On September 21, the Sun City board of directors stopped talking about the rear waterfall issue, and decided how to fix it.
By a 6-0 vote, the board approved a plan to reconstruct both of the upper waterfalls at a cost of $478,000. They okayed a contract with Kane Bros., an area landscape engineering firm, to do the work. The seven-member board cast six votes, because member Bill Berendt was absent. The work will probably be completed in 2017.
The board arrived at the final cost figure by an unusual route.
Bill Bendick, board treasurer, explained the process to the Sun Day in an email on September 22, one day after the meeting.
After many talks, the water feature behind Prairie Lodge will undergo its renovations. Here’s it’s shown dry and nonfunctional. (Photo by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)
“The contract with Kane Bros. is for $453,000,” Bendick said. “There is an additional $25,000 in the project for contingencies. Kane Bros. was selected in May as the vendor of choice based on their bid for the original project scope. Based on that decision, we worked with them on the addition of the second waterfall. We could not have two vendors involved in this project because of inefficiencies and duplication of effort.”
Since the property where the waterfalls are located is owned by Billy Casper Golf (BCG), the board worked with its attorneys and BCG officials to arrange a quit claim deed. Its purpose is to transfer control of the property to Sun City.
The board initially planned to reconstruct only the west waterfall, located behind the outdoor pool at Prairie Lodge, for an initial cost of $331,250. The west waterfall collapsed in 2014, and the eastern one deteriorated significantly – showing gravel outwash at the base, and stress cracks among the large boulders. During the six-month process of research and discussing this issue, the board was assisted by the Facility Advisory Committee, chaired by Russ Howard. The board vote followed a report by President Dennis O’Leary regarding maintenance guidelines in the community’s governing documents.
“There have been some who felt that we should not replace this deteriorating feature of the community,” O’Leary said. “They have suggested turning the feature into something other than what was originally designed, or, not replacing the feature at all. In the end, the board is bound as a fiduciary, and legally, to follow our governing documents. Those documents make it clear that the board is required by law and as a fiduciary to maintain the property and all of its features.
“Additionally, laws governing associations like ours, also insist that boards must maintain amenities as they were originally developed. Reserve funds that have been established for association maintenance must be spent to maintain the features and amenities for which those reserve funds were originally accumulated. Not for other features and amenities, and not to reduce the assessments of some future residents. Previous and today’s residents pay their assessments into the reserve accounts with the idea that their lifestyle will remain the same. In this case, their payments have put us in the position to be able to repair these waterfalls without having to have special assessments. In fact, there will not be an increase in assessments at all in this case,” O’Leary said.
