As published in The View, May 2024:
President
Hello, neighbors. Our 2024 Board of Directors has been decided. Congratulations to our newly elected members Larry Siegel and Linda Aasen, as well as Terry Coon and Barbara Prezlock, who will serve their second year.
Thank you to the community for participating in the election process. While it is not uncommon for board members to have different goals and objectives, I believe what we all share is the desire to serve the community to the best of our ability and to work together to protect our investment plus our lifestyle in this beautiful community.
I want to thank Jerry Conrad, the outgoing Board President, for his leadership these past two years. I say confidently that Jerry was always motivated by what he felt was in the best interest of the community. Thank you to Kathy Lindstrom for your shared dedication and service to Sun City Shadow Hills.
The new Board will have challenges going forward and will be making decisions that potentially impact us all. We are in the final steps of the lawsuit with CVWD and the North Channel Project. We have reached an agreement in principle and believe we have come to the best possible outcome considering the circumstances. We will be sharing as much as we can when everything is finalized. The good news is that there is no great cause for alarm concerning our Jefferson bridge. We will need to have plans and procedures in place going forward to handle any additional water passing through our community should we experience a heavy rain event.
We also have challenges to tackle dealing with inflation, wage increases, supply chain issues, and the cost of just about everything going up. We need to re-evaluate what is currently stated in line-item replacement costs in our reserve study. The good news is that we have a stellar Financial Advisory Committee and Facilities and Services Committee. In fact, we are in great shape with all our advisory committees. You need only to experience our committees in action to truly appreciate how fortunate we are to have these dedicated volunteers who so willingly give their time and expertise for the betterment of us all.
This community is in a pretty enviable financial position given the sheer size of the small city that is Sun City Shadow Hills. I have always believed that we are more akin to a city than we are to a for-profit business model, as others suggest. We have infrastructure that is costly to maintain. Our largest expense is ensuring our common areas are updated and attractive to homeowners and home buyers alike. We have a number of large renovation projects currently ongoing and upcoming.
Our roadways are our biggest ongoing expense. Switching both our consultants and contractors on the latest roadway project has yielded a much better result. I am sure you have also noticed the major landscaping projects going on throughout the community. It is starting to look better and fresher every day.
We have many wonderful amenities that I am sure played into your decision to purchase a home here. None of our amenities makes a profit by design. There is a balance between the amenities offered and their cost to our homeowners. Whether or not you participate in or take advantage of any of our offerings, I assure you that their existence and upkeep does have an impact on keeping our home values up. Again, it is a team effort to keep this small city running smoothly. Without dedicated volunteers as a large part of the mix, we simply would not be able to achieve this without substantially higher HOA monthly dues for us all.
Speaking of a team effort, we are extremely fortunate to have our partners in place for our general management plus golf and food and beverage operations, landscape, legal counsel, and security. Working with them all these past two years, I quickly realized how lucky we are to have them. Is everything perfect? No. We will continually work to improve operations in all areas, and to increase overall homeowner satisfaction.
As the Board accepts the challenges ahead, I hope that we will all work together, along with homeowner input, to make sure the community stays on the right track. We may not agree on everything, but I believe we all want what is best for the community and will ultimately work toward that goal.
Until next time, be well!
Contact the author at scott.pessin@scshca.com.