(Feb. 2, 2017) A worm infestation of Ocean Pines Association bulkheads could potentially cost millions to fix, according to a budget discussion held last Friday.
The incursion was apparently discovered late last year and was at least partially behind a decision to suspend the association’s regular bulkhead replacement program, which installed new partitions on a 35-year cycle, pending an in-progress engineering study by Davis, Bowen & Friedel, Inc.
On Friday, Director Pat Supik said she was concerned that a fiscal year 2018 budget draft showed bulkhead reserves decreasing to roughly $48,000 as of April 30, 2018. Current reserves in that account are approximately $1.175 million.
The decrease was attributed to the bulkhead reserve contribution remaining flat in the current draft, while spending increased more than $1 million.
“That could indicate that the year after that we might have a hefty assessment [increase],” Supik said. “Some side of the equation has got to change.”
Interim General Manager Brett Hill said he anticipated the study would be finished by mid-February. Until then, budgeting for bulkheads was akin to “throwing a dart at the wall.”
Preliminary spending on bulkheads during FY18 was $1.9 million, which Board Vice President Dave Stevens noted was a hefty increase.
“We’re talking about $1.2-$1.3 million more in one single year of spending then we have ever done – ever – in the past,” Stevens said.
Typically, according to Stevens, Ocean Pines replaced 3,500 linear feet of its bulkheads each year.
Hill, who developed the budget, said his projections were not based on any part of the old replacement program, but were rather meant to address “what’s failing due to environment [circumstances], which is for the most part attributed to worms.”
He estimated about 8,000 feet needed to be replaced in order to address “the worst of our failing bulkheads.”
Ocean Pines has a total of 109,000 linear feet worth of bulkheads, valued at about $25 million, according to Controller Art Carmine.
“The issue right now is, that I think we need to do more than 8,000 in one year,” Hill said, adding, “at this point it’s all speculative.”
“The ones this year are focused on where we have outright failures [because of] worms,” Hill said. “They’re the sinkholes over in Wood Duck that are being done this year.”
He said Ocean Pines could get lucky and the report could suggest only 5,000 linear feet needed to be replaced – or it could come back as more, potentially as much as 15,000 linear feet.
“And then we [would] have to figure out whether we can stretch that over three or four years, or whether we need to do something with assessments in the future to bring the money in to do it sooner,” he said. “The number was just put there on the assumption that the situation is bad, we’re going to have to do as much as we possibly can and we’re wiping [bulkhead reserves] to essentially nothing.
“We’ll hopefully have that information in the next couple of weeks,” Hill added.
About eight percent of Ocean Pines bulkheads are shared property and impact overall assessments. Individual homeowners own the other 92 percent and pay a higher rate of assessment, which in turn funds bulkhead repairs and reserves accounts.
The incursion was apparently discovered late last year and was at least partially behind a decision to suspend the association’s regular bulkhead replacement program, which installed new partitions on a 35-year cycle, pending an in-progress engineering study by Davis, Bowen & Friedel, Inc.
On Friday, Director Pat Supik said she was concerned that a fiscal year 2018 budget draft showed bulkhead reserves decreasing to roughly $48,000 as of April 30, 2018. Current reserves in that account are approximately $1.175 million.
The decrease was attributed to the bulkhead reserve contribution remaining flat in the current draft, while spending increased more than $1 million.
“That could indicate that the year after that we might have a hefty assessment [increase],” Supik said. “Some side of the equation has got to change.”
Interim General Manager Brett Hill said he anticipated the study would be finished by mid-February. Until then, budgeting for bulkheads was akin to “throwing a dart at the wall.”
Preliminary spending on bulkheads during FY18 was $1.9 million, which Board Vice President Dave Stevens noted was a hefty increase.
“We’re talking about $1.2-$1.3 million more in one single year of spending then we have ever done – ever – in the past,” Stevens said.
Typically, according to Stevens, Ocean Pines replaced 3,500 linear feet of its bulkheads each year.
Hill, who developed the budget, said his projections were not based on any part of the old replacement program, but were rather meant to address “what’s failing due to environment [circumstances], which is for the most part attributed to worms.”
He estimated about 8,000 feet needed to be replaced in order to address “the worst of our failing bulkheads.”
Ocean Pines has a total of 109,000 linear feet worth of bulkheads, valued at about $25 million, according to Controller Art Carmine.
“The issue right now is, that I think we need to do more than 8,000 in one year,” Hill said, adding, “at this point it’s all speculative.”
“The ones this year are focused on where we have outright failures [because of] worms,” Hill said. “They’re the sinkholes over in Wood Duck that are being done this year.”
He said Ocean Pines could get lucky and the report could suggest only 5,000 linear feet needed to be replaced – or it could come back as more, potentially as much as 15,000 linear feet.
“And then we [would] have to figure out whether we can stretch that over three or four years, or whether we need to do something with assessments in the future to bring the money in to do it sooner,” he said. “The number was just put there on the assumption that the situation is bad, we’re going to have to do as much as we possibly can and we’re wiping [bulkhead reserves] to essentially nothing.
“We’ll hopefully have that information in the next couple of weeks,” Hill added.
About eight percent of Ocean Pines bulkheads are shared property and impact overall assessments. Individual homeowners own the other 92 percent and pay a higher rate of assessment, which in turn funds bulkhead repairs and reserves accounts.