As you know, the Board of CHOA has proposed two changes to our CCRs (Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions). One is for a change to the Paint Trust and the other for the Alarm System Monitoring. Each Household was mailed the details of these proposals along with a letter from the Board explaining the rationale behind the recommendations.
Each household will be getting a Ballot in the Mail this week for your vote. We encourage everyone to Vote for these measures. To help answer any questions you might have, we are having a couple of Zoom sessions where your Board will be available to you. Here is the information on the first session: Here is the Zoom information– https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81233034994Meeting ID: 812 3303 4994
One tap mobile- +12532158782,,81233034994# Thank you, Barry Hendrix
Board:
I was under the belief that the Alarm Monitoring provided to each of us as part of our monthly dues, was not only for intrusion, but in case there was a fire in one of our townhomes and no one was at home to report it. Thus an alarm could potentially save extensive damage to adjacent townhomes by early reporting of the fire. The alarm system thus provides a significant safety item for each of us.
I also have question: if we vote to eliminate the alarm system monitoring, is the money we pay each month as part of the Association dues to be reduced by the share of the monitoring costs we pay each month? If not, what does the Board intend to do with the funds?
Thanks for the great questions.
We are not sure what the intent was when CHOA was formed and the Alarm Monitoring became the responsibility of the HOA. We do know that we are most likely the only HOA is the State that has this in the CCRS. (No one else in Charbonneau does this and there are plenty of other townhomes).
Over the years, the technology has changed, homes have been remodeled and other systems installed by individual homeowners. Now we have ~80 users (out of 228 homes) with the Wilsonville Lock & Security alarm monitoring. This includes both intrusion and fire/smoke. Some homeowner now have systems thru their smart phones and others have no system at all.
As for the funds, we pay ~$14400 per year to Wilsonville Lock & Security per year. This is ~$5 per month per household. As you know, we had lots of ice and heat weather damage to our trees and plants throughout CHOA this year and have spent an extra ~$65K to try to get our community safe and back to pre-weather related conditions. We have a Reserve and used some funds from there but have the Fiduciary responsibility to manage the Reserve for the long term interests of CHOA. This means we need to add some of these out of ordinary expenses back into our Reserve for future needs.