HOA Meeting Recap

Thursday night we had our second HOA meeting with the elected board of directors.

Bill Stitt from Bouchard Insurance detailed the insurance coverages our community has. You have insurance that covers the interior or your home. The community insurance covers the structure of the building, the exterior and the roof. It also covers common areas of the community. Basically everything outside of your home.

If you have a mortgage, your bank may have requested copies of the declaration page which summarizes coverage of the master policy of our HOA. Bill Stitt can get you a copy. Email him at BillStitt@BouchardInsurance.com. If you are shopping for homeowners insurance, he can also with an agent who can help.

Other issues we dealt with included approving a new sign that will go onto the pool cabana spelling out the rules for the pool area. We discussed bids from landscaping companies and companies for pond maintenance. We discussed how to enforce the ban on street parking and the problem with garbage left outside the dumpsters.

(That's not an official account of the minutes from the meeting. They are just my top-of-mind recollection.)

We also adopted a policy to make sure we notify you earlier about meetings. Although the law says that HOA board meetings require only 48 hour notice, the board agreed that that was too little.

The aim is to post notice of meetings at least seven days in advance of the meeting. The original posting may not include the meeting agenda. If not, it will be added in time to comply with the 48 hour notice requirement.

Speaking of notification of future board meetings, the next one is scheduled for October 27 at 7 p.m. It is the annual budget meeting and will happen at the same church that has hosted the previous two meetings. I'll post the address and a map when we get closer to the date. If you don't want to wait, check this blog's archives and you'll find it there.

Ah, the Glory of Garbage

I am learning that serving on an HOA board of directors involves a significant amount of cleaning up other people's garbage. Sometimes more literally than others.

Notice anything odd about where the dumpster at the junction of Johanna Ave and Hawthorne Trace is right now?



Right. It's sitting outside its normal container. You're very astute. Why would the garbage truck driver put it there? Hint:



Correct! Because it wouldn't fit with all the garbage left there that people didn't bother to put inside the dumpster.

So guess who got to spend part of his late afternoon doing trash duty? Right again, amigo! Your humble blog author - slash - friendly neighborhood garbage man. Much to the great disappointment of the ants, flies, roaches and at least one toad that had come to feed on the insects.

By the way, if you're trying to diet but struggle to curb your appetite, clean up a dumpster area. That'll clear your food craving right up!

I could have waited for the person we pay to pick up trash around the community to do it. Didn't know we had one of those? Yep. We pay someone roughly $200 a month to pick up the trash that we're too lazy to put into the dumpsters ourselves.

Maybe I should have. Maybe if more people see how disgusting the dumpster areas get, they'd put the trash inside the dumpsters, like the sign on the gate instructs. As it is, there is some sentiment among board members to install surveillance cameras to identify the people who seem to insist on trashing our community.



They won't get any argument from me.

Community Security

One of the efforts discussed at the last HOA meeting was to set up a list of people willing to be called to help handle routine security matters that don't rise to the level of something that requires police involvement. They would be things such as confronting people at the pool after hours, people causing minor disturbances and solicitors.

People who noticed such activity could call people on the list until two or three who were available could go as a group to greet the offender.

Again, we're not asking that people who volunteer for this do police work. Nor are we discouraging people from not calling the police if they see criminal activity. This would be for matters in our community that need not involve the police but that should be addressed.

People willing to do this can e-mail communitywatch1@verizon.net.

HOA Meeting September 10

The next St. Charles Place HOA Board of Directors meeting happens Thursday, September 10 at 7 p.m. The location is the same as the August meeting. The address and map are below.

Remember: Board meetings are open to every homeowner in the community. You are not only welcome to attend but encouraged to do so. If you have things you'd like the board to address, please send your ideas to board@stcharlesplace.us.

River of Life Christian Center
6605 Krycul Avenue
Riverview, FL 33569
(813) 677-4453


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