Your Trustees have kept 2009 maintenancefees unchanged for the third straight year, despite 5.8 percent inflation!
* Maintenance fees have risen only once in five years. Had they risen with inflation in each of those years, the average condo owner would be paying sixteen percent more, or nearly $300 more per year in 2009 and subsequent years.
* Over the five years, inflation-based increases would have resulting in taking $946,000 more out of the pockets of condo owners.
* We were able to hold the line on maintenance fees despite problems inherited from Hovnanian, a large backlog of repairs and the aging of our facilities. (described in Editorially Speaking)
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* A full year of insurance savings is included in the 2009 budget.
* A full year of savings on bus, van and car services in included in the 2009 budget.
* The high level of maintenance and repair activity in 2008 reduced our backlog and will continue to do so with comparable spending in 2009. * Lower oil prices hold down our costs for electricity as well as asphalt for paving.
Cost reduction and cost control have enabled us to do more with fewer inflationadjusted dollars. Yet much remains to be done, and more is discovered every week. It feels like the guy who was waiting for the other shoe to drop ... and it turned out to be a centipede (wearing 100 shoes)!