People with a Pulse Needed!

The Wild River Owners’ Association Annual Meeting will soon be upon us! August 17th at the La Pine “Senorita” Center as a matter of fact.

The association needs board of director candidates to replace the outgoing directors whose terms are up. We are still awaiting information as to who will be running again. This may be a good time to establish term limits?

If you are interested, please send your resume etc to our Vice President at the email address listed below.

Any candidate can have their name listed on the Proxies. By doing so, people are able to vote without having to be at the meeting. The other choice is write in candidates, which can be listed on your proxy, as well. Make sure you get your proxy to the neighbor of your choice that plans on attending the annual meeting.

It would be spectacular if we had enough people and proxies (95 lots for a simple majority) showing up at the annual meeting so we don’t have to adjourn, starting over, only requiring half that number. When you don’t show up to our annual meeting or provide proxies you leave all of the decisions up to the Board. Disdain, is the only word I can come up with to describe the way we the members are treated. Just look how the increase in dues was handled.

Please ensure that a correct representation of the community conducts the vote count. It just makes good sense. .

Send your resume to Phil Alves ([email protected])

Budget Observations for the Board

A New Budget should be accompanied by a narrative, explaining the rationale. Don’t you think we deserve an explanation on how you are planning on spending our money?

1. You can’t assume everyone will pay on time to receive the discount. You need to consider our history, if you can find it.

2. Fines and ARC Fees are like overtime, you should never count on that revenue.

3. Does the majority think mosquito abatement is a prudent expenditure?

4. How does tree care differ from the other common area expenses?

5. Who are we paying for bookkeeping and why?

6. With 5 board members,why are we paying for board assistance? Did we vote for incapable people?

7. Who is doing what on the reserve study?

8. What are the legal fees for?

9. What is reserve other for?

10. What happened to our money market account?

11. Where are The deposits for the real estate transfer fees?

June 5th Meeting – Comments to the Board

It sure is nice not to have to wait a year for minutes! Lori must no longer be doing them?

1.) Where are our meeting minutes and treasurer’s reports being stored? I thought that is why we have a website. Maybe John can help since it seems that you have lost all our digital history. Typically people make copies on their PCs before uploading to a website. Another case of the dog eating your homework!

2.) Where is the plan for forest thinning? Once a comprehensive plan is developed and bids are acquired then you can ask the members to assist or you can phase the work to fit the budget. Mike and Phil’s observations of our forest would change dramatically after walking with ODoF, like I have on numerous occasions. See below.

From 2008 meeting minutes.

“The objective of meeting with Stu Otto of ODoF is to get a good understanding of how to bring our common ground back to ahealthy state. Stu recommends “thinning trees” . You will notice throughout the community thatthere are orange flags that have been placed on trees. The group is asking you to look at the trees location and the distance between the marked trees. If you find that a tree is better left alone you are allowed to remove the flag. The entrances will need to be assessed each year, however, the west side and the east side of the river will be assessed every 3 years. It is recommended that trees be limbed up 10’, thinned, remove fuel from drip lines, remove all beetle kill and beetle infested trees this year, and remove brush along road shoulders. This group recommends getting bids for this work to be performed and re-bidding every three years. They also recommend getting a separate bid for the removal of the log jam. Remember to not cut green limbs until the fall.Owners may, however, need to get common area access approval prior to downing trees. The Wood will need to be removed within one week of cutting. The Board will determine how to fund these efforts but would like to see the burden of cost first. Any increase in dues that might occur to pay for these projects will be held in a fund earmarked to be used only for this purpose.

3.) Why hire Tamarack Wildfire Consulting when ODoF will do it for free?

4.) Why is there no mention of dues regarding how much and when? Seems like with only $10k remaining in the operating fund we’ll be stealing from the road fund once again.

5.) What happened to our rainy day reserve fund? Did we close the Money Market Account? We used to have 3 accounts.

6.) What are the alternative options for Common Area Cleanup that have arisen that the president talks about? People have stated over and over again that they prefer to hire the necessary labor.

7.) If owners are hiring contractors to remove vegetation from their property, and using the huge hauls, what difference does it make? If contractors are bringing in vegetation from another development, then that’s a different story.

8.) Who is responsible for identifying the noxious and invasive weeds on the common areas?

9.) What is the plan for our roads? We need to conduct necessary repairs and shoulder gravel replacement to see if we can extend the life.

10. What is the planned assessment for the road replacement?

11.) Where is the estimate provided for our road replacement and the financial analysis?

12.) What’s the plan for a comprehensive reserve study and maintenance plan.

What could have been. 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸

Dues Increase

In less than 2 years the board has doubled our dues with nothing to show for it.

The following charts depict how we have been spending “our” money. We pay dues and assessments to take care of our common areas, not to crutch the board. Now with five volunteer directors our overhead has doubled while our common area assets are ignored.

Section 2. Purpose of Assessments or dues. The annual or regular periodic assessments, aka dues, levied by the Association shall be used exclusively for the improvement and maintenance of the Common Area and the payment of taxes and insurance on all or any part of the Common Area.

The chart below reflects how we’ve been spending our money along with what is being proposed. You should never spend more than 20% of your income on non-common area expenses.

Until bids are received based on a detailed scope of work, I’ll be withholding any increase in dues associated with the $50k being proposed for Common Area cleanup.

Where is the budget analysis for the $50k worth of work that is being proposed? Where is the budget analysis for replacing our roads?

We should be entitled to options as a membership, similar to what was done in 2008 when discussing the dues increase around forest maintenance.

Example: Option 1 is the full meal deal, Option 2 is à la carte (based on what the majority wants) and Option 3 is to do nothing. But not with this administration, you don’t get a choice!

This seems to be our only leverage, so please join me on holding the line.

Under different circumstances I would have voted for some of the proposed amendments to our dox. If there was a hell no option, that is how I would have voted.

Don’t Buy Here, especially from Lori Koerner

Have time for a survey?

Take the survey here.

Why are so many houses for sale? My guess is, people see the amount of ignored maintenance, a budget that hasn’t balanced in 10 years, the board using their position to attack their neighbors, unequal application of the rules to hit the top few.

This map doesn’t include 5 additional listings which are removed during the slow winter months. Some think they can actually get seven figures!

The board won’t authorize a reserve study since they know the outcome will not bode favorably on their managerial skills.

DEMAND A RESERVE STUDY!

It’s the law Oregon Law

It’s the law we ignore for being old!

The Rhodes Story

Before the Rhodes purchased the lot to the west of me I was taking care of fallen trees and bitter brush. Right after the Rhodes purchased their property I told them if there was anything they needed don’t hesitate to ask. Including both tools and knowledge.

I informed them that the back of their property is where the Mule Deer hunker down due to the cover. I also said, let’s do our side yards so that they compliment one another.

A few months later the property is scalped with no cover remaining for the Mulies. As the contractor prepares the site for foundations there are no provisions made for keeping the dust down.

As the windows go in, I ask Kevin, what color will you be painting your house? Kevin replied, a cream color, matching my window frames. Nope, same exact color as my home to a Tee!

When I moved here in 2006, buying my property from Dave & Mary Newkirk, I knew that the exterior paint color was more akin to a tract house in town. I wanted something that blended in, not something that stood out like a neon sign. I spent days driving around to some of the nicer developments in Deschutes County to find the perfect paint scheme. Well low and behold, I found the perfect color just across the river. Mr Putney was kind enough to provide the paint codes and $4k later I had just what I wanted! Many people complemented me on my choice, just to have Kevin paint his house the same color. When challenging the Brain Trust, Biff indicated that there is no rule against your neighbor painting their house the same color as yours. There is a basic assumption that intelligent people would check the adjacent properties before approving a house color, since this isn’t a condominium complex.

At this point our relationship has deteriorated to the point where I now see evenly spaced stakes on my property line, indicating a fence is about to go up. Attorney helps me with a letter saying, you better not!

While having company from out of town, ding dong, pound pound pound! Yes? We want to talk to you about your letter! Not right now, I have company. They have their 10 year old son in tow? Really? I left it at, don’t build the fence! They claimed that they weren’t planning on building a fence. Shitty neighbors and liars to boot.

And now he parks his truck on my frontage property line in the setback where he cultivates cheat grass, while leaving 5 lights on all night long? What a great addition to the neighborhood!

Poster Child for Energy Conservation
Getting a jump on garbage day, 3 days in advance. Maybe no one cares? Why live in an HOA with that FU attitude.
Great Front Yard says Fred & Elizabeth Sanford! Aka the Clampits!

The only house in the neighborhood where the lights come on a 4 PM and stay on all night.
And add one more light! Yep, six lights should be keeping away that boogeyman!