The GHPOA board of directors adopted a new Open Board Meeting Policy Monday night. Dues paying members of GHPOA are asked to RSVP to the property manager if they intend on coming to make sure there is enough seating in the meeting room. If a member wishes to speak to the board, please notify the property manager in advance as well to insure you are on the agenda.
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Here are the two documents included in your 2009 GHPOA dues statement along with the 2009 budget.
2009 Dues Letter from GHPOA (PDF)
At last night’s GHPOA regurarly scheduled monthly board meeting, proponents of purchasing the Geist Clubhouse presented their findings and signed petitions from property owners. Jim Felli of Admirals Bay led the :15 minute presentation and fielded questions afterwards from board members. Petitioners were signing in favor of purchasing the existing Geist Clubhouse and acknowledging an increase in association dues to cover the costs. The second part of the petition requested a special meeting to be called by the GHPOA board if in fact they do not pursue the clubhouse purchase.
Volunteers canvased and contacted 34% of the GHPOA residents accumulating 719 signatures in favor of the purchase. Only 5% of the residents were needed to call a special meeting of the board.
Felli recommended to the board that a special meeting be called and the issue of purchasing the clubhouse, which they have now termed the Geist Community Center, be taken to a vote of the GHPOA residents.
Two opponents of the purchase, Ron Tuthill and Jim Sweeden of Feather Cove I, spoke briefly against the purchase. In short, they argue that the Geist Clubhouse has little or no impact on their property values given their distant proximity to the facility.
Afterwards, board members discussed moving forward with a referendum to poll residents on their views. It was decided that a smaller group of the board consisting of Jonathan West, Tom Britt, Sandy Willis Bryant, and Terry Fulk would work with the GHPOA legal counsel to draft the language of the resident mailer and outline the guidelines for the special meeting to be called soon.
In other business, dues for GHPOA residents in 2009 will remain the same as the last two years at $425 per household.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 7:00 P.M.
Geist Clubhouse
12549 Old Stone Dr.
Indianapolis, IN 46236
Please join us at the next GHPOA Crime Watch meeting hosted by our Geist Neighborhood Patrol. Hope to see you there!!!
Residents have organized committees to pursue the purchase of the Geist Clubhouse from Marina Limited Partnership. As was reported in the August issue of the “atGeist Community Newsletter” (Last Days for the Geist Clubhouse), the Geist Clubhouse will be officially closed as of 12/31/2008 and Alan Rosenberg Jr. plans to tear down the clubhouse, pools, and tennis courts to develop homes on the 10+ acres. Over 60 residents have volunteered on various committees to investigate the possible purchase of the property by Geist Harbours Property Owners Association (GHPOA) or a subsection thereof.There will be informational meetings at the Geist Clubhouse on October 13, 14, and 15 starting at 7:00 pm at the clubhouse on Old Stone Drive. All interested homeowners around Geist are invited to come and learn more about the progress and status of the clubhouse.
Over 180 residents turned out last night for an open discussion on the Geist Clubhouse in Admirals Bay. A regularly scheduled GHPOA board meeting was delayed over two hours as homeowners, mostly from the surrounding Admirals neighborhoods, voiced their concerns about the future of the 20-year community landmark.
“This is the most people I’ve ever seen show up for anything related to the GHPOA,” said Beth Binkley, an Admirals Pointe resident.
Being a GHPOA board member and volunteer on the subcommittee that met with Marina Limited back in May of 2007, I led the somewhat heated discussion and tried to retain order on both sides.
During the overview at the beginning, I stepped residents through the timeline of when Alan Rosenberg Sr. first contacted GHPOA back in May of 2007 until the board meeting the following month when our subcommittee recommended that the GHPOA board decline the purchase offer of the Geist Clubhouse for $690,000. The vote to decline the offer was unanimous.
There were many reasons for not pursuing the purchase, the main reason being the increase in ongoing dues to each of the 2,380 residents of Geist Harbours. Maintenance costs average $219,000 per year (gathered from Marina Limited) which would increase dues to each GHPOA resident $92 per year. That still doesn’t address how the $690,000 is raised, whether through a special assessment or commercial financing. Looking at the pool membership roles from 2007, only 4.5% of the GHPOA residents had purchased memberships, another reason to not pursue the purchase.
I then updated the residents on the current status of the Clubhouse sale. During a phone discussion with Alan Rosenberg Jr., he indicated that he was going to wait another 30 days or so before filing the permits necessary to subdivide the property and ultimately develop homes on the property.
“It takes about 90 days for that process to complete,” said Rosenberg. “It would be year end before anything would happen.”
With this information in hand, the floor was open for discussion. Residents were quick to speak up.
Most were angry that the GHPOA board made a “short-sighted decision” and “didn’t have the interests of the residents at stake when they met with the Marina Limited.” Discussions in 2007 were kept confidential at the request of the seller with concerns that clubhouse rentals or pool/tennis memberships would be adversely affected.
“With all due respect, the GHPOA board had a conflict of interest in my opinion and should have told the residents they serve what was happening with the clubhouse,” said Marie Ippolito, a Geist real estate broker and Admirals Pointe resident.
Others offered advice or posed alternative financing options.
“Can we do a special assessment to just the Admirals and have us own the pool?” said one unidentified resident standing near the doorway.
“Why can’t we just do a special assessment to everyone in GHPOA of 300 bucks and call it a day?” offered another.
Patty Summerlin, an Admirals Sound resident and long-time user of the pool, met with Alan Rosenberg Jr. and Sr. the previous week to discuss the purchase of the 13-acre complex. She was able to fill in some gaps in information since the May 2007 meetings and passed out updated financials for 2007. She was also responsible for the entryway signage announcing the meeting which was partially responsible for the large turnout.
Beam Reach and Masthead, both part of GHPOA and furthest from the Geist Clubhouse, were represented by only one homeowner.
“We didn’t have signs along Fall Creek anywhere so many of us did not know about this meeting,” said one Beam Reach resident.
Board member David Hennessy took their absense as a sign of opposition to moving forward with the purchase.
“Only 6 families were members of the clubhouse last year from Beam Reach and Masthead combined. Do you think they will be anxious to pay an additional fee annually for an amenity they don’t want to join now?”
Near the end of the discussion, Hennessy proposed that a subcommittee form with GHPOA involvement to further research the options. Sandra Willis, GHPOA’s newest board representative for Admirals Bay, and myself volunteered to be the GHPOA board laisons for the study group.
The first meeting of the subcommittee is Monday, September 22nd at 7:00 pm at the Geist Clubhouse. Every resident that is interested in researching the options to present to the residents is invited to attend and participate.
Neighborhood Patrol is going to host a GHPOA crime prevention meeting on Wednesday, November 19th at a location to be announced. All GHPOA residents are invited to participate in this interactive session with our private security company.
The GHPOA board is hosting an open forum from 7:00-7:30 pm at the Geist Clubhouse on September 15th at their regularly scheduled board meeting. Residents that are concerned about the sale of the Geist Clubhouse are welcome to attend. Please email Jonathan West at jwest@fhlbi.com if you plan to attend.
In the Summer of 2007, Marina Limited Partnership approached GHPOA about the Clubhouse located within Admirals Bay. The Clubhouse (pool, tennis courts, land, clubhouse building, etc.) has no legal tie with GHPOA.
The Partnership wanted to sell the Clubhouse as is because it is losing money.
GHPOA formed a Committee of Board members with business backgrounds to examine a purchase. The Committee consisted of Bob Tollini, Terry Fulk, Tom Britt, and Ken Yale (Treasurer). The Committee examined the books and decided we would not be interested in a purchase. The basic reasons were that the Clubhouse appeared to be well run, it was losing money, we would have to borrow a substantial amount of money to pay for it, and the facility was not being used by a substantial area of GHPOA; that is, Beam Reach, Mastheads, Feather Coves, Diamond Pointe, and even Crossing South. It was very likely GHPOA would have to raise the annual fee substantially for everyone to finance this endeavor.
The Board made an effort to examine this issue because it felt the Clubhouse was an asset to Geist Harbours. The Committee arranged for another party to do due diligence on the Clubhouse and they declined to make an offer. I talked to that party and they could not figure out how to make money either.
The Committee and the Board kept this quiet for obvious reasons. The Clubhouse would have trouble selling season passes and wedding reservations if there was any doubt of what might happen in the future. In fact, the Clubhouse has never officially been put for sale.
I can’t speak for the Marina Limited Partnership. They say, and I believe them, that their first choice is to sell the Clubhouse as an ongoing facility because it would be good for the community and easier for them. However, they have other options.
Their other options include tearing down the facility and building homes.
This note of good news was passed along by Indianapolis City Councilor Ginny Cain from the Department of Works. Roads in Beam Reach will be resurfaced this fall before winter.
Our project costs for this year’s resurfacing program have allowed us to add additional segments to be resurfaced. Barring unforeseen circumstances the following street segments in your district will be resurfaced before this winter.
- Mud Creek Rd. from Fall Creek Road to 86th Street
- Seabreeze Way from Skippers Way to Fathom Crest
- Skippers Way from Whitecap Way to Seabreeze Way
- Whitecap Way from Swiftsail Ln to Skippers Way
Please feel free to contact me if you have additional questions on these projects.
Respectfully,
Jeff Roeder
Council Liaison/Senior Project Manager
Department of Public Works
City of Indianapolis
jroeder@indygov.org
317-327-4683
Tuesday, July 29, 2008, Eddy’s Neighborhood Bar & Grill, 11693 Fall Creek Rd. 7:00 P.M.
Please join Jonathon West, Admirals Sound GHPOA Director, Bob Hittle, Admirals Sound Vice President, Heather Moore, Secretary, and Liz Matz, Neighborhood Crime Watch Coordinator for our upcoming neighborhood meeting. There will be a brief report of the GHPOA board activities and to discuss matters of our neighborhood, Admirals Sound.
We hope to see you there!!!
Here are the approved board meeting minutes from the April, 2008 meeting.
Here is a copy of the letter mailed out to all GHPOA residents in April, 2008. It reminds residents of what type of projects need to be approved by the DCC, the most common covenant violations, and a reminder on the boat and trailer policy.
Attached are the GHPOA meeting minutes from the March 2007 regular board meeting.
The GHPOA Board of Directors welcomes two new board members which were elected to represent their respective neighborhoods: David Hennessy from Admirals Pointe and Elise Montoya from Masthead II. Barry Howard, the former Masthead II representative, will remain the Development Control Committee Chairman and Dr. John Moore, the former Admirals Pointe representative, will remain the Grounds Committee Chairperson.
The GHPOA Grounds Committee has recommended that all residents purchase replacement mailboxes through Pace Setter Marketing by calling 317-652-0459 or e-mail dbernard@iei.net.
You are hereby notified that the Annual Meeting of the twelve neighborhoods of the Geist Harbours Property Owners Association, Inc. will be held on Monday, January 21, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. at the Geist Clubhouse at 12549 Old Stone Drive, Indianapolis, IN 45256. Please calendar this date and plan to attend.
AGENDA
- Annual meeting will start promptly at 7:00 pm.
- Introduction and explanation of the election process.
- Brief discussion of Budget
- Introduction of candidates.
- Election of Board of Directors
- Brief open discussion
- Adjournment
If you or a neighbor is interested in serving on the Geist Harbours Property Owners Association (GHPOA) Board to represent your neighborhood, please submit a nomination. The nomination should include name, neighborhood address and a brief bio. You may submit this via e-mail to the GHPOA Board Secretary at jwest@fhlbi.com or via mail to 11065 Woods Bay Lane, Indianapolis, IN 46236. Nominations must be received no later than January 2, 2008. Any owner, who has purchased property in Geist Harbours with a closing date prior to January 21, 2008 and whose name appears on the title or deed and is in good standing, is eligible to stand for election and to vote. Nominees should also be willing to attend the monthly Board meetings. Usually the Board meets on the third Monday of each month from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Fall Creek Township fire station, 116th and Brooks School Road.
All the neighborhood director seats are up for re-election this year with the exception of Admiral Sound and Diamond Pointe. To view them, click here.
The GHPOA bylaws also require that each homeowner receive a final ballot and a proxy. Look for these mailings in your mailbox around the first of the year.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jonathan R. West
Nominating Committee Chairman
Corporate Secretary
GHPOA
Halloween evening, someone vandalized the Admirals Sound entry signage with spray paint. If you have any information, please call Geist Patrol at 842-8082. Your name will be anonymous.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, at 5:45 P.M.
PARADE WILL START AT OLD STONE LN. & CALUMET DR. AND CONTINUE TO OLD STONE LN.& BAY BREEZE LN.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Suzanna Annakin 826-1364
Approximately 100 GHOA residents attended a special meeting on September 17th to discuss an amendment to the 20-year-old restrictions that would allow GHPOA to recover legal fees when they successfully pursue covenant violators. Currently, GHPOA can sue residents for covenant violations; however, win or lose they can not recover their legal costs.
Several residents voiced concerns over the amendment, disagreeing not with the association recovering legal fees but with the clause that allows one homeowner to sue another homeowner and recover fees if victorious in court.
According to Tom Murray, attorney with Eads, Murray & Pugh that represents GHPOA, this clause is prevalent in most Indiana homeowners’ association covenants. Giving both the homeowner and homeowners association the ability to recover legal fees if they win in court is a common practice. Homeowner to homeowner suits are very rare. Murray stated that of the hundreds of homeowners associations that Eads, Murray & Pugh represents, he hears of maybe one such suit per year. Most serious violations are pursued by the homeowner’s association, not by the individuals themselves.
GHPOA board members have decided to continue collecting signatures on the proxy form that was mailed out to all residents in hopes of attaining at least 1,191 signatures (50% plus one). Currently, the amendment has 1,060 approvals and 195 that do not approve.
If you have not voted, please visit http://ghpoa.com and click on the “proxy form” link on the left or contact your neighborhood representative.
By Tom Britt
Many of you received an anonymous flyer from a GHPOA resident about the proposed amendment to our bylaws. You have to understand the intent of this amendment and the rationalization of why we are doing this.
First of all, the GHPOA board could “use your funds to sue you” now if we wanted to. We only take this measure when it is the last resort to bring a non-compliant resident into compliance with our covenants and bylaws. The problem is even if the GHPOA board is in the right and the resident is clearly in the wrong, we can not recover our legal fees in the event we take a matter to court and win. One such case cost the GHPOA, you the homeowner, almost $30,000 in legal fees that we could have recovered had we adopted this amendment two years ago.
Our board is comprised of volunteer residents that donate their time to make our neighborhoods better. We do not “work for” anyone; we represent our neighborhoods that we live in and receive no compensation for that. We are not out on a witch hunt to sue people over satellite dishes or mailboxes.
Neighbors violate the covenants often, and most people after they are told of their violations remedy the problem promptly. Good neighbors make honest mistakes and fix them quickly. Then there are other neighbors that blatantly disobey our covenants, and even after being notified by our association management company, make the decision to not remedy the problem.
Voting “no” to this amendment is essentially handcuffing our GHPOA Board of Directors. I hope you will vote “yes” to this amendment and take the financial burden of subsidizing legal fees away from the GHPOA residents and putting it back on the covenant violators that clearly have no regard for our neighborhoods.
At a special meeting to be held on Monday, September 17, 2007 at 7:00 pm, we will have an agenda item that our Board of Directors believes is vitally important to our Association. In the early 1980’s when our developer filed the Declaration of Restrictions with the Marion County Recorder and Hamilton County Recorder, the Declaration included the typical language of the right to sue to enforce the covenants and restrictions in court if necessary. Unfortunately, the Declaration of Restrictions fails to include a provision on our ability to recover the attorney’s fees incurred by our Association for a covenant violation. This is unusual compared with most other homeowners associations in central Indiana. The only attorney’s fee recovery clause we have pertains to owners who are delinquent on their annual dues. Under the law, each party bears its own attorneys fees, regardless of who wins, unless there is an applicable provision in our Declaration that provides for the recovery of attorneys fees. This means that if our Association sues an owner for a covenant violation, the Association probably would have to bear all of the attorney’s fees, even if we were completely successful in court against the violating owner.
For years, our past Boards of the Association have been hamstrung when facing covenant violations. Those Boards have had to make difficult decisions, knowing that for even the most blatant and serious covenant violations, our Association most likely was going to have to absorb all our attorneys’ fees and expenses. That also made adhering to the annual budget even more of a challenge.
When suits have been filed in court in the past for covenant violations, the attorney’s fees and costs incurred by our Association generally have been absorbed simply as part of the operating expenses. This is unfair to the other owners who DO comply with the covenants and restrictions. Our Board strongly believes that those owners who violate our covenants should be responsible for the attorney’s fees and costs that we incur, rather than having the other owners bear those expenses.
Enclosed is a proposed amendment to our Declaration of Restrictions, together with a mail-in proxy and a self-addressed envelope. Alternatively, you may drop it off to your GHPOA Board representative. For this amendment to be adopted, it is important for as many owners as possible to vote in favor of the amendment. We will discuss the amendment at the September 17th meeting, and then distribute and collect ballots from those owners at the meeting who have not previously voted by proxy. Even if you plan to attend the September 17th meeting, we still ask that you complete and return the enclosed proxy by mail or email. The email address is whamilton@cas-indiana.com. Emailed proxies must include your scanned signature to be valid. That way, if you are unable to attend for whatever reason, your voice will still be heard!
If you have any questions please feel free to contact Jane Scully, Community Manager, at 684-3333 extension 135.
Thank you,
GHPOA Board of Directors
>>>Vote Now Online!
The GHPOA Board of Directors voted unanimously to host a special meeting on September 17th at 7:00 pm to approve a proposed amendment to the GHPOA Declaration of Restrictions. If ratified by 51% of the residents, the amendment would give GHPOA the ability to recover attorney’s fees when they enforce covenant violations in court.
The original Declarations of Restrictions filed in the early 1980’s by Shorewoood Corporation gave the GHPOA Board the right to sue to enforce covenants and restrictions; however, they failed to give GHPOA the ability to recover legal fees for the covenant violations. This makes it very difficult and costly for GHPOA to pursue covenant violations and certain residents are taking advantage of this loophole. Currently, the legal costs incurred by GHPOA to enforce a covenant violation is borne by the property owners that do comply with the covenants.
Residents will be receiving a letter in a few weeks outlining the proposed change, the paragraph that is changing in the existing Declaration of Restrictions, and a proxy form to fill out and return prior to the September 17th special meeting. By signing this form, you are giving the Development Control Committee of GHPOA the ability to enforce the Declaration of Restrictions, placing the burden of legal fees back on the offending resident.
We are setting up a special online form that you can also fill out and submit electronically. The proxy form can also be filled out and mailed back to GHPOA (GHPOA, 7050 E. 116th Street, Fishers, IN 46038) or given to your GHPOA neighborhood respresentative.
It is very important that you return a signed proxy or fill out the online form no later than September 17, 2007.
Office Cleek with Neighborhood Patrol went over the latest crime statistics last night for GHPOA which were actually down from where we were last summer this same time. One thing he wanted to remind everyone of is to close your garage doors at night. We still have problems with people leaving their garage doors open in the evenings, leaving the “door wide open” for burglars or juveniles to gain access to your home or garage. A couple of laptop computers were stolen from a garage in Admirals Bay as a result of an open garage door.
Two Indiana-based companies, R&G Management Company, Inc., located in Zionsville, and Revel and Underwood Association Services, Inc., located in Fishers, are joining together to form Community Association Services of Indiana.
Both companies are members of Associa. Associa is the nation’s undisputed leader in community association management, which serves over 2.7 million members in associations across the United States.
Matt Englert, President and CEO of Community Association Services of Indiana, said, “We are extremely excited to be joining the strengths of the two offices and to be able to work alongside each other to better serve our communities.”
Joining the two together as a singularly focused company will provide stronger services and better value to each individual homeowner, as well as entire communities. Not only will the two office locations provide more widespread coverage throughout the suburbs of Indianapolis – but more importantly, the pooling of talent and knowledge from the two offices will also benefit the homeowner.
With more than 70 offices across the nation and growing, Associa is the largest company in the United States devoted exclusively to the management of community associations. Associa has established a variety of national purchasing programs which afford clients products and services of the highest quality at the most competitive prices for their needs, as well as community support services such as association websites, newsletters, and other neighborhood communication channels.
Along with a new name, the company will have a new website (www.cas-indiana.com). The previous websites (www.revelu.com and www.randgmanagment.com) will redirect visitors to the new site.
The GHPOA board voted to accept the landscaping maintenance bid submitted by GT Services, the current landscaping provider. The contract is a 3-year contract for $69,235 per year which includes:
* (32) mowings per year of all GHPOA entries and common areas
* Flower plantings, annuals, amend and install
* Pruning shrubs and trim ornamental trees 1x a year
* Tree trimmings up to 3x a year
* Mulch existing beds and tree wells
* Spring and fall clean up
* Fertilization 4x a year and 1 deep root for ornamental trees
* Trash removal
* Irrigation maintenance
Two other vendors were solicited but not selected: Becker Landscaping and 2down Solutions. GHPOA paid $62,725 for 2006, but four more mows were requested for future years.
Several homeowners have inquired as to the boat and trailer storage policy for GHPOA. This policy was adopted last year due to several questions around boat storage, especially during the spring and fall seasons.
The Board’s policy on storage of boats and trailers in driveways is as follows:
1. During the months of April and May homeowners may park their boats and trailers in their driveways for an aggregate period of thirty (30) days. This is in recognition of the fact that delivery dates, docking schedules and weather require greater flexibility.
2. During June, July and August, boats and trailers may not be parked in driveways for more than an aggregate of five days after which time the homeowner may be cited for a covenant violation.
3. During September and October boats and trailers may again be parked in the driveways for an aggregate period of thirty (30) days to accommodate delivery and storage for the winter.
4. During November, December, January, February and March, boats and trailers are not permitted at any time to be parked in driveways.
I just came from a GHPOA board meeting tonight where the board wanted me to remind you all that contractor signs in your yards are a no-no. Several of you that live in GHPOA neighborhoods have had hail damage, window/door replacement contractors, or remodeling contractors put signs in your yard. These signs are not approved by the GHPOA covenants and bylaws and should be removed. Revel & Underwood, the property management company for GHPOA, has been sending notices to hundreds of homeowners each month citing them for such violations. Only real estate signs and political signs have been approved to put in your yard (political signs are supposed to be removed 30 days after the elections).
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