L'Hermitage Link Newsletter

L'Hermitage Link

L'Hermitage Community Association

L'Hermitage I Condominium Association, Inc.

From the President

Viewing our L'Hermitage complex in the light of what is happening in the world today, I look at our community as a small-town, neighborly place to live. In a very small way, we are representative of the world.

We have learned, and are still learning, how to live with our neighbors, how to compromise and get along, how to stand up and speak when we feel something is not right, sit and smile when we are content, and how to tell the important things from the unimportant. Of all the things that happen in a condominium association, the two most important are our physical and mental well being, and how we live with our friends and neighbors.

This past year, Tower I has traveled a fairly rough and rocky road. But we survived and even grew a little. We added new spa equipment. The board approved an Employee Handbook and distributed it to all employees. We changed managers and officers of the board. We negotiated further with the developer and will be heading into Mediation in early 2003. We lived within our budget and some excess revenues will be carried into next year. Even with a considerable increase in insurance premiums due to worldwide terrorism, our new budget is only slightly higher than in 2002.

I want to thank all the staff for their continuous efforts, which have helped to make this condominium a wonderful home. Thank you administration, maintenance, valet, security, and housekeeping. A very special thanks goes to Angie for filling in as our Acting Manager.

Starting January 1, 2003, we are retaining a quality management company, which will provide us with a new full-time manager. Hopefully, with fewer contentious items with which to deal, we will have a successful and peaceful 2003. My wife, Irene, joins me in wishing all of you a Happy New Year. We wish you what we wish for ourselves...Happy Holidays!

Don Powell, President
L'Hermitage I Association, Inc.

Click To Top of Page

L'Hermitage II Condominium Association, Inc.

From the President

Dear Residents of L'Hermitage II,

Your Board of Directors has been extremely busy protecting and improving our home. Bud Guyer, our new Manager, has worked diligently and closely with the Board members to keep the quality of our condominium property at the high level that we all expect. Bud has had extensive experience in condominium management, with a strong knowledge of the Florida State statutes, as well as the condominium documents. We have directed Bud to concentrate a large part of his time on the former "Project Manager" files and to work closely with our Engineering Committee and Omega Engineering, with the goal of aggressively pursuing the Developer to get the largest Tower repairs engineered and completed. I am happy to report major progress on the largest claims we have against the Developer. The engineered repairs of the parapet walls on the top of our building are underway, under Developer warranty. The engineered terrace ledge repairs will be shortly underway as a Developer warranty. As soon as these are complete, we expect to concentrate on the roof access deficiency. We have accomplished all this with very minimal legal expense. Your Board of Directors has taken great care to hold costs down in 2002 thus we have avoided an assessment for 2002, while prudently accomplishing our necessary maintenance and repairs. Many fine projects were completed this year such as the variable speed drive project, which will save our Tower approximately $50,000 annually. Still another completed project was the installation of the stairwell shutters protecting the 02, 07 & 08 stairwell areas that were once flooding. Another job in progress is the replacement of the corroded sprinkler system & water piping in the garage (a developer claim). We were unfortunate in that the "Hurricane Screen" project failed and we are now in the process of litigating and/or mediating claims against the two companies that sponsored the product. We have not paid the final $40,000 for this project and have essentially used the budgeted money to purchase Accordion Hurricane Shutters for the high areas on the building. In an effort to save money, we used the old shutters for the low areas. Bud has brought us a new, highly qualified, inexpensive law firm that has agreed to file the lawsuit free of charge as a courtesy for future representation of ongoing Tower legal matters. There is no assurance we can be successful in this effort. On the positive side, as most of you know, I have been in negotiations with AT&T on and off for most of last year for our case against them for Telephone and Cable services. I am happy to report the final settlement for both Towers and all monies received. This was accomplished with minor legal expense. We look forward to a bright 2003 as many major issues will have been resolved. I hope to continue to bring you all good news on Developer negotiations. In the meanwhile, we will continue to "fine-tune" the building complex operation in the hopes of making our home still better.

I wish you all a very happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

Lewis Rubin, President
L'Hermitage II Condominium

Click To Top of Page