For some time I have wondered if an alum treatment should be worked into our reserve study as an ongoing reserve budget item. We currently are working on remediation efforts in our watershed to improve the quality of the water entering our lake but I have to tell you this is one rough row to hoe. At best in my opinion we will be able to slow the influx of nutrients but we will never make this lake as pristine on a long term basis as the northern sand bottom lakes.
Look at it this way, if we budgeted $300,000 for an alum treatment in seven years it would be almost $43,000 per year. Divide that by 2400 lots and it is less than $18.00 per year per lot. That does not mean a dues increase for this. It is strictly a budgeted expense. Budgeted reserve expenses do not have to be spent but they are accounted for in planning. Our early roads budget was projected at over a million per year and we are not spending it, not even close to that number, but it was budgeted in case we needed it. These things can be done.
Yes, dues allocations can be changed as we did this year to accommodate a larger expenditure in operating for the alum treatment since it was not budgeted in reserves but why not have it where it belongs? Let's do this right. I will be bringing this up during the budgeting process or earlier. Possibly with watershed remediation we may not need another treatment for twelve years and that is fine but I am pretty sure the day will come and I want us ready. My opinion only.
Ken