BTP Homeowners and Residents,
Hello everyone –
It’s been a while since the last message to the Community. Since then, we’ve seen many of our Northern friends return. It’s great to have them back.
First – The POA’s 2025 Draft operating Budget will be mailed to each of our 478 owners today. There will be a POA Board budget review meeting on November 11th to discuss it. Pease attend this meeting which is open to all owners should you have questions or comments.
Last Tuesday’s Board meeting had several topics of interest to share. New POA Board member John Scardella returned from Upstate NY and has assumed the position as Board Secretary, replacing Jodi Harrison.
Old Business – The Board once again discussed the possibility of implementing Electronic Voting as an alternative to the mailings that we’ve used forever. The process is not easy. First, as many owners as possible need to agree to be involved. Not all owners have to comply, so this complicates the process. There are fees and costs involved as well; however Cardinal Management works with a firm called EZ Vote, that would help us put the program in place. The Board decided to look closer at this in early 2025.
The much-anticipated start date of the Tennis Court Renovation project has been pushed back again by our contractor, Sports Surfaces. We are told that they will begin sometime during the first two weeks of November. This project has been a frustration to the Amenities Committee and the Community as a whole. We will be in touch with them today to get clarification.
Brandi has been trying for weeks to obtain information from Lee County on the Preserves within our property to determine who is responsible for cleaning and trimming them. Preserves are areas that are supposed to be left alone. However, maintaining some sort of visual appearance is another matter. A representative from Aquatic Weed Control visited us a week ago Friday and clarified the situation. They have worked here in BTP since 2011 and are certified to maintain preserved areas by Lee County. From 2011 until 2016, they sprayed for invasive, exotic plants within the Preserve areas – we have 22 of them, three large areas and 19 smaller pockets of preserve areas – and also cleaned out and trimmed back dead plants and bushes, etc. That protruded from the areas. (They are allowed to go 15 feet into the preserves to clean out dead brush, undergrowth, etc.) However, in 2017, they were told to discontinue the trimming and collection of dead limbs, etc., and only spray, thus the unsightly collection of dead branches and undergrowth plus protruding plants in these areas that we have today. The Board approved a new agreement with Aquatic Weed Control to clean up the smaller preserve areas, starting this week. The three larger areas will be addressed next year.
The never-ending saga of the left-over Roofing Tiles was also discussed. They had been stacked neatly along Chelsey Lane in the back southeast corner of the street since late August. Finally, they were moved into the woods along our south perimeter last Tuesday. Several residents raised the concern that there could be a safety hazard with tiles being thrown around by high winds, after the twister that accompanied Hurricane Milton on the 10th, damaged several homes, a few trees and a car. Also, although it is hard to do so, some pallets of tile can currently be seen from the street. After the meeting, we spoke with Robert van Teeffelen, President of the Courtyard I Board and it was decided that we may try to cover the tiles with heavy duty, green tarps, staked into the ground, to secure and protect them and make things more visually acceptable.
New Business – The Federal Government – Treasury Department – has passed a statute, the Corporate Transparency Act – that requires members of any Board of Directors or Trustees that has responsibility for the finances of the organization for which thy govern, to submit personal information to them. The information required is not very “invasive” – name, address(s), telephone number, date of birth, driver’s license information. However, compliance is mandatory if one wishes to serve. This does not include Committee members, only any entity entrusted to spend association funds. This stems from cases of misappropriation of funds in the past by companies and associations like ours. The Board discussed the requirements and agreed to comply. Noncompliance can lead to fines of up to $10,000 and/or jail time. Cardinal Management/Real Manage will execute the paperwork and filing for BTP in the matter.
We have an issue with bees and bee hives, as well as other nasty creatures, wasps and hornets. Some of these “nests” are very large. Brandi has contacted both Pure Cor, our current insect/pest control company and a gentleman that has been here before to remove bee hives, since bees are a protected species, to eliminate these hives and nests. They will be taken care of this week.
Several street signs were damaged but not destroyed during Milton. The sign at the main entrance from US 41 was knocked down as well. Brandi has contracted a company to fix the signs, and they will be done within the next week or so.
The Safety Committee suspended operations for a few months over the summer but has resumed nightly patrols to detect parking violations as outlined in our Rules and Regulations. This included owners/residents parking in guest parking slots overnight, as well as visitors not having parking passes, among other infractions. And as anticipated, there were numerous infractions after very few prior to the hiatus taken by the Committee. So – the Committee and the Board will be re-instituting and are enforcing these rules, immediately – including the imposition of fines for violators and in some instances, towing of vehicles. The entire initiative will be outlined in a note to the Community later this week.
An idea coming from Paul Niss, POA Board Vice President, was presented to the Board. Test pavement sealing to help preserve our Community paved streets and parking areas, and postpone for a while very costly repaving of these areas. GreenEarth, the contractor that will be doing the pressure wash of our sidewalks, street swales and common buildings next month, will seal a strip of the Boulevard so that we can visualize how the process appears, and determine how it reacts to wear and tear on the busiest portion of our streets. Meanwhile we will be speaking with other experts in the field: paving and sealing companies – to obtain their opinions and perspectives.
Other news – The Lake Doctors will assume responsibility of the maintenance of our lakes/ponds and fountains on the 1st of November. Our waterways, particularly the ponds, look terrible – lily pads, weeds, even trees exist in them. These folks will begin immediately to treat the ponds the eliminate what shouldn’t be there. Littorals that were planted years ago to help keep the water clear and clean, will not be harmed. However, a lack of attention has created the conditions that we currently have. We will see changes in the water, but within a few months we should have these lakes/ponds back to where they should be. And, we were assured these treatments will not affect the fish, turtles, birds etc. that are currently living in and around the water
Greenscapes’ schedule obviously suffered a setback with the cleanup after Milton a two ana half weeks ago. They should be back on track this week with their mowing and trimming/pruning. We will meet with them today to review items that need attention, and complaints that have been expressed by residents. Several dead trees still need to be removed and will be done within the next week or so.
Our gates to the Community have been an issue for weeks. Rather than go into all of the issues, let’s just relay that a new, more proactive and conscientious contractor, New IQ, will assume our gate responsibilities this week. This will hopefully solve the problems that we’ve had with gates left open for long periods of time.
Thanks everyone – there are other items to report, but this has dragged on too long, so we’ll close for now. Another message will be sent out within the next week or so
All the best and have a great week! The next POA Board meeting will be held on November 19th @ 6PM in the Annex
Ron Mc Ewan
Board President – Property Owner’s Association