WPA MONTHLY MEETING MINUTES December 17th, 2024
Call to Order – Marilyn Weitz, President.
Attendance – Marilyn Weitz, Russ Cocain, Jonathan Rutstein, Adam Hall, Bryan Lawrimore, Blaine Beadle, Joe Myers, Mike Downes.
Absent– Stan Earnhart- Joined near end of meeting.
Quorum– Yes
Minutes- October minutes tabled pending review and revision.
NOTE: Please see end of minutes for list of all committees approved at this meeting.
Officer Reports
Presidents Report (Marilyn Weitz)– Thank you to Trina Davis for her initiative in bringing the Spectrum Bulk rate to the neighborhood, helping members save significantly on their cable and internet bills. Thank you to Rob, Cindy Fry, Stephanie Hanson and Stan Earnhart for setting up the Spectrum invoicing and payment systems in QuickBooks. In the process the office also collected numerous resident email addresses, enhancing communication with the community. The new community website is set to be fully operational by January 2025, offering many new features to improve connectivity and accessibility for residents. Thank you, Bryan and Sharon, for your work on this.
A committee is being formed to review and update the communities governing documents, ensuring they reflect current needs and priorities, to be headed by Al DeMarchi.
Marilyn Planning quarterly Town Hall meetings starting in March of 2025, dates to be announced in January. Frontier project information is pending, our roads are private and permission is required to access the easements. Frontier has only laid feeder cables and will not be returning for 4-6 months. Board and office will stay on top of them.
Vice Presidents Report (Russ Cocain) – No Report.
Secretary’s Report (Stan Earnhart)– Marilyn reads Stan’s prepared statement: Thank you to everyone who helped make the annual meeting successful, from the nominating committee to the election committee and all those who helped with refreshments, setup and teardown. Looking forward to the new year with many exciting events including the new website and benefits for our members from updated technology in the WPA office. Happy Holidays to all!
Treasurer’s Report (Jonathan Rutstein)– Bank accounts and reserve balances read (Please contact office if you would like a copy). Priority for excess funds is to gain interest rather than let money sit idle. Jonathan motions for canal funds to be moved into a short-term CD to gain interest before April 1st, 2025 project start date. Discussion. Joe Myers suggests tabling motion for one month pending water amenities committee review. Motion withdrawn/tabled until January WPA meeting.
Joan Hodges CPA will be retiring, seeking new CPA for audits going forward. Kelly Moore, CPA has ended relationship with WPA, we have backups in the works to take over. Finance committee is to review all 2024 accounts line by line to verify and correct accounting. Preparing contracts and budget tracking and disbursement report improvements for 2025. Spectrum accounting will be changed from cash basis to accrual basis to improve accounting and reports. Goal of a year-to-date budget for next meeting.
Committee Reports
ARC (Marilyn Weitz)– Beverly Homes and Century Complete are still building in the neighborhood. ARC is working closely with drainage to ensure compliance of new builds. Russ Cocain is the new ARC Chairperson. Marilyn will stay on to assist with transition.
Legal (Jonathan Rutstein)– Frontier Communications issue: Representative appears to have lied to office. County unable to locate permits. Regardless, Wedgefield roads are private and easement access requires permission.
Spectrum (Jonathan Rutstein)- Map of plantation displayed with Spectrum customer lots highlighted. Map credit to Stan Earnhart.
Slides with updated financials explained related to Spectrum cashflow (Please contact office for copies of numbers/slides). May 2025 will be one year of Spectrum, committee exploring reduction of fee billed to resident subscribers at that time.
Communications (Cindy Fry)- 2025 Wragg creation is in progress. Volunteers are being accepted. Articles for Wragg need to be submitted by January 10th, 2025. Publication of Wragg planned for February 1st, 2025. Publishing will be electronic with limited printed copies available.
Blood drive scheduled for February 4th, 2025 and October TBD 2025.
Road cleanup scheduled for March TBD, 2025- volunteers needed.
Easter Egg hunt planning to begin, volunteers needed.
New directory in progress, volunteers and neighborhood captains needed.
Reminder that all official HOA announcements will be posted on the HOA website and the Plantation Bulletin Board on Facebook.
Condo Liaison (Inge Ebert)– New Condo owners to be welcomed. Question about roads and ownership WPA vs WVA, legal to consult with attorney, plan for Jonathan Rutstein, Mike Downes and Attorney Crosby to address.
Welcome Committee (Cindy Fry)– Plan to welcome new condo owners. Cindy to coordinate with Inge to make sure no one is missed.
Drainage (Adam Hall)- Thank you Nate Nadeau for professional input with drainage projects. Drainage working on multiple problem areas in community. Drainage study update: not deferring from Earthworks contract, but consulting with other experts. Asks for approval to explore/review documents during 90-day open period before contract begins. Seconded and approved.
Joe Myers suggests adding a road hump to Wraggs Ferry at Robert Conway for drainage improvement and to help with speeding vehicle issues.
Water Amenities (Joe Myers)– Canals project: Working on getting a contract bond.
Boat Landing: In process of getting Army Core of Engineers approval to replace Seawall. Seven Seas Marine Construction contracted to perform work. Floats and boards are in need of replacement. Joe will collect bids for repairs while replacement is being approved and scheduled.
Roads (Mike Downes)– Speeding issue: Spoke with sheriff’s department, they are unable to ticket speeders in Wedgefield due to speed limit signs not being DOT approved. Size and height restrictions need to be met. Also suggests changing yield sign on the circle that is contrary to traffic circle on state roads. Mike will collect info and prepare an estimate for the next meeting.
Grounds (Jennifer Lawrimore)– Bryan reads Jennifers prepared statement: Grounds committee is in the process of reviewing the current landscaping contract to ensure compliance from contractors and record keeping for the office. Grounds committee has started the process of obtaining bids for the 2025-2026 landscaping contract. The committee will be putting together a “scope of work” document to provide guidelines for contract negotiations. The committee will entertain bids from at least 3 different landscapers. More info at the January 2025 meeting.
Thank you to all 25 of the Holiday Decorations volunteers! Thank you to Chris Baker for running his cherry picker to install lights. The committee is looking for volunteers to help remove the decorations after the holidays. Aiming for the weekend of January 10th.
Extensive repairs are needed on the irrigation system and zone mapping. Thank you to Nate Nadeau for taking the time to replace sprinkler heads and assist with irrigation work. The lights outside the HOA office are in need of repair. Some electrical work was done previously but things are still not functioning properly. The grounds committee will be looking into this.
On 12/12/2024 Frontier broke an irrigation pipe leading into the neighborhood. This has been repaired and verified.
The Wedgefield sign at Wedgefield and Fraser streets lights are no longer functioning.
2025 Grounds plans include: brick repairs at front gate, landscaping bids, irrigation system repair, stump removals, power washing of HOA buildings, create natural disaster team, trim trees in common areas, fix HOA building lights and sign lights, plan for flowers and mulch come spring, schedule pond maintenance and create a 5 and 10 year plan for grounds.
Compliance (Stan Earnhart)– Marilyn reads Stan’s prepared statement: Compliance will begin working on bringing board policy books up to date and ready for any new revisions. We are hopeful that a new and energized committee will be successful in creating the constant pressure needed to motivate our most reluctant residents to become compliant, thus making the Plantation a better place for all residents.
Golf Course Liaison– Nate Nadeau nominated and accepted as golf course liaison.
Website (Bryan Lawrimore)- Current website SSL certificate to expire at the end of 2024. New website is expected to be online January 1st, 2025, if deadline met then no issue with SSL certificate.
Old Business- None.
New Business– Mike moves to add a flagpole and American flag to the office. Approved. Office will purchase and install.
Bryan makes 3 motions related to records access:
- Motion that board members to be granted immediate access to all WPA records, discussion, clarification, bylaws reviewed.
- Motion to define ‘reasonable access’ as 10 business days, including for access to minutes.
- Motion that all record access requests should be given to the entire board to ensure oversight.
Discussion, all in favor.
Next Monthly Board Meeting– January 24th, 2025
New Committee information-
ARC: Russ Cocain, Al DeMarchi, Nate Nadeau, Bob McMahan, Bob Garrison, Tom Macedo, Mike Macedo, Brian Gause, Blaine Beadle, Marilyn Weitz.
Water Amenities: Joe Myers, Adam Anderson, Blaine Beadle, Chris Carroll, Jamey Cristello, Mike Downes, Steve Garman, Carolyn McBride, John McBride, Steve & Maureen Vasey, Ed Wozniak.
Compliance: Stan Earnhart, Donna Boshears, Nancy Johnston, Eileen Kramer, Blaine Beadle.
Communications: Cindy Fry, Stephanie Hanson, Sharon Lackey, Georgeanne Ridgill, Blaine Beadle.
Grounds: Jennifer Lawrimore, Jill Huggins, Nickie McNair, Marge Miller, Nate Nadeau.
Finance: Jonathan Rutstein, Cindy Fry, Inge Ebert, Marilyn Weitz, Bryan Lawrimore, Peggy Phillips.
Legal: Jonathan Rutstein, Adam Anderson, Bob Garrison, Al DeMarchi.
Roads: Mike Downes, Gary Dreher, Scott Chapman, Leonard LeRoy.
Spectrum: Jonathan Rutstein, Bryan Lawrimore, Georgeanne Ridgill.
Website: Bryan Lawrimore, Sharon Lackey.
Adjourn – @9:10 PM.