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- Our website has moved!
If you are reading this, you are already on the new site! Welcome!
While wordpress.com has been a great free (with ads) host for us, we have moved the website to a self-hosted WordPress site, which not only gives you an ad-free experience, but allows us to eventually add integration with our accounting system so we can have a homeowner portal again, which wordpress.com would not have allowed us to do (at least not with it built into our website).
If you had an email subscription to the old website, your subscription was automatically moved here. If you think you were subscribed but didn’t get a confirmation of re-subscribing, head over to the News page and sign up again!
Don’t forget to update your bookmarks! The new site address is
rmjhoa.org
- 2024 Dues and Annual Meeting Announcement
The mailing with the 2024 dues bill and announcement of the 2024 Annual Homeowners Meeting was mailed on November 30th and should be arriving in mailboxes any day now, if you haven’t already gotten it.
The executive summary:
- Dues will be $236 and are due on January 1, 2024. See further down this page for a FAQ about how the dues amount was determined this year.
- Trash service is still required to be handled by Republic, in order to get our cheap group rate, but each homeowner will now pay Republic directly instead of it being paid through their dues.
- The Annual Homeowners Meeting where we will elect the next board will be held Tuesday, January 16, 2024 at 6:30pm at Searchlight Ministries Church on the corner of 22nd Ave and Quincy St.
In order to save printing and mailing costs, a number of things which were not required by our bylaws to be included in the physical mailing were uploaded here instead of included in the envelope, and the cover letter in the envelope asks you to come here to get them.
- Copy of the cover letter (PDF) – this includes the information about how to pay your dues and when and where the meeting will be.
- Letter second page (PDF) – communication from the HOA to go with the mailing
- 2024 Final approved budget (PDF)
- (coming soon) Draft Agenda for January 16, 2024 Homeowners Meeting (PDF) – Contact Claire if you would like something added to the agenda.
- Proxy Form (PDF) – if you can’t attend in person
- If you would like to be put on the ballot to run for the Board of Directors, please fill out this online form. See also an overview of the duties of board members (coming soon).
2024 Dues Overview
We’re making three major changes that affect how you pay dues this year.
- We are continuing to mandate everyone use Republic for trash pickup service so that we can get a much cheaper group rate, however, we are shifting from paying it through your HOA dues to each homeowner paying Republic directly. This eliminates billing issues with bulk pickups and bin deliveries, and vastly reduces the number of mistakes Republic’s customer service is likely to make when dealing with you. It also spreads your trash payment out across the year with quarterly payments instead of paying it all at once.
- We are discontinuing the use of Waveland Property Management effective April 30, 2024. We are returning to being self-managed. This will result in a significant decrease in collected dues (in the long run), however it depends on us continuing to have active board members and other volunteers in the future. We are investigating the possibility of retaining access to AppFolio for the member portal and accounting services, as they will sell directly to HOAs as well, and suggested we could retain our existing data.
- We will be replacing the signs at the Quincy Street and 22nd Avenue entrances, as the existing ones are rotting and will soon disintegrate. The assessment for this is being split over two years, with a significant portion of the cost coming out of our reserves in 2024, and an assessment to replenish the reserves will be collected in 2025. For 2024, this will unfortunately counteract the savings we get from dropping Waveland. Of note: if we had opted to keep Waveland, your 2024 dues would have been $292 for a total out-of-pocket of $401 once you include trash.
So how much is this actually going to cost me?
The trash payments will be paid quarterly, so you won’t have to pay it at the same time as dues. Your first payment for 2024 trash should be in December. If you haven’t been contacted by Republic by mid-December, please contact them to make sure you are set up correctly.
The below chart shows how the dues and trash fees will combine for a more accurate year-to-year comparison. Yes, your out-of-pocket cost actually goes up by $30 in 2024, but as mentioned above, it doesn’t have to all be paid at once. The bulk of the additional cost is the assessment for the sign project. Starting in 2025, your total cost gets significantly cheaper.
The total cost of the sign project is estimated to be roughly $159 per lot. An assessment of $95 per lot is included in your 2024 dues, with the remaining $64 per lot ($9805) of the cost being taken out of our reserves. The 2025 dues will likely contain a $58 per lot assessment to replenish the reserve account.
Note that the amounts listed here for 2025 and beyond are estimates based on the existing budget, and are subject to change (and probably will) based on vendor pricing changes and other unforeseen community needs. But this will still give you a good idea of where it it trending.
Year HOA Dues Amount HOA-mandated out-of-pocket (includes dues + trash) Notes 2023 Actual $315 $315 Trash was included in dues 2024 Actual $236 $345 1st sign project assessment, last 4 months of Waveland 2025 Estimated $170 $279 2nd sign project assessment 2026 Estimated $113 $222 Normal dues going forward - Minutes from the November 14, 2023 public board meeting
A public board meeting was held at Searchlight Ministries Church on November 14, 2023.
The primary item of discussion was the proposed 2023 budget from Waveland. The budget was shown to meeting attendees and discussed, but final approval of the budget was deferred to a future board meeting to allow the final decision of whether to continue with Waveland to be factored in.
Also discussed were the age and state of decay of our entrance signs, and moving forward with replacing them this coming year.
The full minutes are linked below.
- Rolling Meadows Summer 2023 Newsletter
FINANCIALS
Waveland is in the process of collecting delinquent association dues and late fees or restriction violations fines from several residents. Due to urging by the community at the annual meeting, Waveland will continue to be levying fines in accordance with the fine schedule. Please check the Financial Operations folder in the Google Drive for up to date association finance details.
COMMON AREAS
The Board has been happy with Devries’ continued maintenance and mulching of the entry areas. They have brush hogged the common area between Phase 1 and 2 in early July.
The drain commissioner has removed some mature trees and rocks in the common area between phases 2 and 6 for the ability to access the parcel.
The Board has put together information regarding the reasons and frequently asked questions regarding the brush hogging. Please refer any questions to this document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yumTA-HBV8czGyewIwVlFqtqpYHrAii4_-7q5BGdPoY/edit?usp=sharing
WAVELAND
As many of you may have already been notified, Waveland has a new software to assist in their tracking of financials and violation reporting. Dues, tickets, concerns, and reportings can be handled through this new software. Please reach out if you need assistance setting up an account.
DEVELOPER PROGRESS
Allen Edwin is finished with Phase 4 and has started on several lots in Phases 5 and 6. All ARC requests in Phase 4 should now be directed to Waveland.
BOARD MEETINGS
The board plans to have an open meeting regarding the 2024 financials in November and then the 2024 annual meeting in January.
ASSOCIATION DOCUMENTS
All association related documents can be found on our website: https://rmjhoa.org/
Please familiarize yourself with these documents. They contain all information regarding how the association and board operate, and contain all details regarding the restrictions, drainage easements, and other valuable information. If you have any questions regarding the operation of the board, association, or the restrictions, etc, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We are happy to discuss any questions or concerns.
- Rolling Meadows Spring 2023 Newsletter
FINANCIALS
Waveland is in the process of collecting delinquent association dues from 3 residents and restriction violations fines from several other residents. All fines help offset the cost of Waveland’s management fee for monitoring compliance with the restrictions.
DUMPING IN COMMON AREAS
We are seeing an accumulation of garbage and yard waste in the common areas. Please be advised, anyone caught dumping on HOA property WILL be subject to fines. Anything dumped outside of your legal property lines is NOT allowed. This includes grass clippings, dirt, Christmas trees, brush, tree limbs, old plants, bricks, trash, rocks, mulch, wood, dog poop, etc. The HOA could be subject to fines from the county for waste clogging up the drain easements and ravines. The HOA has already paid unbudgeted professional fees multiple times to clean up what others have dumped in common areas. The annual HOA budget does not include monies for this additional clean up. Each time the HOA has to hire out clean ups, this increases the annual dues for everyone. Let’s do better.
Republic Services offers paid yard waste service available April through November. If you have excess waste and need a place to dispose of it, you might consider contacting them at 1- 877-698-7274 for assistance.
*If you have placed any materials or waste outside of your legal property lines, please remove it immediately to avoid fines.
COMMON AREAS
We expect Devries to mulch the entries before June. Also, the first brush hogging of the common area between Phases 1 and 2 will likely be before July. An independent landscaping company completed the removal of brush from the county in March. We are running low on perennials in the entry areas, so any donations of similar plants to what we already have installed would be appreciated!
We are seeking volunteers to help clean up the common areas of trash and debris that have blown from yards and trash bins. There have been some young volunteers out picking up trash this spring, but we could use some extra assistance. The HOA would like to save money by not hiring professionals to clean up what has blown out of our neighbor’s recycling and trash bins. (We don’t want to believe people have been intentionally littering.)
WAVELAND
- As many of you may have already been notified, Waveland is implementing new software to assist in their tracking of financials and violation reporting. It doesn’t appear things will be up and running until sometime in May. You can still direct questions, concerns, and report violations directly to Waveland through the current ticket system.
- Please ensure you are well versed in the restrictions provided in the Covenants of Rolling Meadows. We continue to get notified of several infractions, which require Waveland to do a lot of work to resolve. Due to the community support at the annual meeting, Waveland will be levying fines in accordance with the fine schedule.
DEVELOPER PROGRESS
Allen Edwin is nearly finished with Phase 4 and has started on several lots in Phase 6.
BOARD MEETINGS
The board plans to have an open board meeting late summer and late fall, however, we may need to upload another newsletter as an alternative depending on scheduling and workloads. In the meantime, please feel free to reach out with any questions.