Hearthstone Village

HVCA Minutes – May 2025

Hearthstone Village Community Association (HVCA) Meeting Minutes

Date: May 19, 2025
Location: Bethel United Methodist Church (church was locked, so we met at the home of Kim & Dennis Loxton)
Next Meeting/Elections: June 30, 2025 at 7:00pm at Bethel United Methodist Church

Board Members Present: Brian Davies, Mary Licker, Dennis Loxton, Kim Loxton, Ronda Roose, Tim Hake, Stacey Teagle, Ed Matten
Guest Attendees: Ben Price, Bill Smith, Steven Follis (from Trent Management), Calvin Fromm

1. Call to Order:
Brian Davies called the meeting to order at 7:30pm.

2. Secretary’s Report – Kim
Kim presented the minutes from the previous meeting.
Motion to approve: Seconded and approved.

3. Treasurer’s Report – Mary
Last month’s balances: $53,286.00 (checking); $15,060 (CD); $9,520 (CD). CDs mature on 9/19/2025
This month’s balances: $46,771.70 (checking); $15,114 (CD); $9,554 (CD). CDs mature on 9/19/2025

4. President’s Report – Brian
The court hearing scheduled for May 13 has been changed to May 28. This is the only remaining resident with an outstanding HOA dues balance. The others have paid.

5. Architectural Report – Brian

  • No architectural requests since the April meeting.
  • There have been some improvements made by the homeowner at 8408 Summerset Pl. Any further legal action against this homeowner will be discussed and voted on at the June 2025 meeting.
  • The mini library has been installed at the playground.

6. Maintenance Report – Dennis

  • The common areas have been sprayed for weeds.
  • Discussion of drainage ditch quotes. Dennis met with several contractors over the past 2 months. A range of options encompassing a phased approach where the ditch would be dredged, widened back to its original size, and the invasive large trees impeding water flow would be removed. The additional work including redoing the swales, drainage, etc south of the ditch are also included in this review.
  • Issues with current landscape service – if you notice grass not being cut in common areas near you, let Dennis know.
  • Turf management – Dennis to treat +/- 1.5 acres of the main common areas in June or July with a granular pre-emergent fertilizer/weed killer. Cost is about $170. Going forward for 2026, we’ll pretreat the entire 5.25 acres of common area with pre-emergent in mid-April and the “main” 1.5 acres in June/July. This provides a proactive management plan to stay ahead of any weed issues and is cheaper than one liquid treatment.
  • All together, the treatments are about $400 less expensive than one liquid treatment.

Ditch /Tree Project:

  • There is a sharp divergence of opinions from the contractors surveyed as to what will fix the problem. Two weeks ago, we did not have rain for a few days. There was little water in the area leading into the ditch, but the west area of the park still had standing water.
  • In addition, we have people dumping cut grass and brush into the creek. If you know who they are, please let Dennis know.
  • There is another 8” pipe that is very hard to see that appears to carry water from the west side of the park into the ditch. The last person to come out for a bid removed a root mass from it.
  • He suggested looking into a service to jet the pipes, to see if there are blockages.
  • It appears that the stump will leave a massive hole, and if it becomes an issue we can revisit it. For now, the tree service will cut as low as possible to remove most of the stump.

It was suggested to prioritize the ditch issues in the following manner:

  1. Come to an agreement on removing the large tree. Removing the stump now is cost prohibitive, and if need be, we can come back to this in a few months. Some unsightly brush will be removed – we will try to maintain as much of the natural screen as possible. Also look into a jet service for an estimate to jet the 8” pipe leading to the west side of the park.
  2. Once the tree is removed, we then consider dredging/widening the ditch for about 100’ if needed. Grass and erosion mats would be put down on the banks.
  3. Phase 3 could be jetting the 8” pipe, if in fact it is relevant to the issue.
  4. Phase 4 could be the sidewalk/swale repair and regrading.

7. New Business:

  • Ditch/Tree
    The Board voted to accept the low bid of $3,300 from R & L Tree Service to remove the large tree and other debris from that area of the ditch. Dennis will coordinate the work.
  • HVCA Officers & Participation rate at the meetings was discussed. We have 17 board positions. Due to low volunteer rate for the board positions, a commercial management company may be needed to continue HVCA operations. This will be determined by the turn-out at the June 30 board meeting, when open board positions will be voted on.
  • Steve Follis from Trent Management discussed the possibility of Hearthstone outsourcing management services to them. This would come at an additional price to the homeowners. While the cost is unknown, it would be well in excess of the 8% increase limit in the bylaws.

8. Adjournment:
Motion to dismiss: Seconded and approved.

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