December 2022 Towne South Monthly Meeting Minutes
DECEMBER 20, 2022
Board Members Present: Mackenzie Hennekes, Greg Hertlein, Hugh McWilliams, Ryan Storie and Jackie Tebbe, plus Administrative Assistant Mary Ann McWilliams
Visitors – In person: Don Cannon, Evelyn Bevans, Lucille Hines. Via Zoom: Aaron and Anna Lang, Katie Davis, and David and Sally Bender.
Agenda for tonight:
Ryan chaired tonight’s meeting as Mackenzie is just recovering from a bout of bronchitis and laryngitis. Ryan thanked everyone for attending and taking the time to be here tonight.
1) Financial Update – Jackie reported on the financials and said they would be posted on the website within a few days. She noted that our P&L is posted every month.
2) Ameren Electric Issues and Billing –
a. Current status - Greg has been working with Ameren on the outage of lighting at our sign at the entrance on Mattis and Towne South Drive. When Missouri American Water was replacing the pipes along Mattis Road, they severed the electric line that ran to that lighted sign. There was documentation to this affect in the notes and thanks to Greg Missouri American Water will be footing the entire bill for the repair. They may have to either bore under the street or if that doesn’t work, dig up the street to make the repair. Should be completed this week. Stay tuned for further updates.
b. Lighting options for safety - Again Greg has been communicating with Ameren and they have agreed to replace all our street light posts with LED bulbs at no cost to us. This will not only make our streets brighter, but will save us money on our electric bill. It turns out that back when the subdivision was built, the developer negotiated a maintenance contract on our lighting and Ameren will take full responsibility for maintenance on all poles. Greg noted that the light at Towne Centre and Kerth, as well as a few others, have frayed wiring that Ameren will have to correct also. He also encouraged everyone to replace their porch and/or lamppost bulbs with LED. He reported that if you leave your porch light on 24/7, the cost would only be $16 for the entire year if the bulb is LED. In comparison, a gas lamp post will cost about $30 a month.
3) Status of Zone Captains
a. Ryan noted that we continue to prioritize the involvement of residents by the creation of zones within our subdivision. We have identified 15 zones and currently have 8 people who have come forward to act as captains. Jackie is creating email addresses for each captain to simplify communication within the zones. She has posted the map on our website, along with the captains where we have them. She has ordered the business cards and should have them any day now. Further, the Board is finalizing “Talking Points” for the Zone Captains. We want to be ready to get out there this Spring.
b. We need to reach out to residents in the remaining 7 zones. Hopefully the Newsletter going out in the Assessment mailing will help get the word out about this new endeavor.
4) Annual Meeting is set for Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 2:00 pm at Prince of Peace UCC Church.
a. Guest Speakers – Greg called our NCO Officer Dickerson with the St. Louis County Police and he will see if they can get someone to come and speak. They have a bunch of requests and are not sure of availability. Greg had hoped to get someone from Ameren, but they no longer will speak at homeowner association meetings. He will call Stream Team after January 1 to see if they are available. If anyone has any suggestions, please let us know. The meeting usually lasts about two hours and the speaker has about 15-20 minutes.
b. Budget for 2023 – The Board will be working on this early in January. Question was asked if there has ever been an official budget for the HOA. Not to our knowledge.
c. Landscaping Bids – Greg has about six people who want to give us a bid, however, with the weather and complexity of our acreage, it is difficult to take them around to assess our needs. Our current contract with Shelton ends March 2023. Landscaping costs account for about 40% of our budget and we want to see how and where we can reduce those costs, yet retain the integrity of our subdivision appearance. We are open to suggestions on what to do with some of the ground in question. Question was raised if any of it can be built on. Probably yes, but what and how. What kind of money do we want to put into looking into these options. Question was asked if a current homeowner whose property is adjacent to common ground be “sold” to that owner. Maybe. One other suggestion was using some of the ground for a Community Garden or some sort of entertainment area. These options always come down to addressing the issue of liability/insurance. At this point we have more questions than answers. We will put this on the agenda for our annual meeting and hopefully have some more options to discuss.
It was asked if we could put the subject of Trash Pick Up on the agenda for the Annual Meeting. It would be nice if we could consolidate trash pick up to one provider. It would certainly help the wear and tear of our streets. It was noted that this topic was thoroughly discussed a number of years ago to no avail. Residents were not willing to give up their own trash haulers and it turned into a big fiasco and the subject was dropped. However, that was quite a few years ago and we can always ask again. Aaron Lang offered to reach out to all the trash haulers doing business in our subdivision and get a quote from them for exclusive rights to our trash pick up.
5) Reimbursement for out of pocket expenses – Jackie submitted request for reimbursement in the amount of $504.39, which covered the August HOA mailing ($420.00) and the Spectrum bill ($89.39) she had to put on her own personal credit card. Mary Ann submitted request for reimbursement in the amount of $23.40 covering the Annual Secretary of State Fee and the cost of a certified letter mailing. The Board approved both reimbursements.
6) Old Business
a. Proposed Amendment – Ryan reiterated the intentions behind the proposed amendment to the Indentures the Board is recommending. This amendment will make it less cumbersome to amend the Indentures moving forward. A copy of this proposed amendment will be in the Assessment mailing which will be mailed the first week of January. The mailing will contain a Newsletter, the Assessment Bill and the Proposed Amendment. The Assessment Dues will remain the same $57.50 as last year. The good news is that we now are set up to accept Venmo and Paypal for payments of the dues, as well as checks and cash. Jackie cautioned those using Venmo and Paypal to include their address on the memo line so she can track the payment to the homeowner.
b. Prior Years Tax Documents & other old documents – Jackie reported that she has received some tax documents from Bender & Co. Hugh reported that all efforts to get any more documents from Richard Tucker have been unsuccessful. We will have to recreate them as the need arises. Dave Bender offered to help in any way he can. Jackie also noted that she received an email from Bender & Co offering their accounting assistance. The Board will take up these issues at their next meeting.
c. Lien Release Update – Jackie reported that she and Mary Ann are working on this but struggling with the inconsistency of information. Sometimes liens were filed and sometimes they were not. We do not believe that homeowners were actually notified that the lien was officially filed. We think they only got letters threatening to file the lien if they didn’t pay the dues by a certain date. Moving forward we want to communicate with our homeowners more and not just slap a lien on their property. We are striving for a more friendly approach to collecting assessments. Katie said she appreciates the Board taking this new approach. It would have caused her a lot less grief had she known prior to her refi that there was a lien from years ago.
d. 2023 Mailing – as stated above this mailing will go out the first week of January.
Open for Floor Discussions – there were no further topics brought to the floor for discussion.
Happy Holiday and Happy New Year to all.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:52 pm. The next Open Meeting is Tuesday, January 17, 2023 at 7 pm at Prince of Peace UCC. If anyone has something specific to be put on the agenda, please email us.
Notes submitted by:
Mary Ann McWilliams
Administrative Assistant