August 19th, 2021 HOA Board Meeting

Lane, David, Eva, Melissa, Chris 

Zoom meeting

  1. Met to discuss how to proceed with mailed ballot
  2. Eva motioned to mail ballots
    1. All in Favor, except Chris who opposed (voted for in person voting meeting)
  3. Lane motioned to use 1 envelope for secret ballot, 1 envelope for signature validation page and return envelope
    1. Unanimous vote in favor
    2. Added that Amy/Terrance will be invited to be there when the secret ballots are opened
  4. Discussed including letter for those not in good standing since they cannot vote if they are past due
  5. Chris suggested listing names alphabetically on ballot
  6. Discussed whether to send out a letter from the president along with ballots
  7. Chris motioned to send the ballot without the letter
    1. 3 in favor, 2 opposed
  8. Melissa motioned to include a short bio for each person instead of the letter
    1. 3 in favor, 2 opposed
    2. Will send one more email to all candidates asking for a 140 character bio

July 29th, 2021 HOA Board Meeting

Lane, David, Eva, Melissa, Chris

  1. Chris’s takeaways from the meeting
    1. Report on the facts around the new sign
    2. Report on the history of the mailbox fees
    3. Dues reimbursement for board members
    4. Does not want to be president
    5. Paper ballot was called for to allow the whole neighborhood a chance to vote – include comment cards
    6. Pond – think about having neighbors help add chemicals, need to cut back weeds/algae
    7. Sidewalks – Chris found company that will give group rate if we have 15-20 people buy into it; they will come put together a quote; current resident paid $2000 to fix her personal space walks
    8. Justify the dues increase by including pricing for common area maintenance items (pond, fountain, sidewalks, landscape)
  2. Large Meeting recap
    1. In the event that one person gets out of control, we ask them to stop or shut down the meeting
    2. Start by asking to hold all comments until appropriate time – ground rules
    3. If you don’t feel like your question has been answered, we are happy to stay after to discuss further 
  3. ACC meeting 7/28/21
    1. Caught up on community mtg
    2. Approved ACC guidelines
  4. Existing fence that was denied and against ACC guidelines at the time it was put up
    1. Discuss w/son in law who now lives there (FIL owns home) 
    2. Have them re-submit current fence for approval, make it clear that it was NOT okay to put it up without approval, if new submittal not approved it will need to be fixed
  5. Transparency
    1. Have a post meeting communication email to neighborhood with minutes, talking about upcoming ballots, etc
    2. Regular monthly meeting with inner HOA board – need to have more communication between us about what we’ve dealt with that month
    3. Either send minutes, financials monthly via email or post on website
    4. Don’t need to have a member login for website
    5. Financials – what do we share?
      1. Share quarterly financials
      2. Find report that can show YTD expenses or something similar
      3. the point is to show that we are being responsible with the HOA funds – what do we show to prove that?
      4. Do most people think we are being distrustful with the money or do they just see things not being done and wonder why they’re paying when we aren’t maintaining
      5. Include delinquency report – past yr/current yr outstanding, payment plans, status of legal dealings
      6. Unexpected items outside of budget
      7. Current reserve budget
      8. Option to open savings account where we keep our reserves; add to savings at year end with anything leftover after expenses  – helps to visually see expenses in and out, reserve fund, and earns small amt of interest
    6. Share with the neighborhood our meeting dates and leave them open to the public to attend between certain times
    7. Put out annual mailing with items like due, how to handle trash service, how to submit an ACC proposal
    8. When people approve the budget, they approve all line items on it
    9. Our responsibility it to maintain and replace things as they age; if do ‘special projects’ without maintaining regular things they want to have a say about those before they happen 
  6. Insurance/Legal
    1. Neighbor suggested Board members getting personal insurance in the event that a homeowner sues a member directly which is not covered under the neighborhood’s insurance 
  7. Block Party – need to set a date (end of summer) and rain date
  8. Contracts
    1. Will get multiple bids for each of the major recurring contracts (landscape, trash?, irrigation, pond/fountain, etc)
    2. Ergon Landscaping 765-534-4826 (Bill Witek) – potential landscaper
    3. Fountain/pond – signed with ASAP until end of 2022 – getting quotes to add underwater aeration to back pond to help with algae; issue is the heat and that the pond is shallow
  9. List of projects
    1. Check on mole/muskrat issue
    2. Fountain/aeration
  10. To Do:
    1. Send email with minutes, ask once more for board nominees 
    2. After email, send out mailed ballot 

July 22nd, 2021 Community Meeting

SCW HOA Community Meeting

AGENDA

  1. Welcome
  2. Covenants passed last year – THESE HAVE ALREADY PREVENTED AT LEAST 3 RENTAL COMPANIES FROM MOVING IN!
  3. Sign Update – DELAYS DUE TO DIFFICULTY OBATINING MATERIALS – HOPING TO HAVE FULLY INSTALLED BY NEXT MONTH
    1. Concern expressed regarding placement of the sign – are insuring that it lends maximum visibility when entering specifically from the east
  4. Basketball goals – BOARD WILL ENFORCE REVOVAL OF HOOPS THAT ARE NOT REGULARLY USED; WILL UPHOLD CITY NOISE ORDINANCE REGARDING HOURS THAT HOOPS CAN BE IN USE (7A-9P OR 7A-10P IN SUMMER MTHS)
  5. Shared entrance project – DOCUMENT STATING SCW’S RESPONSIBILTY TO PAY FOR HALF OF ALL MAINTENANCE/UPDATES OF SHARED 116TH ISLAND WILL BE UPLOADED TO OUR WEBSITE
    1. One-time additional cost to annual dues was charged to pay for SCW’s half of the updates
    2. We have made some strides with the apartment’s management to foster a better working relationship with them
  6. Enforcement
    1. Arch. Committee – MANY HOME IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS HAVE BEEN APPROVED THIS PAST YEAR WHICH ARE VERY MUCH ENCOURAGED!
    2. General maintenance – We will be doing a walk around review – HELP OUR TEAM BY NOTIFYING US OF VIOLATIONS OR ISSUES IN YOUR VICINITY
  7. Budget/Financial
    1. COPY OF THE YTD BUDGET WAS DISTRIBUTED (WILL BE POSTED TO WEBSITE)
    2. Landscape savings – THANK YOU TO DENISE AND SUE FOR TAKING ON THE ENTRANCE FLOWERS SO THAT WE COULD SEE A COST SAVINGS ON OUR LANDSCAPE CONTRACT
    3. Current outstanding dues are around $11,000 that have built up over the last 8 years (approx. 5-6 homeowners owing the bulk of this) – HAVE CONTACTED ATTORNEY REGARDING OUR OPTIONS IN CAPTURING MORE OF THIS REVENUE AND WILL CONTINUE TO LOOK INTO THESE; ALLOWING PAYMENT PLANS FOR THOSE THAT NEED MORE TIME TO CATCH-UP HAS BEEN HELPFUL IN COLLECTING PAST DUES
    4. Homeowner suggested 7 year audit of HOA’s financial records
  8. Mailbox Maintenance – BIG THANK YOU TO CHRIS AND TEAM FOR THEIR HOURS OF WORK TO REPAIR AND PAINT MAILBOX POSTS
    1. Were able to replace 4 of the worst posts and plan to continue a replacement rotation that works within the allotted budget for this item as we have each year prior to this
    2. Previous year’s mailbox assessment funds have been used 100% toward replacing those boxes and posts deemed to be in the worst condition; we plan to continue a replacement rotation annually and will include a budget line item for this 
    3. Metal post guards are available for purchase to protect the base of your posts (See Chris Neal for details)
  1. Opportunities for improvements:
    1. Sidewalks – WILL BE GETTING QUOTES TO REPAIR HOA MAINTAINED SPACES; INTEND TO PROVIDE OPTIONS FOR COST SAVINGS TO HOMEOWNERS TO FIX THEIR SIDEWALKS AS WELL
      1. Sidewalks that are cracked, uneven, etc may pose a hazard to residents – residents are responsible for the walks associated with their properties
      2. City will grind down walks but will not repair or repave
    2. Pond/Fountains – WILL LOOK INTO OPTIONS FOR INCREASED POND MAINTENANCE AND OBTAIN QUOTES FOR FUTURE FOUNTAIN REPLACEMENT
    3. City matching grant for neighborhood beautification – WILL APPLY AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE
      1. Basketball court/playground
      2. Dog park
      3. Benches
      4. Completion of Sand Creek Nature area bridge and trail
    4. Several suggested focusing on maintaining the spaces that we already have – THESE ITEMS SUCH AS THE FOUNTAINS, SIDEWALKS, AND MAILBOXES WILL BE OUR TOP PRIORITY AS WE LOOK AT THE NEXT SEVERAL YEARS
  1. 2022 Budget Discussion
    1. Dues have not increased since 2018
    2. Major budget items have increased since last increase
      1. Landscape – 25%
      2. Utilities – 6% (with LEDs being installed)
      3. Mailbox post replacement has increased nearly $100 (Current price per post is about $350)
      4. All contractors have warned about increases for next year
    3. We have been conscious of not raising dues since 2018, but this has caused our reserve fund to reduce to an unhealthy level
    4. Larger projects like the covenants have also eaten into the reserve.
    5. 2022 will see an increase in dues to account for rising maintenance prices and to begin building our reserve funds back up as insurance against large, unexpected expenses or projects that need to be completed
    6. Board will be bidding out large recurring contracts, which will determine the percentage increase necessary to cover expenses and begin building our reserves.  – HOMEOWNER SUGGESTED A 10% ANNUAL INCREASE AND THIS WAS SECONDED BY SEVERAL ATTENDEES
    7. Homeowner requested more details on budget line items 
  1. Introduce Chris Neal – NEW BOARD MEMBER – ALL ATTENDEES WERE VERY APPROVING OF THE WORK CHRIS HAS DONE AND HIS NEW POSITION
    1. Member at Large – In charge of special projects
    2. Investigated sidewalk repair needs and contractors
    3. Spearheaded Mailbox project
    4. Chris’s passion is helping homeowners maintain the quality of the neighborhood 
  2. Officer Vote
    1. HOMEOWNER SUGGESTED A PAPER BALLOT VOTE IN ORDER TO GIVE EVERYONE AN OPPORTUNITY
    2. Board will be sending a paper ballot and encourages anyone who would like to run for a board position to reach out to hoa@scwhomes.com 
  3. Other comments
    1. Requested increased communication – emails, website, newsletters to allow those that aren’t able to attend meetings a voice in decision making
    2. Reminder to drive slowly and practice street safety when utilizing the streets for playing
    3. Soliciting – can put signs on your doors to help prevent
    4. RV, boat, etc parking – covenants allow this for up to 72 hours; if a homeowner notifies the board of a special situation, allowances may be made
    5. Parked cars – streets and sidewalks/right of ways are city property and abandoned or non-working cars can be towed if reported

July Meeting This Thursday

The 22nd at 6:30pm held in person at Journey Lutheran Ministries

Our First Post Covid In-Person Meeting

We have plenty to discuss but will be looking to hear from you all as well on issues you faced or concerns you have within the neighborhood. Our major focus will be on a look forward into our future plans.

Officer Elections

We will be holding our annual officer elections in person this year. Any homeowner is eligible to run for a seat. At this time we have not received any inquiries from someone seeking a seat. During this past year the Board did appoint a new fifth member to handle special projects. This position and seat will be officially voted on at this meeting.

Journey Lutheran Ministries is located across 116th street. Make a left our of our entrance and be prepared for an immediate right turn.
10401 E 116th St.

Mailboxes Get a Major Overhaul

Hopefully you have noticed the big effort that was undertaken last month. Chris Neel, along with a number of volunteers he coordinated with where able to paint, repair or replace all mailbox posts in our neighborhood.

As many of you know we have recognized the importance of properly maintained mailboxes. Not just for function and the personal satisfaction of the residents, but also as a sign of the general upkeep in our development for potential new buyers. We believe they directly effect perceived values across the neighborhood. The board has requested for many years a special assessment aimed at maintaining mailboxes at a lower cost than homeowners could find themselves through bulk purchasing. Last year, with the passage of the new covenants we were able to move this to a normal budget item.

Through the years, we have realized that the rate of decay amongst the posts, coupled with rising costs from vendors meant we could replace fewer than necessary in order to stay ahead of the problem, without raising the dues. For the past couple years we have been discussing alternative solutions to dedicated mailbox providers. This year we found an answer in the form of a dedicated community member. Chris Neel stepped up with a plan to organize a team of volunteers to do basic maintenance and painting of all posts. In order to facilitate this plan the Board voted to appoint him as a member so he could work quickly as a representative of the HOA. With our support behind him he gathered the materials and made good on the promise of finding volunteers to get the work done in a short amount of time. Some posts were not able to be saved and we replaced those completely. Going forward this will be a continuing yearly effort. Hopefully this will lengthen the life span of the posts.

We want to remind everyone that while the HOA is taking on this project, it is being funded by your neighbors and worked on by your neighbors. The mailbox and posts are still your property. Out of respect for the hard work put in, I ask that everyone stay ahead of problems and keep your posts in good condition. Reach out if you need paint, we will be keeping some readily available from now on.

As a final note I want to highlight all the volunteers who put work, often early and on hot days to make this happen. Some were not even homeowners here in our neighborhood.

Chris Neel

Sue Calufetta 

Sue Griffith

Bill McConnell

Tom McNamara

Sandra Neel 

Mike Scnell

Jack Straub

Dr Bob Wertz

David White

June 22nd, 2021 HOA Board Meeting

Sand Creek Woods HOA Mtg

Eva Probst, Lane Skeeters, David Sempsrott, Chris Neal, Melissa Irvin

  1. Mailboxes 
    1. all posts painted, 5 posts ordered, possibly 2 boxes
    2. will continue to replace a group of posts each year
  2. Start monthly updates (email, FB, website)
    1. Communication of ‘good’ stories in the neighborhood
    2. We are on the email blast list for the City of Fishers community engagement team
    3. Ask for committee members (social, other?)
    4. Crime Watch awareness
  3. Basketball Goals
    1. Safety – this is not HOA responsibility (in the driveway not an option for neighborhood’s setup)
    2. Regular use – put away out of sight if it’s not used more than once a week; if its reported that its not being used and not put away we will address 
    3. Hours of use – conform with city guidelines 7a-10p (summer) 7a-9p (all other)
  4. ACC Annual Guidelines to be finalized by July 22nd meeting
    1. Will be reviewed/revised (if necessary) in Dec of each year
  5. Annual Meeting
    1. Explain the one time annual dues increase b/c of shared island update
    2. Elections
    3. Basketball Goal guidelines
    4. 121st sign update (steel is ordered, need to pour the concrete, etc)
  6. Social Committee
    1. Welcome baskets 
    2. Block Party 
  7. Finances
    1. Create a graph of last few years expenses showing increase over time
    2. Collect 5 yrs of unexpected expenses and add a line item for these
    3. Do special assessment for large projects so that they can be voted on by the homeowners
    4. Need to decide dues for 2022 – suggest fixed increase annually
    5. Show what dues would’ve been at if we had increased the last 4 years and what our savings would’ve been compared to what they actually are

April 27th, 2021 HOA Board Meeting

Attendance: Lane, David, Eva, Melissa, Chris

  1. $2000 under revenue budget as of 4/27/21 due to accounts paid in arrears 
  2. Irrigation repairs approved; hold on pipe leak repair
    1. Have Brightview put $150 from concrete co on a separate line on invoice so we can send to city for reimbursement
  3. Lane to check with city to see if they’ll put seed on concrete work areas
  4. Chris will contact concrete companies to get quotes for full neighborhood repairs
  5. Budget Goals
    1. $30,000 in reserve for major expenses
    2. $3000 for unexpected expenses
    3. Eva to run actuals showing how specific large expenses have increased over the last 5 yrs
    4. Options to raise dues: gradual, 30%, lump sum, etc
  6. Enforcement
    1. Basketball hoops – send notice to all homeowners and call out the new covenant rules
    2. Regularly walk and look for violations that need attention
    3. Bill and Amanda (shed violation) – follow up on whether this is approved by the ACC
  7. Mailboxes
    1. Option: $5000 – to replace 15 and repair 23, utilizing Chris’s team for repair labor 
    2. Decision: spend our budget number to replace as many posts as possible and spend a little extra on materials to do repairs as needed
  8. Garage Sale – June 4-5
  9. Social Committee
    1. Food Trucks – Block Party
    2. More activity on FB
    3. Minimum one paper mailing per year and more emails
  10. Next mtg in July – use the church? 
  11. Air BNB on Sand Creek – neighbors have talked to the owners and they’ve made some improvements to make the situation better

Ready for the Next 20 Years?

The long process is nearing completion…

It has been 2 years since the board first met to begin discussing the process of revising our covenants. After many meetings with homeowners which resulted in expanding the scope to include the entire document, this long process is drawing to an end. The attorney is putting the finishing touches on the document and getting everything ready to present to the homeowners. This hard work has paid off as we are ending up with a document that will benefit our neighborhood for a long time. We wanted to make sure this would last the next 20 years.

The final step is collecting votes to approve the amended and restated covenants. We require 2/3rds of the homeowners to approve so that we can adopt them. We will start collecting those votes at this meeting. Our previous meetings made specific changes that will allow us to collect votes in writing. That said, we would very much appreciate your appearance at the meeting even if you only stay long enough to cast your vote. We will of course have a copies to review and a full summary that details the changes made.

Other Announcements

Beyond our vote for the covenants we will also be conduct our regular mid-year meeting to vote for board members and discuss any issues the board or other members would like to address.

Additionally, we would like to address a few items:

First, we would like to ask for volunteers for our social committee. We have a couple of community events planned that we need help with. If you want to meet neighbors and help others as well, this is for you. We want this neighborhood to be more than a place you drive through to get home, we want it to be your home. Please reach out, even if you have little time to spare we appreciate it all!

Secondly, we know there have been many mailboxes damaged by the wind and we apologize for the delay in getting that addressed. In order to reduce our costs we need to order all replacements at the same time and this requires board members to check all boxes to fairly allocate our budget towards the worst ones first. We will finish this process asap.

Finally, we want to remind homeowners that during home improvement season we know all of you have projects in mind. If you are unsure what needs approval please reach our for any changes in appearance outside of minor landscaping. Regular maintenance without a change in color is just fine. Next, read the covenants to make sure your plans are in line with the neighborhood guidelines. Finally, if you have plans ready you can use our website to submit a plan review. The committee is given up to 30 days but they always aim to conclude the process quickly.

We look forward to seeing everyone there. I know we’ve said other meetings where important but this meeting has been two years in the making, seeing countless hours and thousands of dollars invested. To make all that worth it we only ask for your vote of approval!

– SCW HOA Board

Required Amendment Before Covenant Vote

As hopefully all of the homeowners know by now we have been working long and hard to update our covenants in many ways to better position our neighborhood for the next 20 years.

It was our initial belief that we could proceed with voting on the revised covenants by an initial meeting and then we would collect the votes of those not in attendance in person or by mail. Our ambition being the every home was able to vote even though meeting attendance is generally only around 15%.

While the covenants have a clear requirement of 2/3rds approval; late last year we were hit with an unexpected road block the attorney made us aware of. In the original Articles of Incorporation, which the Board did not have a copy of, Section 9.09 states that any action that is required to be taken at a meeting can be done by written consent but only if it receives 100% approval from all members.

Clearly this is infeasible and in fact the State of Indiana has enforced a ceiling of only 75% for amendments to covenants. That said the attorney recommends that we amend this section of the Articles of Incorporation such that the rules for written approval outside a meeting are the same as those in a meeting.

To do this we are required by the By-Laws to call a meeting which must meet a quorum (60% of households). If a quorum is not met we must call a meeting at least 30 days after and the requirement would be half of the previous meeting. The meetings would continue with the required members lowering by half each time until we achieve quorum. At this point we can hold the vote for consent to amend the articles of incorporation.

Once that amendment is made we can hold the vote to make the actual changes to the covenants happen.

You may download the Articles of Incorporation here

If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to me directly at 260.348.5716

April 6th,  3pm at the Fishers Library in the ‘Stage’ meeting room.

Sincerely,
Lane Skeeters
President, SCW HOA

Our New Entrance Sign

I’m sure most of you have noticed already but the front sign was finally completed after some unexpected delays. While the wait was difficult it was well worth it. I hope you all agree with us that this sign will greatly increase the appeal our neighborhood has upon entering. As good as it looks during the days it looks even more striking at night!

This year we will be applying again for the Fishers neighborhood matching grant with a focus on the 121st  Street entrance. We will share more details as we progress with that this project.

Thanks for everyone’s support in improving our neighborhood!