The Last 4 Years

What has the board accomplished over the last four years since July 2022?

For those who were here four years ago, you will remember we were in a bit of a budget crisis as a previous property manager just stopped doing their work and left months of our budget, both incoming and outgoing, unaccounted for. The HOA was then not certain how much was going out and how much we had coming in. Cuts were made to upkeep that left weeds growing in the streets and throughout the neighborhood. The outside walls were growing green with mold/mildew/fungus. Any maintenance was put on hold.

Fall of 2022 and into Spring 2023 was getting lawn, shrub, and tree trimming back on track took some time and attention.

We've had three property management companies since July 2022. We started that period with Tempo Property Management which was chosen by the HOA board. Tempo was then bought out by PMI Meridian, so with no advanced notice to the board, PMI became the management of the neighborhood outside of the board's decision process. In February 2024 the board voted to select Focus Property Management who began managing Oaklawn Park on April 1, 2025.

Since July 2022, the major budget item and focus of the board was the replacement of the 20 roofs that were done in 2023, 2024, and 2025. Those individual roofs varied in price depending on size ranging from nearly $25,000 to about $10,000 each. That was then an expense measured in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Wonder where most of our budget outside of standard expenses went those years? That was it.

The next single highest expense was a major water leak under a concrete driveway in 2025 that cost over $30,000 to fix including driveway replacement.

Getting the outside walls power washed following the growth that was in place in 2022 was an expense of around $13,000.

Over the period of time from fall 2023 to summer 2025 we've added nearly 60 new trees to the neighborhood. The largest number at once was over 40 trees in the summer of 2024. The expense for that one large planting was approximately $20,000. A small number of new trees were donated by the HOA president.

In 2025 we had road repairs and and the update of the "sidewalk to nowhere" by the entrance for around $17,000. That included resurfacing the street at the entrance to the neighborhood as well as some small resurfacing throughout the neighborhood for the worst of the road surfaces.

We've had ongoing and continuous door and window replacements. That includes both the front doors of townhomes as well as patio doors. We were spending around $3,000 for each patio door replacement. Focus has managed to lower the expenses for each door, but that replacement process is ongoing and there is no end to that process. We've been spending tens of thousands of dollars on door and window replacements along with new door painting for any new front doors. Those costs will continue as the neighborhood ages.

In 2025 we had the entrance sign to the neighborhood taken down and refurbished. In 2026 we had the landscaping in front of the sign updated. We also had the street sign at the entrance of the neighborhood replaced to match the entry sign in color/design.

The neighborhood previously was having the trash dumpsters emptied 3 days a week. We had trash often piling up and left by residents outside the dumpsters. Any time the dumpsters go to a certain height (which was nearly every time) we were paying additional fees for overages. Any time someone left a large piece of garbage (most often furniture) outside a dumpster, PMI was charging the HOA around $100 to remove each piece of that large garbage. Early in 2025 we moved to 5 days a week for the dumpsters to be emptied. Focus property management has been very proactive in being on location in the neighborhood moving trash on the ground into the dumpsters. The practice of Focus has been to try to move large items left on the ground into the dumpsters and not charging us the additional costs that were charged by PMI for that cleanup. Two of the dumpsters were also changed to wider but lower dumpsters which makes garbage less visible over the fence lines of the dumpster areas. We still very much ask that residents put all trash, including large items, directly into the dumpsters!

Recently in 2026 we have returned to having individual water meters added to each townhome. This will allow us to make water billing based upon how much water each individual unit uses which will reduce the cost for those who use less water than others. NOTE: This has made what we suspected even more likely - we likely have a large water leak in at least one location in the neighborhood. The board and Focus are now working to try to narrow the search for in what areas the leak or leaks might be happening. This will, unfortunately, likely being an ongoing project that will, even more unfortunately, cost large sums of money.

In 2024 we approved an easement to allow high speed fiber internet to be installed in Oaklawn Park. That was in place by October 2024.

We and our property managers have made great progress in reducing outstanding debt to the HOA from owners with Focus making really great progress on this recently.

We've had various storms and large tree deaths that have resulted in downed or dead trees needing to be removed. Each time that happens the billing is in the thousands of dollars. We've had trees trimmed back along our property borders (though more is needed).

We've updated the parking lot lighting in front of Oaklawn Circle 3400-3410 (just south of the main mailboxes). The previous lighting was bright, harsh, and it was flooding into the windows of people in the area. The updated lighting is softer and can be more easily changed/updated in direction and brightness.

The board has approved a new round of power washing of outside walls for as soon as possible.

The board has worked with some owners to in getting their fences updated/repaired. That will be ongoing as fences will continue to age and need repairs/replacements. The board and Focus send reminders to those whose fences need that owner attention.

The board has approved another round of removing overgrown/dying shrubbery. We are hoping this will be completed as soon as possible. Replacements will depend upon having the budget to do so.

We've begun to add fall and winter community decorations/lighting.

We have started this website to make meeting discussions and ongoing updates more transparent not only to owners but to all residents of the community who may wish to know what is happening at Oaklawn Park.

Have we wanted to do more than this! Absolutely! Budget constraints and sometimes challenges finding and getting contractors here have resulted in us not being able to do all we would want to do. More on what we want to be able to do in a separate post.