Hello Neighbors!

Our next BWC Property Owner’s Association meeting will be on March 2nd at 7:00 PM at the Annapolis / Eastport Library.

All are welcome! See you there. (Also posted to public notice boards and Facebook group)

The next BWC POA meeting will be on November 17th at 7:15PM at the Eastport Annapolis Library branch.

All are welcome!

The Architectural Control Committee would like to remind everyone to please trim all low hanging branches from trees in both Blackwalnut and New Church.

Also, it is required that all trash and recycling receptacles be kept in a bin of some type, stored in a garage, or behind the home.  They are not to be in “street/public view” in the neighborhood.

Please also check your porches and rails for rotting wood, peeling paint, etc.Keep in mind there are to be NO free-standing fences of any kind, including wrought iron fences, and plans for any type of repair/improvement that affect the integrity of the property (i.e., additions/sheds/patios), must be submitted to the Architectural Control Committee

Lastly, there is to be no dumping of branches, excessive amounts of leaves, mulch, or any type of garden waste in common areas.  We have received numerous complaints regarding this as well as unnecessary removal of trees and not disposing of the waste properly.  Dumping and tree removal interferes with the natural drainage in common areas, and can lead to excessive ponding of water which then leads to musty odor and mosquito infiltration.

Minutes for BWC POA Meeting 9/14/2022

Board Attendees:
Debbie
Bob
Seph
Jenny

Called to order 7:12 PM

President is unable to attend. Treasurer and Maintenance committee chairs could not attend.

If you have questions please hold them until the end. We’ll discuss the PAL Park Extension at the end of the meeting Thanks!

Newsletters / Homeowners Communications
– We sent a blast email to homeowners about this meeting
– If we do a block party, we’ll send something out for the meeting
– We need to create an email address to send _from_ (Seph to follow-up with Jenny)
– We will also be updating homeowners on best ways to communicate with the board.

Website Update:
– maintenance (at) blackwalnutcove.net  / board (at) blackwalnutcove.net are the best way to reach us.

– Maintenance contact info will be on the website shortly.
– Bob: Contact information with board email – can we also put that under officers. Yes.
– Seph: Planning on moving the site to a new location and backing it with Google Apps so we can do forms and manage emails more easily
– Bob: A couple of other things to think about: Open things up-front, with signed-in content later.
– Whatever you do, make sure we can run it when you’re gone, Seph. Yes, this will be part of the design.
– Dues payment letters go out on December first. As long as whatever we’re transitioning to doesn’t fall into that timeframe, we’re good.
– We’re having folks pay via the site, so work would need to be completed by that time.
– We’re allowing homeowners and renters to login, correct? Yes – we believe that renters should be allowed because they’ll get the right information. We should queue up with owners that they should request access for their renters if that is desired.

HOA Dues:
– Debbie: we should send out dues letters by December 1st to stick to the covenants.
– We will leave some wiggle room
– We have one owner who has not yet paid dues for the year. Working with them on a plan and following up with the homeowner via registered mail.

Treasurer’s Report
– No income for the month
– We have some beautification expenses for the white board on Newchurch
– YTD actuals – we have spent about half of our budgeted expenses so far, but we will have more expenditures coming this year. We believe we will have enough money for this year.
– We have a healthy balance, and we know that there will be issues for the park, piers, and other issues. It’s important that we have a healthy reserve so we do not have to ask for any additional assessments from the community.
– Timing for 2023 budget is coming up. Next month we’ll be pulling it together and present at the October meeting.
– Any committee heads should request their budget for next year so we can plan accordingly.
– Bob will work with Bill to compile the budget and set it up.
– Do the homeowners get a vote on the budget or is it approved through the board? It’s approved through the board.

Architectural Control Committee:
– There are currently 5 bylaw violations – fence, front lawn vegetable garden, patios, etc. We will be communicating with the homeowners.

Maintenance Committee:
– Suburban tree experts removed trees behind a house on Blackwalnut Ct after being assessed by the maintenance committee and the invoice has been sent to the treasurer for payment.
– We had additional complaints about tree trimmings in open space.
– The dumping continues to be a problem along Riverwalk.
– The county came by after raising canopies, and they dumped their debris in the same spot.
– The board will coordinate with the maintenance committee to resolve the issue.

Beautification:
– We have a new whiteboard on Newchurch.

Canoe Rack (Jenny)
– There are five open canoe rack openings on the top racks. We’ll solicit in the newsletter to see if anyone would like them.
– Morgan discussed potentially updating the racks. Jenny will follow-up with Morgan on the improvements.

Community Events:
– Block party: do we want to approve a block party? What kind of funds do we want to allocate for it? If we don’t approve something soon, we may run out of time.
– Board votes yes to the $1000 allocation for the block party, pending follow-up on the plan with Bob from those planning the party.
– In the past, we have asked folks to RSVP and spend a bit of money for accountability, and bring a side dish.
– Make sure they keep the receipts to get reimbursed.

PAL Park Extension: presented by an attendee who went to a stakeholder meeting with the county:
– The county is re-developing some of PAL park.
– (Behind newchurch) there’s a grass easement to church property
– Everything in the field to the road, including the abandoned house.
– That entire area is planned for redevelopment. Two regulation-size ballfields. They’ll level everything out, place trees between the fields and newchurch, they plan to put a large parking lot on Bay Ridge Rd.
– All stakeholders met on the 13th to review what was happening. The communities want the entire park to be revitalized.
– Local communities are asking for a number of changes and as a result this may not happen soon, but the plan is still in motion.
– The issue from Blackwalnut Cove is: NewChurch parking and cut-through increasing, but also flooding. Regrading the fields was a concern – will that cause flooding and will it push water towards the community. They county indicated there is a plan to avoid additional flooding from the re-grading of the fields.

Next Board meeting:
– We will convene Wednesday October 26th at 7PM.
– Thursday, December 8th, 7PM.

Next year we will return to our regular schedule with the intention of ~6 per year.

Meeting concluded.

Hello neighbors!

UPDATE: August meeting has been moved to September to facilitate a quorum of the board in-person.

Our next community meeting will take place on Thursday, September 14th at 7PM at the Eastport Annapolis Neck Library.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Hello Neighbors,

Monday, July 4 2022 we will be having the annual community 4th of July parade at 10am.

We will meet at the gazebo at the top of Blackwalnut Drive.

This year the parade will continue to the end of Blackwalnut Court at Dauses waterfront Park. There will be a dedication of the overlook to Joe Bruce, with cupcakes and drinks for all in attendance.

We look forward to seeing you to celebrate Independence Day!