1996

Not much going at the 96' annual meeting. 

1995 must have been an uneventful year but unfortunately, we will never know because as far as I know this is as far back as Millbrooks records go.

I wonder what happened to the first 15 years?

Recording of minutes. 

The Board agreed that the duties of the Secretary did not include recording the meeting minutes. What?

Actually, it does.

More on this to come.

I like the Water shut off policy.

What year was this, 1919?

I love the board let the owners know that it's been their habit to work with homeowners.

I can see it now. "Sir we will work with you: first, pay your monthly dues. Then we can turn your water back on.  How else can we work with you?"

More on this, keep reading.

Once a month the board did walk-arounds? Why don't they do this anymore?

I wonder what the "minor problems" were found during the walk-around?

Old business:

They found a homeowner to transcribe the minutes. The paid her $100 per meeting and you can see the difference.

Not a bad gig. Hiring homeowners out of the community is brilliant.

I have talked this idea before about hiring from within.

It makes sense, there is lots of work to be done. 

The retaining wall they are talking about is going to be a financial burden for this community in 2023 and beyond. 

1996 gives us the back story to help understand the problems that these walls have already caused, and that the community needs to proceed with caution and this time we should fix the wall correctly rather than pass the problem on to future owners. 

More about this to come.

The gutters around Millbrook have been a problem since the buildings were built.

The problem I have with the highlighted statement is that in as far as I know back in 2017 all the buildings in Millbrook had 4" gutters, not 5".

I am scratching my head and super confused right now.

Pest control? When did Millbrook stop this practice?

Still scratching my head about the gutters.

Pest control would be nice to have in present day Millbrook considering the wasp and spider issues that plague the property. 

Retaining wall Question:

If the first wall had a life span of 15 years, what was the life span for the one they built after that?

It's been just over 20 years since the wall was built. I am assuming they should have been talking about replacing at least one of them around 2015 or 2016 BUT they were not talking about them up until recently.

Owners that do not know the story should be concerned.

Legal:

It is crazy how much more information they shared back in 1996. 

Cookies?

I had to note how cool it would be if we had in-person meetings like they did in the old days. You could do a potluck or BBQ for the annual meeting. Seems far-fetched but why not?

The lawyers probably wouldn't allow it.

Virtual meetings are here to stay.

More on this to come

"Moore pest control" won the pest control contract.

Owners got a lot for the monthly dues of $108 back in 1996.

The retaining wall is a mess and will haunt Millbrook for years to come.

I wonder if any of the homeowners that live above the retaining walls currently are aware of all the historical issues with it? 

I am wondering if they are aware of the current issues with it?

Fun Fact: Both of Millbrooks retaining walls still appear to be unstable in 2023.

Gutter replacement: 

This was just for one building.

Painting:

I wonder if they ever found those color codes?

Pool:

They created a pool monitor position.

Several homeowners that support the board have said how they wanted to volunteer but I haven't heard about any of them do anything around the community.

Instead of homeowners having to volunteer, let's pay them to work. 

There are plenty of things that need to be done that homeowners could handle and make some extra $$$

More on this later.

Delinquencies:

As archaic as it was I bet people paid their dues back iwhen the water got shut off. LOL

I suspect policy would not go over well in 2023.

More on the shut-off valves to come.

Parking:

Parking is still an issue in 2023 but now the association does not enforce it. 

It is interesting that back in 1996 they talked about things more openly about things like this lawsuit between the association and a board member.

Owners should know.

I love how Bettie asked what lessons they learned from the case? 

The association lawyer suggested. mediation instead of trial.

Mediation is better than trial BUT both sides must be willing to be reasonable. Thats the issue. 

Not much going on in May

I did want to mention that a letter with a good explanation would make the most sense.

More issues:

Concrete and drainage issues.

These issues go hand and hand.

Note to Board:

Fix the drainage issue FIRST, then fix the concrete. Stop fixing the damage and ignoring what caused it.

Millbrook should review the current associations legal team, Moeller and Graf's charges/fees. 

After seeing their invoices, I have several questions for them that they should answer for to the community.

Management report:

I wonder what the current condition of this building is today?

During a walk-around the Board discussed adopting a formal policy for homeowners to request to do "exterior changes"

Seems odd after 15 years they didn't already have a policy in place.

Fun fact: The association needs to add and reroute many downspouts throughout the community still in 2023.

Retaining wall:

Why are they considering the wood wall when the block wall is only $7,000 more? 

(Assuming the block is stone or concrete)

Fast forward to 2023 and we have a wood wall that has been failing for several years. 

Now it will cost over $100k to replace it, with wood again and who gets to foot the bill for it? 

The retaining wall story is not over yet.

Millbrook 2023:

The "Architectual control committee" or "The Board" for short, should review what owners have done "exterior changes." 

Owners should be aware that when the make "exterior changes" are responsible now for maintaining those areas. That would make them responsible for the "grading" to the foundation of the building in that area. 

Things are going to get complicated in 2023.

More concrete problems which means more unresolved drainage issues.

Retaining Wall: Motion passed to build the stone retaining wall!! What??

Fun Fact: The association only had $60,000 in reserves. How were they planning to fund the project?

The retaining wall drama is far from over.

Question for the Board: How many violations did our community have last year?

More on this later.

Painting: What happened to the numbers?

Legal Fees: My opinion is that the associations attorney should be used sparingly. If the attorneys get too involved, I feel they can milk a community dry. 

HOA's currently depend on lawyers to much. Even the HOA's property manager companies use the associations lawyer to ask questions and they should be the professionals.

More on this to come.

Correction of the minutes brought up some documentation issues.

Jan brings up that decisions about money matters specifically should be included in the minutes. Makes sense

More retaining wall drama

Lot's goiing on at this meeting.

Owners are concerned about the HOA raising dues, drainage issues, problems with the sidewalks and of course the retaining wall.

There is mention of a wiring repair at one of the buildings because of corroded wire that caused a electrical short of some kind? What is that about I wonder?

On the flip side they hired another pool monitor.

Retaining wall drama:

They voted to have "Slayton" build the wall and then the squashed it because they realize they don't have the money to build it.

Wow. I wish I was at this meeting.

BUT wait! There is more wall drama to come.

Not much going on at this meeting but I did not that there is at least one page missing.

I attached both pages in the picture but you will not that the last sentence makes no sense because the first part of the sentence is missing.

It starts off as:

"ulation, the sprinkler heads would be re-routed....." 

I wonder what is missing??

Unique Developoment: 

It does not look like the developer agreed with the association assessment of the wall.

Unique wants to build another wall in front of the existing wall? What?

Considering all that was talked about with the "Unique" group they were only at the meeting for 20 minutes.

The Board hired a new law firm because of issues with the prior law firm that was the associations lawyer for 9 years.

Legal fee audit:

This is something that the association needs to do with our current legal team. After seeing all their invoices from 2021 I have several questions that the owners of the property deserve to hear the answers to.

Budget:

Talks about raising the dues over the 8% cap.

One thing Millbrook had back 1996 were committees.

The Garden club is a great idea. 

Who would rather be in a club than a boring "grounds" committee?

Budget:

Crazy to think that  $37,713 was a sufficient for the reserves.

Millbrook has 140 units. Thats only $266 per unit. 

In 2017 Millbrook had $322,831 in reserves. Thats $2305 per home 

The ideal balance according to the 2017 Reserve study was $1,201.570. Thats $8582 per home.

Millbrook has probably never had an adequate reserve fund and that is one of the reasons Millbrook never had much chance at

It makes sense now why Millbrook did not go after the developer at the time.

Makes you wonder if the people that purchased homes in 1996 or 1997 knew how bad of shape this property was in at the time. 

I would think it would be a tough sell.

I wonder if anyone would purchase in Millbrook today if they knew the true history of the community?

Imagine having a service like "Carfax" but for homes?

It would

It is hard for me to believe that they wasted so much money on these shut-off valves.

What I am wondering is why the association would think that homeowners should be responsible for the exterior water pipes when they modified them by installing Shut-off valves? 

I wonder what unit that was at 5444?

The big question is if they ever solved the problem since it was the associations problem.

I am starting to think most of the problems in Millbrook are the associations problem. Should be a no brainer after reading through the 96' minutes.

Another committee being formed but this one makes some sense.

We could call it a contract or vendor committee. Millbrook Board 

This meeting was a waste of time.

What I do not understand is they were only 15 shy from quorum, why not reschedule the meeting and get 15 more members involved.

Homeowners should know how important this is and if they do not want to participate at least get them to sign a proxy.

The discussion about the budget is a moot point BUT I am now scratching my head about the 3 inch gutters. What??

The reason Millbrook failed is that we never had enough money to run properly AND it also appears to have had a lot of unresolved issues because no one wanted to spend the money to do things right.

A great example is the retaining wall.

Minutes:

Correction made that ALL units WILL get water shut-off valves.

I haven't heard of the Liaison Committe yet.

Open Forum:

More poor drainage issues and a noisy pet.

Fun Fact: I believe the declined concrete replacement between two units belonged to a recent Board member, LOL 

More on this later.

Fun fact: Exterior light switches for the garage lights is apparently still a issue.

More shut-off valve drama.

A lien would make more sense than shutting off the water. It blows my mind that they installed these shut off valves to begin with. 

This page has a lot going on.

Looks like they are going to get clarification from the lawyer about shutting off people's water. You would have thought that they would have done this BEFORE installing the cut-offs.

A code of conduct for the Board? 

More on this.

A Social committee? I am losing track of all the committees. Anyone keeping tabs?