Tom Britt, Publisher of atGeist.com and GHPOA board member.
I think I’ve found a black hole near Geist, at least that’s what it feels like every time the topic of uniform mailboxes comes up at a GHPOA board meeting. Countless hours have been spent debating an issue that gets bigger as our homes get older.
One of the volunteer boards I’ve served on for the last six years is for the Geist Harbours Property Owners Association (“GHPOA”) which represents 2,380 homeowners living in 12 Geist neighborhoods: Admirals Bay, Admirals Pointe, Admirals Sound, Admirals Woods, Beam Reach, Crossing South, Feather Cove I, Feather Cove II, Feather Cove III, Diamond Pointe, Masthead I, and Masthead II.
After completing the five-year, $580,000 street sign project, the grounds committee, chaired by now-retired Dr. John Moore, presented the concept of uniform mailboxes to the board last fall. None of our mailboxes in any of our neighborhoods (with the exception of Admirals Woods) were standardized or uniform despite our current covenants that clearly give design approval to the GHPOA. The result is a potpourri of mailbox styles, designs, and tastes which really detracts from the all-important curb appeal of our neighborhoods.
Just replace them. That’s pretty easy, right?
Not necessarily.
About five years ago, the GHPOA board approved a standardized mailbox design featuring a sailboat that retails for $495 installed. Doing some simple math, replacing 2,380 mailboxes at $495 each is a $1,178,100 project which is twice the amount of the five-year street sign project. Proponents argue that we wouldn’t have to buy 2,380 because over 300 residents have already purchased the new mailbox. They also contend that buying them in bulk will help us lower the cost.
I have several issues with this proposal, here are my top three:
- Cost: Even if you buy the mailboxes in bulk, they are still going to cost around $350 each installed (Susan Lew, new grounds committee chairperson, has secured some preliminary bids already). Replacing the 2,080 estimated mailboxes at the new price is still a $728,000 project. The only way to subsidize a project like this is to have a dues increase or a one-time special assessment. Homeowners association dues are taxes, and I’m not in favor of raising taxes unless it is absolutely necessary. Standardized mailboxes are not a necessity in my opinion.
- Future Upkeep: So you get a new mailbox installed and one of your kids runs it over accidentally. Who pays for the new mailbox? GHPOA is not going to buy you a new one, but the assumption would be that since they installed it, they would maintain it. And if you are looking at a $495 replacement cost versus a $150 mailbox from Lowe’s, how can GHPOA insure that every homeowner will do the right thing and buy the $495 replacement box?
- Variances: You have a $10,000 brick mailbox in front of your waterfront home. Is GHPOA going to tear that down and put in a $495 (or $350 if we buy in bulk) mailbox? Are you going to allow GHPOA to tear down your $10,000 mailbox? GHPOA would have to make exceptions to the standardization mandate and deal with several angry homeowners that might not have a $10,000 mailbox structure, but they have an otherwise aesthetically pleasing mailbox. I believe the GHPOA needs to pick their battles, and arguing over a mailbox isn’t at the top of my list.
At the last GHPOA meeting, the board decided to take the discussion offline since we have spent hours debating this proposal at our monthly meetings. We met at Eddy’s Neighborhood Bar & Grill last Monday evening and invited some other residents to attend. Surprisingly, about 20 homeowners attended and voiced their opinions and ideas. My favorite concept and proposed solution to this dilemma was brought up by Randy Frisk, a Masthead homeowner.
Negotiate a bulk price for the mailboxes (say $350 for argument sake) and offer a GHPOA subsidy program to a fixed number of residents that purchase the standardized mailbox. For example, GHPOA allocates $75,000 from the 2010 operating budget to subsidize a maximum of 500 mailboxes at $150 each. This would bring the purchase price down to $200 for each homeowner that wanted a new, standardized mailbox. Each year, the GHPOA board could budget for this mailbox subsidy fund and control the expense by capping the number of eligible mailboxes to be installed.
This proposal overcomes my three objections to the original proposal. First and foremost, the homeowner is still purchasing the mailbox and thus “owns” the mailbox. The cost to the association is much more manageable at $150 per mailbox. Second, the burden of upkeep and maintenance clearly falls on the homeowner. Lastly, those homeowners with aesthetically pleasing mailboxes would not necessarily have to replace their mailboxes, but over time as they get older and need replacing, having a $200 option available would be a nice option.
I intend on proposing this option at our next GHPOA board meeting and would appreciate any of your feedback and comments. I also encourage you to voice your opinions to your respective GHPOA neighborhood representative.
8 Responses to “Uniform Mailbox Discussion for GHPOA Homeowners” Leave a reply ›
If the neighborhood association can't get households to ante up $300 to keep our amenities center operational (with an anticipated $50-75 yearly maintenance fee per household), then good luck getting people to shell out nearly $500 for a mailbox.
At 200, i would buy one. At 450, no thanks.
Money poorly spent. Plain and simple. Taking money from the general fund to subsidize the facae homeowner purchase price is just hiding the real cost.
There are better ways to spend our general fund- like repairing and repaving the streets. The streets now are pock-marked with tidbits of repairs. If we're truly looking to improve the visual asthetics of the neighborhoods and reduce DAMAGE to our cars- lets spend the money on the streets.
Lets save a few more dollars as well and cut down the ridiculous volume of patrol cars that hide on our streets. What is this- some kind of section 8 projects?
Janette,
It is my understanding that the neighborhood association (GHPOA) has nothing to do with the streets! Those are taken care of by the city of Indianapolis (or Fishers, depending on which part of Geist).
Also, the "ridiculous volume" of patrol cars are there to protect us! Too much security is never a bad thing. When one has too little is when it becomes a problem... Believe it or not, just because Geist is a relatively nice area does not mean there isn't any crime.
I agree with Patty. Not enough homeowners will spent the money. I do not think our mailboxes look attractive; many are an eyesore, but people often place value on function rather than aesthetics. When you live here, you are supposed to be appreciative of aesthetics, but some are letting their practicality put a hold on not-so-necessary things.
I live on a private street ( in Admiral's Bay). We have a cluster of mailboxes at the head of our street, not free-standing ones at each of our houses. What ia being proposed for the new design for that type of mailbox? There are lock boxes with three across and four down with two package receptacles, all aluminum colored. Why would the residents of this street want to contribute our dues to help pay for uniform mailboxes for all residents? ( I would have paid to save the pool amenities.)
Janette's comment is just silly. The streets are paved by Marion County and/ City of Indianapolis.. We could never afford to pay for that on a house by house basis as I guess it would work out to thousands per house. We DO need the streets paved. Maybe we could ask for STIMULUS money for it, as I am sure that we have heard before that it is waiting for funding and is probably "SHOVEL-READY".
1) I don't agree that having non-standardized mailboxes "detracts from the all-important curb appeal of our neighborhoods." I associate the matching mailboxes more with the cookie-cutter/vinyl village neighborhoods. Its not about being uniform, its about upkeep of whatever you have. If the problem is that some people are letting their mailboxes become an eyesore (of which I haven't even seen evidence), the proposal of subsidizing mailboxes is sure to fail in solving this problem. A homeowner who is apt to keep up their mailbox can surely do so for less than $200. Likewise, someone who is not keeping up their mailbox such that it is becoming a problem is also not going to choose to take advantage of a subsidized mailbox that still costs $200. Thus, a subsidy would only be taken advantage of by those who would be otherwise taking good care of their mailbox on their own.
The subsidy is preferable to mandating the mailboxes, and is preferable to the HOA outright buying them. Overall, however, I feel this is a bad project and a bad solution. Spend the money on roads, or on contracting to spray for the invasive Eurasian Millfoil that is invading the coves and entangling boat propellers.
I'm confused. Mr. Britt you say you are a member of GHPOA yet you refer to them in third person. So are all of these costs just estimates? Has the board approved this plan of yours?
I think the mailboxes would look very nice and would improve the look of our neighborhoods tremendously. Like you said, the homes in the area are aging, and I believe we need to improve property value any way we can! If the mailboxes end up being ~$350 dollars like Mr. Britt stated above, I would most certainly be on board.
I agree there has to be something better to do with the money. People didn't want to pay to keep the pool, why would they want to pay to have uniform mailboxes?