POA hears usage numbers for 2022

At the January work session, Property Owners Association Chief Operating Officer Tom Judson told the board that in the last year there were 916,000 uses recorded at some of the POA’s amenities.

“I don’t think that everybody recognizes the magnitude of how much activity that our amenities have,” Judson said.

It’s not possible to track all the usage at all the amenities, Judson explained.

For example, no one counts the number of people fishing or boating, although they do track the number of boats registered. But there were 171,000 rounds of golf played in 2022. Also, there were 64,000 buckets of balls used at the driving ranges. The fitness centers had 171,000 users including fitness classes and meetings at Riordan Hall. The POA-run restaurants recorded 159,000 “covers,” which is one meal or one drink without a food purchase, Judson said. There were 54,000 users at the pools and the beach. But the amenity with the most uses was the trail system with 296,000 users recorded by counters installed on some of the trails.

Several changes were discussed for capitol projects which came in over budget. All three projects included paving and concrete and the board will be asked for a waiver to cover the amount over the original budget.

The waivers will be asked for during the next board meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday at 6 p.m. in the Bella Vista Country Club board room.

“Like everyone else we got hammered last year by the inflation,” Board Chair David Brandenburg explained. The changes will be voted on at this week’s board meeting. They include Blowing Springs Road paving which was budgeted at $55,000.00, but came in at $80,116.01; Lake Rayburn dam road paving, budgeted at $35,000.00 but cost $47,773.04; and Metfield pickleball courts, budgeted at $70,000.00 but cost $104,246.68

“I’ve asked more waivers in the last four months than I did in the previous six years,” Judson said.

The board also considered policy changes — part of an ongoing project to simplify and update all the governing documents. Many of the changes were minor and meant to clarify some aspects of the documents. Five have already passed a first reading, but need a second vote to become official. Another 11 will be read and voted on for the first time on Thursday. All the policy changes are posted on the POA website, which is https:// bellavistapoa.com/governance/governing-documents/

Also on Thursday, the board will vote on four officers of the corporation. The vote is required by law annually. The officers are Jessica McCrary, corporate secretary of the association; Beth Nagel, treasurer; Doug McCash, vice president; and Tom Judson, president of the association.