Annual Meeting - March 2022

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Yates Mill Estates HOA - Annual Meeting, March 15, 2022

Lindsey Smith - President | Ariel Gillfillan - VP | Kellie Herron - Treasurer | Paige Ferguson - Secretary | Ruoying (Roy) He - At Large

INTRODUCTION

  • The Annual YME HOA meeting was called to order by the President, Lindsey Smith. The meeting was deemed to have a quorum

  • Introductions of the existing 2021 Board were made as well as the new Property Manager from KohnEll, Hillary Brown and the President of Kohn-Ell, Mike Ellis

  • Reminder: For questions, concerns, information, or issues, please contact Kohn-Ell

    (manager11@kohnell.com) or the Board via our webpage (https://www.yatesmillestates.com/contact)

  • The 2021 HOA Annual meeting minutes were read and accepted. Electronic copy can be found at https://www.yatesmillestates.com/updates

PRESIDENTS REPORT (2021 ACCOMPLISHMENTS)

  • Retention Ponds

    • Pond Maintenance is important

      • Do not fish, swim, or throw debris into the ponds

      • Do not touch or disturb any portions of our ponds, including rocks

      • Do not use roundup around the rocks

    • Yearly recertification with Wake County is required - violations can be up to $1,000/day

    • Stanley Martin fixed Wet Pond 1 under warranty which saved the community ~$10,000 in repairs

    • Wet Pond 3 needs repair and Stanley Martin has agreed to fix under warranty however we do not have a confirmed date when this will be completed. This will save the community $3,000 - $4,000 in repairs

  • Roads

    • Stanley Martin has not completed the punch list required by DOT, in order for DOT to take over the roads. This punch list includes replacing pipe under 3 driveways, clearing and grading work as well as seeding

    • Road floods during heavy rain into Wet Pond 3. Since the DOT will not accept roads that flood Kohn-Ell has an action item to send pictures of the flooding to the DOT so they are aware of the situation so it can be fixed prior to accepting the roads

TREASURER'S REPORT (BUDGET)

  • In mid-2021 the Board changed Landscaping companies resulting in an annual savings of ~$3800

  • In 2022 the Board is in the process of updating the retention pond contracts that will result in an annual savings of ~$2100

  • These changes resulted in a 20%+ reduction in total expenses which helped us reach our first balanced budget for the community. As a result, dues are able to remain flat

  • As permitted by the budget, some common ground items will be fixed in 2022 (Mailbox: fence and repainting, Entrance monument: landscape lights and stones)

  • Board is investigating taking reserve money from it’s current location in the bank account to a CD for a higher interest rate

  • 2022 balance sheet was read and accepted

  • Key takaway is that the Board will continue to maintain a balanced budget and keep reserve funds for emergencies or retention pond repair

NEW FOR 2022

  • Go Paperless! Sign up for electronic mail vs paper mail to help communicate faster, save on postage, and to be green. To sign up:

    • Go to https://www.kohnell.com

    • Click “Association Login” at the top of the page and log in to your account. If you haven’t logged in before you will need to create an account

    • Fill out the “New User Registration Form”. Be sure to answer Yes to the question “Is it ok to communicate Association information via Email?”

  • Covenants Reminders

    • Please review the covenants with regards to lawn & landscaping maintenance to ensure compliance and to help keep our neighborhood looking nice

    • Continue to submit Architectural Requests prior to any work being done. This includes but is not limited to things like fences and pools

    • Home Businesses

      • Per article IX, Sec. 4 of our covenants, Home Business must be approved by the HOA Board

      • There was discussion as to what types of business’s would be approved and what is the

        approval criterion

      • The Board took an action item to revisit the wording in the Home Business application form

      • This is not intended to cover “work from home” offices

    • RVs

      • The Board has created a form for those that wish to short term park their RVs at their homes

      • This exception to the covenants will allow for no more than 7 consecutive days, twice a year at $50 each and must be approved by the Board prior to parking

ELECTION

  • Positions

    • President (1 year) – up for re-election

    • Vice President (2 years) – Ariel Gillfillan enters year 2

    • Treasurer - (3 years) – Kellie Herron enters year 2

    • Secretary (1 year) – up for re-election

    • At Large (1 year) – up for re-election

  • Election completed and the following join the board. The new Board will meet and determine who fills the 3 open positions.

    • Lindsey Smith

    • Anthony Seto

    • Joe Halper

  • Paige Ferguson and Roy He stepped down from the Board and Paige Ferguson volunteered for the open seat on the Architectural Committee. Thank you to Laura Tomlinson and Tanya Shepherd for continuing to serve on the Architectural Committee.

Q&A

  • Concerns were raised regarding which covenants are being addressed or enforced. The President indicated that as issues come up and are decided on, the standard guidelines on the yatesmillestates.com/covenants page is updated to be clear and consistent with all residents. Mike Ellis suggested creating a Covenants Committee to review current covenants and see if there were any that could be removed or reworded to better suite the neighborhood. Rob Bisset and Paige Ferguson volunteered for this committee.

  • A question was raised regarding the need to grow the reserve fund. The Treasurer stated that there is no intention to grow the reserve fund at this time since we have reached a balanced budget however the Board will continue to review and make changes to the budget as needed

  • Joe Halper stated that the pipe under his driveway is starting to collapse. The Board did not believe this is on Stanley Martin’s punch list in order to complete the handover of the roads. Kohn-Ell took the action item to make sure that that DOT is aware of this issue and that it gets added to the punchlist for Stanley Martin to fix

  • Anthony Seto brought up the concern about speeding drivers, specifically delivery drivers such as Fed Ex/UPS. This concern has been discussed by the Board and they found that since the roads are not owned by the DOT yet, there are no speed limit signs that can be placed in the neighborhood. The roads are county roads until they are turned over

  • There is a vehicle (pickup truck) that is parked on land behind a few houses in the community and the question is if it can be removed. iMAPS, developed by Wake County GIS and Raleigh GIS to find reliable property information was then utilized and found that the vehicle in question was on privately owned land and not on Yates Mill Estates property and therefore this is not an issue that the HOA can help with