All supervisors and staff were present for the final Westchase CDD board meeting of 2023 and Chairman Matt Lewis began by opening the meeting up to audience comments. Eric Holt of Radcliffe voiced his concerns over drivers speeding in his neighborhood and asked the Board to consider putting up a sign to mitigate potential accidents. Holt noted he had contacted the County but had been told that they had a limited inventory of signs. Engineer Robert Dvorak said that the County is reluctant to place signs warning drivers to watch out for children, for fear it will encourage children to play in the street. Field Manager Doug Mays stated that the roadways in Radcliffe are County property and the only potential area the CDD would be able to legally place a sign would be within the neighborhood’s pocket park. Before taking the matter any further, Lewis asked Holt to get a better understanding from his neighbors as to how they would feel about new signs going up since it can be a contentious issue.
Stonebridge HOA President Matt Rice then asked the board for an update on the vulture contract with the USDA. He stated that the birds had returned to the neighborhood – both to the island on the pond and to residents’ roofs. Supervisor Chris Barrett reminded the board that he would be reluctant to take further costly action unless the WCA Board was also exploring solutions, such as deterrents for roofs, to help mitigate the ongoing problem. Supervisor Jim Wimsatt also voiced concern that the WCA Board had not taken action. WCA Director Jack Maurer was in attendance and assured the CDD supervisors that it was on their radar and they were looking at ways to “accommodate an affective not selective solution” and recognized it as a growing problem.
Following up on his cell tower report from last month, Dvorak said he had still not seen any activity at the cell tower construction site and District Counsel Erin McCormick confirmed she had also not heard from Vertex for a couple of weeks; she would reach out again for an update.
District Manager Andrew Mendenhall kicked off his lengthy report with an update on the search for a new field manager. Based upon the initial round of interviews with the Board during the November workshop, Mendenhall suggested reopening the advertisement with an increased starting salary to cast a wider net. Lewis reminded Mendenhall that the Board wants to have someone on board well before Mays leaves in April. Mendenhall assured him that he would share resumes ahead of the January workshop when they can hopefully interview additional candidates.
Mendenhall then turned the focus to the limited response they had received to the RFP for the West Park Village Plaza project. Wimsatt suggested that even though the Board had not been keen to hire a General Contractor for the project, it may be time to reconsider. Supervisor Greg Chesney agreed, pointing out that a GC would have a lot of contacts for the various components of the project. A motion was then approved to prepare an RFP for a General Contractor.
One month in and Mays reported that Fieldstone Landscape Services is doing well, but they had identified a number of issues with the irrigation system which would cost up to $30,000 to repair. At the beginning of the December, Fieldstone had its first inspection and received a score of 90%. Mays noted the initial inspection also served as an overview of general expectations for future inspections. Office manager Sonny White noted she was also pleased with Fieldstone’s administration and detailed feedback.
During supervisor requests, Reggie Gillis exclaimed how pleased he was with the 500-plus responses received from the long-term planning survey launched in November. He suggested discussing the findings at the next workshop and also asked WOW Publisher Karen Ring if the results could be published through the WOW. Ring agreed to share the results in the January issue.
