Whiteplains UNICOM #12: Getting started in 2007

The Whiteplains community began the year in fine style, with 65 property owners attending the Annual Meeting, catered by Shealy’s Bar-B-Que, on January 16. Immediately after the Annual Meeting, the newly-elected Board of Directors met to select officers for 2007. They will be: Ken Plesser, President; Micah Froese, Vice-president; Terry Yon, Treasurer, and Todd Falstad, Secretary. Please feel free to contact any Board member (listed above plus Michael Branning) about any issues pertaining to Whiteplains.

The first regularly-scheduled meeting of the 2007 Board was held on January 26, and was attended by eight additional property owners. A budget was adopted that provides for routine operating expenses, pays off the existing commercial loan on the new lawn tractor, deposits no less than $9,000 in the paving reserve, purchases replacements for weather-beaten signage around the neighborhood, and acquires both General Liability and Directors & Officers insurance policies. This last item has been the topic of much discussion over the past year, so some amplification is in order.

Last June, we assumed ownership of the runway parcel from the developer. This made your Association potentially liable in any lawsuit that might arise as a result of an accident on our runway (or on any of our common property, for that matter). In the absence of General Liability insurance, an enterprising plaintiff’s attorney could choose to sue each property owner in the Association individually. Our liability policy provides coverage in the event of any judgment up to $1,000,000, plus it provides for attorney’s fees for any legal defense. In the absence of Directors and Officers insurance, any of the many volunteers who devote their time and energy to Whiteplains could be held personally liable in the event of a lawsuit directed at them as a result of the execution of their duties. Your Board believes that it has a responsibility to protect the property owners and the community volunteers from any such exposures, hence the new budget item this year for insurance. The aviation attorney who we retained to review the policies and offer advice called the decision “a no-brainer.” The combined premium is $4400, or about $44 per property…. a modest price for a lot of peace of mind.

A number of people have been involved during the course of this past year in researching the entire insurance issue to ensure that we obtained the proper coverage through a broker that understood the unique issues that face communities with aviation amenities. These folks include Ray Chaplin, Melissa Black, John Gardner and Ray Ackerman, along with all of the 2006 and 2007 Board members. Thanks to all for a job well done.

A big item that is yet to be dealt with is the capital equipment and labor needed to maintain our common areas. In 2006, we purchased a suitable mower, and financed it (in part) by providing additional manual labor in the form of selling mowing contracts on unimproved lots. However, our community simply cannot expect free manual labor from its residents forever; hence we must develop a plan to transition to contract labor over the next several years. We already pay a firm to maintain the Phase I and Phase II entrance areas; paying to maintain the runway environment and other common areas in the future is inevitable.

Your Board is doing its utmost to be good stewards of the Association’s money, and increases in regime fees (such as this past year’s) are taken only when absolutely necessary. To place it all in context though, the Living With Your Plane Association, a loose affiliation of the 450+ airparks in the US (and of which we are a member), has compiled demographic data on residential airparks around the country. They found that the most common level of annual regime fees was the $250-500 bracket… so we’re right in line with our like-minded brethren around the country.

Ken Plesser, President
Whiteplains Plantation Association