Community Update

Hi Folks,

I hope your summer is going well. I just can’t believe it’s August 1st. I have a few things to update everyone on.

We have repaired many of our common amenities. Since it seems problems never stop, the toilet drains in the bathrooms in the clubhouse backed up, and we had to have them cleaned out. It turned out to be a bigger job than anticipated, but it has been done, and things are flowing nicely again. The Clubhouse leaks were found to originate from the drinking fountain and the roof, both of which have now been repaired/replaced. The carpet that the water had ruined was replaced with an inexpensive, but tasteful tile, which is easier to care for and keep clean.

The Clubhouse pool, which had sprung a major leak and was being shut down by the Board of Health, has been refinished. The pool furniture has been refurbished. The tennis/pickleball courts have been resurfaced, relined, and have two additional pickleball courts, with new nets.

Nonresidents were utilizing the pool area and clubhouse parking to facilitate drug deals, which have been shut down with the cooperation of the Collier County Police Force. The gate, which has been broken for some time, has been repaired to prevent future break-ins, and extra security cameras have been added.

Someone drove into our monument at Radio and Devonshire, and we are in the process of fixing it. Hopefully, drivers will learn to drive only on the roads and stop driving into our walls and monuments. It’s been impossible to get the accident reports, and this results in our community incurring additional costs to fix.

The lake maintenance company has been told to pay more attention to the weeds in the littorals. We are still trying to determine why Henley Lake is brown. The lake water has been tested, and it is all good, so we will have to keep investigating. All our storm drains have been cleaned out, so we should not have flooding in the event of a hurricane or heavy rains.

The entrances on Devonshire will be finished as soon as the weather permits. Landscapers are behind a couple of weeks due to the recent heavy rainfall, but I am hopeful it will be completed within 2 weeks.

There are a couple of things that still need to be addressed, such as the fountains in the lakes, the aerator in Henley Lake, the trees in our maintenance shed area, and the perimeter trees. We have three bids for replacing the fountains, and we are planning to review them to evaluate if it is something we can do this year or if we will have to put it on the 2026 agenda of things to fix. We are also considering putting fountains in all the lakes. Our residents love the fountains. The aerator in Henley Lake will most likely be replaced alongside the fountains. We can also research replacing islands next year. We are in the preliminary stages of this, and nothing has been decided.

The trees are a significant expense, so they will be dealt with in 2026. We are currently obtaining bids to budget for this project.

Just a refresher, the first stage of the perimeter tree removal was budgeted for 2025 until the Clubhouse plumbing sprang a leak and we had to remediate all that damage. Our Insurance refused to cover the claim. They stated the leak was due to the faulty installation of the water fountain, as well as the clubhouse roof that had been leaking for many years because it had never been sealed or properly maintained. Tile roofs need to be sealed every year after the first year of installation, and the Clubhouse roof had never been done. The roof was a total disaster. Bottom line, the insurance refused to pay for the damage from the leak. With this unplanned emergency maintenance issue and the plumbing problem, the Board had to put the perimeter tree issue on hold.

2026 should wrap up all the projects that have not been completed over the years and enhance our community’s curb appeal. After that, it will be a matter of whoever is running BLMA’s ability to maintain everything.

The lawsuits should be wrapped up this year as well, and if we don’t have any other homeowners deciding that suing their community is a good idea, our attorney fees should drop tremendously. Residents filing lawsuits only cost all of us money. If you have a complaint, it’s best to work with BLMA to resolve it amicably.

I am extremely disappointed to report that our management situation is going to have to return to the company. Unfortunately, losing Marie was a massive blow to our office staff. After the many hours we spent developing our website and software, when Marie left the CAM was unable to understand how to use it, which caused many extra training hours. The additional training did not help her, and she continued to make many mistakes. In addition, our bookkeeper put in her notice that she is retiring. With losing two employees and after having such bad experiences with hiring people that either never showed up to work, quit within weeks, or just were not able to do their job, the situation has been overly burdensome for me, forcing me to be in the office or be working from my home daily for many hours.

Self-management, although in the Board’s opinion would be the best way to manage our community, requires me, or someone from the Board, to constantly supervise the office staff, do job postings, interviewing, hiring and training of employees, scheduling, etc. Essentially, the President must become the management company. This has become more than a full-time job, and I cannot continue to do this. I have answered over 40,000 emails in my short time as your President, in addition to all the other work I have been doing.

Management companies are notoriously bad, but we hope to find one that will do the job. I have not heard of one that is fabulous, however, this is the way we must go. This prevents the situation where the hired CAM does not show up for work or quits, it doesn’t leave us in a lurch. When various people retire, the company, not me, would have to search for their replacement.

The President and the Board still must carefully oversee the CAM and management company and understand the internal workings of the office or we will end up back in the same boat we were in with Ability, Allied and Resorts where we were paying them to do the job. Still, they were not providing accurate financials and did not have the CAM on site as promised. Unless the Board is overseeing the management company, this will always be the case.

I have obtained proposals from 6 management companies and the Board is currently reviewing them. The plan is to break the six down to three and bring them in for an interview. This may take a little time, so please be patient during this process. We should have a new company in place no later than 10/1.

I am sincerely sorry for any inconvenience this may cause any of you. I have bent over backwards in my efforts to ensure our community is run appropriately and will continue to do so. Unfortunately, not everything will work out. I promise all of you that I will continue to do whatever I can to make sure this goal gets accomplished. I will keep everyone posted on any developments, as I always do. In the meantime, have a safe and healthy rest of your summer, and I look forward to all our snowbirds returning, which will be here before we know it!

We are all blessed to live in such a beautiful place. Thank you to all who positively contribute to BLMA.

Warm regards,
Nancy J. Perry
President
BLMA