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Orchid Cove Connection

December

2016

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Orchid Cove Board Meetings

Preserve Community Center – 6:00 pm

January 17 March 16 February 16 April 19

Orchid Cove Post-holiday Party • January 21 – 5:00 pm at the Preserve Community

Center. More details to come in January.

Orchid Cove Community-wide Garage Sale • March 4 – 8:00 am to 2:00 pm. More details to

come in February.

Events at the Preserve Golf Clubhouse Monthly 3:30 pm Book Club. The dates/books are:

• Jan. 5 – Disclaimer by Renee Knight • Feb. 2 – Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

by Jamie Ford

Tara CDD Board Meetings Preserve Community Center – 9:00 am

December 27 March 28 January 24 April 25 February 28

Tara Master Association Board Meetings 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

• January 26 – Tara Golf & Country Club • February 23 – Preserve Community Center

Keep checking out events on your TV at Channel 196, dedicated to the Preserve.

ORCHID COVE BOARD NOTES

Electric Grills Prohibited

As you all know, the use of gas or charcoal grills has been prohibited at Orchid Cove. Per a recent letter (copy attached as p. 6) from the East Manatee Fire Rescue District, ELECTRIC grills are also prohibited. Our rules and regulations will be changed accordingly.

Community Grill?

At the last Board meeting, the subject of installing a community grill was discussed. We decided to: 1) query the Fire Rescue District and, if they give us an initial OK, then 2) we’ll do a survey to ascertain community interest. If the results of these two efforts are positive, we will then form a Grill Committee to tackle the issues, estimate the costs, and prepare a recommendation on how to proceed.

Pool Lounge Chairs

At its last meeting, the Board approved the purchase of 15 new lounge chairs for around the pool, at a cost of $2,972. They will be the taller types, sitting 19” above the deck. Once ordered, delivery will take 3-4 weeks.

Links to Inside Contents Orchid Cove Board Notes • Treasurer’s Report • Painting the Buildings • Unit Doorway Lights Rules and Regulations Review Did You Know? • TMA Annual Fee • Tara CDD Election • Road Construction on I-75 Landscape Committee Garbage/Recycling Collection Communications Committee Experience with Service Providers Photo Corner Board/Argus Contacts; Website Links East Manatee Fire Rescue District Letter Owner Information Form

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Orchid Cove Connection

December

2016

Treasurer’s Report

See the Argus Management/Orchid Cove website for the complete 10/31/16 financial statement.

Assets October 31, 2016 Checking Account $142,428 Reserve Accounts 247,271 Other Assets & Receivables 16,864

Total Assets $406,563

Income and Expenses Jan. – Oct. 2016 Budget Actual Income $82,387 $83,222 Expenses 82,387 80,559

Jan. – Oct. 2016 Net Income $2,663

At the last Board meeting, the membership voted to approve rollover of any 2016 net income to the surplus funds account, which is currently at $134,032. In January, some of the surplus funds will be transferred to a new General Reserve Account, which can then be used to cover future capital costs not covered by the other reserve accounts. Creation of this General Reserve Account could help limit future operating budget increases.

Orchid Cove currently has $177,000 invested in CDs. We plan to meet with the Argus auditor to discuss additional investment possibilities and timelines that comply with the regulations governing Orchid Cove.

At the November meeting, the Board approved some not-to-exceed holiday expenses:

• $100 for the post-holiday party at the Community Center

• $120 for some holiday decorations at the Orchid Cove entrance

Painting the Buildings At the November meeting, the Board reviewed bids from four contractors for painting the exterior of the Orchid Cove buildings:

Contractor Bid with Options

Siesta Key Décor $56,200 D&D Painting $68,989 Tad Dailey Painting $76,825 CertaPro $115,827

Siesta Key Décor was chosen for the work. Besides the lowest price, Siesta Key also offered the most options which include painting the mail center, pool house, pool deck, pool railing/gate, stairs & railings, front doors, garage doors, gutters, soffits, fascia, downspouts, and electrical boxes. A 10-year Scott paint will be used (last time our buildings were painted, a 7-year paint was used).

Owners will be separately responsible for the painting of their lanais. Owners can either:

1. Pay the lanai bid price ($520) from Siesta Key Décor and have them do it, or

2. Paint the lanai themselves. For this option, it is important that the Owner purchase the correct paint types and color – the walls and the floor each call for separate paints. Check with John Yilmaz.

Unit Doorway Lights

At the November Board meeting, it was explained that the responsibility for doorway light maintenance is split between the owner and the Association as follows:

Maintenance Item

Responsibility Association Owner

Light fixture Repair or replace

Light bulb Replace

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Orchid Cove Connection

December

2016

RULES AND REGULATIONS REVIEW

As you may recall, the new Rules and Regulations (R&R) were approved at the Feb. 24, 2016 Board meeting and went into effect 30 days later. Specific sections of the new R&R will be reviewed in this and future editions of the Connection.

This month, we’re highlighting the Unit Leases section, which reads as follows:

Unit Leases No unit may be leased more than twelve (12) times in a calendar year. There shall be no maximum length of a lease, but all leases for more than a year shall be deemed to include a provision reserving the right of the Association to approve or disapprove the continuance of the lease at annual intervals. No subleasing or assignment of lease rights by the lessee is permitted. No lease may be for a period of less than thirty (30) days. Occupancy is only by lessee and family. An owner intending to lease his unit shall give the Association written notice at least 20 days prior to the proposed transaction with the name and address of the proposed lessee, a copy of the proposed lease and any other information which the Board of Directors may require.

1. Lease applications are to be submitted to the Association Manager and require a $100.00 processing fee to be used for a background check and may be waived for repeat lessees.

2. Application forms are available at the Association Management website.

3. All leases must be in writing and only entire units may be leased.

4. All applications are to be approved by the Board of Directors.

5. All lessees must follow all Rules and Regulations and must be supplied a copy.

A number of the units in Orchid Cove are leased annually, and some are seasonally rented. It is thus important to know and follow the rules, particularly noting those numbered 1-5. A copy of the Rules and Regulations is available on the Argus/Orchid Cove website.

DID YOU KNOW?

TMA Annual Fee

To support its 2017 budget, the Tara Master Association annual fee has increased by 1.3% to $466.76. This increase is smaller than last year’s.

Tara CDD Election

At the November 8 election, two of the five seats on the Tara CDD Board of Supervisors were on the ballot for four-year terms. The winners:

• Seat 2 – Eugene J. Rado • Seat 4 – George Darby Connor

For information on each new Supervisor, visit the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections website and scroll down to Tara CDD.

Road Construction on 1-75 continues in our vicinity. See the following FDOT website pages for info on: • The diverging diamond interchange at University

Parkway. Sign-up here to receive weekly FDOT updates via email and/or text message alerts via email.

• I-75 upgrades between Fruitville Road and University Parkway

• I-75 widening from University Parkway to SR 64 (including reconstruction of the I-75/SR 70 interchange).

LANDSCAPE COMMITTEE

The Landscape Committee (Kim Strub, Colleen Kleysen, and Kim Loskota, chair) has finalized and will carry out its 2016 Phase 3 shrub and tree planting recommendations.

At its November meeting, the Board reviewed landscape maintenance proposals from two vendors:

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Orchid Cove Connection

December

2016

• Westcoast Landscape & Lawns (our current vendor) • Florida Lawnpros Inc.

At an annual cost of $19,500, Florida Lawnpros was selected, to begin services December 1. Their bid also included trimming of our palm trees that are less than 15 ft. tall. Westcoast’s bid of $21,360 did not.

GARBAGE/RECYCLING COLLECTION

There will be no residential garbage or recycling collection on:

Monday, Dec. 26 – Christmas Holiday observed Monday, Jan. 2 – New Year’s Holiday observed

All collections will be one day later for the remainder of the week for each of these holidays.

COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

Efforts on the creation of Welcome Packets for new owners and residents are nearly complete. The Packets will contain such basic information as:

• Association forms; rules & regulations • Quick access to helpful facts • Contacts & organizations, and much more

They will also contain pre-printed handouts from other organizations:

Preserve/CDD tri-fold Visitors Guide Sr. Living Guide Physician Guide

Can you offer some content for our newsletter? Forward any good stuff (examples: info on a vendor you’ve used; photo of community wildlife; a favorite recipe) to any member of the Communications Committee:

• Kim Loskota at KLoskota@comcast.net • Jennifer Zigre at JZigre@yahoo.com • Dave Loskota, chair, at DLoskota@comcast.net

If you don’t already receive the Connection by email, fill out and submit the authorization form on page 7 of this edition. Past issues of the Connection are available on the Orchid Cove page of the Argus Management website.

EXPERIENCE WITH SERVICE PROVIDERS

This month, Dave & Kim Loskota offer a recommendation for an air conditioner vendor:

Sarasota (941) 925-2430 – Patrick McCoy

Wentzel’s replaced the original RUUD heat pump system with a Bryant system. Immediate response with bids for three different systems, knowledgeable service, quality work, competitive pricing. Also plan to contract them for twice-yearly maintenance check. ★★★★★

Wentzel’s had previously been used and recommended by Kim & Beth Strub.

Reminder: If you’ve used a vendor that you’d like to recommend, please forward the following pertinent info to Dave Loskota at DLoskota@comcast.net:

• The company name and phone no., and contact person info if available (name/phone/email)

• Briefly describe what the company did for you and when, how you rate their services and cost (0-5 stars), and whether you’d use them again

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Orchid Cove Connection

December

2016

We are not anticipating any emergencies. -- Oxymoron

Your information will be published in the next Connection and added to our Preferred Vendor List on the Orchid Cove website. We will keep adding to the list whenever you want to offer new info on service providers.

PHOTO CORNER

Gary the Gator at the North Pond By Colleen Kleysen

November Pool Social

Keith Dangerfield, Dave Loskota, Tony DeLucia

Bob & Audrey Roe Geri Bernadic, Kim Strub

Orchid Cove Board Members 2016-17

Gayle Vogel, President grvogel@earthlink.net

941-758-0654

Kim Loskota, Secretary kloskota@comcast.net

612-327-1120

Kim Strub, Treasurer Kimstrub@gmail.com

712-899-2869

************************************* Argus Property Management

2477 Stickney Point Road Suite 118-A Sarasota, FL 34231

www.argusmgmt.com John Yilmaz, Orchid Cove Property Manager

hasanjohn@argusmgmt.com 941-927-6464

************************************* Links: Orchid Cove Documents

Preferred Vendor List Owner Information Form

Rules & Regulations Tara Preserve CDD

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If you would like to receive the Connection newsletter by email, fill out this form and return it to John Yilmaz at Argus Management. If you're a renter, provide your name, unit no., phone and email. Thanks!

Orchid Cove Condominium Association, Inc. To provide the best possible service, please complete this form with your current information. We need this information to make sure our files are accurate and that you receive all correspondence from Argus Property Management, Inc. and the Board of Directors on Orchid Cove Condominium Association matters.

You may return the information via the following: Email: hasanjohn@argusmgmt.com

Fax: 941-927-6767 – Attn: John Mail: John Yilmaz Argus Property Management

2477 Stickney Pt Rd Ste #118A Sarasota FL 34231

Owner Name(s): Orchid Cove Address: Mailing Address: Home Phone: ________________________ Cell Phone: ________________________

If you would like to receive Association correspondence electronically, please provide an Email Address: _________________________________________________________

If the occupants of the Orchid Cove address are renters, please provide their name(s) and phone number below. Please send us an updated lease if it has expired. Renter Name(s): __________________________________________ Unit No. ________ Phone: ___________________ Email: ______________________________________