President's Message

By: Dave Peterson, Board President

I’m writing this as Christmas approaches. You will read it in the new year, so please forgive the time delay. Here is a summary of hot topics that the association is dealing with:

CMT and CC&R Elections. At the December board meeting, votes were counted for the water weeds Control Methods Test year 2 funding special assessment, and it passed with a resounding majority. The CC&R revision vote was extended a third time by the board because a quorum had not yet been reached. If you have not voted and have lost your ballot, please contact the TKPOA front office to request a replacement. We need all members to vote!

Professional Management. At the December meeting, the board approved a contract with FirstService Residential out of Gold River (near Folsom) for professional management of the TKPOA. I just signed the contract on December 20, and they will begin in earnest in February. TKPOA employees will become FSR employees, and FSR is recruiting a new on-site General Manager. This change will benefit us all in a number of ways, and will be costneutral. We are planning 2 townhall meetings to introduce FSR and provide a Q/A opportunity for members: 1/12/23, and 2/9/22. Please plan to attend in person if you can, but zoom will also be available.

Budgeting. At the December meeting, the board heard a recommendation from the Finance Committee to address our poor reserve funds balance. The “Reserve Study” is a list of major repairs and replacements, spread out on a timeline with cost estimates, which is updated annually. The idea is to collect money through the dues to fund these foreseeable projects, minimizing the need for special assessments, except for unforeseen things. Sadly, our reserve is grossly underfunded. Industry standards recommend a minimum of 70% funding level (and preferably more). But our common reserves are at a staggeringly low 9% funding. The finance committee recommended, and the board approved, a plan to incrementally increase the reserve funding to at least 25% over the next 5 years. This is still uncomfortably low. A key board discussion in the coming months will be whether to address the reserve shortfall in a more aggressive manner. We need to develop a plan to fund year 3 of the CMT, as well as consider options to fund water quality solutions that will follow the test. Adding likely water company improvements to the mix, it’s clear we face future budget challenges. If any of this causes our 2024 dues to increase by more than 20%, the budget will require a member vote. The board will be giving this much attention in the coming months, and we welcome your input.

Drinking Water. In last month’s Breeze, I updated you on the status of our drinking water system, with a special alert that we are operating under temporary fixes only, and that we can’t go too long before we need to invest in a long-term solution. Since that article, we have found out that Well 1, our one well currently not requiring treatment, now has troubles (well 1 is near Cove 5 and the indoor pool). Sampling for “gross alpha”, a measure of natural radioactivity, shows levels coming up over time, and last quarter results exceed the state’s maximum contaminant level (MCL). We haven’t been using that well in the low water demand fall and winter months, so no worries there. But we have been using it in summers. State regulations require a shutdown if the “running annual average” exceeds the MCL, and the levels have not been high long enough for that to trigger. However, it’s a bad trend, and we will need to deal with this new setback.

Bears. Unfortunately, the neighborhood bears are still active. They were born and raised here, and they eat human food and den under various houses and decks in the Keys; many of them don’t hibernate normally. I’d encourage all of you to put in a bear box to reduce the chance of bear break-ins. I put one in per the new ACC rules, and it works great. But one bear still keeps coming by about once a week to tear into my BBQ to get at the drip pan. Arrrrrgh! I know, I just need to clean the drip pan… often!

I’d like to close with a giant thank you to all of our member volunteers! Our annual volunteer appreciation event was held December 15 at the Pavilion, and a great time was had by all.

TKPOA WATER COMPANY OPERATIONS

By: Jenn Lukins, Lake Tahoe Water Operations Management

Tahoe Keys Water Company (TKWC) serves the homeowners of the Tahoe

Keys plus five commercial customers with domestic drinking water. Providing clean, safe, and reliable drinking water is our number 1 priority, and an around the clock job.

Our team of water operators at TKWC provide 24/7 services to our customers. This includes making sure generators are running during power outages, responding to customer services calls, collecting water samples weekly, and repairing water leaks. You may have seen or been lucky enough to meet our operators Raul, Bryan or Carlos working throughout the neighborhoods.

Each week Raul, Bryan and Carlos take, on average, over 5 drinking water samples to ensure your drinking water is safe. We also take daily chlorine residual samples throughout the distribution system to ensure that drinking water is properly disinfected, and to watch for any signs of potential water quality issues. In addition to this, the guys check each well and treatment facility daily to make sure all operations are working for you.

During the winter months, in addition to daily water company tasks, our operators help handle snow removal throughout the Tahoe Keys. When the power goes out, emergency operations take over. Our crews go to each well to make sure that generators turn on so there is no interruption in your water service. When running, generators must be checked several times a day for fuel. In the summer we regularly respond to broken sprinkler calls and homeowner leak issues. In addition to this, we work diligently with all TKPOA staff to promote water conservation. To give you an idea, in non-irrigation months, TKWC produces about 5 million gallons of water per month. In the summer, we produce upwards of 45 million gallons of water per month. TKWC customers use about 40 million gallons of water per month for irrigation.

TKWC receives on average 4 service calls a day related to drinking water services. These calls range from water leaks, water service shut off/turn on at customers’ requests, and streetlight maintenance. Yes, the TKWC operators are also responsible for maintaining the streetlights in the Tahoe Keys.

So, the next time you see the Water Company crew, feel free to say hi!