Friends, Neighbors and Property Owner
8/20/2014
To our Friends, Neighbors and Fellow Property Owners,
As most of you know, our Home Owners Association (HOA) Board has been working out the details of the first phase of our neighborhood Road Project. In 2007, the HOA Board at that time, following a decision to keep our road as a private road, established a Road Fund that would be funded by $10/month/property of HOA Dues paid by the HOA Member to address inevitable road maintenance and repair needs.
Over the years, we have had several paving contractors out to the neighborhood to consider everything from patching, to sealing, to completely re-paving the road all with greatly varying costs.
Within the last year or so, it has become very apparent that we need to address some critical road deterioration issues in the curve between the Newburg and Livingston houses. There are two potholes that we have been cold-patching for at least two years that are threatening the base of our road.
Thanks to the efforts of Randy Berry and the existing HOA Board, we were able to get two paving contractors out, over the last two months, to assess the condition of our road and recommend the necessary repairs to not only fix the immediate issues, but also to prepare the road for another 15-20 years of service. The consensus was that the road, that was installed 16 years ago, has a solid base and is in good shape for its age. The areas in the curve with the potholes and major cracks have surface issues that need to be addressed very soon, before those issues begin impacting the base of the road.
While we considered several options to address the issues with the road, we wanted to balance the timely repair of our road against our existing budget, aesthetics, longevity and durability. On Sunday, August 17, 2014, we conducted an HOA Board Meeting with the express purpose of sharing our decision process, considerations and proposed plan, but more importantly, to solicit input, questions and concerns from you the Belmont HOA members/property owners. We had 9 of our 18 HOA Member present at this meeting, including the 4 HOA Board members. While the fifth HOA Board member could not be present, they had expressed their agreement with the plan shared at the meeting.
The assessments of our road by the contractors indicate that the majority of the road, from the Newburg’s driveway to the entrance is in need of repair. Some of these repairs are more immediate and pressing in nature, like those in the curve, while others are less so, like those further toward the entrance. While we received a quote to have a patchwork of repairs to address these areas of need, the quote exhausted our Road Fund budget and left us with several 1” transitions from old to new pavement from the entrance to the Newburg’s.
After much discussion, consideration and deliberation, the HOA Board has decided to address the critical repairs in the curve and as much of the road toward the entrance as possible with the funds in the Road Fund, minus a small amount to fund future emergency road repairs. Based on current quotes, the resurfacing should take us from the Newburg’s driveway to beyond the Vandre’s (formerly Litteras) driveway and include the depression between the Vandre and Von Hagen driveways.
This will provide us with the repairs we need now with a single, contiguous, full-width repaving job with two transitions. This will maintain the integrity of the road, while not detracting from the aesthetics of the neighborhood.
We have reached out to three paving contractors, that our HOA Boards have dealt with in the past, requesting quotes for the same repairs; cleaning the road, applying a mat coating (tar and chip) and then laying down a 1 ½” layer of asphalt that will be rolled to a smooth finish with tapered transitions within a $14,000 budget. The most competitive quote will cover the 11,457 square feet highlighted in the picture below.
Following this phase of the Road Project, the HOA Board recommends that within 5 years, we address the next portion(s) of the road. The Road Fund is currently at $16,000. Minus the $14,000 for this phase would leave us with $2,000 in the Road Fund for emergency road repairs or seed money for the Road Fund. Since $2,160 is allocated for and goes into the Road Fund each year, that would leave us with over $12,000 in the Road Fund in 5 years for the next phase at current allocation levels.
We are providing this e-mail to keep everyone informed. We welcome your questions, comments, concerns and suggestions over the next week as we finalize quotes, check references and initiate this work to improve our neighborhood. We will endeavor to answer any remaining questions or concerns.
Once we finalize our vendor selection, execute a contract with a paving contractor and set a date, we will send out additional e-mails regarding timing, work duration, initial driving restrictions, parking and any other relevant information.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Marvin A. Watkins
President – Belmont HOA
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