On February 21, 2024, Kelly Hale, Hot Springs Village POA General Manager, gave his monthly report to the Board of Directors. Hale followed up on the Board Candidate Forum, stressing how he and other key staff and community members have diligently pursued government help to fund community sewer and water projects.
In addition, Hale said that January was busy, considering it is off-season. Other topics included inclement weather repercussions, the early mill and replacement project on DeSoto Boulevard, results of the 2023/2024 Urban Deer Hunt, FBI accreditation for HSV Police Department, an update on the new website, and golf course renovation.
Follow-up to Candidate Forum
Hale said the Board Candidate Forum was on Monday, February 19. He encourages all members to be informed of what is going on and to vote. Many of the candidates spoke about water and sewer. These are indeed important issues.
Hale said, “I’ve made it clear why I took this job from the beginning.” I came out of retirement because I wanted to help to ensure we do the right things to get our key, high-dollar infrastructure taken care of – our water, our sewer, our golf courses.
You have to have a plan.
Cheryl’s note: This is to clarify the misconception that the POA is not seeking government funding for large infrastructure projects.
Hale explained, “If it were easy, we would have done it years ago. But it is not just a matter of saying it, ‘You have to have a plan.’ So, when you talk to your candidates, ask them, ‘What exactly is your plan?’. Maybe it should sound something like this [plan], ‘[On] Friday, Ken Unger, General Lofgren, Keith Keck, and I are all going to Little Rock to meet with the [Arkansas] Secretary of Agriculture to discuss options on what we can do to get help for our water and sewer.’
“For the last two years, I have spent countless amount of hours, along with David Moore [Corporate Treasurer], many of the Board Members, and many people within the community,” working to find out what specifically are the loopholes, what is the specific language that needs to get changed?” Currently, the language in the law prevents us from receiving back some of our tax dollars for these types of projects.
Hale said, “It is not an easy process. If it were, people would have gotten through it a long time ago. It has never been attempted and explored, but we have rebuilt the relations with not only our local politicians but with our state officials. We will be going there [to Little Rock] to work with them. We will also meet with another Secretary in the upcoming weeks. This will not just happen because someone says it will. You have to engage and go after grants. You have to go after the state loans focused on water and wastewater and have a strategy on how those will be accomplished.
“We have been working on this for two years. I have reviewed this countless times in many small meetings and at the Board meetings as well. So, through the Governmental Affairs Committee, along with many of the key people in this community, along with General Tom Arwood… [Arwood facilitated communications with key federal figures such as French Hill, Tom Cotton, Bruce Westerman, and John Bozeman.] They have all been given information on our high-speed internet that we need help with, as well as our water and sewer.”
“They have all visited with me and my team to find exactly what else we need. So, we have continued to work forward on this. It won’t fix itself. But we need to engage. We need to ask questions and build a strategy on what is going to be important for us here as a community.”
Hale reminded everyone that we are a PRIVATE CORPORATION that receives none of its paid tax dollars back.
Inclement winter weather repercussions
Hale said, “We continue to work through the January weather events we experienced this year, along with our county partners. This year’s temperatures were below normal, and we saw an increase in damage to our roads in the Village and the surrounding areas. We completed work on roads and trees around the Village by pulling all our teams together and having a combined force of not only Public Works, but also Golf and Parks and Rec.”
Staff addressed the following issues.
- Over eight hundred (800+) potholes were repaired.
- Over five hundred (500+) trees were downed.
- Three hundred seventy-five (375) downed trees on various roads in HSV.
- Eighty-four (84) downed trees on Coronado Golf Course.
- Seventy-four (74) downed trees on trails and other areas.
These numbers do not include the downed trees on all the remaining common properties. “If you did not see Coronado Golf Course, what went on on that side of the Village was amazing. We are very fortunate. There were no injuries, but a lot of property damage. It was a blessing from God that we were able to get through that the way we did, stressed Hale.
January storms necessitated an early mill and replacement project on a section of DeSoto Boulevard.
“We also have a large section of Desoto Boulevard that suffered substantial damage from a previous paving project that had been done. [This area was superpaved several years ago, and the superpaving is peeling up]. Hale and the Associate Public Services Director inspected the stretch of road. “That section will need to be addressed this year, but it was not in the budget. The additional funds for this project will be located throughout the year from savings in other departments. Hale assured the Board that they would NOT deviate from the 7-year OMT plans. “Those projects have to stay on as planned so we do not further get behind like we have done in years past by deferring. This additional money will have to be found through savings of not only over time but proper management of events as we go forward.”
Urban Deer Hunt was a success!
Hale reported that our Urban Deer Hunt was a remarkable success this year, marking the first year the POA handled the event internally. Only members, guests of members, and first responders were allowed to participate.
In the past, Arkansas Bow Hunters handled the event, but a decision was made for the POA to run the event in order to retain the proceeds. The POA issued over 178 permits, over 222 deer were removed, and half of that deer count was donated to Hunters Feed the Hungry. Hale said they know the number of deer removed is higher, but the State website was down for a while.
The POA donated $5000 to Hunters Feeding the Hungry and made additional improvements to our Archery Range to promote the sport. Also, donations were set up for local schools to promote archery. These donations and improvements came from the proceeds of the permits and were not possible in the past when the Arkansas Bow Hunters facilitated the UDH signup and orientation.
[The Common Property, Forestry, and Wildlife Committee and Board Director Mark Quinton were invaluable in making this event successful and profitable.]
Police Chief Kristi Bennett talks about receiving FBI accreditation.
Hale exclaimed, “We will hear from Chief Bennett about our receiving accreditation from the FBI after 53 years!” [There is a separate article coming out soon about this subject.]
New website platform
“I want to thank the members for their patience with the new website platform we installed this past month,” stated Hale. Hale said doing a platform changeover is not an easy task. “The team and I spent over a year and a half planning this and validating what was best for the needs of the Village. Like with any system, [these types of changes] never go 100%, and we did very well with only minor issues experienced. You will always have some minor bugs, but overall, we as a community did well. The major issue was the number of people who showed up at the POA or called the phone lines to get help logging in. You know, the member number and last name, this was 75% + of the calls we had. We were happy to help, but this volume of people needing help sometimes bogged down the POA response time.
Once fully operational, the new website is slated to save over $100,000 a year
This new system will save the members over $100,000 per year in franchise fees and software costs compared to the previous Total E system. The savings are primarily due to the franchise fees paid on the old systems. “We feel that we have a better product now for the community, and we will move forward and reapply these savings back into infrastructures as we go forward,” enthused Hale.
Healing golf courses
Our golf courses continue to see investment in 2024. Hale reminded the community, “Our golf courses are infrastructure.” If we do not care for them as we did not have in past years, we will lose them. This could result in tens of millions of dollars being put back into the courses. So a little preventive maintenance now and moving forward will help prevent [a situation like this]. We are making substantial progress with Isabella and look forward to having Santa Maria open in three weeks. Many of the courses focus on long-neglected drainage issues during the winter months. “We have realized that through unclogging drains around the Village, unclogging drains on our golf course, and allowing our community to breathe, we are finding that it heals very quickly. We will continue these simple, low-cost options as we go forward, but please be patient as we go and heal our courses and get them back to a very good investment that helps our community be more valuable.”
Good news for Balboa Clubhouse and Golf Course Project
We are beginning the process of our Balboa project. This work will include clubhouse renovations and work inside and outside of the facility to leverage its use for the members by the middle of 2024. The golf course is set to be taken offline in the fourth quarter of this year to address many long-term issues, from bunkers, drainage, cart paths, and some fairways.
As part of the Balboa renovation, several groups volunteered their time to help paint, build, and clean this facility to help keep our costs down. Hale thanked the Men’s Woodworker Club, who will help build the bar, and the Rotary Club, who has volunteered to paint.
Please reach out to Ken Unger or his team to volunteer to help – we need groups – and it is a wonderful team-building activity. These types of activities help keep the cost down for our community.
Hale said we have allowed the Balboa investment to deteriorate for too long. “We will get this [facility] back online for the community and take care of our investment,” shared Hale.
Kelly Hale, Hot Springs Village POA GM updates Board
By Cheryl Dowden
Click here to visit the HSVPOA website.
Click here to contact the HSV Gazette.
We are so fortunate to have you as our GM. Your expertise and commitment to our community is appreciated
Thank you and please take care of yourself.
Thank you Mr. Hale for taking on the issues that have prevented us from receiving grants for our infrastructure!!! It is a shame that these issues were not addressed previously. We appreciate your expertise, guidance, and hard work.