WCA Treasurer Terry Boyd did not attend the February board meeting, so there was no treasurer’s report. President Michiel Oostenbrink asked GAC Chair Rick Goldstein to present his monthly report. Goldstein began by moving to nominate Mark Zais to serve on the committee as CDD liaison. His motion passed unanimously.
Goldstein shared that he had met with Hillsborough County officials to discuss sidewalk repairs. The county is still dealing with repairs from 2014, so is substantially backlogged, he continued. Residents can apply for county mini-grants toward sidewalk repairs that they oversee themselves, he added.
Goldstein said he is seeking a volunteer to serve on the GAC as a liaison to the county’s Transportation Planning Organization. Radcliffe VM Eric Holt stated that the community’s governing documents require each committee to have a resolution that clearly defines its purpose and number of members. He asked the WCA to commit to fulfilling that obligation by creating resolutions for all committees that don’t currently have them in place. Oostenbrink responded that he would look into asking those committees to prepare their own resolutions.
Board Member Nancy Sells moved to appoint Cindy Hutton and Honey Weidman and to reappoint Patriva Mack and Goldstein to the Modifications Committee. All board members present voted in favor of her motion.
Swim & Tennis Committee Chair Dan Haigy addressed the board with three orders of business. He requested more time to review the bios of the eleven candidates seeking to fill the neutral vacancy on the committee. Haigy also asked for more time to gather tennis and pickleball court use data before the committee made its recommendation about whether to convert Tennis Court #1 at Countryway into a dual-use tennis/pickleball court.
Oostenbrink asked Haigy whether the committee still planned to conduct a noise study. Haigy said he had reached out to the county’s Environmental Protection Commission to do a noise analysis, and learned that they will only do so after an official complaint has been filed. Otherwise, they would have to pay a private company $1,000 to $1,500 to conduct such a study, and that is premature, explained Haigy.
Board Member Jack Maurer, who also serves on the S&T Committee, noted that they were attempting to determine how many residents versus non-residents were using the pickleball courts. Oostenbrink asked Facilities Manager Dwight Kilgore whether he tracked that specific data. Only residents can make reservations, and they should check in by showing an ID to an attendant, Kilgore explained. They don’t know, however, whether guests are residents or non-residents, he added.
Mary Griffin, VM for the Single Family Homes of West Park Village, asked the board to set a reasonable deadline to determine whether the court would become dual use. Haigy agreed to gather the relevant data before the March board meeting.
He then reported that the committee had solicited four proposals to upgrade the halogen lights at the tennis and pickleball courts to LEDs. The committee needs additional time to determine which vendor is offering the best product at the best price, Haigy said. The board agreed to table the matter until March.
When the WPV pool initially closed for repairs, the board voted to extend the weekend hours of the Countryway pool to accommodate residents who may want to swim earlier in the day, stated Kilgore. The longer opening hours have interfered with the scheduling of lifeguard training and staff in-service days, he explained. Because there is no definitive date for the reopening of the WPV pool, Kilgore requested that the Countryway pool return to normal operating hours as indicated in the facilities’ rules.
Oostenbrink asked whether the lack of training put the facilities in a state of non-compliance with Red Cross rules. Lifeguards are required to be recertified, and they could perform poorly due to not consistently receiving the necessary training, Kilgore responded. Haigy said he would like to table the matter for thirty days to give the S&T Committee the opportunity to discuss it.
Maurer stated that he didn’t think the facility should be closed for Kilgore to lead training, as minimizing the hours that the pool is open could negatively impact residents. He also suggested that the lead lifeguards head up the training at other times, and Kilgore told him that there are no longer lead lifeguards on staff. Maurer expressed frustration that the board was not notified of the loss and asked what Kilgore was doing to replace them.
Kilgore shared that he was using recruiting sites and reaching out to training centers, in addition to trying to provide current staff members with the necessary guidance to grow into the position. There is a nationwide shortage of lifeguards, Community Manager Debbie Sainz interjected.
Oostenbrink told the board that he agreed with Haigy and wanted to revisit the matter in March. Griffin said that, as a resident, she didn’t understand why the board refused to acquiesce to Kilgore’s request. Holt suggested closing the pool one or two days each month for training purposes.
Kilgore then shared his plan to host an open house on May 11 from 3 to 7 pm to showcase the community’s facilities. Board Member Theresa Lanzar pointed out that he had inadvertently scheduled the event on Mother’s Day. Kilgore said he’d come back with a new date.
A resident asked Kilgore to honor a previous board’s decision to allow certain residential groups to use the Countryway activity room without paying a deposit or a rental fee, he reported. Kilgore said that he wanted to know whether the request was valid. Oostenbrink explained that in June 2013 the board passed a motion allowing the Westchase seniors’ group, along with a handful of other groups, to do so. Maurer asked for a list of all the groups included in the motion, and Oostenbrink suggested tabling the matter. The board agreed.
Two representatives from Brown & Brown attended the meeting via Zoom to present a proposal for the community’s property insurance renewal. Oostenbrink reminded the board that two buildings on Parley Drive were no longer insured due to their proximity to the WPV pool. The two agents said their proposal included coverage of those two buildings and offered two options with competitive rates through Westchester.
The community’s current insurance policy was set to expire on February 23, which necessitated that the board make a decision, Sainz said. Goldstein moved to accept the option that Brown & Brown offered with the lower deductible. The motion passed unanimously.
Oostenbrink said that Maurer had reviewed bids for bench repairs, the painting of metal tables, and maintenance of light poles, and found that they didn’t meet the requirements of the scope of work. Maurer stated that he wanted to prepare a thorough written scope of work before Sainz solicited new bids, and that he would do so by February 21. The board agreed to table the matter until the next meeting.
Sells suggested hosting regularly scheduled get-togethers for new residents to introduce them to Westchase’s governing system. She said that it can be challenging to understand exactly what the CDD, WCA, and VMs do, and that the intent of the gatherings would be to help new residents more easily navigate the community’s governmental channels. Board Member Jessica Siddle asked whether the Welcome Committee could organize them. Sells responded that she could ask committee Chair Charles Stephens whether he would be willing to organize the events, and that she would come back with a proposal.
Oostenbrink asked the board to consider expanding the current board email policy to include certain committee chairs. He said it would make transitions between committee chairs smoother if they could transfer a singular official email address to the next person who takes over their position. Kilgore interjected that it would be helpful for the Swim & Tennis Center to have its own email address as well. Sells moved to create specific email addresses for the GAC, the Document Review Committee, the S&T Committee, and the Swim & Tennis Center. All of the board members who were present voted in favor of her motion.
A.D. Engineering reviewed the work that still has to be done on the WPV pool and compared it to the original contract that the WCA signed with the contractor, G.A. Nichols Company, reported Oostenbrink. The engineering company was in the process of putting together a document to summarize their findings to ensure that the association wasn’t paying twice for services rendered, he explained. The company hoped to have the document done by the next day, and the board would need to approve it and send it to G.A. Nichols. Maurer moved to expedite the process by giving Oostenbrink the authority to sign off on an agreement with G.A. Nichols to complete the work. The motion passed unanimously.
Sainz said that Pool Supply Unlimited, the company from which the board wanted to purchase a replacement slide, did not approve the association’s credit application. The WCA could prepay, but it could take twelve to sixteen weeks after payment was received for the slide to be delivered, she added. Goldstein made a motion to reach out to other companies in an effort to find an exact replacement for the current slide. The motion passed, 6-0.
