BRADFORD FARMS HOMEOWNER’S ASSOCIATION

From the President’s Corner

5-22-08

Over the past several months the Board of Directors has been requested by homeowners to follow up on city code violations concerning yard upkeep and house appearance in general. This prompted us to contact the city code enforcement office for guidance. We were given a web-link, which is below, having all the codes pertaining to topics discussed, and we are providing this for you to review and see if you are in compliance. The Board hopes all will review the codes listed under Article II Section 12-20 and Article IIA Section 12-26 thru Section 12-29A so none of our community members will have any problems with the town. We thank all of you for keeping our community within the guidelines of the city codes, thus helping maintain our property values.

The link and instructions:
We strongly encourage everyone to visit the Madison website and familiarize themselves with these city codes.
 
Go to www.madisonal.gov.
Click on SELECT A DEPARTMENT
From the drop down menu, select CITY CLERK
Scroll to the bottom of the page where it says “City codes are now available online___Click Here --
Click and you will find all the city codes.
If anyone has personal reasons/problems that prevent compliance, please contact someone from the Board and we will gladly try to help you out.

Paul Hurst
President
BFHOA
 

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The 2008 annual assessment will be $130 per household. I’m writing this to give all our homeowners a brief overview of our past assessments so you can have a better understanding of the increase from year 2006 to this year 2008.

Starting in 1997, control of Bradford Farms was turned over by the Builder to the Community, to be handled by a Board of Directors following a set of Covenants and By-Laws. Each household should have a set of the Covenants and By-Laws that we operate by. Both documents are also on our website (www.bradfordfarms.com). If you do not have them, please let me know and you can either pick them up at my house or go to our website and download them.

Since 1997 the assessments were as follows:

1997 $135 1998 $125 1999 $125 2000 $100

2001 $150 2002 $125 2003 $125 2004 $175

2005 $150 2006 $85 2007 $120 2008 $130

This averages out to $128.75 per year, but you probably want to know why 2006 was so low at $85. The reason is that in prior years we had budgeted for a pond dredging fund, but in 2005 we found out that pond dredging is the responsibility of the town and not our community. So the Board of Directors used this $9,000.00 surplus as a one-time bonus to offset the 2006 budget, which amounted to $48.38 per lot.

So in the year 2007 we no longer had that pond-dredging surplus and have therefore set the assessment at $120 per household. This amount was actually lower than 2006 if you combine the $85 plus the reduction of $48.38 which would total $133.38. Now this year 2008 due to rising cost of maintenance we raised the assessment to $130 just a $1.25 over the 12 year average. I hope this helps you understand the increase from 2006.

Thank you,

Paul Hurst

President, Bradford Farms Homeowner’s Association