Oak Ridge Place

[Emailed and mailed to homeowners September 30]

The annual meeting of the Oak Ridge Place Homeowners Association will be held Tuesday, October 27, 2026 at 7 pm at 107 Manning Court (garage). To save time, we’ve published a Youtube video:

It has officer reports and other information. Please view the video and email me questions before the meeting to move things along.

The meeting will be conducted according to the Bylaws of the Association, available at our website. On the 27th we will discuss our landscaping services, home maintenance standards and the transition to Community Works. Any members having additional matters for discussion should identify them to me by October 15. Elections will be held to fill the Board seats presently held by Edna Williams, Mary Dickerson-Bowman, and Brian Kelley. The meeting will be followed by a brief meeting of the Board of Directors.

We hope to see everyone at the meeting. However, a proxy form is enclosed with the mailed and emailed copies of this message for those who are unable to attend but would like to designate someone to act in their stead. The mailed and emailed copies also have a list of property owners based on County records.

[Emailed September 15, 2026]

Fellow Homeowners –

The fall pine straw application has been scheduled for Monday, September 21.

Please remove any hoses or other obstacles in plant beds by Sunday night. And it’s a good time to remove weeds.

The contractor has been instructed to place new pine straw over old, but leave any bare areas un-serviced.

So please contact me by Friday:

– If you have areas from which you’ve removed pine straw as you’ve replaced plants and need new pine straw. I’ll mark it with green flags.

– If you have areas where you want no additional pine straw. I’ll mark it with red flags.

Please contact me with any questions by email or phone.

Thanks,

[Emailed August 31, 2026]

Hi –

I’m writing to let you know the Board has approved our plan to use Community Works services starting December 1. The Board also approved a budget to cover that expense. The 2027 assessment will be $1,160 in payments of $580 due January 1 and July 1.

The other parts of our transition plan can now move forward. I plan to stand for re-election to the Board at our October annual meeting, and then to stand for re-election as Secretary (but not President). If elected Secretary, I could manage the transition to Community Works and provide the Board and Officers all the help they’ll need.

As pointed out in my earlier email, Community Works will carry the administrative burden, but HOA members will still have some work to do. That includes serving as Officers and doing those things that can only be done on site. We need to make sure that our work is done efficiently and shared fairly.

With that in mind, I’ll be making my last annual meeting as your President a little simpler. We’ll do what we did in the Covid year of 2020. I’ll make a video with a recap of the year’s events and finances and share it with you before the meeting. At the meeting we can discuss open topics, answer questions, and elect Board members. We’ll meet as usual on the Tuesday before Halloween (October 27) at 7 pm. We’ll meet in my garage at 107 Manning Court. I’ll clear out the spiders but make no guarantee about geckos. Please let me know by September 15 if you have any topics for discussion. Formal notification of the meeting will be made in about a month.

Please contact me with any questions or comments.

Thanks for your continued patience,

Brian

[Emailed August 3, 2026]

(This is being sent both by mail and email to ensure everyone gets it.)

Fellow Homeowners —

            First, thanks for your patience during our ongoing leadership change and the resulting challenges. We may have found a solution, described below. I’ve already shared it with Board Members and received their comments. I’m now asking for your comments by August 21. I will share them with the Board before we make any decisions.

            As previously discussed, my stepping back will require the HOA to do some basic things either using different volunteers or in a different way. The Board met informally on May 28 to discuss options. Contracting a local property management provider was found to be costly (about $6,000/year). The Board asked me to research alternatives that could build on our existing HOAworks system, supplemented by paid labor, while

also looking for volunteers among the members.

            The responses to my June 23 email to homeowners found only one who was willing to volunteer their services. And while that assistance will be highly valuable, that’s not enough to meet this challenge through volunteer efforts alone.

            I asked the HOAworks CEO if he was aware of HOAs using paid labor. I got a surprising answer: HOAworks itself is now providing such a service. More precisely it provides two levels of service, which mirrors the approach used by local providers. The “Accounting Edge” service costs $200/month and is limited to basic accounting. The more comprehensive “Community Works” option costs $345/month and includes other services we need:

• Payments to our vendors: landscaping, pond maintenance, insurance, etc.
• The clerical portion of our violation tracking.
• Manual processing of assessment payments (paper checks).
• A HOA webpage.

Other alternatives (a local bookkeeper, other non-local services) were considered. I’m recommending the Community Works option because it offers some key advantages:

• Smooth transition from what we have now (HOAworks + volunteers).
• Reliable: HOAworks is established, a local bookkeeper might find other clients.
• Less expensive than other alternatives.
• Reversible: If we chose to, we could fall back to HOAworks + volunteers.
• Transparency: We’re already familiar with the HOAworks platform and can access it.

            Allowing for typical increases in other services (landscaping, pine straw, insurance, etc.), our annual assessment would be $1,160 in 2027. This is less than the $1,300 estimated in the June 23 email.

            As promising as this option is, it will not eliminate the need for active participation by a few homeowners. We’ll still need volunteers to:

• Carry out the remaining duties of the Board and Officers.
• Monitor Community Works performance.
• Do those few tasks (e.g. walkarounds) that can only be done in person.

            Please contact me at oakridgeplacesc@gmail.com with your comments by August 21. If there are no obstacles and we develop no better alternatives, I will then ask the Board to approve this option. Because this proposal would require a significant increase in the annual assessment if approved, the Board would then have to approve a 2027 budget reflecting these costs before November 1 and notify members.

Thanks,

Brian

[Emailed June 23, 2026]

Fellow homeowners –

I’m writing to give you a heads-up on some major changes that are coming. As I notified you last fall, I’ll be stepping down as HOA president in October and will hand off the various tasks I’m doing now. The work the HOA does to uphold standards must continue too.

While our HOAworks software has made this work easier, it still must get done. The alternatives are using volunteers, who have sustained us for twenty years, or a hired contractor, which may be the better option now.

Better, but not cheaper. Your annual assessment next year might be as much as $450 higher ($1,300 total) depending on what services we outsource. The assessment payment due July 1, 2026 is not affected.

Apart from the supervisory work of the Board and Officers, our tasks fall into three broad categories:

   – Financial: Send invoices, deposit payments, pay vendors.

   – Standards: Inspect home exteriors, notify homeowners; approve projects.

   – Other: Manage landscaping, organize the annual meeting, handle closings.

We’ve already started contacting providers who might perform some or all of these tasks. One option under consideration is to keep HOAworks, outsource the financial tasks, and rely on volunteers for the rest.

If you would like to help us minimize these costs by volunteering, now is the time to speak up. Please contact me. Otherwise, we’ll be pressing ahead.

Regardless of the result of this reorganization, we’ll need a new president.

Please share any thoughts you have on this. I’ll keep you updated.

Thanks,

Brian

[Emailed June 20, 2026]

Hi All –

Vinnie and Summer at 117 have welcomed a new baby girl, Gwen, to their family and we welcome her to our community.

This is a first for Oak Ridge Place and far better news than we usually have to share.

Cheers,

Brian

[Emailed to homeowners March 30, 2026]

Fellow Homeowners –

The spring pine straw application has been scheduled for Monday, April 6.

Please remove any hoses or other obstacles in plant beds by Sunday night. And it’s a good time to remove weeds.

The contractor has been instructed to place new pine straw over old, but leave any bare areas un-serviced.

So please contact me by Friday:

– If you have areas from which you’ve removed pine straw as you’ve replaced plants and need new pine straw. I’ll mark it with green flags. – If you have areas where you want no additional pine straw. I’ll mark it with red flags

Thanks,

Brian

[Emailed to homeowners March 22, 2026]

Hi All –

Noticed a couple of large empty boxes in the common area across from 127 (vacant?). Origin unknown.

Per our updated Standards and the Town’s rules:

   – No items should be left in common areas at any time.

   – Boxes are not bulk items; they should be broken down and put in recycling or trash for Friday pickup.

Please comply and review with tenants.

Thanks,

Brian

[Emailed to homeowners January 5, 2006]

Owners and residents —

I’ve received reports of car break-ins at 113 and 115 last night. Please let Summerville PD (843-871-2463) and me know if you observed anything, or if you captured anything on security cameras. Looking ahead, please keep your parked cars locked and your eyes open.

Thanks,

Brian

[Emailed to homeowners November 5, 2025]

As noted at the annual meeting, we now have many tenant (rather than homeowner) residents. I’m sending this to all homeowners, some for action, some for information.
There are instances where the HOA has a need to communicate quickly with all residents. Some are related to safety: We warned our community about snakes, we would advise residents to put trash carts in their garages in a hurricane.
It would be helpful if we could reach all residents directly. On a voluntary basis, we’re asking for email addresses for Oak Ridge Place tenants.
These addresses will not be shared. Emails will be sent using the bcc function to keep them private. All communications to tenants will also go to homeowners.
Please reply to this email with the email addresses if you’d like to participate.
Please contact me with any questions.
Thanks,
Brian