We hope everyone has made it through the extended blackout unscathed. Please stay prepared because future blackouts are possible. Also be prepared for water service being shut off due to increased demand and water pipe breakage. Conserve water now by limiting large water use activities such as showers and washing clothes and prepare by having drinking water put aside as well as water to flush toilets. Remember you can collect snow in buckets to use as toilet water. If water does turn off, and we have a black out again, turn on taps to drain your water system to avoid having your pipes freeze and break.
Stay Safe
Hilltop Homeowners Board of Directors
Warm Holiday wishes from the Hilltop Homeowners Association Board of Directors.
The Hilltop Homeowners Association Annual meeting happened on October 10, 2020 at 10 am at our park. Board members present were:
Donna Carter – President
Teresa Potter – Vice-President
James Sloop – Parks and Grounds
Roger Rosaya – Arch. Control
Laura Harper – Budget Coordinator
8 property owners showed up for the meeting. We also had Rep. Steve Tucker, Council Place 6 for the City of Balch Springs and Angela Singletary running for City Council Place 2.
The meeting started with the question, has everyone signed in and has an information packet (click here to download the meeting packet). We then went on to ask if anyone was interested in being on the board of Directors. No one indicated interest. We then moved on to asking if anyone knew of someone who might be interested in renting the east side of our billboard. We had someone ask the cost which is $400.00 a month or if willing to pay for the year upfront $350.00 per month.
We then moved on to review the report of our deposits and expenses for January through October 9, 2020. We went over our expenses line by line.
- One homeowner wondered why we pay for water and electric. We explained that we pay electricity for lights at our front entrance and water for a sprinkler system at the front entrance and the Park. At this time both sprinkler systems are turned off but we pay a base fee to have water available.
- We also discussed our property taxes. The Homeowners Association owns 3 pieces of property, the park, the pond behind the houses at the front of Hilltop Drive and a empty piece of property right at the front entrance. We pay property taxes for all three. Last year we reported that we were trying to get Dallas county to re-designate the piece of property at the front entrance from a building lot to a common property lot. We can report this year that we were successful and that the taxes on that property went from over $1000.00 to $2.77.
- One homeowner wondered why the association pays for insurance. We explained that we have liability insurance in case someone is injured on our property. We also have Officers and Directors insurance incase the Board of Directors and/or the Association is sued for decisions made.
- As we discussed the cost of the storage unit that the Association rents one homeowner asked why we rent a storage unit and is it available for homeowners to use. The association rents the storage unit to hold all the paperwork that the Association has produced over 27 years. It is a very small unit and is not available for homeowner use.
- We were also happy to report that the law suite that we were imboiled in last year with one of our homeowners was ruled in our favor.
- We were also able to report that we have 75% of our homeowners complying with paying their dues. Though we do still have our lawyer go after a very few homeowners who we have been unable to get to pay and who are still within the 4 year statute of limitations.
We also reviewed our proposed budget for 2021, much of our costs have remained stable for the last several years. We discussed what items we had completed this year (2020) such as the resurfacing of the basketball court, as well as our plans to have more mulch put in the play area and have an additional walkway added from the parking lot at the end of Parker Court to the walking path. This walkway will also be handicap accessible. Our plans for next year are to do repairs on the drainage ditch that runs through the park and also repair a retaining wall at the cul-de-sac of Park Hill Court. How much of these two projects will be done will depend on the cost. We have designated $24,000.00 for these projects but have not started collecting bids.
The floor was then opened up for questions. Most questions were about parked cars and what we can do about our cluttered streets. The Board explained about several proposals we have made to the city concerning parking and that we need homeowners to contact Code Compliance and the Police non-emergency number if they see concerning issues with car and truck parking. We also had a homeowner request that we soften the turns on the walking path so that she can ride her bicycle on it. We explained that this was designed as walking path and not intended for bicycles.
Representative Steve Tucker and Angela Singletary who is running for City Council answered a few questions and put out flyers for homeowners to take. Afterward the meeting came to an end.
