Oxford Place   

Fort Mill, SC          

2010 Annual Meeting Newsletter

Mark your calendar for the Oxford Place annual meeting on Thursday, March 4 at 7:30pm at Doby’s Bridge Presbyterian Church.  The 2010 board will present the annual budget and hold a vote on additional street lighting and discuss an early payment rebate.

Informative Election Meeting

We would like to thank Jim Tucker for volunteering to fill one of the vacancies on the 2010 board. 2009 board members Kathy Sandvoss, Patrick Ratliff, and Chris Watts also offered to continue to serve on the board in 2010.  We still have one vacancy on the board that needs to be filled.  Please call a board member or email us if you would like to serve on the 2010 board.

The election meeting was lightly attended, but those who attended had several good ideas.  Several suggested adding more street lights in the neighborhood.  Parts of the neighborhood are very dark due to our limited number of light poles.  York Electric will install, maintain, and provide electricity for a new light pole for $20.75 a month.  FYI – If you notice a problem with a light pole call York Electric at (803) 684-4248 and they will fix it right away.  At the annual meeting, we will vote on adding about 10 more Street Light poles in strategic locations. 

The playground is seeing almost daily usage this year after the border, mulch, and picnic tables were added.  However, residents noted the gravel path at the playground is in bad shape and has become a safety issue.  We have repaired the path several times, but the gravel continues to erode.

Budget

The 2010 budget will be presented during the March 4 meeting.  Our current reserves are higher than necessary.  This is mainly due to the considerable savings achieved with our landscaping contract and the lack of a consensus on adding amenities.  Since we do not have any projects scheduled for 2010, the board will lower the annual fee from $245 to $225 for 2010. 

Each year about 30 homeowners do not make their payment by the initial deadline.  This causes additional work for residents who volunteered to be on the board.  Late payments often lead to discussions about hiring an expensive management company.  Instead of considering a management company and raising the dues, the 2010 board wants to test a different approach.  This approach will save most homeowners quite a bit of money.  All homeowners who pay their annual dues on time in 2010 will receive a $50 early bird discount.  This would mean that if you send in your annual HOA dues by the required due date on the invoice, you would only pay $175 to the HOA instead of $225 this year.  We can afford to offer a discount in 2010 because we have sufficient reserves.

We were asked if the economy has affected the collection of annual dues.  We have collected the dues from all properties in 2010 except from one partially constructed property that has been going through foreclosure for the past three years.  This property owner has not paid for three years.  Other than this property only one other property has not paid since the formation of the property owners association in 2001.  The other property was foreclosed on twice.  One owner did not pay one year.  Another owner made a partial payment after buying the property.  We were also unable to collect $45 from the owner of a lot that was sold shortly after the association was created.

Website and Email

If you haven’t visited our website lately, please give it a try www.oxfordplace.us.  You will find the bylaws, C&Rs, old newsletters, some history, and several informative articles.

We also want to be sure we have your current email address.  If you have provided an email address, but are not receiving Oxford Place email, please check your spam folder.  Also note that we delete email addresses after they fail three times.  Please send an email to oxfordplace@gmail.com to be added to the Oxford Place email list.  Note that we will only send residents email about important neighborhood related issues.  We regularly receive requests to send email to endorse goods & services, charities, religious events, political views, and other issues not specific to Oxford Place.  Although many of the requests are very worthy, we strictly abide by our policy to not send this type of email. 

C&R Issues

Over the past year, we addressed six C&R issues.  Some were carried over from previous years.  We sent letters to six residents regarding violations of the C&Rs.  These issues were three large boats parked long-term in driveways, one RV parked long-term in a driveway, one satellite dish mounted in the front of house, and one lot that had overgrown vegetation.  We are happy to announce that all six issues were quickly resolved.  Thank you residents!

Please note that signs advertising anything but real estate in front of a property ‘for sale’ are prohibited by the Oxford Place Covenants & Restrictions.  Item 20 explains the rule for signs.  We currently have two properties that have displayed a sign advertising construction for an extended period of time.  We respectfully request that these signs be removed immediately.  Please explain to your contractors that when residents are upset, the contractor may find that advertising their business in your yard will detract from rather than enhance their business, especially when the project is over schedule.

Non C&R Issues

During the past year, issues have brought to the attention of the board that are not covered by the C&Rs.  While we like to be kept aware of your concerns, the Property Owners Association often does not have the authority to address situations that are not covered by the C&Rs.  If you are not sure if your concern is a C&R issue, review the C&Rs on the documents tab at www.oxfordplace.us.  If you are still not sure if the issue concerns the C&Rs call or email the Oxford Place board.

Most non-C&R issues are best handled by first speaking to your neighbor.  If speaking with your neighbor doesn’t work you may want to call as appropriate: the York County Sheriff at  (803) 628-3059 (info@yorkcountysheriff.com); or York County Animal Control at (803) 628-3190 or (animal.control@yorkcountygov.com); or York County Code Enforcement at 803-909-7237

2010 Board Members

Call or email the 2010 board if you have any questions or concerns.

Patrick Ratliff 704-222-xxxx Kathy Sandvoss 803-233-xxxx
Chris Watts 803-230-xxxx Jim Tucker 803-325-xxxx
One Vacancy (please volunteer)                                 email = oxfordplace@gmail.com