PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

By Dave Peterson, Board President

Here is a quick summary of current issues: Marina Settlement; a Cascade of Actions. As reported last month, we finally settled our disputes with the marina. It was complicated. The marina wants our small property near their Venice Drive entrance, which we acquired in a trade with California Tahoe Conservancy (CTC), for our Dover Drive corporate yard site a few years back. We fondly call our property “the banana lot” because of its shape. But before we can commit to selling the banana lot to the marina, we need to be comfortable that we have a plan for (a) a new corporate yard site, and (b) a satisfactory solution for water weed disposal.

For the corporate yard, we are looking at either our Texas Ave. property, where we used to treat lagoon water (decades ago), or a piece of property near the entrance of Tahoe Keys Beach and Harbor Association now owned by the Marina (we call it “the yellow lot”).

For water weeds, we will be piloting a project this summer to ship wet weeds directly to South Tahoe Refuse. They will de-water them onsite at STR or at Haen Construction’s yard, and then ship them to the Carson Valley for disposal. This solution will be more expensive than our previous process, wherein we dried the weeds at Dover, then hauled them to the Carson Valley ourselves. But we will not have Dover after the end of 2023 due to our land exchange with CTC. And worse, the composting yard in Minden is no longer working with “retail” customers like TKPOA. Bottom line, we have to make a weeds handling change regardless. We are optimistic that the STR pilot project will be successful.

We will be engaging an engineering firm in July to master plan the Texas site; to lay out all our potential needs there. In order of priority: lagoon water treatment plant, drinking water tank and pump station, and corporation yard. I suspect that the Texas site will be too small to handle all of this, and we will need to exercise our option in the marina settlement agreement to buy the yellow lot for our corporate yard.

Per our settlement agreement, we have until August 1 to commit to proceed with actions leading to the sale of the banana lot to the marina. And we have until December 31 to commit to proceed with actions leading to our purchase of their yellow lot.

There are lots of moving parts to this settlement deal, but staff and the board are working on our action items. If we do our jobs well, it will be a good deal for both TKPOA and the marina, and it will firm up some key uncertainties in TKPOA’s physical facilities going forward.

Budgeting. As I noted last month, we expect to develop a budget that will more fully address our infrastructure liabilities using dues instead of special assessments. I suspect that it will call for a dues increase greater than 20%, necessitating a membership vote. The voting process would run between August and October. I think this is a painful, but good thing. Our subdivision is 60 years old, and some very expensive infrastructure elements are aging out all at once. It’s a ‘pay me now or pay me later’ situation: waiting for pipes, roofs, siding, bulkheads, pumps, etc. to fail, versus replacing them a few years in advance of failing. It is a simple choice of economics, and waiting for failures costs more, lots more.

Bulkheads. The board voted to approve an emergency special assessment of nearly $140k to each Cove 3C member to replace their bulkheads. Costs have escalated in the past 2 years much more than inflation, and because most of the country’s hot rolled steel is imported, I don’t see bulkhead costs coming down for some time (maybe never in my remaining lifetime).

Cash flow could be an issue due to the high expense of the assessment, so staff and the board are working with the contractor to reduce costs and stage the project to comport with cash flow. Purchase of steel will happen ASAP, but major construction will likely be delayed until spring 2024.

This is a call to action for the staff and board to develop a better financial plan for replacements of the other bulkheads in our neighborhood.

We are still awaiting results of a “life expectancy study” on the bulkheads for St. Moritz Isle and Bavarian Isle bulkheads. Those bulkheads are individually owned by the lot owners, but if one fails it could affect the adjacent home and the waterway. So the board is compelled to push this study, and the inevitable replacement project(s). Costs will be allocated based on lineal footage. We’ll have to decide whether to establish a reserve for this, or just wait and do a special assessment.

East Channel Dredging. The marina intends to dredge the east channel this summer. They started permitting the work last year when water levels were down, and although the need is not as critical now, the ball is rolling. Permitting is difficult and time consuming, so project timing is not always optimum for this type of project. Under prior agreement, we pay 25%, the marina pays 50%, and Tahoe Keys Beach and Harbor pays 25% toward dredging, and the marina is the project manager. The 3 parties have begun conferring on this project. The marina’s plan is to conduct their dredging in such a way as to allow vessel ingress/egress. The cost is not yet known, so we don’t know what our cost share will be.

Drinking Water. Jennifer Lukins and her staff are doing a great job at keeping the water running and meeting drinking water standards. The reduction in turf throughout the neighborhood, plus our staggered watering schedule, have reduced peak demands to keep within our supply capacity. The busy summer months are ahead and this is always the busiest time for the system. I’m confident that this year we won’t experience any low pressure issues.

I still don’t have any news for you on the Well 3 work. Our hope is that through some down-hole work that we can reduce or eliminate the need for uranium treatment at the site, which would save a lot of money and restore the well’s capacity. The contractor couldn’t mobilize before our irrigation season, so the project has been delayed until fall. Sign of the times, I’m afraid…

Landscaping. I think we are keeping every landscape contractor in the county busy this spring! There is work going on everywhere, and it is really looking great. I think we are all going to like the new look, and we are certainly going to like the reduced water use and reduced maintenance!

Bear Boxes. Here’s my monthly reminder for single family houses to move forward with a bear box ASAP. You’ll love the ‘lock and leave’ aspect of having a bear box, as well as the reduced risk of garage invasion. The starting point is to contact the TKPOA office for an ACC application.

Waterways Activities. CMT year 2 is underway, and harvesting got an early start. It has been cold and the water is gloriously deep, so the weeds haven’t really taken off yet. But we hired a new firebrand consultant to oversee harvesting, and he is delivering. He got all 4 “dragon” harvesters working, and he has been training and managing staff to increase performance. We will do a much better job harvesting in Lake Tallac and the east channel system than we have done in the past few years.

The Waterways Committee presented a proposal for a revised waterways fee formula to more fairly allocate waterways costs based on benefits. Their proposal would allocate 1/3 of costs evenly among members, 1/3 of costs based on waterfront footage, and 1/3 of costs based on the number of boats moored. The formula was aired in a June town hall meeting, and will be taken up by the board during budgeting.

Maintenance and Repairs. John Cefalu and his crew have been quickly, efficiently, and competently, burning through a 300+ line-item work order list. Perhaps you have seen them out and about. Please feel free to compliment and thank them for their good work. There was a ton of post-winter recovery work to do, on top of the regular repairs, replacements, and maintenance that our facilities require. We are lucky to have John on board, and such a great crew!

Management. Our new General Manager, Hallie Kirkingburg, has quickly taken root in the TKPOA. He is a wonderful person to work with and work for, and he’s been drinking from a firehose to learn all the ins and outs of this ‘double black diamond’ HOA. He is our CEO, and he is doing a great job. I would encourage all of you to find an opportunity to meet him.

I look forward to when we get past some of these ‘sinew and bone’ issues that are expensive and difficult, and on to the work of making Tahoe Keys more fun; more activities, better amenities, more services. The board is focused on this long vision, and we’re on track to get there!