A Letter From Our New President
I’m David Petersen and I’m the newly elected President of Spirit Lake East HOA.
At the December 11th monthly board meeting President John O’Neil stepped down and assumed the role as Member At Large. John will remain on the Board and continues to provide valuable counsel based on his years of experience. We’re grateful for his service.
Per the Bylaws, the 7-member SLE Board is elected by the residents of the SLE at the May elections. Should a Board Member subsequently resign, list their property for sale, sell and move away, or otherwise be unable to serve, the Board can appoint any eligible SLE resident to serve out the term of that former Board Member. This is how I found myself suddenly sitting on the Board. Shortly thereafter John expressed his desire to step down as President, and at the December Board meeting I was nominated for John’s position, and I assumed the duties of President.
At the December meeting the Board voted to increase dues by 3%, the maximum allowable according to the bylaws. You’ll see an annual dues increase of $7.72. There were many topics on the agenda and I encourage you to read it here: The Minutes — Spirit Lake East Homeowners Association
Not many people take the time to read all the bylaws, so I’ll highlight a few things and clarify some misconceptions. (Bylaws and CCR’s are available here).
Only one member of an SLE property can serve on the Board at the same time. However, Board Members CAN serve in a dual role, both on the Board AND as a Chairman on a Committee. Committees include Architectural, Audit, Newsletter, Roads, Timber, and The Welcome Committee. The Board also can choose to appoint a Chair position to any property owner in SLE, including the spouse of a sitting Member of the Board.
The HOA’s primary mission is pretty clear: maintain the roads. We gravel and grade in the summer, plow and sand in the winter. Not every HOA member agrees with the way we do it, but I can assure you that I will listen to your suggestions, present them to the Board, and try to implement your ideas. Sometimes it’ll be possible, sometimes it won’t. Just because the answer is “no, not today” doesn’t mean it won’t eventually happen. Road repairs and seasonal upkeep take time and money, and the Board has to juggle weather, equipment, and qualified equipment operators to make things happen. Please be patient, it’s not easy, but we’re doing the best we can. I’ll strive to make it better in the future.
Aside from gentle oversight when it comes to building permits and timber harvests, SLE HOA believes in leaving our members alone to live their life in peace, free from meddling or heavy-handed rules. We moved here to get away from that sort of thing. With that in mind, the Board steps in from time to time when issues pop up, whether those problems are caused by violations of HOA rules, neighbor-to-neighbor conflicts, noise complaints, speeding cars, and others. Usually, a gentle word brings good results because our neighborhood is made up of good people.
SLEHOA has a dedicated Facebook page: Spirit Lake East HOA where we post information directed to our members. The page is open to members of SLE HOA and it welcomes questions, comments, suggestions, and informative posts related to SLE business and operations. Posts are moderated by the admins and must be approved before they are published. This moderation isn’t meant to quash free speech or silence constructive criticism; instead, it’s there to prevent inappropriate comments, filter the wheat from the chaff, and keep comments and threads from being rehashed ad nauseum. If you submit a post to the SLEHOA page, it can take a day or two for us to review and approve. Posts of an emergency nature will be published as quickly as possible.
As with every Facebook page there’s a few simple rules: Be kind, be polite, avoid sarcasm or snarky comments, don’t write things that are argumentative or offensive to others. Commercial posts and personal promotions are not allowed. Unfortunately, a few people have abused these rules, so they’ve been blocked. I’m looking at the possibility of returning posting privileges to those persons, with an admonition to be on their best behavior, as well as providing careful oversight so they don’t violate the rules again, in which case they will be blocked again. Admin decisions are final and there’s no Court of Appeals.
There’s also a Facebook page that provides a second avenue for sharing information: SLE Neighborhood Spirit Lake Idaho. This page is more generalized, and you’ll see neighborhood happenings, lost and found property/animals, requests for home improvement resources, etc. The official SLEHOA page works hand-in-hand with Susie’s page, so you’ll sometimes see cross-posting.
Confusingly, there’s also 3rd Facebook page called “Spirit Lake East Neighborhood”. It was started by those whose posting privileges were blocked on the above sites, and it provides a forum for opposing viewpoints. My plan is to work with the Admins of that page toward developing a more friendly relationship between all parties. We need to work together.
Regardless of how you view the current leadership of SLEHOA, or what you read on any Facebook page or in a NextDoor post, we all have the same goals: we want to live in peace and harmony here in Spirit Lake East, we want the roads to be graveled, maintained, and plowed, and we want our HOA dues to be spent wisely and with careful oversight. It’s my job to see that this happens and I’ll do my very best.
