Our efforts through legal channels (tax attorney Michael Elliott) to restore the golf course property taxes and valuations to their proper open space levels have initially been denied by the Chief Assessor, while further channels are being explored to seek relief.  The tax money that apparently must be paid for 2007 will completely deplete the CRF / Golf reserve monies for this year and into 2009-2010. We are consulting with other attorneys as to the course of action to take from this point on, and the Board will certainly do whatever is fiduciarily responsible and realistic regarding the expenditure of money and effort in this regard.  Our tax attorney is currently conducting a gratis appraisal of the entire golf course property, which is said to be extremely overvalued by the assessor’s office relative to other like courses in Lake County … especially for a course existing in a wetland.  It must also be mentioned and noted that the filings for tax years 2008 and 2009 open space are in place and, although there are no assumptions or guarantees relative to pending political decisions, we should be back to normal, or even lower, for the coming years.  I will continue to report the status as things develop regarding this entire issue.

As an additional note to the above, our HUA attorney, Jordan Shifrin, has been appointed the Chairman of the Condominium Advisory Council for the Illinois Legislature.  This council, through public hearings held around the state, is charged with the mission of reporting to the Legislature things that are “broken” and need fixing relative to Condominium and Home Owner Associations. We have been asked to allow the council to have a hearing at our clubhouse on September 23^rd in order to provide a forum to bring our tax issue before the legislature.  Hopefully the board will approve this request at our August board meeting, as this would be a tremendously positive public affairs event  for our Community and, if anything needs “fixing” by the Illinois legislature, it’s tax issues such as this for us and all of Illinois.  Please watch for this public hearing and attend if you wish.

Our on-site audit begins this week, along with our continuing weekly Six-Year Plan and budget meetings.

The HUA has received quotes and proposals from three banks regarding the possibilities of obtaining loan money, in the form of a convertible line of credit, to be used for (primarily) infrastructure repair.  The Board will be discussing the pros and cons of such a loan, and put it in perspective with the current tax obligation as well.

All of the permits and budgets have been approved by the County and Village concerning their parts in the reconstruction project for the new Gages Lake sidewalk.  The sidewalk project has been approved, along with the vendor of choice, at the last Village Board meeting.  Construction should then begin in late August to early September.  We are still awaiting final word to assure us of the Village’s responsibility should any cables or pipes be compromised during their construction phase.  This total walkway project is costing a little over $108,000 and the HUA is contributing $16,000 as part of that cost.  This is a combined Village / HeatherRidge effort.

The scheduled cleaning of two ponds this year has been completed by Organic Sediment Removal.  We are currently obtaining bids for various pond retaining wall projects.  Landscape is also busy removing dead plants, putting in new ones, as seasonal and applicable.  Tree stumps from removed dead or diseased trees are being taken care of as time, priority and personnel allows.  It should also be noted that this has been an extremely bad season for crabgrass and weed growth.  Even if regular grass is not growing, the crabgrass and weeds continue to grow and, as such, mowing must be continued to keep the landscapes even in height and aesthetically pleasing.

The Maintenance Department has been extremely busy painting mailboxes, working with vendors in repairing corroded SB/C pool contact switches and assuring pipes damaged by AT&T during their current project of installing fiber optic cable throughout HeatherRidge are repaired by their vendors.  The Covered Bridge fence should be installed the week of 8/25, and that will be followed up with new proposals for the gate security system.  Seasonal pool shutdowns will occur at the close of day, September 7^th.

After manufacturer error in delivering the wrong size signs and waiting for redelivery, the new billboard signs on Rt. 120 are finally in and really look great.  Many calls for information and room rentals are being received due to the new signage, and we are looking at the costs to light up the signs as well.

Bob Marcus, CMCA, AMS Community Manager