HPP Membership Meeting Today at 3pm

[macuu222]

Just a reminder! It only happens twice a year!

[JerryCarr]

Actually, I think we have General Membership meetings in February, June, and October each year. Members are also welcome to attend the monthly Board of Directors meetings, but the owner input at those is more restrictive than at the General Membership sessions.

I will be there today, and I hope there is good attendance and participation.

Cheers,
Jerry

[Tolleys]

Any interesting information from the HPP meeting? Unfortunately, we were unable to attend yesterday. Thanks in advance []

Susan

[JerryCarr]

Turnout was so low that we lost a quorum before the Bylaw amendments could be put to a vote. There was a lively discussion of the paving project, though.

The president of the current Board called our situation a Catch-22. The previous board and its now dissolved Paving Committee committed us to proceeding even though we only had enough money to do about a third of the roads. It will take ALL the current road assessments to pay off the bonds, leaving next to nothing for maintaining the remaining unpaved roads. We can't keep a reserve of the bond funds for maintenance because they are contractually limited to paving. Changing that will result in technical default.

So the priority for future paving is now shifted to those roads with the highest maintenance expense rather than an evenly spaced grid pattern thoughout HPP. The high-maintenance roads are mostly in the area near the highway where some streets are over 80% built out. I supported this shift as the only way to have any hope of money to keep up the gravel roads.

People on the roads previously designated for paving complained loudly about the shift of priority. People on the recently paved 22nd road complained about speeding, dangerous driving, traffic volume, and not being able to walk in the road as before. People complained about having been brought to this point. One lady pointed out that we still have the PMAR to deal with, and I heard murmurs of opposition to it, although no one spoke into the record to that effect. (I suspect a lot of those individuals would end up being OK with it as long as somebody else's road is the one turned into a highway.)

One guy suggested giving the remaining paving bond money back and taking our lumps on what was spent. There was a surprisingly positive response to this in my little section, but nobody put a formal motion forward. My own cynical prediction is that our road assessments will have to be increased to something approaching or even exceeding our property taxes to keep things going.

The Puna Community Development Plan's "Village Centers" concept came up and received a lot of vocal support. I reminded everyone that the current election will be critical in determining how (or even if) the nuts and bolts of the CDP get implemented.

And so it went. Unfortunately I will be in Texas for the next monthly Board meeting. I really get tired of being one of a very few people who try to participate and influence all this. There are plenty of people ready to complain when they don't like how things turn out, but where the hell are they when there is a meeting or an election? Some are even too lazy to return a ballot with their assessment checks.

Not too cheerful about this,
Jerry

[oink]

Ballots aren't always real good about showing up and they tend to arrive at the last min if at all.

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.