Company To Gauge Pines Reserve Level

BERLIN – Ocean Pines officials have selected a Virginia company to determine what level of reserve funding the homeowners association should have.

The Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors voted 6-1 to hire Virginia-based Design Management Associates to perform a reserve study. The company is expected to spend close to four months looking at the community’s facilities, reviewing their conditions and determining what replacement would cost in order to establish the association’s ideal level of reserve funding. The study is expected to cost the association just under $32,000.

“It’s absolutely critical to have another set of eyes look at our reserves and determine what level of reserves we should have,” said board member Tom Terry. “I think it’s a great step.”

The board selected Design Management Associates after soliciting bids for the work. Representatives from three reserve study companies made presentations to the board in late July. Staff recommended Design Management Associates and board members agreed July 30.

“They have a strong background and they’ve worked with larger communities like ours,” Terry said during an interview this week. “They impressed me with their capability and approach.”

At the July 30 meeting board member, Bill Cordwell said he didn’t believe the association should have a reserve study done before its capital improvement plan was complete.

“It seems like we’re trying to rush this through just to get it through,” said Cordwell, who was the lone board member to vote against hiring Design Management Associates.

Terry said the association had a capital improvement plan in place, even if it was a few years old.

“I’ve got to assume the existing capital improvement plan will be made available to this group,” he said.

Dave Stevens, present of the board, said the timing had concerned him but that the presentations each company had made convinced him that they knew what they were doing. He added that having the reserve study done before next spring’s budget process would be ideal.

“Having this hard data prior to the next budget session is going to be important,” he said.

Board member Jack Collins credited the committee that had initiated the reserve study bid process with getting the effort underway. He said they succeeded in bringing the board a trio of highly qualified firms.

“I think they’ve done an exceedingly good job,” he said.

About The Author: Charlene Sharpe

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Charlene Sharpe has been with The Dispatch since 2014. A graduate of Stephen Decatur High School and the University of Richmond, she spent seven years with the Delmarva Media Group before joining the team at The Dispatch.