Volume 24 - Issue 10 - October 2017 SM Firetti Builders, Inc
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volume 24 - issue 10 - October 2017 SM firetti builders, inc. 16 YEARS BUILDING IN ST. JAMES PLANTATION 2016 DIAMOND AWARD WINNER FURNISHED MODEL HOME IN THE RESERVE JOIN US FOR THE PARADE OF HOMES, OCTOBER 20-22ND & 27-29TH VISIT OUR 2017 PARADE HOME AT 3942 WYNDMERE DRIVE www.firettibuilders.com | 910.477.6018 Page 2 CONTRIBUTORS WHAT'S INSIDE STAFF Fred Ammann 4 POA President’s column Virginia Brown 5 Town of St. James Please email photos, articles Jim Carey 6 SJFD: Fire safety maintenance and comments to Becky Dus [email protected] Bill Eberle Beth Erskine For Your Information Submit address changes to POA Jack Eyler 7 Carolina gardening Linda Eyler 9 To be or not to be - SaaS editor Melanie Fitzpatrick 11 Community spirit through gardening Arthur Hill Kiki Forsythe 12 Clubs Advisory Committee managing editor Tish Gordon 13 Architectural FAQs: Cheryl L. Serra Jerry Iverson Home modifications associate editors Michael Kasavana 14 From the Cat-Tales archives Linda Eyler Amanda Kiel 15 St. James Service Club Marilyn Rudolph Beth Klahre 15 St. James by the numbers Robyn Smith Barbara Lemos photo editor Gina Mancinelli Inside The Community John Muuss Rick Margin associate photo editor 17 Kid Leo rocks on John Muuss Judy Wagner 19 St. James Activities Committee Chris Nicholas poa communications 21 The Artisans’ Corner committee chair Beth Nilsen 23 50 ways to meet another Stuart Pike Linda Eyler Genna Porter 25 The Great American Eclipse of 2017 27 American Legion Roberta Pukala printer/advertising Judy Rubin 29 Security: You're in good hands Coastal Printing & Graphics Marilyn Rudolph 31 Master gardening Advertising: 910-754-5929 Stacey Saveth [email protected] Cheryl L. Serra Around the Area Cat-Tales is published monthly Barbara White 32 Wishing and hoping and waiting by the St. James Plantation Property Owners' Association 34 Pockets of color (POA) of St. James, North Carolina 37 Behind the scenes to communicate information of 39 10 Minutes to Thailand, Part 2 interest to its property owners. Reproduction in whole or parts 40 Cameron Art Museum is prohibited without permission from the publisher (POA). The views and opinions of the writers are Just Right For Now their own and do not necessarily reflect that of the POA. Per the 43 Table for one? POA communications policy, the 44 The garages of St. James POA does not endorse commercial products, services, or does not 45 Trick or Treat ON THE COVER: publish advertorial, partisan political "Fall bounty" or religious belief articles. (photo by John Muuss) Page 3 President's Column Jerry Iverson / St. James Plantation POA In this month’s column, I would like to provide property Fund balance at the end of 2017 is projected to be owners insight into our Reserve Fund. The Master $4.3 million. In 2018, our spend plan is $1.5 million, Declaration (Article IV, Section 7) authorizes the POA which includes completion of the Woodlands Park to establish reserve funds for (1) major repairs; (2) Pavilion and continuing major repairs of our roadways, emergency repairs resulting from storms, fires, and parks, bridges and storm water system. The Reserve natural disasters; (3) recurring period maintenance; Fund balance at the end of 2018 is projected to be just (4) replacement and capital improvements to common under $4 million. properties; and (5) initial costs of any new services. The RFS 30-year outlook includes receipts of To monitor the health of this fund, we have conducted $24.3 million and expenditures (shown below) of a Reserve Fund Study (RFS) annually since 2011. We $25.3 million. The largest single-cost driver is the are on the seventh iteration, and the quality of the maintenance of our 75 miles of road. The Hurricane study has improved every year. The RFS does not and storm recovery category includes recovery from address recurring annual costs, which are included in two hurricanes at $1.5 million per occurrence, plus our Operating Budget. $25,000 a year for clean-up from minor storm damage. The RFS has two primary components — the physical analysis and the financial analysis. The Infrastructure RESERVE FUND 30 YEAR EXPENDITURES (2018-2047) Committee identifies all real property owned by the (Amounts in $1,000) COSTS PERCENT POA, including roads, bridges, buildings, parks and Roadways $15,620 62 other property that may require repair, replacement or refurbishment over the next 30 years. The committee Beach Club $1,387 5 then develops a time-phased plan to identify when Waterway and such action will be required. In addition, the Board Woodlands parks $1,784 7 identifies capital improvements and the year of Stormwater system implementation for new amenities or improvements and bridges $1,035 4 to existing amenities. Hurricane and The Finance Committee, working with the Infras- storm recovery $3,750 15 tructure Committee, identifies the costs required to Miscellaneous $1,723 7 cover major repairs and capital improvements. We use a “threshold funding” approach for the study. This TOTAL $25,299 100 approach requires us to have sufficient funds to cover all known requirements and still maintain a minimum A healthy Reserve Fund is extremely important and reserve cash balance at the end of each year, which we will (1) prevent delayed maintenance allow us to have set at $3 million. This buffer is necessary to cover actions, (2) complete capital improvement and (3) major repairs that may occur earlier than anticipated avoid special assessments. The 2017 RFS confirms we or to cover unknowns. can meet all objectives and still maintain a $3 million threshold buffer in every year. The 2017 RFS (for 2018-2047) has been completed and was approved by the Board in July. The Reserve Page 4 Town of St. James Becky Dus, Mayor e’re getting close to the November design (or at least the final design as of September) election and it's a great time to learn and traffic flow during construction and after the about the candidates for Town Council. I project’s completion. Whope you will attend the Meet the Candidates Forum Related to the above, the Town has formed a committee on October 10. But if not, you can find their resumes to review landscaping options for the median that and statements of their reasons for running on the will divide the widened NC 211 in front of the Town’s Town’s website. boundaries. NCDOT’s plan is to install grass alone on One-stop voting at the Government Center will the entirety of the median. Our committee will look run from Thursday, October 19, through Saturday, at more attractive options to supplement the grass, November 4. You also can vote at the Community with the goal of improving the overall appearance of Center on Election Day, Tuesday, November 7. We the median. NCDOT must approve any landscaping we hope you carefully consider each candidate, exercise propose and the responsibility for and cost to install your constitutional right and cast your ballot. Those and maintain the landscaping will be ours. So, we’ll elected will represent you for the next four years. be looking for attractive but hardy, low-maintenance plants. We’ll also be looking at options for meeting these “We hope you carefully expenses, such as partnerships with other property consider each candidate, owners along the northern border of NC 211. Any enhancements to the median will probably add an exercise your constitutional ongoing expense item to the Town’s budget, but we right and cast your ballot. think it’s important that the median bordering the Town is attractive. Certainly, the medians on Middleton Those elected will represent Boulevard are not the kind of welcome to St. James you for the next four years.” that we would like to see on NC 211. We should begin seeing activity on the new Fire Department substation very soon, if it hasn’t already The NC 211-widening project continues to progress, started. The new substation, which will provide fire although NCDOT’s actions so far have been acquiring and EMS services, will also include permanent space property and considering design alternatives — for the Town’s Emergency Management Team. The especially the overpasses at Middleton/Midway roads new building, to be located near the Oceanic Drive and at the Long Beach Road extension. extension, will be a welcome and vital addition to our community and the surrounding area. Representatives from NCDOT attended a meeting at the Community Center in September to present their And here’s a quick plug for the Fire Department, which plans and timeline for this project, which will impact is always looking for new members. If you’ve ever had us for at least a couple of years while construction is an interest in volunteering as a firefighter, an EMT or in in progress. This was an important meeting for anyone another support role, the Fire Department’s volunteers with questions about the project, its timing, the final would love to talk to you. Page 5 St. James Fire Department: Fire safety maintenance By Jim Carey The longer we live here, the more we recognize that on his wet/dry vacuum to suck out the front of the things, including us, require more maintenance. dryer. Then he disconnected the connection going Regarding fire safety, there are a few things I into the discharge hose and attached — I kid you not noticed around my house that require attention. — a leaf blower. Arguably, the most important things are your smoke I went outside to observe what was coming out of detectors and carbon monoxide (CO) detectors. the vent discharge side — lots of lint, which is rather Although our home smoke detectors get the flammable.