By Greg Ellison

(Feb. 11, 2021)  The Ocean Pines Board of Directors held a FY21/22 budget hearing virtually on Saturday to update membership on the association’s current and future financial challenges.

OPA Treasurer Doug Parks said the association’s governing documents requires a public hearing to provide residents a status update on the proposed budget.

“We’re still in the process of refining it [and] still in the process of getting input,” he said.

Parks said the new fiscal year’s budget is analyzed from both an operations and board perspective, with the community encouraged to pose questions and express concerns.

The budget proposal is posted on the association’s website under the finance department tab.

Starting with the point of  greatest community interest, annual assessment rates, Parks said a larger fee increase was avoided through extensive analysis by the Budget and Finance Committee, General Manager John Viola and the board.

“At this point we’re looking at an assessment for the non-water lots of $1,021, which … is about a $35 increase compared to last year,” he said.

Parks said initial revenue projections for the current fiscal year had been roughly $14.7 million, but more recently were lowered to about $14.06 million.

On the expenditure side, the current fiscal budget had been estimated at $14.7 million but is now forecast to finish close to $14.6 million.

“The general manager and his staff have done a very good job in looking at controlling expenses,” he said. “We’re actually underneath where we’re projected to finish in this current fiscal year to a savings of about a half million dollars.”

While price increases are inevitable over the years, Parks said the board is generally hypersensitive to increasing assessment fees.

“Controlling the cost is a real important factor in operations, but not to control … or cut costs just for the sake of cutting,” he said.

Director Frank Daly shifted the discussion to drainage issues.

“In the current year that will end in April we’ve budgeted more money for drainage than we had in the past five years combined,” he said.

The proposed budget continues the trend with $900,000 earmarked for drainage work, more the triple the total designated this year.

Daly said those costs pale in comparison to the potential price tag for replacing underground pipes throughout the community that are at or near the end of their useful lives.

“We have basically 30,647 feet of underground pipe that ranges in age from when the community started to recently,” he said.

The average life span for corrugated pipe installed underground varies widely from 10-40 years based on site and use conditions.

“Even at 40 years, a significant number of those pipes are mid- to end service life,” he said.

Daly said the price tag is estimated at about $1,000-per-foot to replace the infrastructure.

Parks, while concurring with Daly that the topic was outside the current budget discussions, also agreed the potential replacement costs, which could eclipse $30 million, are overwhelming.

“The infrastructure is pretty old,” he said. “The amount of money it would take to completely revamp … is beyond what we could reasonably consider, even over a five-year span.”

Daly said resolving the aging pipe issue needs to be discussed further.

“There’s no immediate problem … but over next decade or two, we’re going to be facing substantial infrastructure issues that cost a lot of money,” he said.

Perrone said the association is awaiting price estimates to have repair linings installed inside failing drainage pipes, at a fraction of the cost for full replacement.

“The ones that have to be replaced will be,” he said.

Residents with budget questions for the board should email to directors@oceanpines.org.

The board is scheduled to give final budget approval on Feb. 20 with the new fiscal year starting on May 1.