June 2025 Towne South Homeowners Assoc. Minutes

TOWNE SOUTH HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION
Open Meeting Minutes – June 17, 2025

Board present – Ryan Storie, Hugh McWilliams, Jackie Tebbe, Greg Hertlein, and Mary Ann McWilliams Administrative Assistant.  Absent: Katie Mizera.  In addition to the Board members, attendees in person included lot owners:  Betty Willett, Pat Stephens, Lucille Hines, Steve & Patricia Burris, and Evelyn Bevans.  Attendees via Zoom:  None.

Chair Ryan Storie opened the meeting at 7:04 pm thanking all for attending and asked the Board members to introduce themselves.  

1.      Approval of Minutes from April 15, 2025.   Ryan announced that the Board has reviewed the minutes from April 15, 2025, and have approved them as presented.  As a reminder, the May 20th meeting had to be cancelled because due to circumstances beyond their control and illness, there was not a quorum of Board members able to attend. This meeting will be made up by holding a December meeting.   

2.      Financial Update – As there was no meeting in May, Jackie presented financials for both April and May. 

a.      April – Total income for the month was $1,202.70 most of which was from Assessment Fees and Late Fees.  Expenses for the month totaled $4,791.11.  The highest expenses during April were for lawn care, insurance, and accounting and legal fees.  This gives us a net loss in April of $3,588.41.

b.      May – This was a better month as we almost broke even.  Income for the month was $3,158.80 – again most all of which came from Assessment Fees, Late Fees and Trustee Verification Fees.  Expenses totaled $3,277.67. Most of these expenses were for lawn care and St. Louis County Recorder of Deeds filing fees.  This gives us a net loss in May of only $118.87.   

c.      YTD – This report looks much prettier.  Our total income to date is $54,672.72.  Over $52,000 of this is from our annual assessment fees.  Our expenses to date are $13,480.14.  The big-ticket items in this figure are Insurance, Lawn Care, Postage, various filing fees, and utilities.  We have been fortunate that the storms have been kinder to our old trees.  We have lost only four trees, but these have fallen into creek areas and not needed our tree service.  This brings our YTD net profit to $41,192.58.  We know this number looks great, but we are just at the beginning of our lawn care season and tree maintenance, which are by far our biggest expenses annually. Jackie noted that the total in both our checking account and money market accounts total $71,729.42 at this time.    

d.      Close PNC Bank accounts and apply for Regions Bank credit card – Ryan reported that back on September 17, 2024, the Board approved closing our accounts at PNC Bank and opening a checking and money market account at Regions Bank. This transition process was slow as we were processing all our annual assessment checks.  We kept our HOA’s credit card through PNC but are now ready to move that over to Regions as well. 

e.      Fees for Trustee Verification Letters with short notice – Jackie reported that we are getting more and more requests for Trustee Verification Letters with as little as one day’s notice.  Several months ago, the Board approved increasing the fee for requests with less than seven business days’ notice to $150.  Our regular fee remains $100 for these Verifications.  Mary Ann suggested this information go on our website so the title companies will see our fees.   

3.      Update on status of Indenture amendments 2025 – Jackie noted that these amendments have been documented with St. Louis County Recorder of Deeds, and we have the electronic verification of this.  We should receive the hard copy via mail from our attorney soon.    

4.      Entrance Signs – Ryan reported that the Board is in the process of reviewing bids from three different companies on the repair/replacement of our three entrance signs.  We have questions that still need to be answered and will hopefully be making a decision within the next month or so.       

5.      Liens & Releases – There have been a total of 11 liens filed for non-payment of 2025 assessment fees since our April meeting.  There have been no releases filed to date.   

6.      Violations Resolved (1) and Unresolved (5) – We continue to work with St. Louis County on two of these unresolved properties.  County tells us these properties are waiting for a court date.  We’ve been told this could take months.  Question was raised if this included the Overview property.  Yes, we are constantly attempting to get something resolved there.  They have been sent our violation notice and are incurring fines for non-compliance. 

7.      Common Ground Issues

a.      Mowing – Greg reported that the grass has been really growing with all the rain we’ve had.  This has prevented our workers from getting to all the areas that need attention.  They have reported that several areas have become dumping areas for all kinds of debris, rocks, branches, etc. making it impossible for the mowers to get to it mowed.  We are addressing this in our executive meetings.    

b.      Piles of branches – Greg stated that we know there are many piles of branches and that we are working on clearing these.

c.      Fences – Greg reported that he has done an inventory of the repairs needed on our white fences.  We have found out that the posts are being used to dispose of used drug syringes and small bottles of booze.  We plan to spray foam in the posts and then glue the cap onto the posts.  Many posts are completely missing the caps, and we are going to have to purchase new caps.  In addition, the honeysuckle continues to spread like crazy along our fences.  This project is going to take a lot of manpower.   

d.      Miscellaneous and Realtor Signs – Ryan reported that we are finding more and more miscellaneous signs and realty signs being put in our common ground and at our entrances.  Our Indentures specifically state that no signs, other than a realty sign advertising an Open House on the day of the Open House, are allowed anywhere in our subdivision.  We have been picking these signs up whenever we see them.  We need to create a statement to this effect and post it on our website.  

Homeowners may not mow grass, trim trees, plant, provide maintenance, etc., on common property without the written consent of the majority of the Board of Governors on an annual basis. The Board of Governors reserves the right to revoke such consent.

8.      Trees – Greg reported that we have been very fortunate with our old trees given the severity of the storms we have had since March.  We asked County to come out and see if the dead trees along the sledding hill on Towne Centre could belong to County.  The bad news is that these trees are less than one foot from being their trees.  So, they belong to the HOA.  A couple of these trees keep dropping big branches, but the County didn’t think the tree itself was in any danger of falling over.  We have a few trees on our radar screen and are waiting to get bids on their removal. 

9.      Creeks

a.      MSD Update – Greg noted that the big culvert project was supposed to have started already.  However, when he inquired he was told that the person who had been in charge left MSD, and the file was lost or misplaced.  After Greg’s repeated efforts, the file has been found, however the project goes back to the bottom of the list.  Additionally, Greg has noticed that we have another culvert collapsed at Kerth and Brunston.  He has made MSD aware of this issue.   

10.  Motorbikes – Ryan reported that the police have caught three of our bikers and has given them a warning that if they continue to ride in a dangerous and inappropriate manner that the next time they will be fined, and their bikes will be impounded.  The Board is asking any homeowner who witnesses these actions or knows where these bikers live to please call the police immediately.  The warning has helped some in that they are no longer tearing up the ground in our common areas.    

11.  Requests for Approvals – The Board has not received any requests to approve home improvements since our last meeting

12.  Beautification Committee – Greg reported that there is a very dedicated group of people who have spent a lot of time and effort making the area around our three entrance signs look very nice.  They have been trimming the bushes, pulling weeds, and spreading mulch.  There are also a few homeowners who like to go out and trim back the brush and honeysuckle around some of our white fences.  We thank them immensely.  It’s hard to get people to help on the fences and honeysuckle.

New Business  - None.

Old Business

a)     There are currently 50 rentals homes within our HOA - up two up from last month.  In an effort to keep everyone updated, we will report on the number of rentals at each monthly meeting.   

Open Floor Questions/Comments –

Steve and Patricia Burris homeowners on Hursley addressed the Board with complaints about the lack of mowing and the amount of debris that is accumulating behind their property all along Hursley.  In the past the mowing company mowed and kept that common ground well groomed.  It has really declined in the past two years.  There are big piles of branches and all kinds of junk being stacked up by the mowers.  Greg noted that the mowers have come to him with the issue of their not being able to mow certain areas because of the amount of tree branches on the common ground.  He told them to stack them up there so that at least they could mow most of the area.  The pile is growing bigger every week and it’s not just what the mowers are piling up.  It seems some homeowners have taken it upon themselves to use the common ground as their personal dumping ground.  The Burris’ said they used to be able to walk their grandchildren through this area as a short cut to the neighboring area but now that’s not possible.  Additionally, Steve reported that there is quite a lot of poison ivy growing along the HOA side of the fence.  Some neighbors have taken it upon themselves to try to clean this up, but as they get older it’s not possible.  Steve and Patricia asked the Board to come over and take a serious look at this property and to get back to them as to what the Board intends to do to clean it up.    

Evelyn Bevans stated that the tree that the Board cut down last year and pushed into the creek now has a ton of vines growing all over it and there have been animals seen coming and going from that area.  She is concerned that things like this are going to affect the property values within our HOA.  Jackie stated that back when the HOA cut that tree down, we were told that the neighbor behind her wanted the wood and that we were to leave it for him. The Board acknowledged this in an email response to Evelyn at the time.  Evelyn asked for a copy of this email conversation.  Mary Ann will pull it out of our records and get a copy to her when she can.  She also stated that because of the condition of our common grounds she believes our property values are going down.  Jackie stated that it is the responsibility of the Board of Governors to evaluate and assess the safety of the trees and decide on an individual basis how to handle each one.

Betty stated that our HOA fees are the best thing going.  No one can believe how little we pay each year.  She believes our fees need to be increased to at least $100 so that there is money to handle these kinds of issues.  She asked if a special assessment might be proposed just to bring all the trees and common ground back to where they need to be.  Jackie said that our attorney has cautioned us against that.  Ryan noted that when this Board took over almost three years ago, there were practically no operating funds in the bank. And practically no reserves as well.  This Board has worked hard to correct that situation and we are finally making progress.  Jackie stated that each year at our annual meeting in February she presents the projected budget for the following year with the Board’s proposal for what the fees need to be for that year.  All homeowners at the annual meeting then vote on whether to accept the Board’s proposal or not.    We realize that overall very few homes out of our 713 are affected by common ground and creeks behind or next to them. 

Ryan stated that this conversation could go on for hours and he suggested that we adjourn this meeting and agreed that the Board will talk about all of the issues brought forward and will try to come back to the homeowners with a good path forward to resolve the common ground and tree issues.    

Ryan asked if there was any other business to be brought to this Board.  Hearing none, the meeting was adjourned at 7:57 pm.  The next regular Open Monthly Meeting is Tuesday, July 15, 2025, at 7:00 pm at Prince of Peace UCC.   

Submitted by,

Mary Ann McWilliams
Administrative Assistant