting, possibly moving the door and trim painting up on the budget calendar.

Balconies: JA Booker and Tim Baker inspected the property last week to assess balcony issues and identified areas of serious splintering. We are approaching the scheduled replacements of balconies. The work will be done in composite decking so that we have a more permanent solution and they won’t need to be done again.

Trim Rot: During the property inspection there were some areas of trim rot identified on multiple units. We will be getting a quote for repairing those areas.

There is something that comes up every single week. JA’s practical reality is that he is unable to be onsite all of the time and cannot be relied upon for every issue that arises. Any homeowners who are able to assume a small piece of the responsibility help ensure we remain a self-managed HOA.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:32 pm.

Jackie Collom, secretary

November 20

The board of directors held a regular quarterly meeting by the pool on Monday, November 20th, at 7:30pm.

Board Members Present: Jackie Collom (10), JA Booker (23), Tim Baker (16),Gabrielle Schlichting (20), Philip Foley (15)

Other Members Present: Lisa Palmer (9), Robin Warren (25), Quay Peters (19), Rob Nee (26)

The meeting was called to order at 7:31pm by President JA Booker (23). Approved minutes from previous quarterly board meeting.

President’s Report:

Painting: Round two (gates, fences, door), is complete. Positive feedback to work. Part three to paint buildings (siding, trim) on our long term plan for 2025. Painter shared that the siding may not need painting yet so the board will reassess in 2025 and consider postponement if condition is satisfactory.

Meeting took a break to introduce Robert Nee, new owner of Unit 26.

Legal expense: Issue involving interpretation of bylaws has been resolved, at a cost of about $1000.

Treasurer’s Report:

Water costs, due to lack of rain, were very high. September was the exception. Per the city, we’re going to water one day per week beginning December 1. Mondays are the only days we will be allowed to water. There are steep fines for individuals and associations who break this rule. Tim will look for a manual to reprogram the watering system but otherwise will operate manually until the irrigation company comes back out early next year.

Another unexpected increase was insurance. We had planned for a 30% increase but the actual cost was 45% higher.

The third increase was for landscaping. He is charging about $500 more per month than our previous company (who hadn’t raised rates in many years).

Old Business:

Gate: We continue to have a contract with TEM for maintenance for the gate. The Board will need to decide next year whether or not to continue this contract for the gate.

Landscaping contractor: Landscaper is in a routine now after a few months of getting caught up. Mark is doing a great job managing this for us. Please contact Mark if you have a request for the landscaper rather than speaking to the landscaper directly. There is a possibility of miscommunication when there is more than one person providing instruction. Landscaper has done work for individual units, on their patios with positive feedback. JA Booker reminded the Board that it is fine for him to be doing those side projects but his priority should be the work he does for the association.

Trees: Units along 4th Ave N and 2nd Ave N have trees hanging over their roofs. This will be addressed by an arborist in early 2024. Ann Marantz is the point of contact for this project. The arborist will assess and make recommendations which we will follow. Phillip Foley suggested the arborist could possibly address the jasmine in the gate well with his equipment.

Gutters and drains: 2024 is the cleaning year for the gutters. Lisa Palmer will coordinate after JA Booker makes first contact.

Balconies and trim rot: Some areas of rot on trim will need to be replaced, some balconies need to be addressed, considering composite boards, all work followed by fresh paint.

New Business:

Tim Baker shared a proposed 2024 budget. The Huntington will not be able to meet its target amount for deposit into reserves due to unexpected rises in other costs.

Tim recommends increasing the maintenance fee to $450/mo to cover increases in 2024 budget. JA amended this proposal to include an additional $10/mo to make up for the deficit in our contribution to reserves. In 2026, the additional $10/mo can be reviewed and reconsidered.

At Philip Foley’s prompting, there was a brief conversation about special assessments as needed versus monthly fee increases.

A motion was made to vote on the monthly increase, Gabrielle seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Our maintenance fee will increase to $460.00 per month.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:12 pm.

Jackie Collom,

Secretary