POA board schedules assessment election

The Bella Vista Property Owners Association’s Board of Directors started the process to raise the monthly assessment at its regular meeting on Thursday, March 24. Members must approve assessments increases and a special election was scheduled to begin in August.

With a printed memo to the board, General Manager Tom Judson made the recommendation to raise assessments $3 a month on improved lots only. He referred to a recent membership survey which shows that many members would rather have smaller, more frequent increases rather than very large ones. The most recent assessment increase, part of the 2020 Plan, was approved in January 2020 and raised the assessment for improved lots $13 to $37. It was the first increase since 2001.

The 2020 Plan lowered or eliminated usage fees at amenities. It went into effect on March 1, 2020 and usage increased at many amenities. Without an assessment increase, the usage fees would have to be raised.

“Up until the approval of the 2020 Plan,” Judson wrote, “we saw 19 years of the vicious cycle of increased amenity fees, followed by a decrease in usage, followed by another increase in amenity fees to compensate for the decrease in usage.”

Board member Sandy Fosdick argued that unimproved lots should be included in the assessment increase.

Judson said he doesn’t think a proposal that includes an increase for unimproved lots would pass. The unimproved lots out-number improved lots, he said. The POA includes some 39,000 lots but only about 15,000 rooftops, he said. The majority of the unimproved lots are owned by investors who have no interest in using or supporting the amenities.

According to Judson’s proposal, the election would begin August 10 and end on September 21. The new assessment would go into effect on March 1, 2023, exactly three years after the last increase. The time between increases is set by the governing documents.

The proposal was passed with Fosdick voting against it.

The board agreed to pay off a water bond early. The payment

a $1.5 million would result in saving interest expense of about $37,000, according to Judson. The Water Department has enough funds to make that payment immediately and still be prepared to cover emergency expenses.

Last month, the board approved renovations to Riordan Hall which will probably start in September. This month POA member Jim Parsons spoke at the open forum to propose that the renovations could be financed by the state, if Bella Vista had its own school district and incorporated the use of Riordan Hall as a gym for a new elementary school built next door.

Most of Bella Vista is part of the Bentonville School District but only one school, Cooper Elementary, is located in the city. Gravette School District serves the western side of Bella Vista and all of its buildings are in Gravette.

“Bentonville is just absolutely reluctant to build us a school here in Bella Vista because they want to keep building those opulent school and football fields in Centerton and Bentonville,” Parsons told the board.

He said that Bella Vista has enough students to satisfy the state’s requirement for a district. Although the Department of Education has been consolidating school districts in recent years, he believes they would be sympathetic to Bella Vista because of the number of youngsters riding school buses to Bentonville early in the morning.

Although the board isn’t required to answer members during the open forum, Judson said that he doesn’t believe Riordan is suitable to be used as a school facility. He said he has discussed that option with Bella Vista Mayor Peter Christie who has the same opinion.

Judson said the district owns 106 acres of land off McNelly Road that they might choose to use for school buildings in the future.

Treasurer Staci Higgins presented the financial report and summarized February as a good month in spite of challenges brought by bad weather. For the POA, revenue was over budget for assessments and the food and beverage department. Expenses were under budget.

The Water Department didn’t do as well with revenue less than budget and expenses above. The problem, Higgins said, was partly timing for deliveries and supplies. Still the Water Department ended the month with a $3.4 million cash balance.

Financial documents are posted on the POA website at bellavistapoa.com/governance/financials/.