NEWSLETTER – April 2016
FINANCIAL UPDATE
During the 2015 financial period, the Ironwood Homeowners Association was able to produce a surplus after the prior year’s deficit (incurred as a result of unpaid bills from the defunct developer). The Homeowner’s Association Board has decided to keep dues at the same level as 2015 ($60.00 per household/lot) and invoices have already gone out. Expenses incurred in 2015 included filing taxes; lawn services, and administrative costs. Brent Pirolli volunteered his time and services building our website and the hosting for the website has been donated by CedarCreek Church.
To date in 2016, we have contracted the lawn care and fertilization/weed control, extended our website domain name for 5 additional years, purchased insurance coverage, and have filed our 2015 taxes.
Statement of Revenue and Expenses
For the Year Ended December 31, 2015
REVENUE
Homeowners Dues: 3350.00
TOTAL REVENUE: $3350.00
EXPENSES
Lawn Care (2015): 1890.35
Income Tax Fees: 150.00
PO Box / Postage: 45.80
Website Domain Name: 10.87
TOTAL EXPENSES: $2097.00
NET INCOME/(LOSS): $1252.98
A few of you have paid past due balances (and we thank you) but there are still a handful of families who have not paid the legally required HOA dues. The board is notifying those who are past due along with the recent invoices. According to the neighborhood’s restrictions all residents are bound to, which are on file in Wood County, residents who are two or more years overdue are eligible for a lien to be placed on their property (at their expense). If you have outstanding dues, we will work with you to avoid this! Please contact the current HOA Treasurer, Stacy Konidaris (stacykonidaris@yahoo.com or at the address at the end of this update) to discuss options. If you do not address this debt, we will begin collection processes this summer. We’re all in this together!
AMNESTY POLICY
During the few years West Valley Developers was defunct and no real management was being done for our neighborhood, we have seen a few infractions of our neighborhood’s Declarations of Restrictions. These may be mailboxes that are not up to our codes (mailboxes should be wooden, painted to match your house, shingled, etc…), sheds that are not up to our codes (concrete base, sided to match your house, etc…), or various other items.
We have decided as a board to not go the route of asking people to remove said infractions, rather we are granting amnesty for infractions committed prior to the first elected board of our HOA (June 1, 2015) with conditions outlined in our Amnesty Policy. Please see the policy on our website for details and what to expect going forward. It is also being delivered as part of the paper copy of this update to all resident mailboxes.
WEBSITE UPDATES
If you haven’t checked out http://IronwoodRossford.com yet, please take the time to do so. It is a great resource for our neighborhood. Recent updates have added new documents (Rossford Treescape Plan, Financial Policy, Amnesty Policy, existing Declarations of Restrictions for Plats 1-4), the ability to pay your yearly dues online via PayPal (no account required), and a FAQ section. Also if you haven’t yet subscribed for email updates of these notices, you can subscribe by going to http://IronwoodRossford.com/news.
NORTHERN EDGE OF IRONWOOD
When West Valley Developers went bankrupt, they owned a strip of land that borders our northern edge. It runs from Glenwood Rd. to Lime City Rd. and starts at the back of our northern edge lots and extends to half way across the railroad tracks. The lawyers wanted us to take ownership and responsibility of this land and wanted an answer within 48 hours. We declined ownership. The city of Rossford has also asked us to take ownership. We declined again. The mayor has recently made a statement about possibly installing a bike path on that land if the city takes ownership and we have heard concerns from some of our residents about this plan, citing vandalism concerns, noise concerns, and general privacy concerns.
In the end, we felt it was a raw deal for us and the bike path wasn’t a real possibility. The city wanted us to pay $560 a year in taxes on land we can do nothing with and have to pay to maintain (which could be thousands more every few years). If it were remotely useful to us, we would have considered taking it and would have put it to a vote. Our reasoning is outlined below:
- The city doesn’t want the property. 61% of the land doesn’t even border our property. Most of it is west of Ironwood’s section. They want us to have it so we can pay taxes on the nearly 5 acres of land stretching far wider than our neighborhood (all the way to Lime City Rd).
- Despite to the length of the property, it does touch 11 individual owner’s lots in our neighborhood (and others not in our neighborhood). We asked if it was possible to split into parcels and extend the individual lots on that side, knowing each would be responsible for the extra taxes and maintenance. We were told this is not quite so easy to do since most of the land is outside of our neighborhood.
- The property is not developable by our neighborhood. It goes from our back yards to the middle of the railroad tracks, encompassing the creek, power lines, and half of the tracks. Nothing can be built on it. Despite the mayor’s comment about possibly putting in a bike path, we contacted the Rossford Zoning Commissioner and he said, “The ditch is important to Ironwood as some of the storm sewer system eventually drains into the ditch. I imagine both ditch and electrical wires need to continue to have access. It would be very, very difficult to put a bike path in on it.” This was most likely the mayor saying something that sounded like a positive without knowing all the facts first.
- It would be our responsibility as a neighborhood to clean out the creek when Edison trims the trees from the power lines and drops all the brush into the creek. This happened a few years back affecting drainage in the neighborhood’s storm sewer system. It is not cheap to hire a crew to do this job.
- We would have to raise our HOA dues substantially to pay for the yearly taxes and upkeep of undevelopable property. It was pretty clear it was not in our best interest so it was not pursued further. If you wish to be a part of further discussions on the matter, feel free to contact the City Administrator, Michael Scott, who can give you information regarding any planning sessions for the property if the City does take ownership from the bankruptcy of West Valley. He can be reached at mscott@rossfordohio.com.
BOARD NOMINATIONS AND ELECTIONS
HOA Board elections will be held in mid to late May to elect a 5-person Board of Directors. A nomination form is included in the paper copy of this update placed in resident mailboxes. Please contact any of us if you have any questions after reviewing these documents. This year we will elect 5 seats as we have previously, but 3 will be for a two year term and 2 will be for a single year term. All future elections will be for 2 year terms, so there will never be a full board turnover in a single year. This keeps us in compliance with state law regarding HOA Board election cycles (at least 20% of seats up for election each year) while giving us some protection from information loss as at least two seats will always be occupied throughout the election cycles. To illustrate:
| 2016 Election: | Seat A | Seat B | Seat C | Seat D | Seat E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 Election: | – | – | – | Seat D | Seat E |
| 2018 Election: | Seat A | Seat B | Seat C | – | – |
| 2019 Election: | – | – | – | Seat D | Seat E |
| 2020 Election: | Seat A | Seat B | Seat C | – | – |
2016 DUES
As stated previously, you should have already received your 2016 invoice for the Ironwood Homeowners Association. Please return promptly and if you have a past due balance, contact Stacy to set up a payment plan so we can work to get you current with the rest of the neighborhood. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Thanks!
Sincerely,
The Ironwood Homeowners Association Board
Ironwood Homeowners Association
P.O. Box 104 Rossford, OH 43460
http://IronwoodRossford.com