General Manager’s Update

Dear Landings Association Members,

I can’t believe we’ve already reached the last month of the year! I’ll never understand why time speeds up the older you get, but it really hit home recently when my daughter decided to graduate high school a year early. My wife: “I just lost 12 months with her!” It’s great she’s ready to spread her wings, but as the great philosopher Ferris Bueller said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

That has me reflecting on what your Landings Association has accomplished this year. In the spring, you approved a needed Annual Dues increase that was focused on shoring up our Capital Reserves Fund and maintaining our assets. Read more about how we spent such funding this year in the Budget Box. One success story was the alternative construction methods and materials for the Landings Harbor Fishing pier, resulting in an improved, lower maintenance product with a longer lifespan and a $365,827 savings vs. budget. Also at Landings Harbor, we completed Phase 1 of the Harbor’s dry rack replacement project, allowing the storage of 24 additional boats that were on the waiting list.

An extensive review and update of our Rules and Regulations was completed, with more than 100 Member comments to help refine the final output. We worked with our Insurance Committee and brokers to change providers and adjust coverages, for a savings of $102,000 versus budget. We launched our new smartphone app. We transitioned to an electronic Landings Journal when our printer shut down and it became cost prohibitive to continue a print publication. Similarly, we pivoted to an all electronic Board election, saving your Association $15,000/year.

Live Oak Fiber (previously Coastal Communications) began the project of running fiber to the home for an internet alternative. Work will continue into next spring. You can imagine that running 90 miles of fiber to create the network, buried underground along with 51 years of other utilities that have been installed, is quite the task!

Those are just some of the more visible projects throughout the year. Behind the scenes, dedicated staff worked with the Board and committees, your fellow neighbors, on improvements from large to small, such as beginning to revise Architectural Guidelines to consider current trends and create a more user-friendly document; creating and distributing the first Community Survey in four years (now awaiting results); and meeting with local elected and appointed officials to discuss items of interest at our Landings Roundtable.

Turning to the future, replacement electronic message boards have just been installed. The previous signs had failing lights and had reached their lifespans. These new signs have higher-density pixels, allowing for more robust, easier to read messages. It will take us a while to dial in our new look and designs, so bear with us while we finalize what works best for our residents. But we’re excited about the new opportunities the signs will provide.

You may have noticed the radar/speed camera combination we now have out in the community. First set up on Landings Way South, it showed several hundred people a day exceeding the posted speed limit by at least eight miles per hour. We will begin sending courtesy notices to those who exceed certain limits, and ultimately will resort to fines in the future if necessary. We don’t want to fine anyone or view this as a revenue stream. However, we’ve heard loud and clear from the community about speeding concerns, and we intend to address this issue to ensure our community remains as safe as possible. Please do your part to help keep our community safe.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the many volunteers who help make what we do at the Association possible. You can find a list of these dedicated individuals starting on page 14 of the December Journal. Please know that try as we might, it often is difficult to make certain we have gathered the names of all Landings volunteers. If your name is not included in this listing, please know it was not intentional, and we appreciate all of your contributions.

 If I can help in any way, please let me know (karls@landings.org). Have a fabulous holiday season with your family and friends!