It is hard to believe that “The Season” is coming to an end already! But it must be true based on the number of bins at the street on trash day and the RVs heading north on I 75 in the morning! We hope that the snowbirds have enjoyed their winter in paradise as the weather, other than that week in January, has been wonderful! Unfortunately, the dry days have left us with a drought and a concern for brush fires. But we will try to protect your residences while you are gone.
At the February Master board meeting we approved transferring our access control contract from Statewide Services to St. Moritz Services. They will provide access control at our gate and the roving patrol. Access Control is the second most expensive contract for the Master Association at about $450K/year but one that Mike Patricelli, our Master Association Access Control Director, watches closely because of the importance of these services for our resident and non-residence owners. Mike’s discussions with several local high- end developments found universal high ratings for St. Moritz and its employees. A wave to their roving patrol is always appreciated. Speaking of waves, I am pleased to see friendly (what I call Midwest) waves to walkers and bikers. Whether you recognize them or not, waves say “hi” and “glad to see you!”
Our Treasurer, Mickey Wheeler presented the final 2024 fiscal statement for discussion and approval. The statement discloses that we essentially met our budget with a $10K deficit on revenues of $2.4 million. The budget augmented revenues with a transfer of $90K from our Retained Earnings to allow us to hold our assessment stable for 2024 and give our neighborhoods an opportunity to refresh their restoration reserves after recent hurricane damages. The 2025 budget includes $50K to return our Master restoration reserve to about $100K. Your Master Board continues our policy of providing enough reserves to avoid special assessments for “moderate” hurricane damage.
I assume that everyone has completed and filed their tax returns. With the cutbacks on IRS staffing, I wonder what will happen to refund processing?
Will they ever consider repealing the tax code and asking everyone to just send a check for the value of the services they received from the government? Think of the time that would save!
About that noise and smoke from the Miromar land on our northern border, we recently observed the site from a resident’s drone. What we saw is a large land area that stretches from the southern border of FGCU down to the narrow parcel Lee County purchased on the Grandezza northern border. The parcel is in unincorporated Lee County and not subject to Estero controls. This site was the subject of a zoning dispute between Grandezza and
Miromar several years ago. At that time, your Master Association arranged to have about 100 Grandezza residents attend the county hearing to express our concerns about the closeness of the small shopping center and possible student noise interfering with our Cypress Cove residents. We negotiated restrictions for setbacks and noise for the commercial buildings and setbacks for any residential buildings east of the student housing. At that time, our concern was further multi-story student housing. While apparently no subsequent development plans have been filed with the county, Miromar received approval for clearing the land for roads and underground utilities but not to install such improvements. Our agreement with Miromar limits building heights and other restrictions to keep the buildings closest to our borders at lower heights. While the land clearing area does not disclose the type of structures planned, it appears that they are considering private residential structures and have removed scrub vegetation to reduce the risk of brush fires close to our border and their buildings. In general, we feel that Miromar has created a quality residential community and whatever they may put there will be compatible with their (and our) community. We will continue to watch for any county actions.
At the end of February, the Grandezza United Way Committee completed their 2024-25 fund drive. Once again, they reached their goal of $215K which brings the total raised since 2009 to $1,968K!! Congratulations to the Committee for their efforts under the leadership of Bill and Pat Motzer!
All for now! We hope all have safe trips north for “migration” and vacations and look forward to your return while we can now again enjoy our roads and restaurants!
