Requirements for Community Manager

Here is a list of requirements for a Community Manager, for your information. Until now, these types of functions have been performed by volunteers, but the amount of time required to accomplish all of this is tremendous. To better serve the community, a management company is needed.

General
Attend Annual and Special meetings
Attend scheduled Board meetings
Conduct inspection of the property and send violation letters, follow-up letters and hearing notices
Maintain log of incoming calls
Prepare for Annual meetings, Special meetings & Board meetings
Respond to homeowner calls and correspondence
Liaison between homeowners and Board of Directors
Prepare bid specifications for Association maintenance programs and “improvements” after “maintenance”.
Develop Scope of Work for maintenance and improvement projects.
Solicit three or more competing bids for projects on an individual and/or annual basis and make recommendations to the board.
Monitor contractor performance
Maintain Association records & Current list of unit owners
Prepare resale packages and updates
Prepare welcome letters to new homeowners
Prepare and maintain Community website
Send written notice of annual meeting. Prepare proxies and ballots.

Accounting & Collections
Coordination and collection of association assessments
Provide options for assessment payments
Prepare annual budget
Prepare monthly financial statement for Board of Directors
Reconcile all bank accounts on a monthly basis
Prepare year-end financial statement for auditor
Provide monthly investment options
Provide audit preparation assistance to auditor
Process and pay all approved association invoices
Maintain Association financial records
Prepare monthly delinquency report
Prepare and file liens in Circuit Court to secure debts
Provide homeowners with account balance information
Coordinate collection action with Association legal counsel
Pursue collection of delinquent accounts
Court appearances, if necessary

Architecture
Maintain Policies and Procedures for HOA member submissions and approval.
Receive requests for approval. Make sure requests are complete.
Submit complete request (package) to ARC committee and coordinate with ARC committee members on a monthly basis.
Respond with Approval/Disapproval letters as relevant.
Submit and track architectural requests from the homeowners to the Architectural Committee for approval

Announcements from the board

The board has several announcements/requests for community input.

1) Secretary Kathy Tompkins has resigned. The board thanks her for her service. To maintain an odd number of board members to avoid a tie vote, the board will appoint someone to fill the vacancy. Please submit your suggestions for candidates prior to September 8 by e-mailing board@oellahoa.com.


2) The board has solicited several proposals for a community management company (stated as a goal at the annual meeting of members). Representatives from three companies will be interviewed by the board at the Sept 8 board meeting. The board invites the community to submit questions for the reps prior to the meeting. Please post your questions or concerns by commenting on this post or e-mailing board@oellahoa.com.

Your input is appreciated!

Tonight's board meeting agenda (Monday the 25th, 7pm Westchester Center)

Oella HOA Meeting Agenda – August 25, 2008

1.Call to Order – 7:00pm

2.July Minutes – Discuss/Revise/Approve as needed

3.Treasurer’s Report – Scott
a.Delinquency report

4.ARC Update – Steve
a.Logtown fence issue – Steve and Charles are meeting with owner when Charles Wagandt returns.
b.1010 Oella swing set. Approval letter from the ARC was sent to owner. A subsequent Disapproval letter was sent by ARC to owner when ARC determined installation did not comply with conditions of approval.

5.HOA Landscaping & Common Areas – Toni
a.Lillies Lane crepe myrtle to be replaced after Labor Day.

6.Mill Liaison – Anne, Marcia & Steve
a.SMC as “associate” members of HOA? – No further progress at this time.
b.Trail connection

7.Parking Committee – Anne, Amanda & Marcia

8.Property Management Search Committee – Toni & Anne
a.Once in place we need them to:
i.Establish long-term reserve budget for common areas (paving, primarily)
ii.Obtain bids and arrange for re-surfacing Reservoir Hill main entrance road, Long Brick Row and Short Brick Row. Steve to provide W/T list to them with notes from Toni, Scott & Steve’s “tour” of parking needs.
iii.Arrange for street maintenance (caulking of cracks and at curbs) all areas (especially up on Pleasant Hill)
iv.Drainage from Mary Jo Way to Short Brick Row
v.Parking line numbering – on hold until it is determined what we’ll pave asap. (Plats downloaded and to be printed for estimation)
vi.Bid website hosting & management
vii.Bid out landscaping services
viii.Work with Toni to develop a 3 – 5 year landscaping upgrade to community.
ix.Lighting behind Short Brick Row
x.Post minutes and agendas

9. Old Business
a. CCR/ARC task force – Steve
i. Meeting was held between Steve & Susan Rapaport (HOA attorney) concerning transfer from ARC to HOA. Vote to expedite simple transfer.
ii. CCR’s – need to be updated and revised to remove developer and for minor changes.
iii. Procedures – Draft of Steve’s proposal for procedures is circulating for comment.
iv. Guidelines – Toni has started to work on compiling “Guidelines” to help ARC make consistent decisions. Input welcome.

b. Parking hangar policy – is policy finalized? Pleasant Hill survey results? Approve.
c. Drainage at Lillies Lane speed bump – Contractor contacted. Hope to have work complete by end of September. Need to get approval to spend up to $3,000 for project.
d. David Weeks on Pleasant Hill complaint about parking in front of the stairs leading to the six row homes. He said Richard said 3 yrs ago that he would have a yellow line painted to indicate how close the car should. David's phone # is 410-461-4135 – Resolved?
e. Cell phone reception issue.
f. Spring Street owner parking issue. Vote on formal resolution to solve.
g. SMC trail connection to HOA property. Location agreed upon by SMC, Charles Wagandt & affected neighbors. Insurance liability, signage, written Agreement and other issues to be resolved. Notes from that meeting were sent by Steve to board and members who were present at that meeting.

10. New Business
a. Kathy’s resignation. Announce vacancy to fill by appointment.
b. Excess speed on Oella Avenue.
c. Print plats and provide to Property Manager & upload to website.
d. Letter with “What we’ve done” and blog from Steve to update residents.

11. Questions & comments from residents.

12. Confirm date of next meeting.

13. Project Wishlist – (On here as a reminder. Not necessarily for discussion):
a. Upgrade website to make more useful to community at large:
i. Public access to all plats, CCR’s (with all legal transition docs)
ii. Board only access to files for work in progress.
b. Develop community email list.
c. CCR revision
d. Landscape upgrades throughout community

Repaving along Oella Ave.

FYI--

Some repaving of the parts of Oella Ave that have been torn up for BGE gas line upgrades are slated for repaving at least up to the mill. It is not clear exactly when this will happen or if the upper part of Oella Ave will be repaved. You can help ensure that our road will receive the attention it needs by submitting a request for service at:

http://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Contact/highways

Attack on Trolley Trail--Edmonson Ave. end

An attack occurred on the Trolley Trail near Catonsville Middle School & Edmonson Ave last week. I'll keep the details limited because it is an ongoing case. Apparently/allegedly, three teens were told by a 61 year old man that they were not permitted to ride mopeds on the trail. The teens waited at the end of the trail for the man and attacked him. This occurred around 7:30pm. They beat him pretty badly--so much that he required surgery. Two teens under 18 were charged. The other was over 18, and it is not yet clear if that person will be charged. We hope that the man who was attacked makes a full recovery.

This is an outrageous occurrence. Please be mindful of your safety when walking the trails or the sidewalks. If you see someone doing something that is not permitted or is illegal, please call the police. Don't try to take it into your own hands, because you don't know what could happen.

Speeders beware!

Several Spring Street residents are requesting that police ticket speeders along their stretch of Oella Ave. Some cars have been reportedly whizzing by at over 50 mph. Apparently the two speed humps aren't very effective. Please consider that these residents have kids and pets, and they must step out into the street to get to their cars.

Watch out! You could end up with a fine.

Local Business Profile: Famliy Affair Produce

If you haven't stopped in at Family Affair Produce on Frederick Rd recently, give it another look! On a recent rip, the blogger found lots of very nice local produce, including corn, peaches, plums, and tomatoes. Their prices on heirloom tomatoes can't be beat. They also had homemade pickles and preserved foods from Pennsylvania.

It's good for the earth, the local economy, and your wallet to purchase locally-grown produce. Less gas is used for transportation, more money goes directly to the farmers (which encourages farms to be farms instead of housing developments), and the food just tastes so much better!

Oella Historical Society meeting tonight 7:00 pm in the Oella Company conference room

On the agenda:

1) Progress on the oral history project; 2) Progress and plans for cataloging the Oella Company holdings; 3) Planning for an event in September; 4) Other events and/or trips we could take together; and 5) The Historical Society's role in the beautification project using funds from the House and Garden Tour.

Help for house sellers: Oella Homes for Sale

As an effort to help those of you trying to sell Oella homes in this lousy market, I'm going to post info on homes for sale if sellers send it to me. If it is posted on the blog, it will come up in Google searches. The idea is to encourage the quick sale of homes in order to protect our property values. The longer a house sits on the market, the lower the price. None of us wants to sell for less than we paid!

Here is the first listing:

Oella House for Sale 8/2008

New Brick Row
718 Oella Ave Ellicott City 21043 (Balt Co) Peggy 410-480-2320
contact the blogger for a flyer with more pictures(laueram@yahoo.com)

Will co-op with realtors.

Features:
20-year old house in gentrified, historic Oella
Patapsco riverfront. What a view!
3 bedrooms, 2 ½ bathrooms
Oversized 2 car garage
Covered front deck, Riverside back deck
Hardwood throughout first floor
New eat-in kitchen w/ Silestone in 2006
Bathrooms remodeling this August
Finished basement gym w/ cable
Woodstove in stone wall
All brick exterior
Beautiful mature flower garden
New heat pump 2006, New hot water heater 2008
3 ceiling fans
Large attic
Custom blinds throughout
Built-in office, china cabinet, bookcases
World’s best neighbors
Close to Baltimore, Columbia, and DC