(Dec. 15, 2016) The Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors announced a special meeting today, Thursday, at 9 a.m. in the boardroom of the administration building on Ocean Parkway to discuss plans for the country club that could include a major multi-year renovation.
The special session stems from an hour-long discussion at a public meeting last Friday, when interim General Manager Brett Hill asked for approval to install a new HVAC system and renovate the first floor area related to the Tern Grill restaurant inside the country club.
A vote on the first matter was unanimous, while a vote on the renovations was 6-1 in the affirmative.
Rather than install a new heating and cooling system for the entire building, Hill advocated putting in several “mini split systems,” costing about $2,000 each. No total cost was given.
If units were purchased separately, they could conceivably be done without further board approval. Public works can spend up to $5,000 without seeking bids and the administrative office can approve items costing $5,000 to $15,000, provided there are at least three bids
Tern Grill renovations were estimated to cost $105,000, with public works performing all of the work. That will apparently include updates to the first floor bar and dining area, as well as purchasing a walk-in refrigerator and a larger cooktop. A planned overhaul of the first-floor bathrooms was not part of that estimate.
The lone dissenting vote on the renovations came from Director Cheryl Jacobs, who has repeatedly recommended that the board approve plans for the entire building in one fell swoop, rather than voting on projects piecemeal.
Jacobs reminded the board that she had requested discussion of that larger plan just days before the Friday meeting.
“At our work session, we talked about not approving this in a vacuum, but rather considering what we wanted to do with the entire building, because it can impact what happens on the second floor,” she said. “I don’t think there’s a problem with completing the renovation … in stages, but we don’t know what the whole package is going to be.
“My concern is we don’t really know what the whole cost is going to be in the end, putting aside the fact that once you start tearing these walls apart, God only knows what you’re going to find in there,” she added.
Hill said cost estimates had been provided during a preliminary budget meeting last month, totaling about $900,000 and broken down into a $420,000 projection this year and $470,000-$480,000 during the next fiscal year.
Since then, he said, the association had already saved money because roof repairs came in about $20,000 less than projections.
As for first floor renovations, Hill said the Tern Grill revamp would have no impact on plans for the second floor. He presented the directors with three different mockups for each floor in November.
Moreover, Hill said work on the restaurant side of operations was being pushed now so that it could be finished in time for the start of the golf season, in March or April. Renderings on the second floor had largely involved meeting and banquet spaces.
“I’m just saying go ahead and make a decision and be done with it,” Jacobs said. “It can certainly be done in stages, but why not just go ahead and deal with it?”
Hill said he was “all for that,” but Board Vice President Dave Stevens said he wanted more time, information and perhaps community involvement.
“From what I’ve heard we can move ahead, smartly, on the downstairs right now without painting ourselves into a corner with regards to what happens upstairs,” he said. “My personal opinion [is] we need more community input and more discussion on the allocation of space in the upstairs.
“If we’re going to start talking about the business or the operations that we’re going to get [on the second floor], I think we need to talk a lot more about business plans and exactly that’s going to happen, and how that’s going to happen in lieu of dwindling golfing membership,” Stevens added. “It needs more thought and … we don’t have to make up our minds now – we just don’t.”
While the directors agreed on Friday that a special session should be called for further discussion, they could not agree when that should happen. Stevens said the time and place for such a meeting was during January budget talks while two other directors, Jacobs and Doug Parks, favored finishing plans before the New Year.
Director Pat Supik went as far as to compare putting off these talks to the apparent deferring of regular maintenance at the country club, which some directors speculated had occurred for several years.
“I feel like one of the reasons that we are where we are today with that building … is because there was not a sense of urgency to bring a project to fruition,” she said. “We could think about this for two, three years.”
“You underestimate him,” resident Joe Reynolds interjected, referring to Stevens.
Board President Tom Herrick asked the directors to check their calendars and said a special meeting would be agreed upon during the “next couple weeks.” The official announcement for the special session came on Monday.
The special session stems from an hour-long discussion at a public meeting last Friday, when interim General Manager Brett Hill asked for approval to install a new HVAC system and renovate the first floor area related to the Tern Grill restaurant inside the country club.
A vote on the first matter was unanimous, while a vote on the renovations was 6-1 in the affirmative.
Rather than install a new heating and cooling system for the entire building, Hill advocated putting in several “mini split systems,” costing about $2,000 each. No total cost was given.
If units were purchased separately, they could conceivably be done without further board approval. Public works can spend up to $5,000 without seeking bids and the administrative office can approve items costing $5,000 to $15,000, provided there are at least three bids
Tern Grill renovations were estimated to cost $105,000, with public works performing all of the work. That will apparently include updates to the first floor bar and dining area, as well as purchasing a walk-in refrigerator and a larger cooktop. A planned overhaul of the first-floor bathrooms was not part of that estimate.
The lone dissenting vote on the renovations came from Director Cheryl Jacobs, who has repeatedly recommended that the board approve plans for the entire building in one fell swoop, rather than voting on projects piecemeal.
Jacobs reminded the board that she had requested discussion of that larger plan just days before the Friday meeting.
“At our work session, we talked about not approving this in a vacuum, but rather considering what we wanted to do with the entire building, because it can impact what happens on the second floor,” she said. “I don’t think there’s a problem with completing the renovation … in stages, but we don’t know what the whole package is going to be.
“My concern is we don’t really know what the whole cost is going to be in the end, putting aside the fact that once you start tearing these walls apart, God only knows what you’re going to find in there,” she added.
Hill said cost estimates had been provided during a preliminary budget meeting last month, totaling about $900,000 and broken down into a $420,000 projection this year and $470,000-$480,000 during the next fiscal year.
Since then, he said, the association had already saved money because roof repairs came in about $20,000 less than projections.
As for first floor renovations, Hill said the Tern Grill revamp would have no impact on plans for the second floor. He presented the directors with three different mockups for each floor in November.
Moreover, Hill said work on the restaurant side of operations was being pushed now so that it could be finished in time for the start of the golf season, in March or April. Renderings on the second floor had largely involved meeting and banquet spaces.
“I’m just saying go ahead and make a decision and be done with it,” Jacobs said. “It can certainly be done in stages, but why not just go ahead and deal with it?”
Hill said he was “all for that,” but Board Vice President Dave Stevens said he wanted more time, information and perhaps community involvement.
“From what I’ve heard we can move ahead, smartly, on the downstairs right now without painting ourselves into a corner with regards to what happens upstairs,” he said. “My personal opinion [is] we need more community input and more discussion on the allocation of space in the upstairs.
“If we’re going to start talking about the business or the operations that we’re going to get [on the second floor], I think we need to talk a lot more about business plans and exactly that’s going to happen, and how that’s going to happen in lieu of dwindling golfing membership,” Stevens added. “It needs more thought and … we don’t have to make up our minds now – we just don’t.”
While the directors agreed on Friday that a special session should be called for further discussion, they could not agree when that should happen. Stevens said the time and place for such a meeting was during January budget talks while two other directors, Jacobs and Doug Parks, favored finishing plans before the New Year.
Director Pat Supik went as far as to compare putting off these talks to the apparent deferring of regular maintenance at the country club, which some directors speculated had occurred for several years.
“I feel like one of the reasons that we are where we are today with that building … is because there was not a sense of urgency to bring a project to fruition,” she said. “We could think about this for two, three years.”
“You underestimate him,” resident Joe Reynolds interjected, referring to Stevens.
Board President Tom Herrick asked the directors to check their calendars and said a special meeting would be agreed upon during the “next couple weeks.” The official announcement for the special session came on Monday.