Owners,
I'm just going to try to give a synopsis, mostly from memory, of some of what happened today at the Board meeting at the request of an owner who wasn't able to attend but is anxious to hear about some of what occurred. This isn't intended to start any debate, draw any negativity, begin a discussion about what info wasn't available or how someone may not have liked something that was said, etc., and this is certainly not intended to be an exhaustive or complete rendering of what all transpired today. The official minutes of the meeting will be posted after the Board approves them at the next Board meeting.
Barry was reelected to a 3rd year as Board President. The Board typically doesn't let an officer i.e. president, vice president, or secretary-treasurer serve for more than 2 consecutive 1 year terms, but the Board decided that now was not a good time to change Presidents. I was reelected VP and Barbara Needle was elected Secretary-Treasurer.
Nan and Barry attempted to explain that, unlike the last meeting, which consisted of an owners meeting and a Board meeting, today was just a Board meeting and, while owners are welcome to attend Board meetings, owners don't necessarily have a participatory role in Board meetings. It was noted, however, that this Board has always given owners the ability to ask questions, etc., at Board meetings and that occurred at the end of the meeting today.
Barry, Barbara Needle, Linda and I spent approximately an hour and a half yesterday touring the resort and the various units in their various stages of remediation with our general contractor and our remediation contractor and Barry and I voiced how impressed we were with the work, the contractors, their level of knowledge and experience, their ability to answer every question we had, etc., and Barry spoke to the amazing amount of progress that has occurred since he visited the resort in November. Linda reported that our engineer is going to be the project manager, working with the insurance companies, and the contractors.
All the first floor units that are accessible (the foundation of the first floor units of a couple of the stacks need to be shored up before they can be accessed) have been totally gutted down to the metal studs, and the cement ceilings and floors.
The remediation contractor has done moisture mapping in the 3rd floor units and, due to water penetration from rain through the sliding glass doors, windows and roofs, there is more water damage than was expected, so the carpet has been taken up and, at the instruction of the insurance company, the furniture was cleaned, incased in plastic and taped to the concrete floor, and now the drywall that sustained water damage will need to be torn out. After the remediation contractor is done with the moisture mapping, etc. on the 3rd floor, they will move to the 2nd floor.
An issue was raised as to whether it's wise to keep the furniture, especially since it's already old and now it has possibly been compromised, etc. I pointed out that if the insurance company won't pay for new furniture there may be sufficient reserves to pay for replacement of the furniture.
Linda reported that electric meters will need to be ordered which will take up to an estimated 6 to 9 months due to a shortage, which was already the case prior to the hurricane. This will delay getting power restored to the resort but our general contractor has a large generator and dehumidifiers, air purifiers, fans, etc. running in the units that have been cleaned to date.
Based on what was stated in the engineering reports, Barry stated that, since we had contractors retained who started work as soon we got the engineering reports back and the OK from the insurance company, it is possible that, best case scenario, the resort could be reopened by mid-way through 2024.
Although they are very close, Nan reported that as of today there is no concrete date as to when Vacatia will be taking over the responsibilities for Kenoyer as Lighthouse Resort & Club's management company.
I reported that I applied for a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan through the Federal Government right before the deadline. Board Member Ed Hajek stated that if we end up needing a loan, he thinks an SBA loan and its low interest rate may be a good idea.
Nan raised the issue of a possible special assessment, but with the amount of insurance we have, the amount of reserves we have, etc., the Board determined it was too premature at this time to determine whether there will be a special assessment. Nan reported that 2 unit weeks are in foreclosure, 7 unit weeks have been voluntarily turned over to the Association and 50% of the owners have already paid their maintenance fees although the deadline to pay isn't until the end of February. Nan also reported that our insurance agent is in the process of renegotiating the association's policies which are due in April.
A question was raised about a possible second vote on whether to do away with the resort and it was explained that the bylaws only required the Board to obtain 1 vote before it could go forward with repairing the resort, which the Board undertook and the owners passed and the Board, therefore, approved rebuilding the resort. However, the Board hasn't ruled out a 2nd vote if the costs to rebuild get to a point that the Board does not feel comfortable going forward without a second vote. However, with the engineer reports saying no part of the resort has to be torn down, we have high confidence we will not be facing such high costs. Likewise, Barry reported that we are having an appraiser come to the property but, again, because no part of the building has to be torn down and rebuilt, we feel it is unlikely we'll have any issue with the FEMA 50% rule.
Ed Hajek will post answers to the questions that were posted in the Zoom chat on the Association's website.
As required, a Board meeting for budget discussion has been scheduled for August 7th with the statutorily required owner meeting being scheduled for November 8th. In addition, the Board decided to meet once a month via zoom for the foreseeable future.
I also have more pictures I took when I was at the resort yesterday that I will post.
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