Sun City’s board of directors met for the last time in 2019 on December 4, and took care of a lot of business in a two-hour meeting in Drendel Ballroom, Prairie Lodge.
Subjects included waterfall pump repair, advisory committee appointments, expanded pickleball seating in Tall Oaks Tennis Club, investment and management services agreements, liaison with the Huntley Village Board, and a new meeting site for most CAM board meetings in 2020.
As usual, there were less than 30 residents and CAM staff members in attendance.
Attending his last meeting on the board was George Sebastian, who served the last year on the seven-member board. Replacing him will be Bob Wainscott, who is returning to the board for a two-year term after serving initially in 2017-18. Returning to the board for another term are Steve Bytnar and Russ Howard. Other holdover members are President Dennis O’Leary, Marilynn Berendt, George McGouey, and Vito Benigno.
One milestone of sorts occurred this year. Dennis O’Leary became the longest serving member of the board in the association’s 20-year history, with his sixth year of service in 2019.
The board’s first meeting next year will be on January 7. It will be held in the Fountain View Center’s Birch Room, which will host most board meetings next year. This will free up Drendel Ballroom for other activities in 2020.
Most expensive action the board took on December 4 was a $96,576 contract awarded to Thomas Pump Co. to address pump failures in the waterfall area behind Prairie Lodge that were not addressed by the board a few years ago. This amount could be lowered if further review reveals they can be repaired and not replaced.
The most significant project addressed was the expanded seating for the Pickleball Club activities at the Tall Oaks Tennis Center. The new spectator facilities are proposed to be located near the old tennis courts 1 and 2, which are located closest to Del Webb Boulevard except for the Stadium courts. According to President Leary, the board is considering, but has made no decision yet,
whether to allow additional parking in the Prairie Lodge parking lot and possibly creating an additional crosswalk and additional sidewalks and walkways from the parking lot to the tennis center across Del Webb Blvd. Cost of the seating, walkways and crosswalk would be shared on a 50/50 basis between the association and the Pickle ball Club.
The board also gave formal approval to the 2020 operating and reserve budgets for 2020. These budgets will raise resident assessments by $l.00 per month, from $1.27 to $1.28 in 2020, primarily because of the cost increases experienced earlier in 2019 for snow removal.
The board appointed 19 residents to new or additional terms on six advisory volunteer committees for 2020. All recommended appointments were to the Covenants and Compliance, Activity, Facility, Finance, Fitness, and Election Committees.
The board approved a new management services agreement with First Service Residential effective through 2024, and approved continued implementation of a new investment policy with the Investment Subcommittee of the Finance Committee.
Because Rhonda Goldberg and Harry Leopold, two members of the Huntley Village board, are Sun City residents, President Dennis Leary has asked CAM board members Steve Bytnar, Marilynn Berendt and Vito Benigno to serve as liaisons to the Huntley board, working through Rhonda and Harry. Leary said the issue triggering this is recent discussions with the village regarding parking on city streets within Sun City.
“It is our understanding that we have no authority or desire to control parking on our streets, but some village officials have recently said otherwise,” Leary said. “We hope increased communication with the village (sic) will clear this up for everyone.”
The CAM board also discussed upgrading the structure of advisory committees next year, without making any final decisions.
The meeting was adjourned at about 11 a.m., two hours after it began.
