POA Board hears about lawsuits
The board of directors of the Bella Vista Property Owners Association heard updates on several issues at its meeting on Thursday last week, including one that involves lawsuits centered around the Trafalgar Road fire.
The POA took over the job of extinguishing the Trafalgar Road fire on May 3 after the state named the association a possible responsible party. By then, the fire on the site of a former POA run stump dump had been burning for months and neighbors filed a lawsuit claiming the smoke from the fire was harmful.
The POA declared the fire out on June 4.
When the neighbors’ lawsuit was filed, the POA submitted claims to two insurance companies. The stump dump was open from January 2004 through December 2016 and the POA changed insurance coverage in 2007. Both Scottsdale Insurance, now called Nationwide (insured the POA until 2007) and Philadelphia Insurance (insured the POA) from 2007 through 2016) denied the request for coverage, General manager Tom Judson told the board.
The POA filed a complaint against both companies.
The POA also filed a cross-complaint against the other defendants in the neighbors’ lawsuit, Tom Fredericks, Blue Mountain Storage, Browns Tree Service and BTS Equipment, looking for reimbursement for the funds spent on putting out the fire.
The board also heard an update on ArkMo land sale. The sale of 367 acres to Recasting LLC will probably close at the end of July and the POA will receive the full appraised value of the land, $1.475 million. Since the land was owned by the POA but never brought into the POA boundaries, the sale does not need to be approved by members, Judson explained.
Part of those proceeds will help pay for another stump dump project. The west side stump dump was ordered closed by the ADEQ in July, and the POA with the help of a contractor submitted a plan to permanently seal the site. The contractor estimates that the project may cost $326,200, which is higher than what was budgeted.
Golf maintenance director Keith Ihms was at the meeting to discuss a last-minute agenda item, a bridge on the Berksdale Golf Course. When the water went down after heavy rains the week before, a maintenance employee was sent to remove the debris that had collected under the bridge. He discovered pylons that had been heavily damaged by the flooding and the debris. The bridge was closed immediately and a decision was made to close the nine-hole Berksdale Course until an engineer can inspect the bridge and advise on possible repairs.
The board accepted the recommendations of the golf committee to keep the other nine-hole golf course open at last week’s meeting. The committee had forwarded a list of ideas that might make the course more popular, and the board asked the committee to appoint a subcommittee to keep the project on track. The ideas range from adding “Play it Forward” tees (to shorten the distance to the green) to events like a beginners clinic.