August Scene - Flipbook - Page 38
Letters to the Editor
Thank you for new shade structure
By Betsey Nelson
I want to thank the SROA
management and board for the
beautiful new shade structure at
the Fort Rock Pickleball courts. the heat!
It was such a pleasure to be
This is a wonderful examable to sit in the shade between ple of SROA staff listening to
games today and get a rest from feedback from the hundreds
of Pickleball Club members in in Sunriver.
Thank you, thank you,
the community and funding
improvements that further thank you!
enhance the amenities we value
Vote Yes for the CTF and all Board Members
By Sharon Konopa
There has been a lot of discussion over the CTF on social
media. I still have not read one
other funding mechanism that
is 100% fair, which many use
‘unfair’ as an excuse to not support the measure.
By not investing more now
in new amenities will stagnate
our Sunriver. Please do not let
one part of the measure you do
not agree with be your deciding
factor when voting, when our
community needs more funding now.
Also, on your ballot are three
new board member candidates.
I am so pleased Kara Kerker and
John Vogel are running.
They have great experience
of serving on our finance committee and know our SROA
financials more than most of
us owners. They will be a huge
asset to our SROA.
I have known John Hitt for
around 25 years; he has years
of experience with policies
and budgets before he retired.
There is a push on social media
to write-in some other owner’s
tion on what projects to fund
with no owner vote.
Additionally, the capital
transfer fee unfairly places the
burden of future project onto
a small number of buyers and your right as an owner to desellers versus spreading the termine future capital projects.
burden evenly to all those who
will benefit.
Please vote No and retain
the Reserve Fund as recommended by a Certified Reserve
Specialist designed to gradually
bring Sunriver Association’s
reserve threshold funding level
to 70-100% funded by the year
2042.”
SROA controller Joe Healy
maintains a spreadsheet that
estimates our capital reserve
funding level by year, based on
annual contributions, the total
cost of items slated to be replaced, and interest earned from
reserve funds. Joe added at the
Finance Committee’s request an
estimated annual expenditure of
$500,000 on new capital. This
is a typical annual expenditure
for new capital, independent of
any major new amenity items
(e.g. pickleball shade structures,
SHARC Shade, riverfront restoration in 2026). All values in the
spreadsheet are adjusted for an
estimated inflation rate of 3.5%
each year.
This spreadsheet’s current
estimate for our funding level
in 2042 is 79.8%, well within
the Consolidated Plan mandate. Making an adjustment
to this spreadsheet by adding
the estimated expenditure for a
pathway between Circle 2 and
Circle 3 ($2.5M) in 2028, re-
duces our funding level in 2042
to 63.6%, significantly below
the Consolidate Plan mandate.
Adding a second item like an
upgrade to Fort Rock Park,
(Phase I, $800,000) in 2030,
reduces our funding level in
2042 to 58.7%.
Our current capital reserve
fund balance, along with estimated future contributions and
expenditures, cannot support
more than a single $1.5M
investment for a new amenity
between now and 2042.
While there are other means
to fund new amenities, such as
an increase in maintenance dues
or special assessments, I believe
a CTF will have less impact on
a future home buyer’s decision.
Sunriver’s main attractions
continue to be our natural
environment, the amenities
we offer, our low maintenance
fees, and history of one special
assessment (SHARC). A 0.5%
change in a home’s list price
will not make or break a home
buyer’s decision.
This is an important issue for
Sunriver’s future, I encourage
all owners to vote in favor of
the CTF.
the current development and
use of a lot conform to Sunriver
regulations.
On May 27, 2026, the Design Committee chair and four
other members held a Special
Meeting concerning two owners' estoppel certificate request.
The owners received no notice
of the meeting and therefore
had no opportunity to observe
it. Owners ordinarily would
have had to rely solely on the
Committee's official “Meeting
Summary.”
However, these owners obtained and reviewed a copy
of the audio recording of the
meeting.
The recording shows the
chair opening the meeting
by striking the gavel and announcing, "Formal meeting."
The Committee then read and
adopted three motions with no
substantive discussion or deliberation regarding the estoppel
request during the meeting.
The meeting adjourned after
approximately 15 minutes.
The Committee later posted
its official "Sunriver Design
Committee Meeting Summary
– May 27, 2026." The “Meeting Summary” states that “[t]he
Committee reviewed, evaluated
and considered all information
in the record, including all governing documents relative to an
Estoppel Certificate..."
At the Committee's June
26 re-review hearing, one of
the owners asked whether the
“Meeting Summary” could be
relied upon as accurate. The
chair replied, "It seems right."
However, when the owner
pointed out that the audio
recording contained no substantive discussion, review,
evaluation, or consideration
of the estoppel request or governing documents during the
formal meeting, the chair acknowledged, "Yeah, the audio
recording doesn't show any of
that."
That same “Meeting Summary” remains posted on the
official Design Committee
Minutes webpage.
The issue is not whether these
owners agree with the Committee's decision. The issue is
whether any Sunriver owners
can rely on the accuracy of the
Committee's official record of
their meetings.
Because the owners obtained
the audio recording, the appeal
record now accurately reflects
what occurred during the formal meeting. Had they not
done so, the official “Meeting
Summary” would have remained a key, but inaccurate,
public account of how the decision was reached and would
have significantly undercut the
owners’ current appeal.
The SROA Board should
promptly direct the Design
Committee to correct the official “Meeting Summary.” The
Board should then consider
whether owners can have confidence in the integrity of the
Design Committee if those
responsible for approving publication of a seriously inaccurate
official “Meeting Summary” are
not held accountable.
names, instead of the candidates
on your ballot. Other owners
had the option to apply for the
board and did not.
The board members running
went through the proper channels to be on your ballot and
deserve your vote.
Vote No on the capital transfer fee
By Don McNamara
en, and how they are funded:
As owners, we should retain i.e. increased maintenance fees,
the right to determine what cap- special assessments, or user fees.
The proposed capital transfer
ital projects should be undertakfee gives the board full discre-
Approval of the CTF
By Gerhard Beenen
Owners have an opportunity
to vote on a Capital Transfer Fee
(CTF) in the upcoming election. My intent is to encourage
approval of the CTF and refute
those who believe SROA has
sufficient monies in its capital
reserves to fund multiple new
amenities.
The capital reserve fund was
approved by owners in 2005,
along with a modification to
the SROA Consolidated Plan.
This modification includes the
following:
“Directors shall follow the
multi-year funding plan for
Chorus of One
By Paul Conte
Can Sunriver Owners Trust
the Design Committee's Official Meeting Records?
Sunriver Consolidated Plan
Section 8.09 requires the Design Committee to provide an
“estoppel certificate” upon an
owner's request. An estoppel
certificate documents whether
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Page 38
AUGUST 2026 SUNRIVER SCENE
CCB# 200545
