GARDEN PATIO VILLAS
7708 Margate Blvd, Margate, FL 33063
Board of Directors Meeting, April 29, 2020
2:00 PM Location: Clubhouse
Board Members Present: President, Melodie Savoca, Secretary, Barbara Reul, Treasurer, Marshall Hyman
Secretary, Barbara opened meeting and read minutes from last meeting on April 1, 2020
Old Business:
1. Further discussion on the “Eligibility Requirements” draft. (Information for persons interested in purchasing property at Garden Patio Villas) Final draft was agreed upon by all. Melodie will upload to our website.
2. Window in villa C3U5 has not been repaired, Another letter will be sent out to owner
3. Confirmation on new lawn service was obtained. A Total Lawn Care will be starting Wednesday, May 6th.
4. Marshall stated association fees were collected with the exception of one resident. All members agreed that bills for the vendors and utilities (if possible) will be put on automatic bill pay going forward.
5. Further discussion on the subject of re-doing the “Rules and Regulations” in addition to the “By Laws.” Marshall stated that they are the original copy from construction in 1977 and have never been updated. He will look into the attorney’s cost to have them re-done and brought up-to-date. We scheduled a board meeting specifically to further discuss changes and updates to these official Garden Patio Villas Association documents on Monday, May 11th at 2:00 PM
New Business:
1. Melodie suggested that we have an annual Budget meeting the first or second week of November as stated in our present By-Laws. We agreed we want to change these By-laws to December to prepare for our annual HOA meeting in February.
2. Barbara suggested that we look into a well as a back-up means when we are not able to use our sprinklers because of low water in the canal. Marshall suggested if that is too expensive another alternative is to have an automatic shut off value so the pump doesn’t get full of mud like it did this year. Lawns will be extremely expensive to replace with new sod. Marshall said they looked into a well a long time ago and due to expenses of the well. expense of chemical and that it would also rust, it was voted down by the Board at that time.. We will look into any cost-effective options and advice with our new lawn company. However, we all agreed that this season is very unusually dry with no rain. The rainy season is slowly starting now and it’s really not worth the large expense. Ultimately, we will wait on any alternatives at this time.
3. Melodie received a letter from our present Maintenance Board of Director, David. He has formally resigned from his position. The Board of Directors position VP/Maintenance will be not be filled at this time. Maintenance duties will be filled by resident, Joseph Reul, as a separate position and will be paid for his service of $100. a month.
4. Discussion of re-opening our pool: Recently Broward law allows golf course, pools and boat docks to re-open with certain stipulations. Melodie showed the latest Broward law that temporarily requires associations to have a person to man the pool area. Therefore, we are keeping the pool closed for a little while longer. We will see what the next update for re-opening Florida will be for Broward in the Governor’s next step. Tentatively, we hope we can re-open on May 15th after hearing the next update.
5. Compensation of time and work from the Board of Directors were discussed. Active board members will get a $150./month deducted from the association’s quarterly maintenance fee beginning July 1, 2020. At present, there are 3 active board members. All board members are doing a great deal of work for the association. Other positions will be determined at a later date.
Meeting was adjourned at 4 PM.
GARDEN PATIO VILLAS
7708 Margate Blvd, Margate, FL 33036
Board of Directors Meeting April 1, 2020
1:30 PM Location: Clubhouse
Board Members Present: President, Melodie Savoca, Secretary, Barbara Reul, Treasurer, Marshall Hyman
Secretary, Barbara opens meeting, and reads Minutes from last meeting on March 2, 2020
Old Business: Discussion about what has been accomplished.
Lawn Service: We received three estimates from various lawn companies and met with the owner of all three. After consideration of their services and references we agreed upon A Total Lawn Care. The new company will be starting May 1. A letter will be sent to present company, Grass Roots Complete, giving them 30 days’ notice, per our contract to cancel their services.
Melodie will contact A Total Lawn Care to get a schedule and calendar of service in the absence of David.
Barbara will prepare and send letter to present company
Treasurer, Marshall and Melodie opened a new Bank account for GPV at Chase Bank
A Website and email have been created for GPV with current news, resources, photos and communication resources for all residents, realtors and prospective buyers.
A draft of new Rules and Regulations have been established and will be coming up for vote when perfected and finalized.
New Mailbox Resident List, Application Documents and Resident Contact information have been established.
New Bulletin Boards have been installed with signs designating Association and Resident information. Residents may post any information under the “Resident” sign and Board of Directors will post under “Association” sign. This is primarily for those without computers to get Association email updates.
Board of Directors now have new business cards that can be handed out to residents for contact information as well as prospects inquiring about our community and new companies we deal with.
New Business: Melodie, stated that one of the residents in 3-5 was concerned about her neighbors broken and taped window for many months. We agreed to send a letter to owner requesting repair. Barbara will prepare and send letter with 10 day requirements.
With the unfortunate illness situation of our Clubhouse VP Board Member, Billie Schaefer and the social distancing requirements due to the COVID-19 crisis, we all agreed to close the clubhouse till further notice, so no cleaning in the clubhouse will be necessary. The pool is required to be closed by law due to COVID-19 until further notice.
Reviewed and discussed new documents that Melodie prepared and handed out copies to Secretary and Treasurer. Changes suggested to Eligibility Requirements for new buyers. In addition, some changes to Rules and Regulations of the community. Both documents were openly discussed and no final decision has been made at this time. Marshall stated that the By-Laws may have to be changed as well with any new regulations. He also discussed the Estoppel Letter needed to be revised regarding property transfer. We have to look into those factors. Further review and discussion on this matter will be necessary.
Marshall also suggested to add Helpful Information for New Buyers on Website such as Senior Tax Credits.
Mary Jane will stay on until end of the month. Suggestion was given by Melodie that we hire cleaning person for Clubhouse in the event that we can open it. All agreed.
We need to look for Treasurer replacement for next year. Interested person will train with Marshall and possibility of new VP splitting the responsibilities. Melodie will send out email.
Next meeting scheduled for May 6th.
Melodie adjourned meeting at 3:30 pm
GARDEN PATIO VILLAS
7708 Margate Blvd, Margate, FL 33063
Board of Directors Meeting, March 2, 2020
2:00 PM Location: C3-U3
Board Members Present: President, Melodie Savoca, VP Maintenance, David Horvath, Secretary, Barbara Reul, VP Clubhouse, Billie Schaeffer, Treasurer, Marshall Hyman, Past Maintenance VP, Mary Jane Grunes
President, Melodie Savoca calls meeting to order. This is our 1st meeting as new board
Marshall members.explains some of the responsibilities he has.
He explains the difference between HOA and CONDO along with the boundaries of each villa.
Item #1: New board members need to take a 2 hour course to be on the board. We will need to make arrangements for that.
Item #2: Retaining a new Law firm after current lawsuits are settled. Melodie agreed to call around and check out some local attorneys.
Item #3: Re-do some of the documents in the By-Laws. Marshall has summary of what is in the By Laws. Some changes have to be made and voted on to become part of the documents.
Melodie, states: that new Homeowner Rules need to be prepared and handed out to residents. All Agreed.
Open Discussion on the following items:
Pets: Talked about revising Bylaws regarding pets. All domestic animals and all dogs need to be registered and up to date with vaccinations. No more than two dogs or cats per household. Absolutely no feeding wild animal includes the ducks. All Agreed.
Website and other Documents:
a. Melodie will create a website and email address for Garden Patio Villas.
b. Barbara will revise and retype Resident Contact Information, for better communication with residents
Revise an up to date MailBox Residential List
Revise and retype Resident Application and all pertaining documents
c. Marshall will create new email for his use i.e.; finances of GPV
Association Meetings: Begin to have an Association meeting every quarter, last Tuesday of the month: May – August – November – February
A closed Board Meeting (Directors) will be held the first Wednesday of each month at 2:00 pm starting April 1. Location to be discussed. All Agreed.
Lawn Service: Mary Jane opens discussion regarding the present condition of our lawns and property. Marshall and Mary Jane both expressed the problems we are having with the current vendor (GRC) we all agreed that we should change vendors and look into getting 3 bids from other companies.
End of Current Business
Future Business: Driveways and Roadways.
Barbara will get price to redo driveways from Extreme Property Maintenance.
Meeting Adjourned. 4:30 pm
Without rain, canals get lower water levels. That’s the case every year in Florida. This year in 2020, our rainfall has been lower then ever!! As a result, our canals are nearly empty!
At Garden Patio Villas in Margate, Florida, when we have near empty canals, we have lawn problems! We use a water pump that pulls from this canal. Once the canal got too low, it started to suck in mud. This is the reason our sprinklers were turned off.
Once the sprinklers were turned off, we called South Florida Water Manageme (SFWM) They handle Florida’s canals. They responded and said the South Florida’s water canals are all unusually low at this time due to the dry season. Lake Okeechobee is lower then usual.
Dry season usually ends at the end of April or possibly in May. Once the canals have more water from raining, we can turn the pump back on to water the lawn. SFWM also asks everyone to use water sparingly. Please consider this throughout your days. We are not the only ones experiencing this problem. The lawns are bad. We can see the fish nests out of the water! So sad because they died!
We do hope this is resolved shortly. There are other options for watering our lawn but it would cost a lot to build a well. As we wait for rain, we hope our grass will survive this drought.
These are some pictures taken from Garden Patio Villa’s backyard and next to Margate Executive Golf Course. Fortunately for the golf course, they have a small basin built with water to water their lawn. Other HOA’s have a lot more water in their area of the canal.
We believe since the canal next to us is at the end of the line, it is emptier then other canals. We post these pictures to remember how bad it got this year in 2020. Hopefully it will rain soon and this will be a memory of how bad the water problem was in the canal.
