Results: January 2026 Special Meeting | Water Billing

The HOA board called a special meeting of owners to discuss and vote upon a proposal to install submeters at each Oaklawn Park townhome. The special meeting was called as approval of the proposal would result in a special assessment that would be separate from standard HOA dues billing.

The meeting was held both in person and online. Multiple owners also assigned proxies for voting on the proposal.

Participation in the discussion was robust. Following the presentation of information, discussions, and questions, all present for the meeting except one voted in favor of the proposal to install new meters. All proxy votes were cast in favor of installation of new water meters.

The new water meters to be installed are from Dune Labs. The special assessment fee for each unit will be $170 with a possible additional expense limited to a total of no more than $250 if there are challenges with installation of the meter due to any individual issues with the water pipes of an individual unit. There will be a $7 monthly fee from Dune Labs. Currently, each unit has a $4 monthly water bill processing fee. That will then increase by $3 to the total of $7.

The way Oaklawn Park's water billing works is that we have one total water bill each month from the city. It then needs to be divided up per unit with the requirement of the total billing of the units equaling what we owe the city. The way this has worked the last several years is that no water meters are used. Instead, the billing is divided up by the square footage of each unit.

The goals in making this change are these:

• Increase the fairness of the water billing. Rather than being charged based upon square feet of the townhome, the bill will be based upon how much water each unit uses.

• Help determine if we have any major water leaks in the neighborhood. Our water bill from the city has been increasing. Accurate evaluation (by meter) of each unit's water usage should allow us to determine if our water use within our homes in total matches how much water the city is sending to the neighborhood. Meaning, if our total actual usage by homes is less than what the city is sending into the neighborhood, this would indicate we have underground leaks outside of individual homes.

We will still have to pay each month the entire city water bill. This means if the total from all the meters combined does not reach the total water bill for Oaklawn Park, the difference will still need to be added to each unit's water bill. As we have 167 units, any remaining difference would be divided by 167 and then added to the metered part of that month's water bill.

Installation will likely start by early Spring 2026.

• Kyle Thompson