Mid-year Update BCHOA Newsletter Fall 2024
Common area trail system is beautiful this time of year!
First Things First
The Board would like to thank Jon Charnin for his service over the last 4 years. We appreciate his insight and participation. Jon will continue to support the Board on an Ad Hoc basis. His seat has been filled by Waleed Brinjikl. If you normally call Jon with HOA issues, please refer to Mark, Bob or Waleed.
What has the Board been up to?
The trail system is in great shape. The photo above is from a recent hike. We will continue with a regular maintenance schedule. If left unattended for just a year leads to much more effort to make it usable.
We missed the beginning of Diwali due to a vendor software glitch. In the future, they will get monument lighting for the Holidays up beginning on the eve of Diwali.
Well #3 continues to be a nuisance. Petersen Well has been responding promptly and found that the electrical subcontractor that rewired the well earlier this year followed codes for residential rather than a commercial grade well pump. Accordingly, the circuit breaker capacity and wiring gauge between the break and the pump was insufficient (60 Amp breaker and 8 AWG wire instead of 100 Amp breaker and 4 AWG wire). These issues should be rectified by early November, 2024. Petersen is also investigating if excessive iron in the water table in this location may be contributing to concurrent well issues where too much or too little air is present in the holding tank. Shawn has agreed to keep investigating until we are more confident we have identified the factors contributing to the recent reliability issues this past year.
We have cleared a lot of undergrowth in the monuments and revived most of the other common areas. You should have noticed a much cleaner look. Drew and his crew at Blades of Grass have been doing a terrific job!
We also have engaged Nelson Tree Service to remove dead/fallen trees and trim lower branches on the spruces to allow better air flow, this should help with the needle cast fungus and prolong their life. While you are all welcome to use other tree services on your property, we encourage you to call Nelson as they have been more cost effective than other Arborists and tree removal services while still providing insured, safe removal of trees.
The Directory has been updated on the website (https://bouldercreekmn.org ). We will be changing the password from BCHOA2020 to BCHOA 2024 (https://bouldercreekmn.org/directory ) once we have a few missing contacts added. If you see your contact info missing, please contact a board member to correct.
We also added the vendor information to the same page of the directory. This allows all HOA members to see who we are using. We encourage all members to utilize any of these same vendors for use on your property.
What’s next?
We are planning for a prescribed burn of the septic fields in the Spring. This is a once every 3 years event, we will alert the membership when this is scheduled. We think you agree that the fields are looking great and we have seen some nice large wildflower patches being produced from these burns.
We will continue to spray and feed the Spruces to address Rhizosphaera (needle Cast). We use Maier Tree for this, you should do the same if you notice your evergreens looking a little thin and needles browning from the inside out. Treatment is for 2-3 years (twice in the Spring). If left untreated, the fungus will continue to be endemic in our neighborhood.
Finances
We have a healthy reserve that has been holding steady at ~$90-100K at each month's reconciliation. We believe this is where we need to be, barring a catastrophic event. If we do need to dip deeply into the reserve we will assess each member, rather than raise dues. Anticipated large expenditures should be absorbed by the reserve as long as they are spaced a year or two apart. These are:
Well #3 major component replacement if other efforts to address reliability issues do not succeed. This would be a last resort option.
Repair both lanes as an interim remedy, and replace if needed in the next 5+ years
Well #1 and #2 replacement/repair in the next 5-10 years
Inflationary pressure is to be expected, this item would require an increase in dues.
Neighborhood Issues
We continue to hear complaints about dog walkers not cleaning up after their dogs. There is no way to tell who the culprits may be, but we can doo our part in cleaning up the doo our dogs leave behind.
Be mindful of cutting the corners/road edges too close with your cars. The corners and road shoulders are taking a beating. We suspect the majority of the damage is done by vendors pulling trailers, but again we can do our part to reduce wear and tear.
Several neighbors have requested that we remind residents to ensure that downed trees on finished landscaped surfaces (grass, woodchips, rockbeds) in their property, particularly those that may encroach upon neighboring property lines, get these trees removed promptly. For those of you with densely forested sections, we realize downed tree removal may not be feasible or cost effective.
New Business
If you have any concerns please bring them forward to a board member. If your idea involves a significant expenditure please have a brief prospectus prepared so we can have a good idea what costs and effort may be involved to see it to fruition.
After several years of diligence, the Board has the BCHOA in good shape from a financial and maintenance perspective. We don’t see any big issues in the future and all is running smoothly. In that light, we are asking for individuals to step forward to serve on the Board. It’s a great way to get to know the neighborhood, and your neighbors.
Kind Regards, the BCHOA Board
Waleed Brinjikl
Bob McDonald
Mark Orvidas