Board and Community input at January HSV Board meeting

Comments from the Board

The Hot Springs Village Board of Directors and a couple of villagers shared their insight at the end of the Wednesday, January 15, 2025, Board Meeting. The range of the conversation went from “Neighbors helping neighbors – local support network, to money invested in infrastructure. Additionally, a lot of appreciation was expressed for many things.

Neighbors helping neighbors – local support network

Mark Quinton – “Well, I do have a little something. Recently, a couple of weeks ago, we lost the pillar of neighbor helping neighbor – Jimmy Carter. And in that sense, I started thinking a little bit. Due to age and physical limitations, I have a neighbor who needed help through this storm. Our neighbors, not just me, shoveled, did grocery store runs, and brought some gumbo over to take care of somebody that really doesn’t hardly ever get out anyway. So it’s neighbors helping neighbors, and it goes on all over our community.” 

“I was talking with Tom Benfield [Community Support Manager]. People who receive a compliance ticket letter may fall into a category where they’re physically unable or financially unable to do what needs to be done for the compliance request. Tom says that he will identify those people, and we will get together a group of community volunteers run by Community Support. We’re going to have a meeting on January 28th at 9 o’clock in the Police Training Center. Kind of discuss how this is all going to work and how it’s going to roll out. So basically, if somebody is out of compliance and they can’t afford and can’t physically do the work and don’t have neighbors that may know that they need that, we’re going to try to identify those people and help them out and bring them back up to code or whatever you might want to say. So again, I’ll repeat the meeting. It’s going to be January 28th at 9 o’clock at the Police Training Center.”

Infrastructure investment

Larry Siener –  “Just one item. Jake [Sowell] did a great job describing what we’ve done with the funds you gave us and are expending under Article 29 and other investments.”

“This year, we spent, by the time the dust settles on all the final payments, it’ll be pretty close to $10 million invested in the community. Last year, I don’t remember the exact number, but it was pretty close to $10 million. The year before that, $7 million, $8 million. I can’t remember the exact figure. I’ve slept a few times since then. The point is that we put over $25 million into this community in the last three years. And unless you’re a golfer and really enjoy the new bunkers at Granada and Isabella, most of you didn’t even know what we did with it. And that was predominantly because it was invested in all of the background stuff that you don’t see. You turn your water on; you expect the water to run. You flush your toilet; you expect the water to leave. You don’t want those reversed. An awful lot of effort and investment needs to happen in the village to keep all of that stuff up and running. The good news is we put about $25 million in it. If you remember, Kelly, the last year, a year and a half, we had $80 to $100 million, depending on how you do the math, of investments we needed to make in the village when Kelly joined the POA. We’ve done about 25 or so, 20%, 25% of that, depending on how you choose to do the math. We’ve still got a lot of work in front of us.”

“So the good news is that we’re financially stable. Right now, we’re doing really good things with that money. We’re putting it to work in the right way. But we’ve got some major expenditures coming in front of us”. 

“So you look at the financials now, and you say, ‘yeah, they’ve got all kinds of money. Why do they need money? Why do the fees need to go up? Why do the golf rates need to go up? Why does this need to go up and that sort of thing go up?'”

” Well, the reality is we’ve still got a good decade of infrastructure investment that had been foregone because of financial circumstances and decision-making in prior years, so we’ve still got a lot of work in front of us. We’re going to keep plugging away at that. We will keep making those investments as we can afford them and try to keep this community better for everybody”.

“But just for recognition for folks, it’s good that we put the money in this place that we have, but we’ve still got a long way to go before we get back on top of the ball in terms of having all of the services that we want the way we want. Thank you”.

Need serious-minded people without a personal agenda on the Board

Gary Belair – “I do have one thing to add to what Larry said, and to continue doing the work of this board, we need serious people on the board, and in that vein, I wanted to thank Mark and Bruce for volunteering to stay with the board to help continue the things that we’ve been doing for the past three years. Actually, maybe closer to four.” 

“But the board tries to look at the world in a light manner occasionally after we do our work, but it is serious. We take it seriously when somebody can’t get somewhere because there’s a big hole in the road. So we have a management team that takes care of that, and as previously discussed, we have some long-term plans for the wastewater and freshwater systems, and that takes dedication.”

“We don’t need people on the board who have a single purpose in mind. We need people with a background in analyzing financial statements and understanding the needs of a community. I’ve said it before. This is not a community of cabins in the hills. This is a modern community, and we choose to live here because of the gates, beauty, and like-minded people. All right. Thank you, Mark, and thank you, Bruce, for volunteering part of your future for continued work on this board, and I hope everyone else recognizes that. That’s my serious talk for the year”

Improvements to water and wastewater treatment plants

Bruce Caverly – “The only addition I would have to Larry’s comments is that I don’t think the population here understands what we’re going to be going through in the next two to five years with the sewage treatment plant and the water treatment plant. Those are huge investments, way more than what we’ve got available. Pay attention to what’s going on with the water and sewage treatment plants over the next couple of years. A lot’s going on.”

Choosing the new General Manager and thanking everyone

Archie Frye – “I’d like to start with Ken Unger. We’ve looked at candidates from all over this country for a GM, and from what we have coming up [wastewater and water treatment plants] with his background and his experience, people are out there saying maybe it was an inside deal. It was not an inside deal. It was the right deal, and he’s the right person at the right time. So I’ll stop there”. 

“I want to thank Joanie [Chair Joanie Corry]. If you don’t know it, being a board president, she probably works up to 50 hours a week because you were working again last night at 10 o’clock. So thank you for all your service because I know you’re going off the board, and you’ve done a great job.:

“Fellow board members, I’ve been on a lot of boards, but I’ve never been on one that’s this effective. So great work. It’s really been great to work with you.”

“And now, Ken, your staff, Phyllis [Controller Phyllis Shaddix], everyone. You have no idea how professional these people are and how dedicated they are to this village. I am just happy to be here. Thanks.”

Corry said, “I’m still going to be around for a few months”

Frye joked, ” know, but I might forget.”

Corry agrees with the rest of the Board.

 Joanie Corry – “I really don’t have.., I can’t emulate, I can’t say anything any better than what everybody said. I am just grateful that our employees are dedicated to us.” 

On a lighter note, Corry stated, “Now, just for future boards, I’ll start doing this a lot. For future boards, I’m going to say you need to be aware that when you hire a GM, there’s one thing that you need to look for. They have to be able to come into the job and handle inclement weather within the first week. That happened to Kelly during his first week. It happened to Ken. I mean, it’s amazing that it happened every time. So, keep that in mind. They better know how to take care of the inclement weather and what needs to be done because the staff did an amazing job. Everybody did. They were working very hard. “

Comments from the community

A villager shows appreciation and asks for more property owner commenting periods at Board meetings.

Cheryl Dowden – “First, I would like to thank the board for the phenomenal job that they have done and keep doing. It’s just been fantastic!”

“I also would like to thank the staff and first responders for their excellent job in keeping the community safe in the recent inclement weather events, specifically Fire Chief Jason and Police Chief Kristi.”

“Also, I would like to show my appreciation to staff, notably GM Ken Unger, Public Service Director Matt Broome, and Parks and Recreation Director Terry Wiley, for the awesome job of communications during the recent event.”

“Thank you to villagers for your patience during the event. I would also like to thank the villagers for their phenomenal attendance in this room. Your involvement in the community is important and means a lot.” 

“Now, a request for the Board. Would it be possible to reinstate a property owner commenting period before the current business at the board meetings? This would give residents an opportunity to give their input on motions to be voted on”. 

“One more request. Would it be possible to please allow a time period for property owner input at the end of discussion sessions? I feel instituting these opportunities for property owners to speak up would go a long way to make villagers feel included in the governance of this community”.

“Thank you for lending your ear. 2025 is going to be the best year yet for this community!” 

Do we still have a policy or philosophy of “no new amenities” while we are taking care of infrastructure issues?

 Melinda Alvord – “What Cheryl said. Thank you. Thank you for the excellent management of the recent weather situation, but that’s not why I wanted to speak.”

“I just want to ask a quick question. Do we still have, and I don’t know if it’s a policy, but at least a philosophy of no new amenities while we’re taking care of our infrastructure issues? Thank you.” 

Larry Siener responds: “Policy, no. Philosophy, yes. We still have a lot of work to do to get ourselves caught up. So, generally speaking, we’re not really looking at adding any new amenities or expanding our facilities. We’re more focused on maintaining what we’re working on right now and keeping it running.” 

“We still have issues with some of our venues. The Coronado Fitness Center Pool is currently a bit of a challenge for us. We’ve got a lot of old equipment in there. We’ve had some equipment failures. We don’t have spare parts. They’re a long lead, so we’re trying to work on fixing that, and that includes trying to understand what we need to put in our spare parts closet to be able to keep it repaired.”

“If two or three years down the road, and this is my opinion and not necessarily policy or philosophy, if two or three years down the road we come across a significant opportunity to do something at a cost-effective level and we have the funds to be able to go pursue it, then we might do that. But in the near term, we’re still on the existing philosophy of ‘let’s maintain what we have right now before we start expanding into new capabilities.’ I hope that answers your question.”

Melinda Alvord said, “It does. Thank you.”