HOA Meeting Recap

The 2010 budget passed. HOA fees will remain at $213 and you should receive your payment coupons in a month or so.

The board passed a motion to join the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office's Neighborhood Watch program. It cost $.25 per unit. We have 268 units so the total cost is $67. You can e-mail communitywatch1 (at) verizon (dot) net for details on what we get for that and to volunteer for the Community Watch committee.

The board approved the purchase of No Tresspassing/Soliciting/Loitering signs to post at each of the three entrances of the community. It also approved buying an enclosed bulletin board that will go near the mailbox kiosk. The board will post community news there for residents.

HOA Meeting Tomorrow Night

Just a reminder from your friendly neighborhood bloggerman that the HOA Board of Directors meets tomorrow night. All homeowners are welcome. At this meeting, the board will pass the budget for next year.

There are also several other items on the agenda following that, including discussion about what kinds of screen/storm doors to allow and community security.

It starts at 7 p.m. Here's the location:

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


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Track Sexual Offenders

A Jacksonville-area girl's death reminds us to keep an eye on our children. If you're not aware, 7-year-old Somer Thompson left her school in Orange Park Monday. She never made it home. Police found her body in a Georgia landfill two days later.

Police have not indicated that they have any suspects so we don't know if this is a case similar to that of Jessica Lundsford, the 9-year-old Homosassa girl who was kidnapped, raped and killed by John Couey in 2005.

(You may be glad to know that Couey died earlier this year.)

But it clearly wasn't an accident. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has a website where you can search for for sexual offenders or predators within a radius ranging from 1/4 mile to 5 miles from our commuity. Here it is: http://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/searchNeighborhood.do.

A search today turned up none in the community itself, one sexual predator and four other sexual offenders living within one mile of us. It's important not to overreact. It is the rare neighborhood that doesn't have some sexual offenders living in proximity to it.

This story is a reminder to take sensible steps to secure your homes from break-in and to use common sense to keep your children safe — such as making sure they have adult supervision at all times. In addition to keeping children from becoming victims of trouble, having adults around keeps kids from causing trouble too.

New Rules

You might be hearing about community rules that you had never been aware of and wonder about all the new restrictions that your HOA Board of Directors has passed in the short time that your fellow owners have run it.

Here's the thing: The owner-run HOA has NOT WRITTEN A SINGLE RULE. Zip. Zilch. Nada. None. Never.

New rules? There are none. Passing any new rules would require a meeting of all owners -- 30% of whom must show up to reach a quorum.

Any rule we mention -- such as the restriction on the size of dogs allowed in the community -- is something that was in the documents to which every owner agreed before they bought a home in St. Charles Place.

It is apparent that many owners did not read the rules. The HOA board is trying to notify people of the agreements they signed before buying here. The new pool rules sign you might have noticed on the cabana wall contains nothing new. It merely reminds people of the rules that have been in place since the community's beginning.

Halloween Get-Together Flyer

Yesterday someone placed a bunch of flyers at the mail kiosk about a Halloween get-together at the pool. Your humble blog author did not see them but an HOA board member cleaned up the mess after the flyers had fallen to the ground.

There are a couple of problems:

1. People have to work through the HOA to post any notices in the community, otherwise it's just like any solicitor distributing advertising flyers, which we don't permit.


2. The event itself invites dogs to the pool area. Dogs are prohibited in the pool area at all times. Food, even Halloween candy, is not allowed there, either.

Speaking of dogs, the declarations (the community rules), to which every buyer in St. Charles Place agreed, specifies that dogs must be 40 lbs. or less. You have no doubt noticed dogs here that exceed that limit.

Please understand, the HOA does not oppose people meeting. It is not trying to get in the way of your right to freely assemble. Just beware that if you do want to organize a gathering that both the meeting and the means you use to publicize it must follow the community rules.

HOA Fees Not to Rise in 2010

The HOA Board of Directors has approved a preliminary budget for 2010.

Despite a significant rise in electricity costs and the continuing effects of the foreclosure crisis, savings in other areas will let us keep the HOA assessment at $213 per month, while continuing to build reserve funds for necessary maintenance and repairs of our property.

Several mild hurricane seasons gives us a break on our insurance, which is our single largest expense. We also negotiated new contracts and hired new vendors for some of our services, such as landscape maintenance, that we expect will give us both better service and a better price.

This makes up for big rate hikes from Tampa Electric, which you will also notice on your own power bills. Foreclosures will cost the community because people not paying their mortgages are also not paying their HOA Fees.

Final approval of the budget happens at the Oct. 27 HOA meeting. Homeowners will receive copies of the budget with notice of the meeting in the mail in about five days.

Here again is the location of the HOA meeting:

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


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Secure Your Sliding Glass Door

I mentioned seeking ways to secure my sliding glass door, which has been the entry point for crimes in other units St. Charles Place. A fellow owner did some of my homework for me. Here are his thoughts:

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I've had multiple conversations with the police with regards to the implementation of security devices and have also done a lot of my own research before installing our stuff so hope some of this helps.

Security Features:

1. Brinks / ADT / Other actively monitored security system. Be sure to use sign and stickers in highly visible areas.


2. Yard Sticks. In the area above the sliders you can get $.61 yard sticks at Home Depot and screw them into the frame, which blocks the sliders from being popped off the track.


3. Door Pin. Get the door pin - $3.75 - and (carefully) drill a hole through both doors to install, which will make it easier to control the double sliding doors we have.


4. Sliding Door Security Bar. Cost: $16.47. Install one end on the inside slider door and install the receiving end on the outer sliding door (Rather than the wall across from the inside door). When you lower the bar it not only adds stability, but actually works on both doors instead of just one.


5. One thing that people often neglect is blocking that space on each side of the sliding door blinds where individuals can come up to the doors and peer right into the spaces where TV's and the other valuables they are looking for would be located. In the cross piece along the top and front of the blinds there is an extra blind piece that is inside the framework. You can take that piece out of the frame and then secure it along the side of the blinds with tape or some other fastener to limit the space available for thieves to peer inside your living rooms. I really don't have a visual for this, but hopefully my description works well enough.

Notes:

1. When using larger diameter pins or locks, be very careful with the drilling process. I actually popped one of my windows on my first attempt. It ran $300.00 to fix and took a week.


2. When you get a new alarm system installed, be sure to test it out occasionally by setting it off during the day with the doors open and allowing the community to hear.


3. If you take time and do it on your own, you can keep the expenses below $25.00 and it will save you so much more in headaches and stress.

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The only thing I'd add is that a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy advising us on starting a Community Watch group told us that monitored security systems don't do a lot of good. Criminals know they can get in and out before the police arrive. If you get a security system, he said, get one with a siren alarm.

Before Criminals Come Calling

Though written for those who rent out their properties, the article, Before Criminals Come Calling Have a Security Plan, is good reading for anyone in the community because it has information about basic steps to secure your property.

It also has food for thought especially for owners who rent their properties. It explains that you want to keep the unit as safe for tenants you would keep it for yourself because of the potential liability involved.

It also spells out why you want to perform criminal as well as credit background checks. If you rent to someone who turns out to be a known criminal who does his misdeeds here, you could get sued! It might cost you a bit of money in the short run but could save you -- and those who live near your unit -- a lot in the long term.

Professional Security Patrols?

A victim of a break-in theft today proposed hiring a professional security guard to patrol the neighborhood during times crimes have typically happened in our community.

I have asked that the issue of hiring a security patrol be added to the next HOA board meeting's agenda. That meeting is Oct. 27 and is also our budget meeting. All owners are welcome to attend.

I have also sent our property manager a list of questions about whether it is common for HOAs to take on hiring security patrols, what the liability would be if either the guard or someone else was injured during the course of a patrol, what the cost would be and where we find qualified people to provide such a service.

Security is expensive. In a brief discussion on the matter at a previous board meeting, it became clear that we will not be able to afford to hire someone to cover all the hours that people are typically away from their homes. We'd have to hire someone to work different shifts on different days each week to ensure that criminals could not predict when we were unprotected.

Be aware that this may or may not be something that is in the board's power to consider. You should also know that even if it is something that the HOA can -- and wants to -- take on, action will not happen immediately. If the board is convinced of the merits of the idea, the vote at the meeting would likely be to solicit bids for security service.

Whether hiring professional security happens or not, we still have the responsibility to look out for each other and to protect ourselves.

HOA Meeting Date Change

The next HOA board of directors meeting, originally scheduled for October 15 will now happen October 27.

It was pushed back due to delays in getting our proposed community budget for next year, which we will approve at the meeting. This process should take 20-30 minutes. After that we will address other community business. As always, all owners are invited and encouraged to attend.

The board's focus is trying to hold down costs so that HOA fees don't rise. Electricity rate hikes mean that our power costs for things such as street lights will go up 15-20%. However, thanks to several calm hurricane seasons, we should see some relief on the cost of our community insurance, which is our biggest expense.

We have been soliciting bids from vendors for services such as our landscaping maintenance. We will soon have a new company mowing our lawns. I'll provide details here soon.

If you have any issues you'd like added to the meeting's agenda, send them to board(at)stcharlesplace(dot)us.

One Day - Two Break-Ins

Two residents reported break-ins to their properties today. Both were end units; both times the criminal or criminals popped the rear sliding glass doors off with a crowbar.

From accounts I have heard, that is the entry point for all these crimes. When we met with a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Deputy earlier this year at the Riverview library, either he or someone else there mentioned a device that you can attach to your sliding glass door that makes it much more difficult for someone to pry it out of its frame. If anyone remembers what that was and where you can buy one, I'll mention it on the community blog.

These crimes have happened during the day, mostly between 10am-2pm. One of the affected residents suggests hiring security to patrol the community during that time.

The idea was broached at a previous HOA board meeting and the advice we got was that hiring someone every day would probably be cost prohibitive, even at just 10am-2pm.

However, we may not need someone every day. We could hire someone to work 2-3 days a week -- making sure that they aren't the same days every week so that criminals can't predict when we're unprotected.

I have asked that we address this issue at the next board meeting. If this is something you have ideas about and want the board to hear them, please plan to attend. The meeting has been moved to October 27. It will also be our annual budget meeting.