Dover Shores News - December
DOVER SHORES NEWS, December 1, 2023
As the holiday season approaches your Dover Shores HOA Board would like to wish everyone in our community a very Happy Holiday season, and a wonderful New Year. It’s been a busy but productive year and we’re grateful for our neighbors!
Here is the latest update from the HOA Board about what is going on in our community:
DOVER SHORES HOA GENERAL MEETING November 21, 2023:
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Beach Committee - The board discussed and heard commentary around revising the beach policies for 2024 with updates from the Beach Committee. Our goal is to ensure the beaches continue to serve our neighborhood and provide residents with enjoyment, while giving us the opportunity to reserve it in a private capacity for parties.
Changes put forth by the beach committee include:
- Raising the refundable security deposit to rent Larry’s Beach from $75 to $150 for all parties between 17 and 25 people, and $300 for parties between 26 to 50 people
- No vendors are permitted to charge guests for any food, beverages or products
- Requiring a listing of any vendors or service providers that will be onsite on the Beach Reservation Form
As always, parties with over 50 people are not allowed at the beach even with a reservation.
In January, residents will receive a draft copy of the revised beach rules. Residents may submit comments on the revised rules and the Board will review those comments to determine if any further revisions to the rules are required before final approval.
Residents who have concerns that a party is violation of the rules or any other rules concern should call the BHE service request number: 949-922-6779. This number is available 24/7. When necessary, BHE will activate our on-call security service who will send someone to investigate, though it may take a while for the security to arrive. If what is clearly criminal behavior is observed, residents should call 911 or if residents suspect criminal activity, they should call the NBPD non-emergency number 949-644-3717. Trespassing on the beaches is a somewhat gray area probably best handled by calling BHE.
- Social – Believe it or not, we’re already thinking about next summer’s BBQs! Given the challenges of the past few summers, the board discussed and ok’d a change in format to provide all vendor-hosted BBQs meaning we’ll no longer be asking for families to host. We also discussed changing the day of the BBQs to a Thursday or Friday, instead of the Tuesday. If you have opinions, feedback, or ideas please let the social committee know by reaching out to Tate Luesebrink, Emily Leach or reply to this newsletter.
- Finance - Outgoing treasurer Gail Jones submitted a preliminary budget for 2024 that projects no increase in homeowner dues. This budget will be reviewed by the new finance team in December and a final budget distributed to homeowners in January.
- Landscape - efforts are underway to more closely document and monitor the irrigation controllers to minimize water usage. The draft budget allocates $35,000 for water in 2024, up from $30,000 in 2023.
Annual Election
Our annual election has concluded, and we would like to congratulate our neighbors who were voted to the board and board committees:
Board Officers:
- Tim Hawke - President
- Sherry Bilbeisi - Vice President
- Jim Gula - Treasurer
- Ann Michaelson Yahn - Secretary
Committees:
- Architecture: Tim Hawke (Chair), Tate Luesebrink, Peggy Pugh
- Beach: Sherry Bilbeisi (Co-chair), Emily Leach (Co-chair), Jodi Cassutt, Dan Converse
- CERT/Neighborhood Watch: Jim Gula and the CERT team
- Communications: Jim Gula (Chair), Sherry Bilbeisi, Cindy Talbott, Esther Fine, Emily Leach
- Dredging: Tim Hawke
- Finance: Jim Gula, Ross Nelson
- Landscape: Gwen Feiner, Anne Michaelsen Yahn, Ross Nelson. Chair to be determined. Sue Ashwell, Gail Jones, and Julie Patterson are on-board to help the new landscape committee members until they get up and running.
- Legal, CC&Rs: Steve Briggs (Co-chair), Sherry Bilbeisi (Co-Chair)
- Social: Emily Leach (Chair), Tate Luesebrink
- Welcome: Gwen Feiner (Chair)
Next Dover Shores HOA General Meeting: January 16, 5:00 PM
The board is continuing to offer Zoom access to board meetings. All meetings will use the same credentials listed below. The general session for homeowner participation for these meetings begins at 5PM.
Join Zoom Meeting with your browser
Meeting ID: 880 4927 2107
Passcode: 940601
One tap mobile: (669)900-6833
For the foreseeable future, those wishing to attend in person can attend at the principal office of the Association which has been designated by the Board as the place of business of BHE Management, located at 30011 Ivy Glen Dr., Ste.118, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677. BHE Management will be present.
Board meetings occur bimonthly on the 3rd Tuesday. In 2024 meetings will be:
- January 16
- March 19
- May 21
- July 16
- September 17
- November 19
A Note from Association President Tim Hawke:
During the 2023 calendar year, our community once again enjoyed several summer beach parties at Larry’s Beach where the Beach Committee and Social Committee members did a great job setting up the parties and providing the delicious food, beverages, and all the fixings for wonderful dinners. They coordinated the vendors, the food selection, the setup and the clean-up. Sherry Bilbeisi, Emily Leach, and Tate Luesebrink took the lead on the Beach and Social committees to provide everything needed to host the wonderful get togethers.
Next year, Emily will serve as the chair for the social committee and co-chair of the beach committee with Sherry Bilbeisi. Jodi Cassutt and Dan Converse will continue to provide support to the Beach Committee and Tate Luesebrink will be assisting the Social Committee.
The board also had to complete an updated dredging report this year. It is an important report to do, as it will determine whether or not the Association will have to dredge the entry channels to the docks. The good news is that no dredging is required for at least another 5 years and probably longer.
This year the board was also tasked with working with the Coastal Commission to determine the new location of the fence that fell down at the Fisherman’s Beach. The Coastal Commission informed the board that the public has access to the Fisherman’s Beach up to the Median High-tide Mark. We are working with the Coastal Commission, a civil engineer, the City of Newport Beach, and a consultant who assisted the board with the dredging report to determine the location of the Median High-tide Mark, which will likely impact the final location of the fence and signage is required to be installed, noting that part of the beach will be accessible by the public.
Board members and the BHE Management Team (Marla Hemmel, Melissa Mora, and Lisa Parra) started work on another project this year to generate a map of the entire irrigation system within the association. Work was continued to update the irrigation system to provide easier tracking and monitoring of the water bills and the irrigation system performance. Our goal is ensure that proper watering occurs to avoid over-watering and to keep the water bills as low as possible. This will be an on-going focus for the board and the Management Team as we all realize that the cost for water will continue to increase.
Lastly, on behalf of myself and all of the Board Members, we want to let everyone know that Gail Jones and Kristen Duntley are retiring from the board this year. After several years serving as the Association's treasurer and more recently serving as the Chair of the Landscape Committee, Gail Jones will be stepping down at the end of this year. As treasurer, Gail reviewed all association expenses, provided investment advice for association funds, and assisted in creating the annual budgets each year. Gail always provided insight and ideas to keep the budget under control. She chaired the landscape committee this year, as well. This position involves several areas of responsibility including monthly walking tours of the landscaped areas and constant analysis on how to reduce landscape costs while still enhancing our landscaped areas. We will miss her expertise and cheerful willfulness to help and provide advice.
We also want to thank Kristen Duntley for her service as chair of the Welcome Committee. She took over a vacated board position and kept the board apprised of various view points from our new homeowners as she welcomed them to our community.
We greatly appreciate the dedication and volunteerism of Gail, Kristen, and Mike. All the best to you, our community, and to our friends and families for a healthy, happy, and exciting NEW YEAR.
CERT – Neighborhood Watch Updates:
Package Theft
'Tis the season for package theft. The following are photos of a package theft that occurred recently on Galaxy. The perpetrator just walked up and began stuffing packages into a Trader Joe's bag. You can learn more about this particular incident on NextDoor.
Note that having cameras like this one won't protect you unless you enable notifications on your phone. If you are not likely to be home when your packages are delivered, consider sending them to your workplace or use an Amazon Locker. There are several Amazon Lockers near us on 17th Street and others on Fairview.
Home Burglaries
There were two more home burglaries near us that occurred around Thanksgiving, one on Westwind and another on Santiago. In both of these burglaries, the perpetrator gained access to the house via an open window or by prying open a window. You can learn more about these particular burglaries on Nixle.
Once again, the best ways to prevent a home burglary:
- Make your house look occupied
- Add motion sensitive cameras around your house and enable notifications
- Enable an internal motion sensitive alarm system ANY time you leave the house, particularly in the Master Bedroom
Finally
If you would like to submit an article for publication in the Newsletter that you think might be of interest to Dover Shores, please let us know by responding to this Newsletter by email.
Please let your neighbors know how to contact us at board@dovershoreshoa.org if they are not part of our email list and would like to join. Or please forward this email to them. Our goal is to reach every Dover Shores neighbor.
Note that past newsletters are always available at our archives.