PBSA history lesson from March 2015

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This extraordinary board letter to owners was written 3-15-2015.  McNerney-President, Foose-Treasurer, Fitzgibbons-VP, Dameron-Secretary & Page- Parking and Landscape Czar.  They were the directors as of the Feb 2015 annual meeting. Notice chronic needed repairs detailed:  stairway railings, concrete, painting, unit windows & shutters, lobby windows and doors, as well as acute issues with the elevator and water pumps. Apparently, an engineer's report was in hand. Ultimately, only the stair railings were replaced because of insurance liability. This letter is a Champlain Towers South collapse disaster in the making and an indictment of prior boards and owners who fought our recent special assessment and replacing their windows and doors. 

Dear Members of Palm Beach Shores Apts:
This is a brief update on the status of your home (or home away from home) here at PBSA.
As you know the new board that was recently elected has been busy finalizing the budget, assessing what else needs to be done and filling open positions to make sure that we keep the place running.

I am happy to report that we have finalized an agreement with Tim Ames to be our "live in" custodian, maintenance expert and all around go to person. Bill Fitzgibbons will be the liaison between the BOD and Tim.

Thanks also to our new board secretary, Pat Dameron, who quickly organized our office and most importantly screened a number of candidates before selecting Pia McCarthy as our office and board assistant. All of the board members interviewed Pia and we all think that she will be a great addition to our team. As a rule Pia will be on site three days a week in season and two days during the summer period. 

Now to the state of the building and it is hard to know where to begin. So let me summarize the findings of the new and previous board. 

We are a mess! This wonderful building has been allowed to deteriorate to the state that we now need to spend some serious monies to bring the facilities up to code and to prevent further deterioration. 

In addition to the needed chronic issues which I will detail in a moment, we had a major acute problem with our elevator. It was broken for six days and required considerable repair and is an unbudgeted expense. The current elevator was installed in February of 1998 so this motor and electrical system lasted 17 years . We are hopeful that the fixes will keep the elevator operating for the next few years but we would guess that a complete new unit will be needed in the foreseeable future. 

The other acute issue is our water pump (s). They shut down on a daily basis. Our understanding is that the electric regulator that was purchased for them several years ago is not meeting our needs and a new one needs to be ordered.

The chronic issues that need to be addressed include: 1. new railings for the stairways; 2. repair of damaged building concrete; 3. needs to be painted; 4. need to fix the leaking that occurs around each apartment's shutters and windows; 5. doors and windows in the lobby need to be replaced; 6. our capital fund (for emergencies) has been severely depleted and needs to be funded. The board has been busy in trying to prioritize the issues and get cost estimates to see how much the assessments will need to be. We are also trying to figure out some creative ways to finance the expenses so that the yearly burden will be minimized.

Let me be more specific on the need for repairs:

1-Railings

Their state of disrepair is deplorable. They are rusted, old and broken. Their state of disrepair means that if an accident occurred our insurance would not cover it and we would be held accountable for damages. Our resident historian, Harriet, informed me that the state of the railings was raised over eight years ago and nothing was done. Now we are left with needing to fund an issue that should have been addressed almost a decade ago.

2-Concrete repair

We have major bubbling on the walls caused by leaking water from the roof and the windows. Four years ago a two year program for repair was authorized by the board but only the first year was actually completed and we have gone three years with further deterioration . Our building engineers tell us that if left untreated the damage does not increase marginally but can be four or five times as bad in just a year or two. For those that are currently in Florida, please take a walk around the building and you can see the bubbling issue for yourself.

3-Windows and Shutters

A recent engineers report states that this is the BIGGEST issue causing damage to the building. The problem is that proper caulking of the building cannot be accomplished without taking the shutters off to allow caulking around the windows. Unfortunately the shutters are very old and it is estimated that 20% will not be functional enough to go back up. The board's recommendation is to remove the shutters and replace the current windows with hurricane windows. This would ease the issue of caulking in the future and take one more item that will need repair (shutters) off the table. Needless to say there are several members of the association who are resistant to replacing the shutters and we certainly understand their position, but if only some of us do the necessary repairs and others do not
then the building will continue to deteriorate. We all know that damage to your apartment does not always come from your windows but most often from your neighbor's windows, either above or two apartments away. The water will leak in and travel to your walls and ruin them. Many of us have spent a great deal of money to renovate our apartments and no one wants to have to do it all over again.

4-The Lobby
We also need to replace the windows and doors in the lobby. They are also 50+ years old and need to
be replaced. But this is a secondary issue and will need to be addressed in phase two.

5-The Building Reserve
The Reserve is depleted . Right now we have less than $45K. If a hurricane hits we do not have the necessary funds to replace our roof or fix any major damage. Again our resident historian, Harriet, tells me that in 1997 (after hurricane Wilma) it cost the building $91K to replace our roof. We have less than half that amount today (18 years later) and we estimate that it would cost $200K to replace the roof in today's dollars. As a side note, we have heard from several realtors in the area that potential buyers are scared off when they hear about our low reserves. They view it as a sign of the stability of the building.


So in summary, we estimate that for all of the repair and updating that needs to be accomplished we will need somewhere between $350K and $500K. Needless to say this would not all be done in one year but we need to plan to get this wonderful building back up to a standard that we would like to be associated with.

Lastly, there is no doubt that some work will be done on the building this summer. We do not, as of now, know the full extent but we do know that there will be many workers here for a number of weeks/months. So we strongly suggest that you store valuables off site or take them with you when you leave for the summer. We are also asking you to remove all window treatments (curtains, blinds etc.) from the windows. This does not Include the sliding doors which will not be replaced. We do not yet know if we will have the funding to replace the shutters/windows but if we do then we do not want the window treatments damaged

Thanks all

The PBSA board