2025 Project List

This project has been under way for most of 2024 and continues now. Triton will complete a mailing to all owners asking them for full details about leases, insurance, tenants, automobiles and contact information. One goal is to find out how many units are in fact investment properties. At our current count there are more than 36 units rented out of 136. We believe there are more than that.

This project is to review and consider the upgrade of the infrastructure for the existing copper wire underground cable to Fiber Optic throughout the community. Internet providers will not run Fiber Optic to single units, but they will pay to convert the entire community at no cost in exchange for a long term 7 to 10 year contract for Bulk services. Basic Internet fees would be moved into the COA fees and paid monthly. Owners would save money with discounted services compared to current rates, have the benefit of increased speeds and a more reliable infrastructure. Home values should increase by about 3%. Owners would have options for al-a-cart services that could be paid individually.

One of the Bulk Provider did a presentation to the Board of Directors during a meeting and answer our questions.

Since then, three proposals have been reviewed, and one stood out from the others because they offer individual networks to each unit – while the other two ISP only offered “shared” networks – similar to how Comcast is now. If a group goes down 40 to 60 people will all be affected.

More detailed information is here:

Fiber Optic Infrastructure Upgrade | Jupiter Lakes Villas

To gain further discounts on our hurricane property insurance we can do a few things.  Some of our buildings are not fully discounted, as they do not have all four units with hurricane protection (storm windows, accordion shutters or bolts for the metal interlocking shutters). If one unit is missing these then the entire building costs more to insure.  Basically, the unprotected building can allow damage to happen to all the units should a roof come off of the unprotected one.  Therein we need to do an inventory and make sure Owners of the unprotected units install the approved protection.  Once all four units in a building are protected our insurance on that building will be lower.  Many of our 34 quad buildings are already fully protected.  Some are not.

On some of the units people have installed their exterior front doors backward.  Hurricane Code is that exterior doors must open outward not inward.  Some owners over the years have replaced their front doors and installed inward doors so they could perhaps install an exterior screen door.  Those units are at risk of having a strong storm wind blow the door in (it is only held closed by the lock and deadbolt). Once the door is blown open the next occurrence is usually the roof will be damaged or blown off completely. Here again the other units are then put at risk and the building does not get the discounts.  The outward opening doors are protected by the entire frame all around the door and it is nearly impossible to have it blow open into the house.  Therein the protection and the code.

So what can you do?  Owners should evaluate their own unit to see if they are following code.  Make plans to reverse your door if is opens inward.  Let us know if and when you do it so we can inform the insurance writer. If you normally put up plywood when a storm is approaching your unit will not be counted as protected.  Perhaps make plans to replace those old windows with storm windows or purchase some metal shutters that can be installed when needed.  If the inspectors see the bolts sticking out of the concrete around the windows they know that you have a system.  By the way these things should also reduce your cost of your content insurance!   We plan to do an inspection and make suggestions to owners who are not up to code. 

New Florida laws force us to have owners upgrade or the COA must upgrade for them at cost. See this info here.

Zoom meeting, speaking policy, communications, violations.

The idea is to streamline Board meetings to attend to community business in the most expedient manner.

Board meetings used to be 2 to 3 hours long. By the time the Board discussed everything in person there was a short window for Members who were in attendance to speak. Most often people just left tired of waiting. Now the Board discusses agenda items by email in advance (without voting of course) and in general terms. Now Zoom Board Meetings are averaging 8 to 20 minutes. This way the Board can advance though all the agenda business in a more efficient manner. Those Members who request to speak before the meeting are allotted 3 minutes to share their thoughts on specific agenda items.

Speaking Policy at Board Meetings | Jupiter Lakes Villas

We are in the planning phase of updating our old 1979 Documents. This will be completed by our Condo Owners Association (COA) lawyer. The average rewrite reduces the documents length into a much smaller package and includes modern changes and language.

COA governing documents are a set of legally binding rules and regulations that outline how a COA operates, defining the rights and responsibilities of homeowners within a community, including details about common areas, maintenance obligations, property restrictions, and financial aspects like dues and assessments; essentially acting as the “constitution” of the community, ensuring consistent management and property value maintenance across the development.

Key elements of COA governing documents:

• Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CC&Rs): Considered the primary document, outlining the core rules and restrictions on property use, including architectural guidelines, parking regulations, pet policies, and limitations on alterations to the exterior of homes. 
• Articles of Incorporation: Establishes the COA as a legal entity, including its name, purpose, location, and initial board members. 
• Bylaws: Details the internal operations of the COA, such as how meetings are conducted, voting procedures, board member responsibilities, and amendment processes. 
• Rules and Regulations: More detailed guidelines regarding day-to-day living within the community, including noise limitations, trash disposal, guest policies, and pool usage.

Current: 2024 is underway now.

Proposals: Sent quote requests to Hafer and Company ($8,500 for audit and $375 for taxes); Sent to Lanter, Leonardo & DiCrescenzo LLC ($5,800 for audit and taxes). Second one approved by the Board.

We attempted to get an audit done for 2023 but RealTime property management did not give us all the financial reports that were needed. The Audit company could not complete the project. We used the funds that were already approved for 2023 and asked them to begin the audit for 2024 ASAP. That is underway now.

We recently had the annual Fire Inspection of the community. They gave us a list of items to be completed.

Fire extinguishers – for each unit or for each building was unclear. We are asking for clarification.

FPL electrical boxes were painted over during our last building paint project and when they did that, they covered the unit letters that are supposed to be displayed on each box.

These items need to be done right away to avoid any penalties or fines.

We will also be looking into complementary colors for our upcoming painting of all the buildings. We have enough money in the fully funded Painting Reserve to complete this project in 2025. According to our Reserve Study the Painting is to be done every 8 to 12 years but the only way to get rid of the current horrible non-complementary colors is to do the project as early as possible. It has been 8 years.

Today – February 5th 2025 Sherwin Williams representative Tiffany Marino stopped out to take photos and get some ideas of what we are looking to paint. They will provide us with three options for design ideas: Modern, Key West and Mediterranean. We will have the virtual design boards by next week and the Board will begin to look them over.

The stucco finish will need to be repaired on many of the buildings prior to the painting. We will be asking Restoration & Painting companies for proposals so we can try to have the same company do both jobs at the same time.

We are also looking to use the highest-grade paint as it will be 15 years until the next painting is needed; it will not allow rust or dirt to stick to the surface and it is anti-mold. This option will depend on the total cost of course.

We will begin getting proposals later this month.

Rain gutters installation project to redirect water away from foundations for long term foundation protection. Rain gutters are not that expensive and should be even less if we do 136 units with one company. They will all match and can redirect water away from buildings. This is needed to protect the foundation of the buildings from water washing away the soil. This will also protect plants that are along the low sides of the roofs.

There is no reserve fund for gutters as they were not installed when the initial construction was done. The funds will most likely come out of the day-to-day maintenance funds.

Review and discuss the adding of matching rain gutters to all buildings just after the next painting project or negotiate the paint project to include the gutters.

The Mains Roads are to be replaced by Reserve item in about 3 years. These surfaces were somehow done at a different timeframe than the parking lots so over the years the two projects have been separated. At some point it would be good to get them back onto the same schedule, so the sealcoat is done on all surfaces at the same time. There may be an opportunity once the Main Streets are repaved to combine all street surfaces to be seal coated at the 5-year mark after that, in perhaps 2032.

Current: Actively getting proposals for Main Road repaving or overlay project. Also looking into doing an overlay of asphalt instead of a full replacement with milling. This will depend on the condition of the base of the Main streets. It will require an inspection during the proposal phase.

Looking into the addition of two new speed bumps on the north and south roads at the entrance to create traffic calming measures that will reduce speeds and dissuade cut-through traffic.

Painting of the poles on the lollipop lamps has begun. We have a handyman cleaning and spray painting the poles with flat black rust prevention paint. We will begin at the entrance to clean up the lamps there first. We are looking to repair the few lamps which have lost electric connection. Please report any lamps that are out here.

We have been replacing the Pole lamp tops with a more modern design as they get broken and have to be replaced. We replaced the ones at the entrance so everyone can see what the new ones look like.

We have had a kind donation of three brand new LED streetlamp tops. These are all new tops. The LED lamps are supposed to last 10 years. We got them installed on 1-15-2025 on the three existing streetlight poles where the lights were out. We had a few community volunteers who offered to assist. That saved us some money on installation. Total cost $0.

Given that the wooden fences are always in a state of disarray and various stages of rotting. Currently Owners are responsible for their own unit fences. Some have gates some don’t.

Review and discuss the adding of Fence Replacement into the Reserves or come up with a new approved fence design for all future replacements. The idea is to replace the fences with newer modern vinyl versions and have the entire community have a clean cohesive appearance. All units would have front and back gates again.

More of that information is here:

Vinyl Fence Project | Jupiter Lakes Villas

Chain link fence between community, storage business and hospital. We now know that our community owns the fence. The fence is slated to be replaced in 2 years by Reserve Study. The original fence was installed by Aldron Fence. We have asked them for a proposal.

Current: Some small repairs were made at areas that were failing. We are actively getting proposals for the entire replacement of the fence perimeter. Also letters to hospital have been sent asking them to build us a wall to help with sound pollution. We have not heard back.

Project to remove the existing JLV entrance sign and relocate a new sign closer to the street – parallel to the street. This will require removal of old sign and relocating the flood lights. We are still unsure if approval is needed from Town of Jupiter for size and distance from the road.

Seal the parking lot areas and repaint all lines. Main streets were never sealed so sealing them this late in their life would be a waste of money.

Sidewalk grinding and repair to level out the uneven sidewalks throughout the community.

One very bad area by unit 2105 was removed and replaced. When we asked Triton to get us a proposal for the fix to that one area; the construction company thought that Triton told them to get it done. They did the work without a contract or deposit. We are still discussing this with Triton. To make matters weirder the construction company invoiced the wrong community for the job and they paid it in full. We ended up having to reimburse the other community for the amount paid.

We will no longer be using that construction company.

Current: Actively getting proposals for a community wide sidewalk grinding and replacement project instead of doing the sections a little at a time.

All Soffit Vents were installed incorrectly by Code Red roofing company. They used new construction small nails to attach the vents to replacement areas. They should have used screws. This project is to find someone to remove the construction nails and attach every vent with screws on every building, so they stop falling off or hanging.

Current: After getting proposals for $40k and $47k from two different companies to repair and replace the vents we ended up getting a handyman to do the work in two days for less than $1000. This project is complete.

Please report any hanging or missing vents to us ASAP.

Bulkhead failing has a hole opening in the grass area near the Lake. The bulkhead needs to be removed and replaced. The drainage pipe may need to have the end repaired / replaced.

Current: It turned out that the drain pipe itself was fine. The new bulkhead project was awarded to Universal Construction for $18k after more than three proposals over several years. They ranged from $185k to 65k. The original bulkhead was installed without any iron rebar. So, with nothing to hold it together it had broken into two large pieces. We did not know this until the work had begun. Erosion behind the wall was not that bad considering how long it had been sitting. Unknown to us Universal begun working before they sent us a contract. We are in discussion with Universal and our lawyer about this unusual situation. No money has been paid to them at this point although money was approved by the Board for the project.

At some point the Universal company decided that they needed to contact the town of Jupiter for some reason and this changed the job. They require a different permit and were told to drain the lake. We are unsure if this was their idea of the town. Here again we are in discussions with them, Triton and the lawyer.

Insurance company sent us a letter of items that need to be resolved by May 18th. Board was not made aware of this letter until several weeks after. We were granted an extension until June 18th. All items were resolved, and photos were sent to them.

The Landscaper completed all the requested work while the Tree Trim was in progress.

We agreed to a deal where Triton property management would scan the records from the past 8 years into digital format for $2400. They did that and the balance of all file boxes older than that were shredded and disposed of by a local service. Files had been previously stored at Realtime (previous property management before 2024) with an open agreement in our old contract for price “to be determined.” They held them hostage until we paid the ransom fee for storing them. We are no longer storing any paper documents – everything is now digital.

Hardwood Tree Trim was done before hurricane season June of 2024.

Next tree trim will be in two to three years depending on growth.

All units have been upgraded according to the Retrofit and Insurance company. This project was complete early enough so that we were able to qualify for a $100k discount on our hurricane insurance for March 2024. The discount is good for all years going forward and it is the largest discount possible.

Duck population appears to be dwindling. We got a few bids to have them removed and decided to try to convince the community to not feed them anymore. This appears to be working out.

The long-term strategy is to educate Owners and Renters of the “Do Not Feed Wildlife” Rule and begin fining those who continue to feed them. We have not had to fine anyone as yet. If we can get the community to report location of nests to Property Management that would be ideal.

By Florida State Law the Property Management company needs to have keys for every unit in its possession. Triton to send letter to Owners requesting copies of keys.

This project is to review the current window and door design options and introduce some alternate items to elevate the community while still keeping the current default options intact. Board member Madison, who is an Interior Designer, has volunteered to do some research on options.

Enhancement Committee will review and make recommendations to the Board of Directors. We will also be looking into complementary colors for our upcoming painting of all the buildings. We have enough money in the painting reserve to complete this project in late 2025.

Discuss and review options to install Solar Panels on several COA rooftops in the sunniest areas in order to offset community FPL charges in the future. At this time the cost of the panels is too expensive, and our community FPL electric bills are too small to justify the project.