Community Updates

A Message From Larry Movshin, CSA Board Chairman-March 2, 2020

A Message From Larry Movshin, CSA Board Chairman
March 2, 2020

February has been a very busy month for your CSA Board. We welcomed our new CEO, Sam Bennett, who has hit the ground running (actually sprinting). Sam brings a deep and relevant experience to the position, and he is leading a talented and dedicated staff. I hope that those of you who saw him for the first time at last week’s CSA Community Update Meeting are as excited and pleased to have Sam join the team as your Board is.

After two months as your CSA Board Chairman I am learning just how much I have to learn in leading the Board. To that end, I attended organizational workshops for many of our Board Committees this past month. With new chairpersons on several of our CSA committees, and several new property owner members on each committee, I was eager to hear a “fresh approach” for resolving our community’s issues:

  • The Short Term Rental Committee is discussing improvements to the Beach Shuttle to enhance our riders’ experience during the season as well as improving communications from rental property owners and managers to our rental guests in order to increase knowledge and understanding of our “rental” rules and “bike safety” regulations.
  • Our Safety and Security Committee intends to look at ways to reduce or charge for non-essential services being provided for free by our Security Department in order to increase more critical services available in a department that is not fully staffed.
  • Our Communications Committee is working on methods of improving communications of the Board and Committee actions to our property owners.
  • Our Gate Entry Committee announced plans to create a task force which will take a very active role in expediting the Town’s approvals necessary to raze the Gallery of Shoppes (while we determine what to do with that property), and, of no less importance, to find solutions to the traffic problems we all encounter at the Sea Pines Circle.
  • These are just a few of the highlights of the committee workshops I attended. I hope to continue to report to you each month as our Board committees engage in specific projects for recommendation to the CSA Board.

I also attended our Maintenance, Enhancement and Major Projects Committee workshop to hear about the many capital projects that CSA has started or still plans to begin in 2020. But I was also reminded of the many serious problems CSA has identified in our roads and storm water system that we cannot plan for until we have identified the funds to do so. I have include just a few pictures and examples of our current road failures and drainage pipe problems that simply confirm the need to begin fixing our 60-year old roads and stormwater systems as soon as possible – and well before these problem situations become more numerous.
 

You know I can’t end a Chairman’s message without letting you know where we are with regard to long-term funding! The Board has continued to study several different funding means this past month, including holding a simpler “Funding” referendum, imposing new fees on previously free services, or (as previously reported) implementing a “tax district uniform service fee”. I am hoping that we can announce our intended approach(es) at our March 31 CSA Board Meeting. I admit to some amusement/frustration when I read various emails and Facebook postings insisting that CSA has decided on a funding mechanism that won’t work, or one that is illegal. Let me be clear: we have not made any decisions yet and we won’t until we’ve done a thorough due diligence (including legal review) to be sure that what we propose can be implemented legally and effectively. We know that each funding idea has its positive aspects and support and some opposition, too. Because I am confident that almost everyone in Sea Pines recognizes the need for funding, I am truly hopeful that our community will rally and support whatever means we adopt after this thorough analysis, as being in all of our best interests.

I was very pleased that many property owners responded to my last message and did, indeed, send comments and concerns directly to my attention at chairman@csaseapines.com. I am equally pleased that we were able to consider all those comments and start to address those concerns. So I again invite you to let us know what’s working, what may not be working well, and what we can do to make Sea Pines an even better place to live. This is your community and we are committed to making it the best Sea Pines it can be!
Larry Movshin
CSA Board Chairman