I can't make the meeting, but if someone could get answers to these questions and post them here that would be great. Thank you, Stephen

Ok Stephen I hope I get most of these right, anyone that can add or correct my answers please do so.

 

1. q. Over $12,000 short on collecting assessments.

 a. Banks being billed but they are not paying until time of sale.

 

2. q. $216,000 Annual Budget for Landscaping Service

a. they have reduced there fee by $21,000 in the past 3 months

 

3. q. I sure hope that $5,600 we spent on fertilizer in June starts to work.

a. this was for weed control

 

I know that seems alot of money, we do have 27 acres of grass I believe.

 

4. q. Utilities Garbage increased again

a. garbage company charges a delivery fee of $25.00 per home (new home setup)

 

Wow the forclosures are a thing of the past for Castlegate Community- with a increase of $1,300.00 from the previous month that means 52 homes sold last month.  See we will be rolling in the money soon.  Can you see I don't buy that one.

 

5. q. Utilities water

I kinda missed the answer to this one. Someone ?

 

6. q. Why such a large increase in Utilities Street Lights

a. Something about setting up surepay which they paid 2 months worth

 

I personally not sure about this one either, we paid May's bill and setting up surepay they wanted 2 months worth?  That should mean we are a month ahead.

 

7. q. What was the $8,900 for Legal spent on

a. two different things, 1. our past due to the lawyers (now paid in full) and 2. discovery on forclosure homes and what we can do

 

8. q. Each month we accrue another $1,975.00 going into our reserver fund

a. The Reserve Fund is for Emergency's , example trees blown down in a storm, replacement of rocks, not for painting walls and tot-lot equipement

 

9. q. We have budgeted for an annual loss of $48,000

a. (not verbadem) our current reduction in watering is paying off, we are 20,000 under budget along with other cuts, and possibly talking to Oasis on reducing there fees and the landscapers if they can reduce again for a couple of months we could come close  

 

Looking over the finacials I still see a continuing problem, just like we saw with Kachina.  One month it shows a bill being paid and the next month it shows 0.00 and then the next month it is over doubled being paid.  Not sure about the rest of you but when my electric bill comes in the mail I see something on it called a "DUE DATE" .  Funny thing is that DUE DATE is the same date every month. If the bill is paid by the due date every month there will not be the double one month and nothing the next.  Now I know we do not have a ton of money, but we continually hear "oh that was a old bill that Kachina did not pay", Oasis your doing the same thing.  This has got to STOP. 

Thanks for the answers BG.  In response to the water question...

 

In 2008 we spend approximately 150k in water, including the replenishment act/tax.  That was watering at full amounts (what we should be watering).  When we did the budget for 2009, we budgeted a cutback to 90k from 120k (actual amount in water usage for 2008).  So we budgeted a 30k cutback.  We knew going into this year that our common areas would suffer, but we need to cut back somewhere.

 

With the watering schedule as it is now, we are actually 29k under our budget for the year on water, which ironicly enough, is what is keeping us afloat right now.  The landscapers have already cut back their price a total of 21k this year as well.  So, with the decrease in landscaping and water usage, we will recoupe the 50k budgeted defecit.....at least that's the plan.

 

If we go with a water well, we will permanently eliminate a huge portion of our water bill every year therefore securing our financial future.

Castlegate...

 

This was the one explanation that not only made sense, but also proved there is a plan to move in the right direction. I honestly wish that the rest of the board would take your example of leadership and do something positive for our community. Instead of the broken record of excuses and non-answers, I implore the rest to take initiative to say, "this is a problem and this is what we are working on".

 

Thank you for your hard work with the water savings- I can stand to look at the struggling rough spots knowing we are saving money- at least there is still grass there. I am also on board for the $60 ( +/- ) special assessment for a well. These are improvements and necessary savings.

 

Can we please work on getting what we pay for with the other bills? How about never mind the time and energy of researching unneeded expenses (i.e. dog park) and instead working toward the highest benefits for what money we do have?

 

Last questions...

 

Would our proposed garbage service (if we accept the contract) be paid separate or with the HOA dues? If separate, how does this change our dues? If we renewed our contract with the current company, thier fees increase so I am assuming that ours would also. Is this accurate, or would they remain the same since we just very recently had an increase in dues?!?