From the Board
To Our Island Creek Community,
Well, my term as President is coming to an end this month. I think for many of us, this was the toughest year we have had by far in our lifetimes. I will say for me personally, it was the hardest year I have had as a member of the Island Creek Board. We each faced making decisions that were the toughest ones we have had to on the board, all while dealing with the personal effects on our family and friends due to COVID.
And due to COVID, there are many things we couldn’t do this year due to our vendors. I completely understand why it is easy to point at the board and place blame, but let me assure you, calls were made for many of the items we still need to get done. When COVID hit, many projects were moving forward then stopped. We are working with them again to get many things done, to include trash cans and other projects.
Some of the tough decisions: the pool closing (obviously). We had several people contact the board extremely upset we had no pool season, then many reach out who supported the decision. While I won’t rehash our decision that details how we developed new procedures that were in compliance with the Governor’s mandates for COVID, a new schedule for both pools and other documents. Sadly, due to factors outside of our control, we could not open the pool this season. If we have notified High Sierra in April to open the pool, we still could not have opened. This is a fact. There were too many limiting factors dictated by the Governor’s orders and also the lack of lifeguards (due to Visa’s) made this impossible. But rest assured, with these documents developed, we are working on a new pool contract for next year since the contract with High Sierra expires at the end of the year. While we all hope the world will ‘open up’ more after this year, we want to have all our ‘ducks in a row’ lined up to open the pool safely next summer.
Cancelling social events was also not an easy decision once we reached phase 2 and 3, but the board still felt that to ensure compliance with the Governor’s orders, we cancel these events. This including cancelling our Spring Fling (my favorite one to host), the Adult social, Yard Sales, Ladies Game Night and Halloween Movie night/trunk or treat. We will develop our plan for social events later early Winter for next years’ activities.
For the budget last year, we had increased expenditures such as tree issues that caused us to have to reallocate funds. But you can see from our audit, we are still very fiscally sound. These tree (and other) issues were out of our control.
But with all these things that COVID caused us to cancel, we still did many good things this year.
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July 4th Parade- THANK YOU to Ms. Carrie Morrison (Treasurer) for hosting an awesome July 4th parade for both Island Creek and Landsdowne. This reinvigorated tradition for Island Creek has been lots of fun for our communities.
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Food Trucks- THANK YOU to Mr. Jay Aronowitz for scheduling our food trucks. We have had several in our community and have worked with Landsdowne to ‘spread the wealth’ on hosting. That has made (at least for my house) weekend dinners super easy!
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Asphalt Repair- this was a huge contract that was awarded this year. We are having our Section 4 trails and pavement replaced, which will improve our community’s appearance.
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Mailbox Replacement in Section 1- this is taking place later in the year than we wanted due to COVID, but by the time this comes out, I will have already started handing out keys at the clubhouse for Section 1. Section 4 will be replaced next year.
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HVAC Contract- we awarded an HVAC contract to ensure our systems are functioning to the industrial capacity they need to.
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Tree Inventory- we also developed a tree contract to help us maintain the pleasing aesthetics of our community. This inventory will be critical in mitigating future tree issues.
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Contract Review -we have reviewed many contracts to include the cell tower contract, exploring options to increase the revenue we receive. The cell tower contract was awarded in 2005 under a previous board, which potentially locks us in for over 40 years under the same contract. Due to this fact, we are working with an expert in this field to help guide us into possibly re-negotiating the contract. We are also reviewing our landscape contract, pool contract, snow removal contract, pool clubhouse remodel and others.
We are also planning our projects and contracts for next year, keeping in line with our goals for transparency to the community as well as doing our due diligence with fiscal responsibility.
I want to give a personal thank you to: Barkan Management, Mary, and Cindy, for their hard work in keeping the board and community informed of decisions. Thanks to Cindy and Steve Mahoney for performing the inspections. Thanks to Steve and the Finance committee for reviewing the contracts. Thanks to Jay and Carrie for their extra work for the community. Thank you to the other board members that provide solid inputs on moving our community forward with the many tasks at hand. To Fred, John, and Scott, thank you very much for digging in and advocating for our community. Thanks to Jeff and Sohna for their hard work advocating for Island Creek and our community on the Land Use committee. Thank you to the board for your hard work in asking the tough questions and reviewing documents in the wee hours of the night!
Also thank you to Lynda Durfee who was a board member but left her post a month ago. We appreciate your contributions to the board and to the community!
Events we are working on:
- I am working with Landsdowne to host a safe Halloween parade between our clubhouses to safely hand out candy
- Inspection follow ups
- Social Plan for next year (including the Spring Fling)
There are many behind the scenes things that we do as board member you may not see. I know I have personally enjoyed wading in soap by the fountain several times this summer with Cindy to ensure there is no damage done to the pipes. I have also enjoyed being engaged with our other neighbors such as Landsdowne and Hawthorne, as well as fighting the proposed Hilltop development. But there has also been many neighbor-to-neighbor issues we get asked to intervene or just provide a ‘listening ear’. We all throw our names in the hat to be on this board. It is a volunteer position that for some of us, can be a part time job. But we gladly accept the challenge and will continue to do our best for YOU.
And on a personal note, it is easy to read comments on FB or believe some narratives that have gone around about the board. I understand that. Are we perfect? No. But we are volunteers that have spent countless hours reading contracts, meeting with vendors, de-soaping the fountain at 11pm (4 times this summer), meeting with neighbors on their concerns, taking the lifeguards home and listening to their many concerns, answering emails/phone calls/social media questions almost daily. That is the truth. We are 7 volunteers with families and jobs who also spend hours each month working to serve our community.
I hope to virtually see you at the Annual meeting on 17 September. The weblink and call in information is below. Additionally, you would have received an email or letter with your voting ID. I hope you each vote for who you want to be on the board to serve you. If you are an owner and you did not receive an email or letter from Cindy regarding the elections, please email her at Communitymanager@islandcreek.org.
You are also able to call-into the meeting by dialing (470) 869-2200 – note that the meeting ID for the annual meeting is 149 527 6381
Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Karen Patrick
IC HOA President
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Mailbox Key Distribution in Section 1
We successfully distributed mailbox keys to 50% of Section 1 residents. Click here to find out which section your street is located in. We will schedule another distribution date in October. Details to come!
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Community Shred Day Saturday, September 19th
Please join us for a free shredding event hosted by Pat Holland (Embrace Home Loans) and Ania Cress (Keller Williams Reality) on Saturday, September 19th, 9am-11:00am, in the Island Creek clubhouse parking Lot. Food will not be served this year and social distancing will be observed.
Island Creek also invites our Landsdowne and Hawthorne neighbors to join us!
Patriot Shredding (www.patriotshredding.com) will be onsite to offer professional, hands-free, high end shredding of any and all document destruction needs. This process is fully automated, turning your documents into confetti and protecting you from ID theft by shredding all documents you no longer need. Start cleaning your file cabinets now. This is a totally free event. You provide the “stuff” … we provide the shredding!
Acceptable materials for shredding:
- paper (staples and paper clips are OK), CD’s, floppy discs.
Not acceptable:
- binders, hard drives, garbage, cardboard boxes, etc.
Two of our long time residents Patrick Holland (Embrace Home Loans) and former resident, Ania Cress (Keller Williams Realty) generously offered to sponsor this hugely popular event. Thank you Pat and Ania!
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Upcoming Food Trucks Coming to Island Creek!
Island Creek is hosting the following food trucks in the clubhouse parking lot:
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Little Lady Grille-Saturday, September 12th, 4pm-7pm
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Kona Ice-Saturday, Saturday, September 12th, 4pm-7pm
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Thursday, September 17th at 7pm
Attendance at the Annual Meeting
As you know, the meeting will be held virtually however, there is in an option for owners to attend physically (virtually preferred due to safety reasons). The physical location for attendance will be at the clubhouse located at 7550 Thomas Grant Drive. Considering social distancing requirements, only a limited number of residents may attend physically. With that being said, please email communitymanager@islandcreek.org by the close of business today Friday, September 11 if you would like to attend physically. Otherwise, we will see you virtually (which is preferred due to safety reasons)!
Please note: only one candidate and one board member will be physically attending the meeting, the rest will be participating virtually. Only management, the board president and four residents so far will be in physical attendance at the clubhouse in order to ensure that there is sufficient room for those homeowners who want to attend physically. All candidate statements will be presented virtually.
Virtual Link
You are able to attend the virtual annual meeting (preferred for safety reasons) by joining from a PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android by clicking on the below link. For the best audio experience, please use computer audio.
You are also able to call-into the meeting by dialing (470) 869-2200 – note that the meeting ID for the annual meeting is 149 527 6381
Voting
Vote-Now has emailed and sent a first class letter to each homeowner with your Voting ID and information about how to vote online.
Below are additional ways for homeowners to vote:
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By Ballot either online or via U.S. mail: a unique Voting ID has been assigned to your residence and will be sent separately.
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By Instructed Proxy: instructed proxy allows someone to cast your vote for you, but you direct them how to vote i.e. you choose the candidates.
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By Uninstructed Proxy: uninstructed proxy allows someone to cast your vote for you but leaves how to vote to the proxy’s discretion.
- In person, at the Annual Meeting.
This year, we have four open positions on the Board of Directors and seven homeowners have declared their intention to run. Please see the candidate biographies for:
All candidates will be making statements virtually during the annual meeting. The online ballot will be kept open to allow owners to vote after hearing the candidate statements and will close after the president declares the polls closed and requests owners to vote their ballots (5 minutes).
Voting can also be done any time before the annual meeting, if you choose to do so. Note that this roster may not represent the final ballot choices since any eligible homeowner may write-in a candidate’s name or announce his or her candidacy at the annual meeting.
We hope to see you at the virtually at the annual meeting!
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Upcoming Concrete and Asphalt repair work scheduled in various sections of Island Creek.
Click here to find out which section your street is located in. Work hours will be between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., Monday thru Friday. Specifically, the construction work is scheduled as follows:
CONCRETE WORK - SECTIONS 1, 2 & 4: Work is scheduled for September 23, 24 & 29th to repair the concrete sidewalks and curbs in sections 1, 2 & 4. This work should not impede traffic nor require alternative parking. You will know where this work is being performed by noting the barriers placed by the Contractor. Please do not impede his work and walk around the barriers and protective sheeting during this short term of inconvenience.
CRACK SEALING - SECTIONS 1 & 2: pavement patch work is scheduled for October 8th and crack sealing is scheduled for October 12th-16th in sections 1 & 2. Short term barriers will be placed to keep vehicles from getting the sticky asphalt on their tires. This will only be for a few hours at any one time and new surfaces will be ready for use several hours after application. The Association will work closely with the Contractor to minimize inconvenience to residents. However, delays due to temporary street closures should be expected.
TRAIL REPAVING – SECTION 4: Asphalt trail replacement in Section 4 is scheduled for September 14, 15 & 21. This work should not impede traffic nor require alternative parking. Access to the tot lots will be closed on those dates.
ASPHALT PAVEMENT REPAIR - SECTION 4: Asphalt pavement replacement in Section 4 is scheduled September 29th to October 8th. This work will take approximately two weeks. Vehicle access will be restricted during this process but detailed notices will be mailed out to Section 4 residents and posted on our community website and message board to allow homeowners to plan around the inconvenience.
Detailed notices will be sent to residents during this process and the above dates are weather permitting. If weather effects the schedule updates will be emailed and posted on our website at www.islandcreek.org.
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