Thank You Message from SIHA President Elect — Help Us Close Budget Gap
Neighbors,
Thank you for participating in the HOA Survey, Attending the Budget & Security Planning Meeting in January and the Annual General Meeting on Sunday. Your engagement helps the board make better decisions to advance Sunrise Intracoastal.
While the board voted to set next year’s annual dues at $1,200 to balance inflationary expense increases with flat dues for the past five years, there is still a shortfall of $28,740.32. We appreciate our neighbors who have already donated and encourage others to support as they are able. No donation is too small or too large. For those of you that have renewed your dues already and donated, we thank you for supporting our neighborhood.
For those who have not yet paid, online dues payment and donations through credit card, Zelle, or ACH is now live at https://www.sunriseintracoastal.org/members/ thanks to Jamie and Peter Boyd’s contributions. You can also view our budget and annual presentation on the website.
This month, the board is meeting with Officer Weston to determine how best to deploy our security budget for maximum daily coverage. The rates for hours vary day and night, but we expect to average a minimum of 34 patrol hours a week with daily patrol coverage.
We understand some residents desire security above this amount. Should we collect more contributions over our budget, the board can and will apply those additional funds towards more FLPD patrol hours. We are also working with board member Steve Greenlaw to evaluate technology options to enhance security. In the short term, we are evaluating messaging apps to minimize lags in communication to neighbors as crimes occur.
In the coming month, the west gate will have electric, lighting and irrigation installed, restoring the area to serve as a pristine portal to our neighborhood. The entrance gate will have routine Spring maintenance, power washing, tree trimming, replace a diseased podocarpus tree, lower hedges trimmed, mulch, fertilization, and pest spray.
James Sposa, Rick Sebaly, Hunter New and Jim Concannon will help transition bookkeeping to Quick Books and an external bookkeeper so that we can run the HOA more efficiently and transparently.
I will meet our new City Manager, Rickelle Williams this week at The Council of Fort Lauderdale Civic Associations. I’m scheduling a meeting with Vice Mayor Herbst’s office to discuss areas of concern for our neighborhood. Jim and I share a belief in creating strong relationships with our elected leaders and City staff to passionately advocate for our neighborhood with results.
The board’s May meeting will set the agenda for the remainder of the year. If neighbors would like to have an item put forth on the agenda any time, please feel free to email me your requests.
The board will host a Neighborhood General Meeting in the Fall at George English Park to report on progress against these initiatives. Our new Director of Membership and Events, Jonathan Keith, is developing events to keep our neighborhood connected and build community.
For those of you I have not yet been able to meet, I will personally deliver your yard sign and take the opportunity to introduce myself.
Let’s stay engaged and connected. Continue to check the message board as you exit, visit our website regularly, and follow our Instagram account @Sunrise_Intracoastal_HOA. Thank you for your participation to make Sunrise Intracoastal a beautiful place that we all call home.
Warmest Regards,
Suzi Burstein
President Elect- Sunrise Intracoastal Homeowners Association