Affordable POA Improvements over the Years or “Big Canoe Has Never Stood Pat”
Preface
In a recent Smoke Signals a headline reads “Big Canoe Can’t Afford to Stand Pat”. Writing this opinion piece Anne Dickerson argues that Big Canoe must approve the Capital Initiation Fee so that we can “make money”. She goes on to say that…”Big Canoe needs the money over the next 10 years to establish a Capital Reserve Fund, which will allow the POA to pay down existing debt, maintain the community’s infrastructure and fund reserves for emergencies such as 2002’s tornado-like winds that cut a swath through the middle of Big Canoe.” We do not believe that the purpose of the POA is to “make money”. We believe that prior boards managed, under adverse circumstances, to improve Big Canoe so that it has become known as the “Premier Mountain Community” and at the same time maintained adequate reserves for emergencies. To further inform Ms. Dickerson we present this history of accomplishments of these prior POA Boards.
The intent of this history is to document the success of POA Boards of Directors from 1988 through about 2005 in providing substantial and significant improvements in facilities and services to Big Canoe property owners without committing the POA to excessive debt or subjecting the property owners to excessive annual assessment increases, special assessments, or punitive fees.
January 1988 through December 1994
Prior to January 1988, the Big Canoe Property Owners Association (POA) was Company/Developer owned and managed. The Settlement Agreement of 1987 (see Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 of “Big Canoe Governance History”) gave the collective individual property owners equal voice on the POA Board of Directors, and also established the POA as an entity separate and apart from the Company/Developer. Jim Cook began his term on January 1, 1988 as the first-ever non-Company/Developer-employee General Manager. This represents the beginning point in time when property owners could exercise stewardship over POA decisions and operations, albeit with the ever-present possibility of Company/Developer vetoes due to equal power at the Board level.
January of 1988 found the now separate POA: (a) with its common properties in an advanced state of disrepair due to neglect by the previous Company/Developer (The Southeast Holding Company); (b) required to pay cash up front for all goods and services due to the poor credit history of the previous Company/Developer; (c) with a $950,000 indebtedness to the new Company/Developer (The Big Canoe Company) as a result of the Settlement Agreement; and, (d) an Operating Cash Balance of exactly ZERO dollars.
With this inauspicious beginning, the “new” POA was faced with the challenges of making necessary improvements while at the same time reestablishing its credit worthiness, paying down its debt, and trying to build a healthy cash balance. As if that was not daunting enough, the POA’s operating revenue growth potential was diminished by the portion of assessments from newly constructed homes and new lot sales that started being diverted to the Amenity Reserve Fund as required by the Settlement Agreement. The success that Jim Cook and the POA achieved in meeting these difficult objectives was due, in large part, to a dedicated focus on sound financial management and cost consciousness. (These same principles were evidenced in the actions of all Boards up until about 2006.)
The major improvements accomplished by the POA from 1988 through 1994 were (in no particular order):
(1). Repaved approximately six miles of roads per year;
(2). Built first garbage facility near the Ball Field;
(3). Started serious landscaping efforts;
(4). Refurbished Sconti Clubhouse for restaurant operations when Company/Developer ceased its food operations at The Chimneys;
(5). Built picnic area and poolside chair area at Swim Club;
(6). Modernized the downstairs of the Swim Club Building;
(7). Built Marina on Lake Petit (paid for by leases);
(8). Built first Big Canoe “post office”;
(9). Expanded Tennis and Chapel parking by building the lower parking lot at the Chapel on land provided by the Chapel;
(10). Replaced plank flooring on all bridges with concrete and replaced wooden railing with stone walls;
(11). Opened the North Gate 24 hours per day to improve ingress and egress for the rapidly increasing number of property owners with homes in Big Canoe’s northern neighborhoods;
(12) Built the Cherokee golf course;
(13). Built the Indoor Tennis Center;
(14). Saved money on golf carts by buying and trading every three years rather than leasing; and,
(15). Bought the Canoe Lodge from the Company/Developer (right of first refusal contained in Settlement Agreement) and rebuilt it for administrative and social usage on a guaranteed maximum cost bid basis.
(16). Bought fire trucks and built firehouses and took other steps to get ISO rating improved from a nine to a five.
(17). Added significant additional parking for clubhouse by building lower level parking.
January 1995 through December 2005
Following Jim Cook’s retirement, successive Boards continued to address “needs” and not “wants”, and continued to protect the POA (and therefore the property owners) from any “tax and spend” mentality.
Major accomplishments during this time were:
(18). Built the Duffers Halfway house for golf;
(19). Rebuilt the Tennis Center to include soft and hard courts with modern lighting;
(20). Rebuilt the Creek Golf Course;
(21). Added an extension to the Sconti Club House to provide more dining space on the bar level and to provide a screened deck behind the golf shop;’
(22). Rebuilt the North Gate entrance and constructed a new enlarged guard house;
(23). Negotiated with the Company/Developer for an acceptable location for the Big Canoe Animal Rescue facility and provided an old guard house for the kennel complex.
(24). Built Fire Station 6 on POA land for Dawson County at a one-time expense of $100,000. In return, received continuing Dawson County EMS service which permitted the termination of the POA’s substandard in-house EMS which was costing in excess of $200,000 annually.
(25). With part of the annual savings realized from (24) above, funded a second 24 hour roving security patrol, required all patrol employees to qualify as a First Responder, and equipped the patrol vehicles with First Responder equipment including AED’s;
(26). Avoided a $2.5 million “fix” of the Lake Petit dam demanded by the Georgia Safe Dams Agency by obtaining a second opinion that proved the dam was “safe” as it was, and could be made even safer for less than three-quarters of a million dollars. Even this less expensive “fix” has never been done due to “no response” from the Agency.
(27). Doubled the size of the “post office” after numerous meetings with the US Postal Service failed to obtain “home delivery” for Big Canoe;
(28). Increased the amount of road repaving each year to ten miles;
(29). Built the new garbage/waste facility near the north gate;
(30). Spent almost seven hundred thousand dollars ($700,000.00) due to damages incurred during a November 2002 tornado that hit Big Canoe. This amount was kept as low as it was by negotiating for assistance from Pickens County. While a Special Assessment was considered for a while, none was ever initiated.
(31). Set aside land for a “dog park” in the Meadows;
(32) Built a totally new play ground associated with the Ball Field;
(33). The 1998 and 1999 Boards negotiated the 1999 Amendment to the Amenity Agreement (see Chapter 8 of “Big Canoe Governance History”) with the Company/Developer and secured over a 90% approval vote by property owners. The Amendment became effective in June 1999 with the following benefits accruing to property owners:
(a). The Swim Club facility was totally rebuilt and the Swim Club building was extensively renovated.
(b). The Fitness Center was built between the Swim Club and the Indoor Tennis courts, and parking was greatly expanded.
(c). Pontoon boat rental by the POA was funded and authorized.
(d). Built trails in the Meadows.
(e). While the Company/Developer was given a future call of $1.5 million on the Fund, that money was ultimately spent to cover the Company/Developer’s construction cost overruns on the Phase 1 projects directly above, and the construction of the Phase 2 project (the Wildcat Swimming Pool).
(f). Even though the amenities provided by this Amendment were almost universally desired by property owners, the most important accomplishment of the Amendment, and probably the most important financial accomplishment in Big Canoe’s history, was the change in the control of the Amenity Reserve Fund. Previously only the Company/Developer could obligate the Fund. This Amendment required that the POA Board gain that right. The significance of this change is evident in the fact that, during 1998, the Fund grew by $478,000, and only nine years later, in 2007, the Fund grew by almost $1.1 million. The 1998/99 Boards anticipated that as debt against the Fund was paid off, a future Board would convert the Amenity Reserve Fund into the Capital Reserve Fund that the POA had never been able to formally establish.
Summary
Contrary to some comments in circulation today, POA Boards prior to 2006 were extremely successful in improving the quality of facilities and services at Big Canoe, and did so without the pain and risks of extensive increases in debt, excessive assessment increases, special assessments, or punitive fees. In particular, the 1999 Amendment to the Amenity Agreement clearly positioned the Amenity Reserve Fund to become the Capital Reserve Fund. We can only hope that it is not now being considered as a “Super Slush Fund” for supporting ill-conceived spending habits.
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About This Site
This site is presented as a resource for use by Big Canoe property owners. Information found on this site will often differ from that which is presented by the POA Board, the current administration, and some of the committees. Much of what you will see here is opinion, but the opinions will be formed from the best available information.
As property owners and users of this site, you are urged to bring attention to the good things you see as well as the bad. You are particularity urged to bring attention to acts by our employees when those actions exceed your expectations.
Property owners have strongly held views and they are encouraged to express their views on this forum. Please refrain from name-calling or attacking individuals. Keep in mind that the goal is to effect change, not create enemies. -
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