December 2018 Setalker
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HOA Board News and Information
When you read this, we will have celebrated Thanksgiving and we are thankful for all that we have in this wonderful community. As we approach the Holidays, all of us on the Board thank you for your support and wish you all a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah and a Happy, Healthy New Year. Don’t forget the Holiday cocktail party on Sunday, December 16th starting at 4:00pm. It is an opportunity to meet and mingle with your neighbors in our comfortable, beautifully decorated Clubhouse. This year, the Social Committee decided to forgo the expensive dinner dance in an outside venue and have an in-house party with live piano music and a variety of passed hot and cold hors d’oeuvres including shrimp cocktail and filet mignon tidbits. The event will again be catered by our resident, Mario Caravetta and he is pulling out all the stops. The charge is $25.00 per person and Donna Heller will be collecting on Dec. 1st. Look for reminder e-mails. Though the Nov. 15th HOA Board meeting was cancelled due to the surprise snow storm, it has been re-scheduled for November 29th at 7 PM in the Clubhouse. The Power Point Budget presentation which had been made by Joe Cerullo along with the technical expertise of Debra Schade and Ray Dawson was able to be printed out and also placed on the website (setauketmeadows.com). The information contained is a complete analysis of actual and estimated expenses for 2018 and the resulting analysis of the budget for 2019. Based on this information and many meetings and discussions, it was determined that an increase in HOA fees of $23.00 in 2019 is necessary. You may pick up a copy of the presentation at HPM or read it on the website. In summary, the presentation illustrated that the 2018 expenses are estimated to be $103,000.00 higher than budgeted. Most of the expense shortfall was a result of increased costs in the snow removal, repair and maintenance items which included water intrusion issues, and STP repairs and replacement parts. As the community ages, cost of repairs and maintenance increase. It is with this in mind that we have increased our repair and maintenance amount by $30,000.00 in the budget for next year. The current level of the HOA reserve fund is approaching $400,000, in line with our plan as we stated several years back. As the year ends, our projected reserve amount as of December 31, 2018 will total $367,000. The HOA will continue to fund the Reserve at approximately $70,000 per year. In summary, the break-down for the monthly 2019 HOA fee is as follows: Expense – Monthly maintenance -$444.00, HOA Reserve - $40.00, Cablevision - $84.00 TOTAL - $568.00 per unit, an increase of $23.00 per month. You will receive the new coupon book before the New Year. As 2018 comes to a close, we look back at some of the improvements made in the community this year outside of the contractual expenses:
Social Committee Update
by Ellen Silverman **Holiday Cocktail Party**
You will enjoy:
Sign-up: Saturday morning, December 1 Clubhouse 11:00-Noon. Please bring cash or a check made out to cash. Questions? Contact Donna Heller: Tanina005@aol.com 631-495-6078 or Eileen Duffy: loveduff2000@yahoo.com After a very busy spring through autumn, your Social Committee activities will slow down a bit until spring of 2019 is upon us. Please watch for emails regarding Wednesday Happy Hour and, I'm sure, some "save the date" information. Happy Hour will resume in January and will continue on several Wednesdays throughout the winter months...we'll let you know which ones. Although Frank and I will be in Florida, please don't hesitate to email, text, or call if you have any questions about the committee and/or its activities. On behalf of the entire Social Committee, I would like to wish each and every one of you, along with your families, a happy, healthy, peaceful, and safe holiday season, and a smooth transition into 2019. 
Since the November Setalker was not published, I have included both the November and December birthdays in this Setalker.
11/4 Jeff Peck 11/6 Jane Denzer 11/7 Ann Marie Riley 11/8 Mike Lubinsky 11/8 Richard Lester 11/12 Marianne Fohn 11/15 Gabrielle Gianotti 11/20 Brian Koehn 11/22 Angelo Trombetta 11/24 Joan Sandstrom 11/26 Elaine Hansen 12/5 Joe Falcone 12/5 Norma Mazzeo 12/8 Bea Davidoff 12/10 Josephine Quinn 12/12 Rich Franco 12/15 Donna Friedman 12/15 Lois Link 12/16 Catherine Snopkowski 12/17 Bill Hammer 12/18 Claire Rathjen 12/18 Ann Razzano 12/18 Alice Sabbatino 12/22 Don Gasperin 12/26 Beverly Sarro 12/.28 Denis DeMarco 12/31 Richard Justman 12/31 Carol Stanziale 
Since the November Setalker was not published, I have included both the November and December anniversaries
in this Setalker. 11/3 Dan & Josephine Falcone 11/5 Bob & Jane Dieterich 11/14 Joseph & Dorothy Rasulo 11/20 William & Susan Connors 11/21 John & Lorainne Milano 11/26 Ed & Alice Bradin 11/26 Bill & Sandy Hammer 12/2 Brian & Susan Koehn 12/6 Harold & Bea Davidoff 12/15 D. Bruce & Delores Lockerbie 12/19 Mel & Sue Marks 12/19 Angelo & MaryAnn Trombetta 12/23 Eugene & Cynthia Russell 12/27 Joe & Beverly Sarro |
Real Estate News
by Phyllis Colby How Comparative Analysis Affects Setauket Meadows There has been some confusion as to how pricing works in our condo. The most important factor is the comparison to units that have already sold. This is commonly called comps. If a mortgage is involved, the bank sends an appraiser to the property. The appraiser MUST supply 3 comps. There is a formula they use for how much to add for things like a finished basement, upgrades, etc. or to subtract for location, damages, etc. This means that the homeowner may not have an appraisal that agrees with the money spent. For example, a finished basement may have cost $30,000 and the appraiser only adds $10,000 to the comps. If the appraiser cannot provide 3 comps that are close to the price agreed upon, the bank may not provide a mortgage and the contract becomes null & void. Another factor is of course, the homeowner’s willingness to accept an offer. This can be influenced by the time line the property owner wants. For example, if there is another property the homeowner is purchasing, time can be of the essence. The buyer must show proof that funds are available and if a bank is involved, the buyer must show a pre-approval from the bank. This does not mean that the bank is obligated. It simply means that the bank thinks it looks good but must have more information on the buyer and on the property. The pricing is very important because a new listing is very active, if it’s priced correctly. If the listing stays on the market, it becomes stale and the activity significantly decreases. The buyer assumes that this property will decrease in price. Our comps have had a huge increase. At this time, Setauket Meadows does not have the 3 comps necessary for the banks to be satisfied. That will change at the end of this month with the third closing in the high $500,000. We had to use another condo for this price to be accepted by the bank. The appraiser was reluctant but he was finally convinced. My hope is that we can now start selling our properties for the $600,000’s. All agents have a goal of getting the best offer they can on a property. If anyone has any question, please contact me. Phyllis Colby Organizations Who Will Pick Up Your Donations
by Francine DiCecio As a result of selling my mother in law’s condo and buying new furniture for ourselves, we needed to locate places that would pick up donations from us. I thought I would share this with the Community. Places to Donate: -St Gerard Majella: (Rob) 631-473-2900 -Setauket Presbyterian Church-Open Door Exchange: 631-743-0633, 631-941-4271 -St Vincent de Paul (Kyle) 621-698-0284 -Viet Nam Vets: 631-5820242, 888-518-8387 -Big Brothers & Sisters of LI: 631-234-0000 -Lupus Alliance of LI:516-678-3330 -Lupus Foundation of America: 888-445-8787 -Habitat for Humanity: 631-767-1612, 631-521-7789; email-Tom@habitatsuffolk.org -Salvation Army: 800-728-7825 Many of these organizations will not accept upholstered furniture/mattresses. Some will send their truck drivers to assess the articles to be donated and a decision is made by the driver as to whether they’ll remove the articles. These organizations do not charge to take away donations Recipe Of The Month
by Pat Dawson MONKEY BREAD SMELLS LIKE CINNIBON ROLLS!!!!! Preheat oven to 350 degrees Ingredients:
Directions:
Computer Tip Of The Month
by Ray Dawson I recently had the experience of needing to update an application on my laptop in order to make the application work. I dutifully opened up the App Store where I could access the application and "update" it. After clicking on the "Update" button I watched and waited for the application to update. Four hours later the application had not updated itself. At this time I figured it was time to call in the heavy hitters so I called Apple Support and spoke with a very knowledgeable advisor who spent 1.5 hours on the phone with me. He advised that the operating system I was running was not compatible with the application update. I would have to upgrade my operating system in order to update the version of the application I was seeking. If any of you know anything about computers you will know that upgrading an operating system, whether it's on a PC or an Apple product takes a......long.......time! That being so, the advisor could not stay on the phone with me while we waited for the operating system to upgrade. I thanked him for his advice and hung up. I felt comfortable with my knowledge of upgrading the operating system. Two hours later the upgrade process stopped progressing. Ten minutes later it failed and gave me a message that indicated my little laptop was too old to accept the upgrade to a new operating system. What to do? I called Apple Support again and spoke to another advisor who had me hold down the Option key along with the Command key and at the same time hold down the Power button. I was holding so many buttons at the same time I thought I would run out of fingers. With the advisor still on the phone my little laptop went blank....................and then it started up again. He told me that I now had a new operating system and that I could simply go to the App Store once again, and update my application that was the cause of all this trouble. Ok, simple enough. But, and there always seems to be a BUT, the application I was trying to update to a new version would not download on to my laptop. At this point I was ready to call on Steve Jobs. Maybe he could help me from the other side. So I'd have to settle for Tim Cook instead. Suddenly a lightbulb went off in my head! Hey Ray, I said to myself, now that I have a new operating system and the application still would not download, just uninstall the application in question and the re-install it from the App Store. B.........I........N.........G..........O !!! My application loaded itself with the newest version. I didn't lose any data and I was back in business. Morale of the story........keep your operating systems and applications up to date with the latest version. You'll be glad you did. |
Each December I like to publish pictures of our Community events during this year and prior years. I hope they bring back a few memories and I hope you enjoy them. If you click on a picture it will become larger.
My best wishes to each and every one of you. May your New Year bring you happiness, good health and prosperity.
Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah.
My best wishes to each and every one of you. May your New Year bring you happiness, good health and prosperity.
Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah.
