2024 Annual Meeting Minutes

The following homeowners were present: David and Claudia Smythe, Jeffrey Avery, Fredrico
and Monica Reyes, Tim Overall, John Olah, Rhonda Avilla, Brandon Welch, Brock and Shannon
Ratzlaff

David Smythe, President, called the meeting to order at about 10:10. The minutes of the Feb.,
2023 meeting were read, and following brief discussion were approved (Rhonda motioned, Jeff
seconded). The finance reports from 2023 and 2024 were handed out and discussed. John
Olah, who is new to the neighborhood, having built on Lot 9, our last remaining empty lot this
past year, asked about our biggest expenses. Plant Technicians has gone up, mostly Claudia
explained because of the raising of auxiliary items like extra testing and small repairs they are
charging extra for. Also, there was the $2000 expense due to the every third year testing that
is done. The mowing expense is also high at $4278.474, but it did include some extensive tree
trimming that was done before hurricane season as well as the normal $3600 norm ($300 per
month).

OLD BUSINESS: David gave a brief explanation of the establishment of blow off valves on three
streets in the neighborhood. Along with the fact that we were receiving many, many
complaints of dark and bad smelling water, we were also told by Plant Tech that DEP were
going to be cracking down on them. Blow off valves do exactly what they say, and in doing that
they clean the lines of old debris and stale, sulpher-y and discolored water. A valve was
established at the end of Sunset Terrace (lot 30), Near the end of Shore Drive (Lot 32) and at
the end of Satsuma Circle (Lot 8). They have been exercised 3 – 4 times since July and the
water quality does seem better due to this. In addition to these we also plan to put a valve on
the end of Satsuma Street this spring.

The DEP inspection (an every 5 year event) went well. Plant tech made sure all the
paperwork was in order and came to the inspection. David and Claudia also went to it, having
spent several hours “tidying up and painting over some areas” the previous night. We were
asked to show them the new blow off valves, so were glad we had been pro active in
establishing them.

Claudia showed and briefly explained a recent survey that had to be filled out for the
Federal Government concerning lead in pipes. Every water system in the entire country was
being held accountable to report any lead piping in their water systems. Fortunately for us our

system is all done in PVC piping and most of the homes in the neighborhood were built after
the EPA began requiring materials other than lead piping when building.

NEW BUSINESS: Many of the bushes around the perimeter of the well, along both Washington
Street and along Lago Vista Drive have been killed off by air potato plants. When we received
the variance for the carport over the well and tank area, Zoning insisted that there be a “visual
barrier” around the lot. The hedge of Ligustrum bushes are considered to be our barrier, in the
absence of a fence. Therefore, David and Claudia have been looking into replacing the bushes.
We have a quote from a nearby contractor in the neighborhood to remove the dead bushes
along Washington Street for $200, and have a phone quote for new bushes at $25.00 per bush
for ones approximately 3 feet high. Planting will be planned at a work party TBA, and David
and Claudia will take care of watering them until they get established Discussion ranged from
agreement with this plan, to ignoring the issue until we were notified by Lake County that we
had to do something. Jeff moved that we ignore the replacement until forced to do so, and
John Olah seconded it. We held off on the vote until all new business had been discussed after
a suggestion from Brandon to be sure that we had no other pressing expenses coming up. At
the end of the meeting however we revisited the issue, and the majority in attendance felt that
we should not ignore the issue, but that we should go ahead with replanting the bushes and
not wait.

Since our reserve funds were badly reduced in 2023 (- $5,462.59) by the relining of the
water tank and other repairs, and again this past year we are showing a loss ($1,262.36), David
brought up the possibility of another rate increase to prevent further losses. Discussion
followed on different ways to raise rates, such as lowering the maximum water usage allowed
and charging more for those who go over. Several felt this punished people who cared for
their yards, and John Olah finally moved that we raise the rate by just $5.00. Tim Overall 2 nd the
motion, suggesting that $5.00 would not break anyone’s budget. The motion to raise the flat
water rate by $5.00( to $60.00) was approved unanimously Notice will be sent out with the
February bills and the raise will be implemented in March. An additional $2280 per year
should be the result of this motion.

Backflow preventers were brought up by Brandon Welsh. While the HOA has a long
ago written policy requiring them, it has never been enforced because they do not seem to
concern either DEP or county officials. No one seems inclined to try to enforce the policy now.
It would be an expense of perhaps $400 – $600 per homeowner to install a backflow preventor,
and then have to be inspected each year (another expense) and reported that they were still
working to the Secretary. This would be a huge headache to track and enforce. The well itself
is protected by a back flow preventer, and the locked fencing, etc. is there to prevent anyone
from tampering with anything, but at this time we will not be trying to make homeowners
install them.

David plans to meet with John, Tim and perhaps other men interested to show them
where certain easy to correct problems lie with the well (Power outage, etc.) in case something
happens and he is not here. It was agreed that it would be a good idea for more than one or
two men to know a bit about the electrical system and other things in case of an emergency.
Anyone interested in volunteering to be ‘on call’ can contact David at 407-873-2924.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:28.