Standing Oaks Property Owners Association

Has anyone read the SOPOA documents above?

The budget is breaking down to $258.50 per house.  I don't have an extra $108.50 in MY budget for dues increase.

Some of these items don't make a lot of sense to me.  For example:

Electric, Water, and Phone - these total $2,240.13.  Water I can understand, but not the other two items. 

Landscaping - $9,240.00.  How about cutting the drainage ditch between Hutchinson and Zachary?  You'll have to chop down a couple of trees that are growing in there, also.

I'm more than willing to hear explanations about these.

Thanks.

Elaine M.

Hello Elaine,

 I, as a home owner, not a board member as I am no longer the president, can state a few things that I believe may answer your questions above. Also, just so you know, this discussion forum on this site is not used much at all. Most issues need to be mailed to standingoakspoa@gmail.com to be resonded to from the board. I put this website together with neighborhood link because it is free and they have alot to offer but is only used for documents and info for the subdivision. I will forward this to the POA address and let them respond as needed.

Electric, water and phone are required for the pool area. I beleive that they put the dollar amount in based on previous years. Phone is requred to be available at the pool 24 hours a day for safety requirements from the health dept. The phone can only make local and 911 calls. Electic and water will be very minimal and will probably not be very much due to the fact that the water valves are off and the electrical box is off. I know there is a minimum charge for these but when the pool paper work gets done with the state and then the benton county health dept sign off on it, the pool will be back open. I don't forsee that happening this season as the health dept closes the season Sept the 6th officially and they could not have the pool open after that date anyway.

Landscaping - Currently the bids for landscaping are 7k to 10k in charge. I think the board is having the lawn guy cut the hwy frontage to not be in arrears with the county and is cutting the ditch only a few times this season. I was told by the landscaper that they will be taking care of the ditch here pretty quick. Rick is mowing the pool area himself. I do know in the past we have tried to get homeowners to get involved and cut these areas but only 2 or so volunteered and that just wouldnt work. Also, I think there is a legal issue with not using a bonded and insurred landscaping company do the work. Not sure though.

The other main issue that i see on the increase is the legal issue that is on the main page of the site. This is something that must be taken care of regardless of any other issue and could have been billed as a special assessment or included in the budget and billed as dues I beleive so they chose to bill them as dues. Either way they need to be paid or other things cannot be taken care of. Once the legal issue is taken care of then it will not be on the next budget.

As for my personal opinion, I may not agree with some things that are being done, nor some of the covenants and restrictions but I pay my dues, will pay the increased dues and then I will be able to put in my 2 cents worth in trying to get things changed. My past experience with the POA has seen the "I wont pay till I see something happen" and that just does not work. The POA cannot pay out of their pocket to get things done then "Hope" for the home owners to pay the bill. It just does not work that way. I got to the meetings and take in what they say and if I don't agree with it I will try and take the proper steps to get it changed. There is a process for everything and I beleive they must be followed to get anything done. I have tired as the President and also as a home owner to get others involved in what I believe to be the best direction to keep costs down etc but failed in getting the support from other home owners.

If you would like an ear to talk to I am more than willing to listen and also talk about any of the issue with the subdivision you may have that I can answer as a home owner and former president.  I can be reached at lance@sanderscomputers.com anytime and can give you phone numbers through that address if you would like.

Thanks for the involvment and posted message. Hope I was of help.

Lance S. Sanders

1622 Charles St.

i don't think anyone has extra money to hand over to a POA!!!!!!!! this isn't right.

First of all, I think that I am the only one that monitors this discussion board other than some of the other home owners. If anyone one has comments please send them to standingoakspoa@gmail.com so that the board can respond to it.

Second, and this is my opinion, after reviewing the approved budget and  reading about the legal issues that needs to be cleared up this year, my wife and I have no problems with paying the increased dues. We know that we wont have this legal issue next year and once it gets cleared up the dues will then go back down. They may not go down to $150.00 per year but they wont be $258.50. Most POA's usually bill something like this as a special assessment instead of billing an increase in the dues but either way will need to be paid in order to get the job done. POA dues are not set in stone and will either increase or decrease at various times. My father's POA dues are $625.00 per year this year, of course they live in a bit nicer neighborhood with more swimming pools and bigger homes than our subdivision but their dues were $690.00 last year. They also have more homes in their subdivision than we do and a bigger budget. But as you can see their dues change from time to time and they don't even use the amenities that are available to them but they pay them. They chose, as we did, to buy in a neighborhood that had covenants and restriction to protect their investment. Without some type of control in a neighborhood, it can go down hill very quickly and with the economy like it is our property values would be even less than they are now without a POA and covenants.

From past experience with POA's I know that dues will not always be a fixed number as costs increase or decrease or needs of the subdivision change and we, my wife and I, don't feel that $21.54 per month is much to ask to have amenities and protection like a POAcan provide is too much to ask for. I pay more than that for cable tv per month and barely use it. 

Of course we are dissapointed that the pool is not open but we understand where the board comes from on not having it open at this time. You can thank those that did not pay their dues last year for that. We are more disgusted with the violations that are happening in the neighborhood including parking in the streets and also with speeders. Our street is probably one of the worst for speeders as it's the only through street and we have had the police out writing tickets as much as we can get them out there to do it. One day I was working out front and a female officer wrote 3 tickets in less than 20 minutes in front of my house for speeding. It's just nuts to go over 25 in our neighborhood. Too many cars, boats and trailers parked where kids or even adults to pop out from and get hit.

Anyway, I sometimes get to rambling.... I understand where you are coming from and am happy to listen to any of the home owners if they would like to talk about it anytime I can be available.

As I have mentioned before, if you want the board to respond to your issues send e-mail to them at standingoakspoa@gmail.com. I just kind of maintain this site for them so I check it every couple of days.

Thanks,

Lance S. Sanders

1622 Charles St.