Report form Your Secretary
Wayne Tuch
The April Annual Meeting will mark the end of my 2-year term as your Board Secretary and whether or not I am reelected to another, I want to thank my fellow Board members for all of the help they have given me during my tenure. I am grateful for their trust in me to be their secretary, even though I was a first time Direc-tor with no prior Board experience. They provided as-sistance when needed and answered my “rookie” ques-tions and listened to some of my not so original ideas in the most professional way.
Our community has to say goodbye to two of these Di-rectors, as their terms have expired. Mike Perry and Maggie Case will be missed for their dedication to the job and the Association. It was a pleasure working with them.
Going forward, I believe the Association should feel confident that the accomplishments of this Board have further strengthened our community and helped keep our property values high.
Property Manager
Gail A. Denny, CMCA, AMS, LCAM
It has been extraordinarily busy in Pine Ridge with so many new homes being built and, we have many new owners moving into the community, with, our team wel-comes you! A couple of things that I would like to point out, this is a Deed Restricted Community. Many new residents tell me they never have seen a copy of the deed restrictions, please go view them online at www.pineridgeassn.com. Look under HOA Info.> Forms> Corporate Documents. It is important to know that if you are making improvements other than land-scape upgrades, then you will need to submit application for each improvement i.e. re-roof, shed or re-paint. The paint and roof books are also online and are at the office. The staff and I are here to guide you, let us help you avoid issues.
I would like to point out a most recent and disturbing issue that is happening all over and here in Pine Ridge, it is land fraud. Mostly this is occurring with foreign land-owners, from what I have seen. However, I encourage you to sign up to the Clerk of Court R.A.N. system, this will alert you if any change occurs with your property. Please feel free to reach out to me via email at manag-er@pineridgeassn.com
Architectural Design Committee
(ADC)
Craig Goshow, Chair
Greetings fellow Pine Ridge property owners. The bi-weekly ADC meetings remain busy, and we continue to review approximately 25 to 30 applications at each ses-sion. Thus far in 2022 the ADC has approved applica-tions for 40 new homes. As of March 14, the total num-ber of homes in Pine Ridge, completed and under con-struction, is 3,336. I am sure you are all seeing new homes under construction as you travel through Pine Ridge.
In addition to new homes, our residents are making im-provements to their homes, enhancing the inherent value of Pine Ridge. The improvements are many and include repaints, reroofs, detached garages, barns/stables, car-ports, fences, sheds, solar panels, pools and home addi-tions.
I am privileged to chair the ADC committee. The other members are Staber Dearth, Ed Kroll, Keith Landers, Tom Thornton, and Joey Valinoti. All are dedicated to competently completing the task we are charged with, and I am glad to know and work with all of them.
As a committee we are indebted to our Property Manag-er, Gail Denny, for the help and support that she and her staff provide. Their hard work makes our job easier.
As a committee we are also indebted to Keith Landers for all the time he has spent working to improve the Pine Ridge Property Owners Association website. He has made many enhancements which are too numerous to list. If you haven’t done so, you should look. Particular-ly useful to the ADC in performing our duties are the Detailed Instructions for Architecture Committee Sub-mittal and the on-line version of the Pine Ridge Deed Restrictions which now includes an Index Section and a Keyword Section as well as the ability to search the doc-ument for a specific term.
The ADC has been performing its function using the new deed restrictions for a few months now and we are all becoming more comfortable with using them. In practice we have identified some areas that we feel need to be revised however, overall, the document is much improved. Our suggestions have been provided to the Deed Restrictions Committee. Going forward the ADC will continue its function by ensuring that all applica-tions submitted are in keeping with the Deed Restrictions.
Pine Ridge Equestrian Assoc. Inc.(PREA)
Gail Pridgen
For those who own or love horses, we are an education-al, charitable and social club for Pine Ridge residents. Come meet and visit with your equestrian neigh-bors! Our meetings are on the second Wednesday of the month in our community center at 7:00. In March, we enjoyed meeting our new CC Extension Agent Ky Sales who gave a presentation on Pasture management. In April we will enjoy a horse driving demonstration. Please be aware that horses, like pedestrians, have the “right of way” when crossing streets. Pine Ridge is home to almost 200 horses! For upcoming activities and membership information, our website is www.myprea.com. Happy trails!
ITS ALL ABOUT THE HORSES!
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Tennis/ Pickleball Committee
Maureen Caruso, Chair
Donna Westmorland, Co-Chair
Tennis and pickleball are going strong in Pineridge. There is a mens and ladies tennis group that play on Monday, Wednesday and Friday’s . There is another open tennis group that plays on Friday morning. If inter-ested you can call Jeanne VanderKlay at 352-697-2176(text or call). We also have a ladies tennis team that play in the CADL league. For more tennis information you can call Maureen Caruso 352-497-8456( text or call) . Pickleball is growing bigger everyday. We have a great enthusiastic group that play Monday, Thursday and Sat-urday. All are welcome. For more pickleball information you can call Donna Westmoreland at 704-607-9953( text or call).
1st Vice President
John Hyde
By the time you read this we may have elected and seat-ed a new Board and Pine Ridge will have a number of challenges to deal with within the community as well as in the surrounding area.
Work has started for the next stretch of the Suncoast Parkway which will mean additional traffic around and possibly through Pine Ridge. Two of the four proposed Turnpike Extension routes are just north of Hampshire Blvd in southern Citrus Springs. Again, bringing more traffic to the area and acting as a driver of additional commercial and residential development. Realistically we probably won’t stop these roads but we can mitigate impact by influencing decisions on the Turnpike exits and the types of development accompanying the roads.
Our other big issue is the Pine Ridge Golf Course. At this writing a new group is in the process of purchasing the golf course. While they are purchasing it as a golf course the possibility exists that they have other uses in mind and may work to change the zoning and use on that land. While this would directly impact the homes built on the course it would also impact the community as a whole. Most Residents would like to maintain the course in some kind of open green space and not have development that would create additional density in our community.
Lessons can be learned from the Pine Ridge Equestrian Association (PREA). By now most of you have seen the electronic and the Yield to Horses signs on Mustang and Pine Ridge Blvd. These came about through the efforts of PREA. The actions of 150 to 250 Residents got the attention of the Citrus County Board of Commis-sioners that resulted in positive change in our communi-ty. Kudos to their success.
This brings me back to mitigating the impact of the new roads and development. With over 7,000 Residents in Pine Ridge our voice can be loud and can become a force in Citrus County. With the Board acting as a senti-nel and creating focus on the issues we can influence the Commission and help shape the future of our part of Cit-rus County. To do this we need interest and at times action from Residents. We need You to help the Board help You. Pine Ridge needs to let the Board know where the community interests lie. We need responses to the surveys put out and when action is required, we’ll need your help in a meaningful, focused and construc-tive way to get the Commissioners’ attention. Pine Ridge are you up to it?
Civic News
Sue Wasserman, President
Welcome to Spring everyone. Pine Ridge Civic Associ-ation is in full swing with monthly meetings and bingo games. Our meetings feature informative speakers from the local community who cover a wide variety of topics. In the last several months we’ve heard from Debbie Selsavage on Coping with Dementia; Pine Ridge resi-dent Julianne Jackson of The Greener Side Haven, who arranges foster homes for medically needy pets; Capt John Novy from Citrus County Sheriff’s Office gave us local statistics and tips for staying safe; Director of Cit-rus County Library System, Eric Head talked about pro-grams and changes at the five libraries in Citrus County; Ron Roeker from the Crystal River Archeological State Park gave a glimpse at the rich cultural history of our area; and Rob Tessmer, Jr from the Realtors Association of Citrus County explained what’s going on in the real estate market in Florida, Citrus County, and Beverly Hills.
As you can see, we bring speakers from a wide range of backgrounds to cover all sorts of topics. We’re always looking for volunteers, and you can email presi-dent@civic.pineridgeassn.com for more information.
Meetings are held at 7PM on the second Monday of each month (no meetings in July or August). Bingo and din-ner are at 6PM usually the Saturday after the meeting. Every Friday at 7PM members gather for games in the Community Center, and we perform an Adopt-A-Highway clean up on Pine Ridge Blvd once a quarter.
Membership in the Civic Association is only $15 per household, and you can download a membership form from https://civic.pineridgeassn.com.
Pine Ridge Equestrian Liaison
Carol Bartolet, Chair
As you know, pastures are growing but are very dry un-less you are lucky enough to have some irrigation for the grass. This is always a challenge early spring but hopefully the rains are on the way!
You all have surely noticed the new signage on our main roads here in Pine Ridge…Equestrian signs warning drivers to slow down and also to be sure to yield to hors-es crossing our roads. And we now also have had the horse road crossings repainted with both white and black lines for easier visibility. The committee working on these changes did a great job working with our Citrus County officials to get this all done! Thank you to all who were involved!!
The trails have been cleared and cleaned up by our great maintenance staff. Trail crossings have now been com-pleted and some crossing signs are being repaired. New-ly proposed signs for our entryways are being reviewed for changes. Wording now will be changed to read ‘Watch for horses’ to ‘Yield to horses’ for drivers as they enter Pine Ridge.
Have a great spring and enjoy riding our community trails!
Corporate Documents Committee
Carole Anne Russler, Chair
The Pine Ridge Corporate Documents Committee has continued to meet with Board Officers and is still con-ducting adjustments to the by-law document for the Boards consideration at some point. Additionally, we are looking into necessary adjustments to the Deed Restrictions that will eventually be sent out for referendum to be voted on.
Thank you for your support with the last Deed Restriction referendum, our newly adopted document is much easier to navigate and it brings more clarity to those items that were in the gray area.
Report From Your Treasurer
Maggie Case
Hello – and goodbye – from your Treasurer! It has been my pleasure to serve our PRPOA since 2018, first as Secretary and then as your Treasurer since the sad pass-ing of Maryann Smith in October 2019. We have seen many improvements since I first ran for the Board on an “improved communication” platform including the adoption of email communications; an enhanced website with “Stay-in-Touch”; and electronic voting and online account management via our CINC software systems all of which would not be possible without the can-do atti-tude of our Property Manager. Thank you, Gail, for your dedication, support, and adaptiveness through all these process changes!
We continue to encourage every property owner to sign up with CINC in our quest to go PAPERLESS and save the association money! We have a beautiful, well-maintained community with fine amenities and low dues and strive to keep it that way! Recent amenity upgrades include the wheeled and rust-free pickleball nets for the upper courts and a self-locking gate for our Dog Run (soon to be installed). Our financial reserves stay strong and aside from added expenses incurred in the review and mailing of our Deed Restrictions rewrite, the 2021 budget was on target. The 2021 financial audit is cur-rently underway and expected shortly.
As always, a copy of the association’s audited financial statements will be available from the office; please con-tact the Property Manager to obtain one.
Thank you again and enjoy Spring!
Election Committee News
Brenda Roberts, Chair
The upcoming Annual Membership Meeting and elec-tion, on April 12, 2022, at 10:00AM, has 3 openings for members on the Pine Ridge Board of Directors availa-ble. Four candidates for these positions have been ac-cepted and their resumes are on the Pine Ridge website; www.pineridgeassn.com, click on “News”, then under “Candidates for the Pine Ridge Board of Director’s”, scroll down to review the resumes. Please review these resumes to make an informed decision.
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Please note that two candidates have dropped out of the election; Keith Landers and Thomas Thornton have asked to be removed. Paper ballots were al-ready printed, so please review and choose only from the remaining four candidates. If you are voting via paper, select only Three (3) out of these Four (4); Su-san A. Wassermann, Wayne A. Tuch, William H. Miller, Jr. and Thomas Russell. Electronic voters will only have these four candidates listed to choose from.
If you haven’t signed up for “Stay in Touch’ or the ‘Electronic Voting System (EVS) please consider doing so as soon as possible. Go to the Pine Ridge website, www.pineridgeassn.com , and click on “Electronic Voting” and follow instructions from there. Voting elec-tronically is fast and secure, quick and easy, and saves money.
Meet the candidate meetings were held on March 9th and 16th. The meetings were held in the Pine Ridge Commu-nity Center and broadcast on a Zoom link.
Be sure to vote, as the new Board members along with the remaining Board members, Mike McCoy and John Hyde, will be representing all Pine Ridge residents in any future Pine Ridge Property Owners Association business.
Thanks to all the volunteers, past and present, for their service in this important process.”
R/C Electric Plane Club
Rich Davies
Membership in the Pine Ridge R/C Electric Airplane Club is open to all Pine Ridge property owners. You must be a club member in order to fly at the field and you must also be a member of AMA (Academy of Mod-el Aeronautics). However, you do not have to be a member to come out to the field and enjoy watching the airplanes in flight.
Members are at the field most days, weather permitting. They fly a variety of aircraft from beginner high wing “cub” type planes to sophisticated aerobatic planes, jets, drones and quad copters. Some pilots are flying FPV (First Person View) aircraft where the pi-lots wear a set of “goggles” and fly the plane with a view from the cockpit as though they were in the plane. Occasion-ally members fly planes equipped with LED lights in the evening.
In addition to our flying activities, Meetings have been postponed until further notice. The club members participate in the Adopt-A-Highway litter clean-up cam-paign covering a two-mile section of Mustang Blvd. We also participate annually in the Marine Corps Toys-for -Tots program.
To learn more about the club, attend one of the club meetings at 7 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month at the Pine Ridge Community Center, when they resume schedule check the website. (no meetings in July, Au-gust or December) or follow the Flying Field signs back to the field behind the Pine Ridge Community Center. If the gates are open, members are at the field completing maintenance projects or flying. Guests are welcome and members are happy to discuss R/C flying and member-ship in the club with you.
For additional information you can access the club’s web site through a link on the PRPOA website: www.pineridgeassn.com
Vice President
Mike McCoy
Well, spring is approaching and as usual, Mother Na-ture doesn’t seem to be finished with winter. As I write this, we have just come through another cold snap, but the good news is, we are getting some much needed rain.
We’ve had an interesting year so far. The newly re-vised Deed Restrictions have been adopted by the members of the community and are now in place. As often happens though, there are some minor shortfalls, but we are addressing them. Overall, the new Deed Restrictions are a vast improvement and have removed most of the confusion and vague language that crept in over the years. Because this a Living Document, it will continue to be refined and updated to reflect the changing environment and needs of the community.
The Turnpike continues to be an ongoing concern. Currently it ends well to the South of Pine Ridge, but Government plans have it starting to approach our ar-ea, and we will likely see it ending somewhere in the vicinity of our Norvell Bryant entrance. Further ex-pansion is being formulated and will likely have a di-rect impact on our Southwest area. We are continuing to watch this, and actively making our concerns known and insisting they be addressed. We are not opposed to progress, but we won’t sit by and allow it to devastate our quality of living. As always, we will keep you informed of the developments.
One of the most important ways to keep informed, is for You to sign up for the Email notifications. Pine Ridge has moved in to the electronic information age and we now have the ability to update and regularly inform you of events and happenings affecting our community. We can get alerts and cautions out in a faster and efficient way. We are able to hold more ref-erendums and perform opinion gathering to better serve you the members. As a result, we are able to do this while significantly reducing our costs. We have saved in printing and mailing charges. This means, we don’t have to increase maintenance fees. I call this a win-win for all. If you haven’t done so, Go to our web-site “Pineridgeassn.com” and sign up. It’s free.
Finally, we will be saying goodbye to two of our Board Members, Mike Perry and Maggie Case. They have served their full terms and are taking well-earned rests. Mike and Maggie came to the Board at a time of great turmoil, and because of their devotion and love of this community, we were able to turn things around and make Pine Ridge a respected and vibrant commu-nity. I will miss their presence immensely. Thank you both, so very much.
In closing. I want to thank our Property Manager Gail Denny and all of her staff for their continuous effort in keeping our community in superb working order. Without their hard work, we would never be able to succeed at mak-ing this community great. They do not get thanked enough for the work they do. Thank you all for everything you do.
I look forward to seeing all of you at one of our meetings in the year ahead.
