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Wildwood Word - November 2025
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You are subscribed to the Wildwood Word.
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Notes from our October 2025 Board meeting - Click HERE
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Next Association meeting is on Wednesday 11/19/2025 at 6:30 PM in the clubhouse
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Thoughts, feelings, and concerns
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Your answers to the following survey questions are very important to the Board of Directors. They help the Board make decisions on various topics.
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- Are you concerned about property values in Wildood?
Answer Poll Question Here
- Are you concerned about monthly dues in Wildwood?
Answer Poll Question Here
- Are you concerned about the litterbug cleanup costs in Wildwood? (About $1,500/month)
Answer Poll Question Here
Please note - Answers to these questions are completely anonymous. Only the total number of answers (yes/no/responses) are tracked. Who answered the question is not tracked.
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Contact Information
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Property Management Company
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Community Associations Services
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11711 North College Avenue
Suite 100
Carmel, IN 46032
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Mon - Fri, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
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Julie Schaefer
customerservice@cas-indiana.com
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Five Rules To Live By In Wildwood
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- Pay your monthly dues on time. If you get behind and the Board turns it over to the homeowners association attorney, you will be responsible for not only what you owe but also any attorney fees the association has to pay, plus according to our documents you will be charged for the rest of that year.
- Follow the parking rules. Wildwood was built over 50 years ago. Then parking was not a big problem. Today, things have changed. Then, there were 2 parking spaces for each unit. Today that does not seem to be enough.
- Don't be a litterbug. Wildwood spends about $1,500 a month ($18,000 a year) having litterbug trash picked up. We hire a vendor to come in on a regular bases to pick up trash around the dumpsters and common areas ($1,083). Our lawn mowing service charges us $50 a mow to pick up trash on the lawns before they run over it. Associa On Call comes in on a regular basis to work on maintenance items. Their first responsibility is to check all dumpster areas and pick up littered trash not in the dumpster (about $200 a month).
- Fill out an Architectural Change Request if you plan on doing anything on the outside of your unit. The Board has the power to look at your request and decide if it will fit into the neighborhood. This includes fences, patio doors, windows, etc,. and any additions to the structure of the building. The Board is looking for reliable vendors and aesthetics.
- Do not park on the grass. Not only is this a Wildwood rule but a Indianapolis city ordinance. The water and sewer pipes are underground and over 50 years old. Occasionally, these pipes break and need immediate attention. If we don't know who caused the breakage, the homeowners association has to pay $1000's of dollars to have it fixed. Also, sometimes large moving trucks drive in common area courtyards and leave deep track marks that have to be repaired at the homeowners association expense.
There have many pipe breaks on Oakwood Trail which is a city street and the homeowners association is not responsible for.
Here is an example of cars parking on the grass an it's costs to the association.
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Monthly Dues and Reserve Studies and Accounts
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What if the Board of Directors sent out a letter to all owners saying that there was a special assessment of $5,000. It was to pay for new roofs that are over 15 years old. It was due in 3 months. Failure to pay meant your account being turned over to the association attorney and you would have to pay attorney costs, not the association.
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The owners say “I thought that was what monthly dues were for”. Monthly dues are for operating costs. Reserve accounts are for capital investments/expenditures.
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Monthly operating costs are the costs associated with what is in the bottom of this newsletter. Capital investments cover major items such as new roofs, new playground equipment, major changes in the clubhouse, paving the parking lots and streets, etc. In other words, big ticket items.
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A reserve account is like a savings account. This year the budget allows putting $3,432 into the reserve account every month. Currently we have about $190,000 in our reserve account. Every year we budget a little more going into your reserve account. Some months we are out of money by the end of the month and we don’t put anything into the reserve account.
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How do you know how much to put into your reserve account? There are companies that do what is called a Reserve Study. Their representatives read our documents, come on our property, to see what assets the association is responsible for. They then give a lifespan to each asset and price what the replacement cost will be at the end of life. Then they determine the amount you should have in your reserve account and how much you need to add in each month.
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This way, when an asset is at it’s end of life, you have the money in the reserve account to replace it. It is surprising how close the true costs are calculated in a reserve study.
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Reserve studies are not cheap. The last one the Board had done was in 2021 for a cost of $3,500. Normally, it should be done every 3 to 5 years. Some states require it by law to be down every 3 years. Indiana has no such law, presently.
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Nationally, some insurance companies will not ensure condo communities if their roofs are over 10 years old. Fortunately, ours will, except that this year they made a condition that they had a deductible for each roof of $20,000 (our yearly indurance premium is about $79,000). That means that the association has to pay the first $20,000 for each roof. The Board has asked several roof companies for bids to reroof our buildings. The low bid was just about $20,000 for each roof ($709,643 total low bid, and this will go up the longer you wait). That means that the association is responsible for the costs of reroofing all of Wildwood.
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What's Going On in Wildwood...
- Sargent Shawn Anderson and Officer Horance Cox reported that several vehicles were tagged for illegal parking. No vehicles were towed in the past month. The number one complaint to the management company and Board has to do with parking. Our officers and some Board members check the parking lots randomly for illegal cars. Cars with flat tires, expired license plates, parking on the grass, taking two spaces when parking, will get tagged, and then if it was not been corrected, will be towed. Our parking lots are not for storage of unused vehicles.
- Officer Cox alerted the Board to a new prank trending on social media where teens wear Halloween masks and knock on doors or rattle door handles to scare individuals into opening the door, they then shoot the resident with a splatter ball gun. The trend originated in Chicago but has been verified in Indianapolis recently as well. Please be careful when you open your front door.
- We have a new trash company. The new company is LRS (Lakeshore Recycling Systems, LLC). They will handle all of Wildwood.
- Midwest Pressure Washing Services LLC has started washing down all of the Wildwood Buildings. They are using water from the clubhouse and not from any owners units.
- Mailing enclosures for the 2026 budget were reviewed and discussed. The Budget and mailing enclosures were appoved unanimously. This mailing usually goes out towards the end of the year.
- Installation of our new observation cameras should be done by Thanksgiving acording to Sean Robinson, Owner and Tech guy for Robinson Services.
- The Board reviewed and approved the upcoming Pike Township Residents Association membership renewal. PTRA listens to all requests for rezoning and happenings in Pike Township. Their website is ptra.net
- The Board reviewed and approved a proposal for roof repairs on Oakwood Trail.
- The Board reviewed a proposal for additional artwork to install in the Mens and Womens restrooms at the clubhouse. The total expense was $120.
- Next Association/Board meeting will be Wednesday Nov.15th 2026 6:30 PM in the clubhouse.
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