Kiawah Island Property Owners Group

Membership Report:  Membership chair Katie Kotz has been sending out letters to prospective members using different colored paper to pick out our new members. Data Base Manager Kathy Heikes reported that according to our data base, in 2005 we had 1,602 members. In 2006 we had 1828 members. So far this year (2007) we have 1776 members, which is only 52 members short from all of last year. The data base is getting more complete as we are getting more information. Kathy will also buy a disk from the town with their data base to use as a check on properties.

Directory:  Kathy Heikes got the file from the printer on a disk and did a first proof. There were a lot of changes. Then the printer printed up copies for the editing committee. The committee is proofing it and will have it back by May 4th. Directory chair Peter Grant praised Kathy for all of her work on the Directory. We have sold 1400 directories so far. The question was raised as to how many we should print. Do we want to print too many and eat them or too few and run out? Since the total sold last year was 1550, we will order 1600 for this year.

OLD BUSINESS

• Safety & Security:  Art Morgenstern now has the traffic figures from March and April.

  March 2006                                   March 2007

     Main Gate: 159,989                    163,201

      V  Gate      95,181                      89,530

  April 2006                                      April 2007

      Main Gate: 167,982                    158,392

      V Gate       107,539                     87,760

  In March traffic at the Main Gate increased by 2%, and at the V Gate decreased 5.2% from last year. In April traffic increased by 3% at the Main Gate, and decreased 4% at the V Gate. These numbers are not exact as the counters fail to operate properly from time-to-time. We are looking for trends. The trend for people coming into first gate has gone up recently and decreased for people going through second gate. Incident levels jumped up in the last month. There were 101 incidents in April 2007, but only 70 last year. There were 59 incidents in March. The incidents increase related mainly to vandalism, contractor complaints, traffic problems, noise, and many more EMS calls, and people calling for assistance from Security

• Resort: The Town has scheduled a public meeting on May 14th. The meeting is for Council to hear from property owners anything they want to offer concerning upcoming negotiations between the Town and KIGR on a new Development Agreement. Town Officials will also be available to answer questions about the properties KIGR owns and the present zoning (land use) that is applicable for these properties on May 7th and 9th. A KPOG alert will go out.

• KICA: KICA is continuing to work on combining the two publications, TOWN NOTES and DIGEST. The publications will be independent, but will be sent together to save postage.

• Bridges: Ron Ritchie reported that while the bridges need maintenance, safety is not an issue. A bridge subcommittee from the MR&R Committee, made up of engineers, has been charged with recommending which of several alternative repair strategies should be used to fix the bridges

• Insurance: Ron Ritchie has had several conversations with the insurance agent in Summerville suggested by Art Morgenstern. The agent indicated that the Company we have for our Director’s insurance is one of the premier companies in the US, and that we should stay with it. Our Media insurance premiums seem to be high. A key part of this insurance is our website because everyone has access. Ron is still waiting to hear results from the underwriters.

• By-laws: Ben Farabee and Art Morgenstern will sit on the by-laws committee with President Diane Lehder.

• Plans for Maybank Corridor: The City presented a readout on the one week workshop they conducted on Johns Island and the resulting proposed plans for the Maybank Corridor. President Diane Lehder has written an article for TALK on the process and what they have done.

• Freshfields and Amphitheater: President Diane Lehder attended a Property Owners Association meeting on Seabrook. Seabrook hasn’t, at this point in time, agreed to commit anything to the Amphitheater. The Kiawah ATAX committee recommended that another $250,000 be allocated for additional studies. The question was raised if we should put the missing pages from the Freshfields Village Performing Arts Draft that we received on the website. The Board decided that KPOG should put missing pages on the website along with letter from Town Attorney Dennis Rhoad.

• Other: How many issues do we need to print for TALK? We are currently paying for 1950 issues of TALK. We need extras because Laurie Burpee needs them for advertising, and Katie Kotz needs them for membership. Do we have flexibility to change the number from month to month? Should we be sending them to people who haven’t paid? We have a 2 month transition period (new dues – old dues). We will sit down and do a lessons learned from this year’s membership drive and database update so we can document and refine procedures.