What's New
- AMERICAN FLAGS. As you drive in and out of River Hills, you should see we have recently installed a couple of flag poles. Until we have lights installed next week, we are hoisting the flag in the morning and lowering it at sunset every day. We thought we would at least do that till Memorial Day weekend was over. The Massimeis are responsible for the back gate and the Fortins have the front gate. If anyone is interested in the honor of hoisting/lowering the flag till we get lights installed, please call Rick or Frenchy.
- CHANNEL 95. Do you know that Channel 95 is back up and running? So, if you rarely use the computer, simply turn the TV on to Channel 95 for what's happening around the community as well as meeting dates, times and places. Thank you Agnes Rodriguez for maintaining this channel of communication for the community.
- RESURFACING. We resurfaced the Parkway between Players Club and Bent Grass the 27th and 28th of May. Why? Because it needed it. Initially, we were going to resurface the road from the front gatehouse to Player's Club, but our road engineer recommended resurfacing from Player's Club to Bent Grass because that road has deteriorated more. This road expert/engineer, who works directly for the Association, also advised us on the specifications for the road and the contract we let after competing the effort; he also monitored the resurfacing as the work was being done. Cost for this effort was $45,660.
- MARQUEE/STREET SIGNS. We have numerous marquee and street signs in disrepair. That's the bad news; the good news is that we have contracted to start repairing the marquee signs and work has begun. We are also contracting to have 84 street signs repaired. Work should also start soon on these. We were hoping to have had these done during Spring but the whole process to ensure we spend your money wisely takes time.
- LANDSCAPING. Over a year ago, we contracted with a landscape expert to give us a Landscape Plan for the common areas of the community, with a focus on the village entrances. The plan also provided a priority order for renovations of the entrances. We have requested bids for five entrances which we believed should be the first to be renovated, selected a contractor and work should also soon start on these. Cost for the first five entrances will be less than $20,000.
- GATEHOUSES. At the annual homeowners meeting in March of 2003, we announced that the Board was pursuing a plan to renovate and expand the Lithia-Pinecrest gatehouse. We had planned for the work to be completed by now. However, we have found that designing, bidding the project, investigating potential contractors and other due diligence activities have consumed more time than we anticipated. We are currently tied up in meeting all county paperwork requirements to obtain permits. Hopefully, these requirements will soon be satisfied and we can proceed with the actual renovation and construction.
Recently a few people have questioned the need for and economics of the proposed work. The need for the project is almost self-evident. Even if the gatehouse is not expanded it is badly in need of renovation. The roof, the electrical wiring, plumbing, rear wall and doors all need to be replaced. Currently, we have no on-site place to store records, operating supplies, security devices such as traffic cones, mailbox paint, Christmas decorations or even trash between pickup days. In addition, we do not have a decent place for our fulltime property manager to work or meet with people. All Board and committee meetings must be held in whatever facilities we can borrow. The expansion of the guardhouse will alleviate most, if not all of these problems.
As far as the economics of the project, it is definitely the most economically sound solution to the problems. When we developed cost-benefit analyses and alternatives to satisfy all our requirements as stated above, we estimated that the renovation and expansion would cost approximately $82,000. We further estimated that $20,000 of this cost would be for the renovation that was required even if we did not expand the guardhouse. That meant that the expansion would cost approximately $62,000. A check of rental rates in the area showed that renting comparable space would cost about $14,000 per year. This meant that even with our conservative estimates, building versus renting would have a payback period of less than five years and be much more cost effective for the community.
As it turns out, after getting actual bids, our decision to build was even smarter economically because the cost of simply rebuilding the guardshack as much more that we had initially (conservatively) estimated. Click on contracts below to view copies of actual bids:
- Gatehouse Renovation (not including expansion) ($34,380)
- Gatehouse and Office Addition Together ($73,980)
- Landmark Engineering ($2970) This topo survey, site plan and SWFWMD Exemption documents were necessary for gatehouse renovation, whether or not addition was built.
- TECO Bid for Electrical Work ($4788.89) This work is/was required no matter what we did to the gatehouse but it's shown here to show you all the expenses that we will be incurring.
Incidentally, we have also repainted the back gatehouse.
- AMENDMENTS 1 & 2. Don't forget to turn in your consent forms/ballots in to front gatehouse by 3 Jun if you have not already done so. Please vote one way or the other...this is a free country...you choose whether you vote yes or no on the two proposed amendments...but please vote.
- REPLACEMENT of PALM TREES. Many of your neighbors are taking advantage of an offer from a tree company to replace their Washingtonian palm trees with small Queens palms at no cost. If you are interested, please call BJ, the Property Manager, at 662-0837. BJ can provide you phone numbers for a couple of companies and she can also approve your landscape change depending upon the change you are planning.