POA prepares for new board

On Tuesday, May 19, Janice “Jan” Sims, Sandy Fosdick and David Brandenburg each won a three-year term on the Bella Vista POA Board of Directors. The POA annual membership meeting was livestreamed because of the coronavirus shutdown and was only 20 minutes long.

The results of the 2020 board election were announced by Election Committee chairman Tom Throne. Each lot in the POA receives one vote for each of the three seats, and owners of 33.61 percent of all lots participated.

Sandy Fosdick won the most votes with 6,258. The second-largest number of votes went to incumbent David Brandenburg — 6,050 votes. Jan Sims also won a seat with 5,697 votes. They will take their board seats on June 1 when chairwoman Ruth Hatcher and board member Jim Abrahamson leave the board.

Three candidates received more than 5,000 votes but didn’t win a seat. John Hudec received 5,417 votes. Joy Thomas Sawyer received 5,285 votes and John Goodman Jr. received 5,105.

Voting took place online and through the mail for about a month. There is still one vacancy on the board since Steve McKee was removed from his position earlier this month. After the new members start on June 1, the new board will appoint a replacement for McKee to serve until the 2021 board election.

POA General Manager Tom Judson gave a financial report. He started with good news. Both activity cards and boat registrations are up this year. Activity cards were up over 17 percent as of the middle of May. With pools and the beach opening, that number will probably rise, he said.

The shutdown of many amenities has impacted income, Judson said, but the POA staff has been making budget cuts to lessen that impact. It’s too soon to know how the shutdown will affect the POA annual budget.

The audited financial report for 2019 was presented, but it won’t be officially approved until the board meets this week. Some assets were down in 2019 due to the sale of the ArkMo land and lots sold. Investments were also down because of the cash spent to put out the Trafalgar Road fire.

Since payment was made to a water bond, overall liabilities were down.

In 2019, income was up due partly to money coming from BV’s Grill, the restaurant in the Country Club and the sale of the cell tower. Golf income was down.

Expenses were slightly higher in 2019 over 2018 — partly because of the fire expenses and two assessment elections.

Some capital projects were completed, including a new trap field and upgrades to water billing software.

The next annual meeting will be May 18, 2021.