Homeowners Association Quarterly Newsletter BOARD MEMBERS President: Mark Conradt mjcon47@comcast.net Vice President: Anne Soter annesoter1@ gmail.com Secretary: Penny Messerknecht pdrm53@hotmail.com Treasurer: Ray Fadool rrfadool@gmail.com Director: Sam Marquardt marquardt.sam4@gmail.com Property Manager: Tropical Isles: Brett Rudland brett@tropicalisles.net 239-939-2999 ext. 208 WHO TO CALL (Official VGG Contacts) Front Gate 239-561-1028 Westlinks Gate 239-561-1048 Massey Pest Control 239-232-1492 (Account # 4500372) Mainscape Landscaping 800-481-0096 customerservice@ mainscape.com Spires and Associates (Villas Accountants) 239-936-4336 Alliant Property Mgmt. (Master Assoc. Prop. Mgr.) 239-454-1101 Gateway Greens Office (Master Assoc.) 239-561-0326 Gateway Services Dist. 239-561-1313 President s Message By Mark Conradt Welcome to the VGG Newsletter for the first quarter of 2017. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are looking forward to a prosperous New Year. Five years ago, when I volunteered to be appointed to the VGG Board, I never dreamed that I would spend four years as President. In looking back at my two and a half terms on the board, I can tell you that I have enjoyed it greatly. Thanks to the great folks I served with, I feel that the HOA Board accomplished quite a bit in the last four years. We have passed three new Amendments to our Docs pertaining to Roof Cleaning, Roof Replacement and Resale Capital Assessment. We have hired a new landscape company and have hired a professional horticultural expert to inspect our community four times a year. The HOA has taken over roof cleaning and all irrigation system maintenance, upgraded the landscaping at the corner of Gateway Greens Blvd & Championship Drive and much more. I have tried to expand the Committee structure of the HOA to involve many folks with special interests and abilities. In particular I wish to thank Jim Black and Terry Butler for all their help on the Roof Committee and Ted Soter for his tireless work on the First Quarter, 2017 Landscape Committee. I don t know what we would have done without these folks. I would like to give super special thanks to Anne Soter. Her specialty is communications, and due to her ceaseless efforts, we have increased communication between the Board and the Residents significantly by vastly expanding our website, adding this quarterly Newsletter, frequent email notices, a Who-To-Call List, a Community Directory, newmember Welcome Bags, and much more. Anne has also been chairperson of the very busy Design/Review Committee. Between tree removal, lanai extension and roof replacement applications, she and her committee haven t had a moment s rest. Anne and I have chosen not to run for re-election this year. As much as we have enjoyed our tenure on the Board, we both feel that it is important to get new blood involved in the operations of our HOA. Thank you all for the kind words many of you have given over the last five years. I sincerely appreciate it and look forward helping future Boards in any way I can. Enjoy the Newsletter and remember to utilize our website: (villasatgatewaygreens.pbworks.com) to answer questions or to get information regarding our community and how it is run.
Page 2 Page 2 The The Villas Villas at at Gateway Greens Second Quarter,, First 2014 Quarter,, 2017 By Ted Soter Hello to everyone. As the New Year gets underway we will be trying to continue to maintain the Villa landscaping to the contract specifications. The same landscape contract and work schedule will continue to be in effect and if normal weather conditions prevail during this year, general improvement of the landscaping should be the result of the programs in place. During 2016 many individual issues with the 86 Villa irrigation systems have been addressed, the additional number of prunings (now 10 per year) for all shrubs and the enhanced fertilization/weed control programs have improved the visual appearance of the Villa s landscaping, with the weather not providing ideal conditions from time to time. Two large enhancement projects, irrigation distribution uniformity throughout the community and new landscaping installation at the entrance corner, were completed during 2016. No projects of this scope are scheduled during 2017, but should owners present a workable plan to the board, it would be considered and possibly authorized. Landscape Committee Report Communication and Social Committee Report By Anne Soter Our next Villa Social is Thursday March 2, 2017 @ 5pm at Gateway Golf and Country Club. It will be Italian Night. We will be passing out fliers in February about the party, and will start taking reservations at that time. MARK YOUR CALENDARS! It is recommended that all owners use the Mainscape Customer Service Program. The system was created by Mainscape to handle each homeowner s request about issues concerning their landscaping. All Customer Service Requests noted to the landscape committee this past year have been completed with satisfactory results. Therefore we encourage all Villa owners to use the CSR system when necessary, as the owners do a daily review of their property and can request maintenance as necessary. Everyone should know the buildings will be painted during the first quarter of 2017. It was noted to the landscaper to try and provide some space between the buildings and shrubs to allow the painters access to paint. We hope that the painters can use straps or line to tie back at any problem areas that are found. It is recommended that if an owner has any special plantings they are advised to provide protection for these plantings prior to the painting operations. Hopefully everyone enjoyed their New Year s Eve celebrations and we ll have an update about landscape operations in the spring. WELCOME NEW NEIGHBORS Mike & Jan Harley 12229 Championship Cir. WELCOME TO OUR PART OF PARADISE COMMITTEES: * Denotes Chairperson COMMITTEES: Communications * Denotes Chairperson & Social Anne Communications Soter* & Social Anne Soter* Verna Anible Nancy Deibel Nancy Deibel Joann Fadool Anne Grimes Susan Galbraith Alyce Lowery Jane Goble Pam Moskwa Anne Grimes Website & Newsletter Pam Moskwa Terry Butler Website & Newsletter Terry Butler Welcoming Karin Welcoming Jones Anne Grimes Cindy Kinney Karin Jones Cindy Kinney Sunshine Suellen Sunshine Biever Anne Carole Grimes Ross Cindy Kinney Landscape Ted Ted Soter* Soter* Ron Ron Grimes Grimes Mary Penny Ann Messerknecht MacDonald Penny John Messerknecht Rachid John Chris Rachid Broder (Mailboxes) Chris Design Broder Review (Mailbox repair) Anne Soter * Design Mark Review Conradt Anne Bobbi Soter Green * Mark Penny Conradt Messerknecht Bobbi Ervin Green Siemers Mary Jim Anne Black MacDonald (Roofs Only) Roof Roof Jim Black * Jim Terry Black Butler * Terry Mark Butler Conradt Mark John Conradt Rachid John Ted Rachid Soter Ted Soter Fines Andy Roosa * Fines Tom Jones Pam Sam Moskwa Marquardt * Pam Moskwa Alexis Roosa
Page 3 The Villas at Gateway Greens First Quarter,, 2017 Design/Review Committee Report By Anne Soter The DRC has been very busy with all of our New Roof Applications. Sixteen residents have had new roofs completed, and ten more have been approved and are in the different stages of being replaced. PLEASE remember to go on our website and print out our Roof Replacement Rules & Recommendations to give to your contractors who are giving you bids on your new roof. It will make their life much easier, and you will be able to compare apples to apples. When you decide on a contractor don t forget to turn in your DRC Application for approval. Hopefully Florida Painters will be getting ready to start our Villa painting by the time this newsletter comes out and you will have fixed any outside damage to your Villa so they are not held up. Please remember to remove any plants, pots, furniture, etc. from your lanais and unlock your lanai doors so they can get in to do their jobs. Directory Updates If you are new to the Villas, or have changed your email address or phone number(s), please let us know. Contact Anne Soter at: annesoter1@gmail.com Roof Committee Report By Jim Black & Terry Butler The roof committee has had to deal with an unexpected turn of events during the last quarter. Through the Design Review process, it came to our attention that the Hanson/Forterra Hacienda-Platinum roof tiles which were being used on all of our new roofs had become unavailable. Forterra, the manufacturer of our tiles, was bought out last summer by Entegra, a competitor whose tiles we had seriously considered using before eventually choosing the ones we did. Entegra has ceased production of the Forterra lines of tiles and is continuing with their own offerings. To further complicate the situation, Entegra is now in the process of being bought out by Boral, a large international building materials manufacturer based in Australia. That sale, if not voided by federal authorities, will quite possibly result in Boral dropping the Entegra lines of tiles, as Boral already supplies their own tile to the Southwest Florida market. The roof committee has looked carefully at the options available at this time, including tile from both of the above mentioned companies, plus Crown Roof Tiles, and Eagle Roofing Products. We have examined samples of all of the tiles under consideration, looking at color match to the tile we have been using, including visiting houses in this area which have recently been built or re-roofed with each of the tiles. We looked at pricing structure, expected future availability, and shipping costs. Our previous tile was produced on Crystal Drive here in Fort Myers, and the replacement would have to be shipped in from between 50 and 200 miles away depending on the plant location of the company chosen. The committee recommended to the Vilas HOA Board, and the Board has approved the use of Eagle s Malibu-Royal Palm as the best choice to replace the tile which has been used on the first 20 Villas to be re-roofed. Eagle is an American Owned company whose nearest plant is in Sumterville, Florida. Cost estimates from local supply houses indicate a shipping cost of about $150 more per Villa than the tile which was a distant second choice in appearance match. All roofing contractors that are being considered by an owner should be given a copy of the Villas Roof Replacement Rules and Recommendations, and asked to base their quotation on the options chosen. This sheet is available on the Documents page of the Villas website or from the DRC chairman. Even before contacting roofers for estimates, it is very helpful to read the Supplement to the Roof Replacement Rules and Recommendations, which is also available on our website. It will give you considerable insight into the many ins and outs of tile roofs and their replacement.
Page 4 The Villas at Gateway Greens First Quarter,, 2017 Treasurer s Report By Ray Fadool The Board has adopted the 2017 budget in the amount of $295,152, this is roughly the same as the 2016 budget where we anticipated roughly a $7,000 deficit. Due to some unexpected overruns in the 2016 budget, we actually will lose approximately $14,000. The unexpected expenditures in 2016, namely legal fees due to the storm sewer issue, dressing up the corner of Championship Dr. & Gateway Greens Blvd. and extensive irrigation system repairs, should not repeat themselves in 2017. However, to balance the budget we are instituting a $5/month Dues increase to $288/ month ($3,432 annual) for 2017. We are confident that the 2018 budget should balance without a Dues increase or invasion of Members Equity. The $14,000 loss in 2016 will be taken from our Members Equity which at the start of 2016 was over $84,000. After this, our equity will still have a balance of approximately $70,000. Our accountant recommends roughly 2-3 months Dues (roughly $60,000) in cash so as to be able to quickly respond to any major disaster (using cash to quickly hire contractors rather than having to wait for a bank loan). In 2017, the Board s main focus will be maintaining the level of landscaping with Mainscape and overseeing the repainting of all the Villas, a 5 week process, which will start in early January 2017. This will be an estimated $100,000 item, for which we have been annually escrowing funds. A Note from Anne I want to take this opportunity to thank our residents for allowing me to serve as you VP on the HOA for the last 4 years. I am stepping down at the end of this term to give others the chance to serve their community, and take a much-needed rest. It has been a pleasure to get to know so many of you, and to help you get problems solved at your home. I d like to thank Mark Conradt for being such a great leader, for being a real pleasure to work with, and for helping me to get all my visions for this community accomplished. Mark, Ray Lowery, Penny Messerknecht, Sam Marquardt: not only have we all made a great team but also you have become dear friends. What a blessing to work with such great people who have given their all to making our neighborhood the best in Gateway. Thank you Terry Butler for all your help and patience with the Newsletters and Resident Directory that I pushed so hard to create for our residents. Thank you Anne Grimes for all my computer lessons and helping me get the Who To Call List organized, and keep it updated throughout my term, and for being my sounding board when I was ready to pull my hair out. Thank You to all my Committees, (Social, Sunshine, Communication and DRC). Without you gals and guys I could never have gotten so much accomplished or had so much fun. I plan to continue The Social Events and hope my team will continue with me. And last but not least, thanks to my wonderful husband, Ted for always being by my side, helping me solve problems and working hard on every job we have given him to better our neighborhood. If you want to get to know your neighbors, work with dedicated people and make a difference in your community, you should volunteer for a board position or serve on a committee. Instead of complaining, why don t you try to make a difference and make The Villas a better place to live. I hope you have all had a wonderful holiday season and that 2017 will be filled with good health and happiness. I will see you around the hood!
Page 5 The Villas at Gateway Greens First Quarter,, 2017 Photos from the Cul-de-Sac Party on November 5th
Villas at Gateway Greens JANUARY 2017 Weekly Events Sunda y Monda y Tuesda y Wednesda y Thursda y Friday Saturda y 1 2 3 4 8 9 10 Power Wash Exteriors Of All Buildings. Paint 11306-11326 Drive 15 Sometime This Month: Bed weeding 16 17 18 11 5 12 Board of Directors Meeting 10:00 AM, GG&CC 6 7 13 14 Paint 12272-12202 Cir. 22 23 24 19 20 21 Paint 12201-12241 Cir. 29 30 31 25 26 27 28 Paint 12243-12277 Cir. Paint 11327-11333 Drive
Villas at Gateway Greens FEBRUARY 2017 Weekly Events 5 Sunda y Monda y Tuesda y Wednesda y Thursda y Friday Saturda y Paint 11337-11373 Drive Paint 12243-12277 Cir. Paint 11327-11333 Drive 6 7 12 13 14 15 19 20 21 26 27 28 Sometime This Month: Shrub Pruning, Bed weeding, Tree/Shrub/Turf Fertilization, Leaf Pickup 1 8 22 2 9 VGG Annual Membership Meeting 6:30 PM, GG&CC 16 23 3 4 10 11 17 18 24 25
Villas at Gateway Greens MARCH 2017 Weekly Events Sunda y Monda y Tuesda y Wednesda y Thursda y Friday Saturda y 5 6 7 12 13 14 15 19 20 21 26 27 28 29 Sometime This Month: Shrub Pruning, Bed weeding, Board of Directors Meeting - Time/Place TBA 1 8 22 2 9 16 23 30 31 3 4 10 11 17 18 24 25