Las Vistas Blog - January 2016
Hello Fellow Bloggers,
It is hard to believe that we are already in winter and have had our first Board of Directors’ Meeting for 2016. Before I begin with an update, for those who are away or have not yet heard, I thought I would share with you the names of our 2016 Board of Directors. As a reminder, we have a 17 member board starting with 2016. We will be posting signs on our buildings of the Board within the next week, and their names are as follows:
A – Nunzio Beddia, B – Suzanne Dumas, C – Emily Sudine-Wynter, D – May Thomas-Dunn, F – Rose Iannicelli, G – Richard Smith, J – Luc Reindeau, K – Amy Williams, M – Canute Marshall, R – Gloria Orlando, and at Large: Edwin Abbott, Gilles Labrecque, L. Paul Masse, and Bernard Ratneiya
We owe our thanks to our Election Committee headed by Judy Schalow, and including David Bollech, Bill Nowlan, Michelene Fournier, Katherine Jacques, Michelle Champagne, Loraine Beaudet, Pat Fallon, Kip Ballast, Gerry Flora, and Elaine Flora. Their help was greatly appreciated.
Unfortunately, we did not have a candidate for buildings L and P, so no election could take place for those buildings, and we had a tied election for building H. There were 20 votes cast and the count was split evenly at 10 for each candidate. Therefore, we could not elect the Resident Director for that building. Subsequent to the election, however, one of the candidates (building H) withdrew her candidacy. Since no one was elected, we had to check with the DBPR and the guidance we received indicated that we must hold a whole new election for the H building. Since we are doing that, we will repeat our efforts to find candidates for the L and P buildings as well and therefore, we have begun the election process again for those three buildings with hand-deliveries which took place on the 20th, and post office mailings the same day for the ones we could not deliver. We hope that we will be able to elect representatives for those three buildings and urge anyone interested who lives in those buildings to indicate their intent to run.
The above picture of our current 2016 Board of Directors, also appears on our new website. Yes, we finally launched our website and our address is www.lasvistascondos.com. We gave a demonstration at our January 18th meeting, and we are really moving along with sections on our governance, amenities, forms, and even a picture gallery in which I managed to upload some pictures from our New Year’s Eve party. Luc Riendeau and Bernard Ratneiya have worked with me to help us create this website as another form of communication with our Las Vistas community and we will be adding much more information as time goes on. In fact, I will be posting all future blogs directly to the website. Our Newsletter editor, Ray Schalow will be joining us, and we have uploaded all of last year’s editions of The Voice, which you can enjoy if you missed them. We expect the winter edition to come out shortly.
Regarding our January 18th Board Meeting, the Resales and Rental Committee reported the sale of a 2-bedroom corner unit in in the F building for $100,000. We also approved two leases, one for a year, and one for 3 months. I would like to take this opportunity to remind owners who rent their units (whether a first time or renewal - for the year or for the season), that they must have a valid lease on file with the Association’s Office. Also, those renting units must secure a business application from the City of Lauderhill and must meet the regulations regarding the rental of units in Florida. You can request a “Rental Certificate of use Application – Residential and Commercial Rentals” from the City of Lauderhill Business Tax Division, 5581 W. Oakland Park Blvd. Lauderhill, Florida 33319 (954-739-0100). If you have questions, you may e-mail them to renewals@lauderhill-fl.gov.
The Social Committee announcements included that the Ladies Luncheon is set for January 26th, at BJ’s Restaurant in Coral Springs, and a casino trip to the Mardi Gras Casino is scheduled for Saturday, February 27, 2016. There are plans also for an afternoon of coffee and desserts and bingo coming in February as well, tentatively set for February 21st. Posters will be put up within the next week with details.
We are seeking volunteers who are willing to have their units inspected as part of the 40 Year Inspection initiative. We need at least two units per building, and are asking volunteers to contact us via e-mail so we can set up the inspections. All the outside electrical and structural elements are done, and now we need to do the same in the units themselves. Please let us know if you will help with this project.
The Board has approved the hiring of U.S. Security as our company for security beginning immediately. As I reported to the Board, we had three companies come to Las Vistas and guard our property at different times during the last two months. We were most impressed with U.S. Security and the Board approved our recommendation for coverage seven days a week, for three hours per evening. We rotated the times during our testing phase, and have agreed that the best time for surveillance is 10 p.m. – 1 a.m., and have engaged them for seven days a week.
We have received a notice from Florida Power and Light (FPL) telling us that they will be working on some very large service improvements projects that include strengthening five main power lines, clearing more than 60 miles of power lines, and installing smart grid technology. FPL projects have begun and our area is among others that will see this activity. Flyers describing these projects are posted in the clubhouse.
We appreciate the positive reaction we have had from unit owners regarding the improvements made to our gym, our new ping-pong table, and pool table (and their relocation upstairs in the clubhouse), and we hope that we will begin to see players once again enjoying these activities. Some tournaments would also be nice!
I do want to mention that the other officers are working with me to coordinate all the work being done on our premises both by our employees and by outside vendors. Much work is on-going and will take weeks to complete, but we are moving forward and these last couple of weeks have seen our pool areas power-washed and resealed, our small and large globe lights cleaned and damaged ones being replaced, leaks attended to, building mansards power-washed, and carpeting being installed. I know that the Officers join with me in hoping that our unit owners have patience with all efforts to maintain our property and initiate improvements and to trust that, if follow-up is required, we will address any issues.
I know you realize that your Board of Directors are volunteers devoting their time to service to this community, and sharing a goal to work together as a cohesive group to improve our quality of lives here, whether we are here all year or not, and to do so without malice towards our unit owners, volunteers, staff, or vendors. We are all neighbors, members of this community, and I hope that we never lose sight of that.
