Dear Shadowoak Homeowners,

On 3/27/25, I visited the Ballwin Government Center and met with Eric Sterman, City Administrator, and Lynn Sprick, City Planner, concerning the possible annexation of our subdivision by the City of Ballwin. 

The St. Louis County Boundary Commission has opened a 5-year term for annexation of unincorporated subdivisions into municipalities.  This allows subdivisions to petition a municipality to be considered for annexation.  In each year of the 5-year term, a “window” of time, about 3 months, opens, in which the petitions may be submitted.  Once submitted, the Boundary Commission reviews it, and either approves or disapproves it.  That process usually takes 3 to 4 months. 

The process of submitting the application requires that a petition for annexation must be signed by 75% of all the registered voters in the subdivision.  This would include everyone in the house who is a registered voter, not just one person.  Once the application is turned in (during one of the “windows” of acceptance), it is valid for one year.  A 75% approval rate in a subdivision clearly states that a majority of the residents want the annexation to go through.

Pros to the annexation to Ballwin

No additional property tax to City Residents

Resident rates at all City recreational facilities

Services:

Ballwin Police Department – more personal policing

Snow plowing

Public street and sidewalk repair

Leaf pickup fall into winter

Ballwin code enforcement and permit services

Ballwin assumes payment to Ameren for streetlights that are in public right of way

Ballwin trash hauler (trash, recycling and yard waste); paid by homeowner

Smaller government (more personal)

Cons to the annexation to Ballwin

There is a 7% utility tax in Ballwin, versus a 5% utility tax in St. Louis County (increase of 2%).

Vehicle sales tax is paid to the City in which a person lives, not where the vehicle is purchased.  Ballwin tax rate is 8.738%.

I asked Ballwin why they would want to take on more area to service.  What is the benefit to them?  Ballwin receives a portion of the St. Louis County sales tax pool money.  The amount they receive is based on the number of residents.  In the future, they would also receive a portion of internet sales tax money, again based on the number of residents.  From what I understand, this is not occurring now, but will more than likely happen in the future.  They also believe that if St. Louis City tries to take over St. Louis County (Better Together Movement), a larger City would be less likely to be taken over.

According to Mr. Sterman, the costs to us would be pretty much the same as they are now, some higher, some lower.  I showed him my real estate tax bill and asked what would change, and he said nothing would change on that tax bill.

I questioned Mr. Sterman about Ballwin taking over the care of the pond, and he said that would not be an option.  BUT, he thinks that we could negotiate with Ballwin to have their workers take down some of the invasive vegetation at the pond, which would solve a big problem.  We would still pay to have the pond treated and mowed.  We would still have to take care of our common ground and cul-de-sac circles.  BUT, we would no longer pay for street lights using our HOA fees, cutting our expenses by $15,000 to $16,000 per year.  This would not only improve our financial outlook, but could keep our HOA fees at a reasonable level.

I am sorry for the long post, but this is really important and I am trying to gauge interest from the homeowners in our subdivision in order to determine if we want to petition Ballwin for annexation.  Please review the pros and cons carefully and if you have any concern or questions I have not addressed, ask and I will do my best to answer.  If there is enough interest, I will meet with the city officials to explore the petition process in more detail.

Thank You for your consideration.

Paula Kleypas

President, Shadowoak HOA

Subject:  Special Assessment Vote

To the Homeowners of Shadowoak Subdivision.  A Notice of 2025 Special Assessment for Shadowoak Subdivision along with justification for the assessment and a ballot were mailed to all homeowners in early November.  All ballots were due no later than Dec. 2, 2024.  All ballots that were received have been counted and following are the results:

According to the Indentures (governing documents) of the subdivision, the special assessment is approved if at least 55% of the votes received are in favor of the special assessment; therefore the special assessment for 2025 is hereby approved.

You will be receiving your notice for the 2025 Annual Assessment ($175) from the City & Village Tax Office in early January along with the 2025 Special Assessment ($125).  As always, payments are due by March 1^st and are considered delinquent after April 1^st.  Any payments after April 1^st are considered delinquent.

Special thanks to everyone that took the time to review the Notice of 2025 Special Assessment and the justification that was presented with the notice, and returned their votes on this important matter. 

Trustees of Shadowoak

Paula Kleypas – President

Teri Larson – Secretary

Chuck Kleypas – Treasurer

HOA Meeting 10/24/24

2024 Recap.  (two slides)

There was some street flooding in July on Shadowoak Drive.  This has happened before and will happen again.  Please keep the storm sewers in front of your house cleared.  If you think they are clogged, call MSD and they will come clean them out.  The water was pretty high in front of our house on Shadowoak, coming within a few feet of our garage.  Several cars and trucks drove through the water, which washed waves almost into our garage.  If you see that Shadowoak is flooded, please use Hollyberry as an alternate entrance, then take Shadyoak to Timberfield.  Or coming in from Ries or Sulphur Spring, take Timberfield off of Brightfield into the subdivision.  The intersection of Shadowoak and Timberfield/Windyoak does not flood.

Downed Tree  (two slides)    Part of a Siberian Elm tree at the pond common grounds fell onto the yard, deck and roof of a home on Straightoak on June 26.  No one was hurt, thankfully, and the homeowner was able to have the tree removed from their property with little damage.  The rest of the tree was inspected by an arborist and it was found to be rotting at the base.  It was recommended to remove the remainder of the tree.  We had it cut down by Hansen’s Tree Service on October 14.  The cost to the HOA was $3850, which was not a budgeted expense, but necessary because of the danger the tree presented.

Two slides.    We have done some work on clearing willow trees and honeysuckle (invasive species) around the shore of the pond.  Thanks to Teri Larson, John Hosbach, Mike Eggars and Terry James for helping Chuck and me.  We plan to do more work there over the winter and spring and would love some company!  Officer Hessling heads an Explorer Group and has said they might be able to help us with this project.  We REALLY look forward to that!

Street Light refund.  A count of the streetlights in our subdivision, compared to the number of streetlights for which we were being billed by Ameren, found that we have been charged for an extra light.  Apparently, when Big Bend was widened a number of years ago, one of our streetlights was removed to make way for the road, but Ameren kept billing us for that light.  After some discussion, Ameren agreed to give us a credit on our light bill of $1356.00.  They said their records could only go back 5 years, so we could only be refunded for 5 years of billing.

I

If your streetlight is out, you may call Ameren at 800-552-7583 for streetlight repair.

GROUNDS COMMITTEE

We need a group of people willing to help maintain our circles and do some much-needed work at the pond.  This work is expensive to contract out and we could save a lot of money if we took care of it ourselves.  There are many ways to help, not all are labor oriented.  Please think about helping out.  We are passing out a signup sheet for anyone who would like to help in some capacity.  This Fall and Winter would be a great time to do some of this work while the temperatures are more comfortable.

Financial Report  (6 slides)

Our Treasurer has done a detailed analysis of our finances, going back as many years as possible.   Slide Avg. cost years 2019-2023.   He can go back further than 5 years, but this view gives us a good look at our average expenses. This next slide is our 2024 budgeted expenses.  Slide 2024 Budgeted Expenses.   They are very similar in percentages and totals.  We have generally broken even as to amount collected vs. expenditures for most years.  Two Slides showing Receipts and Disbursements,  Income/Expense.  You can see the first slide shows Receipts and Disbursements.  The second slide shows Receipts minus Disbursements.  You can see we spent much more than we took in for 2023.  For the years 2019 through 2022, we had a fair amount in reserve for emergencies.  Show slide Ending Balance (Reserve).  In 2023 this surplus was greatly reduced, mostly due to work done at the pond.  We lost our longtime pond maintenance service due to retirement, and the new service was $2000/year higher than the old service.  We also did mapping of the pond depth and repaired a leak at the outtake, which totaled about $6000.  At the end of the year 2023, we were left with a reserve of about $2900.  Slide Ending Balance Reserve) 

In anticipation of the reduced reserve fund, we increased our 2024 HOA fee to $175, hoping to save enough of the excess funds (after paying for our budgeted items) to put toward dredging the forebay of the pond, perhaps in 2025.  This did not happen.  A surprising number of people did not pay their HOA fees, around 10% of the homes.  Seven homes are behind one payment (2024), for a total of $1274, five homes are behind on more than one payment ($3601), and two homes have declared bankruptcy, which means we will never see the $2900 that they owe.  It is possible that we could recoup a total of $4875 if/when the 12 homes that are delinquent pay the full amount on their assessments.  There are a few residents who paid their fees late, but did not pay the accrued interest, and I am not counting them, as the amounts are just a few dollars.  Please be aware that if you pay late, a late fee will be applied.

The other unexpected cost in 2024 was the removal of the tree in the common ground at the pond, at a cost of $3850.

Surplus/Reserve Slide.   Our projected surplus for 2024 has been eaten up, and we are left with about $2994 at the end of 2024.  We had predicted almost $11,000 in surplus at the end of 2024 (this includes the $2900 surplus from 2023).  We now project that at the end of 2024, we may have a total of $5961 in reserve, the amount left over from 2023 ($2900) plus the 2024 reserve ($2994).

We told you last year that we would lower the HOA fee for 2025 to $150.  After reviewing preliminary cost projections for 2025, we think this would not be possible due to rising prices.  For example, Ameren is proposing a 15% price increase for residential service (which includes our streetlights).  This was not anticipated when we proposed reducing the fee from $175 to $150.   We need to keep the fee at $175 in order to avoid reducing our reserve even further.  We need to dredge the forebay before it gets too full, and that will now cost about $14,000.  We need to maintain a healthy reserve in order to handle unexpected expenses as they arise.  We are proposing a one-time special assessment for 2025 of $125 per home.  This would be in addition to the $175 HOA fee.  The $125 special assessment, when calculated for a 90% collection rate over 221 homes, will generate $22,376.  That should cover the pond forebay dredging and leave us with a projected reserve of around $12,000 to $14,000 (includes the 2023 and 2024 reserves).  We would like to keep building the reserve to about $20,000 over the next few years.

In the coming weeks, you will receive a ballot in the mail to vote for the special assessment of $125.  There will be an explanation of why this money is needed.  You will be directed to sign the ballot and either mail it to me (address will be on ballot) or drop it by my house.  There will be an envelope on the INSIDE of my storm door for the ballots.

Please give this important issue some careful thought.  We have a great subdivision, and we need to be good stewards of our living space!

Paula Kleypas

3/26/24

Dear Residents,

We now have a Facebook group for Shadowoak Subdivision.  It is a closed group, available to Shadowoak residents only.  If you search on Facebook for Shadowoak Subdivision, you can ask to join the group.  There are 2 questions you will be asked to answer, and the answers will be visible only to the administrators.  We hope this group helps to promote community spirit and communication among our residents.

Paula Kleypas

Dear Shadowoak Homeowners,

I want to share with you some upcoming projects and news from the HOA.

First of all, Teri Larson (secretary of HOA) and I have been joined by Chuck Kleypas (my husband) on the HOA Board.  His position (until such time as someone else volunteers for the job) is Treasurer.  He has over 35 years of experience in cost estimation/cost control and has been thoroughly researching the subdivision finances for as far back as we can find records (approximately 9 years).  It has been enlightening to see how our money has been spent over the last nine years.  This is giving us a better picture of our finances, and allows us to plan better for the future.

Secondly, one of the projects we need to work on is the appearance of our common ground.  This includes the pond area and the circles in the cul-de-sacs.  I spoke with the technician who takes care of our pond last Fall and he made some suggestions on improving the appearance and functionality of the pond.  We are currently collecting money (from increased HOA fees) in order to dredge the forebay of the pond.  We hope to have enough to take care of this in 2025.  The other issue at the pond is overgrowth along the shoreline.  We have a lot of elm trees and sprouts, which are invasive.  We also have some honeysuckle, mostly at the front of the pond where the water comes in, which is another invasive plant.  Having someone come in and remove these plants would be quite expensive, so we are hoping to get a group of people and do this ourselves in order to keep our HOA fees from increasing.  Not only will this involve chain saws and yard tools, we will also need to dispose of the cut brush.  If the elms are put into the pond, they will sprout and create a worse problem, so we need to physically remove all the brush.  Our hope is that people who have yard waste service will agree to take some of the brush.  If you can’t physically take the brush to your house, we can organize some kind of delivery service.  Not everyone may be physically able to help, but taking some yard waste would be a great help to our project.

Chuck and I have put pink ribbons around the pond, to indicate where we need to take things out.  We will leave the trees (except for one or two that are definitely dead), and would like to remove the brush.  There is an area at the outlet of the pond which also has some heavy brush that must be removed, as the technician who monitors our pond water quality cannot get down to the shoreline.  We will try to schedule some work days to get this started.  If anyone is so inclined to go down there sometime when they are free, and is able to cut a few things down and take them away, that would be amazing.  This is not going to happen overnight.  It may take a year or two, but I think we, as a community can accomplish this and restore our pond to a more scenic area of our neighborhood.  In case you are not aware, there are two entrances to the pond via Common Ground corridors.  One is located on Vistaoak Court. between the homes at 210 Vistaoak and 218 Vistaoak.  The other entrance is located on Shadowoak Drive between the homes at 1119 and 1123 Shadowoak.  These Common Ground corridors to access the pond are not on private property, and all Shadowoak Subdivision residents have access to the pond via these two entrances.

We would also like to do some work on the circles.  This would also involve some yard work, and hauling out some yard waste.  If you know of a specific circle that you want to work with, please contact me and we will try to help you get some volunteers.

What we would like to know from you is, would you be interested in helping at the pond?  In what capacity?  Can you take some of the yard waste?  Would you be interested in helping at one or more of the circles that are in need of attention?  Would you be willing to put your name on a list of volunteers who can be called upon to help with these issues?  Please email me if you are willing to help.

I appreciate you reading this rather long news update.  The Board is greatly interested in creating a community spirit in Shadowoak which will bring us all closer together and make our subdivision a place to be proud of.

Thanks,

Paula Kleypas

President, Shadowoak HOA

pkleypas@gmail.com

WARNING!

Please do not walk, sled or skate on the

pond (water retention basin).  With the recent

cold temperatures, it can appear to be

frozen solid, but we have underwater bubblers

 to improve the oxygen levels, and they keep

the pond from freezing completely.  It is not

safe to walk, sled or skate on!

FRIENDLY REMINDER

Please keep your storm sewers free of leaves and debris.  When (or if!) we get large rains, the leaves clog the storm sewers and water levels rise in the streets.  The same goes for ice and snow:  melting snow and ice can’t flow down the sewer when the sewer opening is packed with snow.

Thanks for your help!

Minutes from 11-16-23 Shadowoak HOA Meeting

Officer Brian Hessling informed attendees of the increase in automobile thefts in the area and gave tips on securing your vehicle and home.

Paula Kleypas gave a short summary about the need to dredge the forebay of the water retention area (also known as the pond) and projected costs, as well as the recent services of the mapping and attempted leak fix.  To cover those expenses as well as the increased cost in maintenance of the common ground and electricity, a vote will be taken tonight to increase the dues to $175 for 2024, and $150 for the years thereafter.

Several residents spoke up about the importance of maintaining the water retention system, and that it will be more expensive if not addressed soon. We were also reminded that there hasn’t been an increase in HOA fees for many years.

Future community projects in the subdivision include dealing with the willows and other over-growth at the water retention area.  We will try to have some work days to take out as much of the over-growth as we can, without incurring expenses to the HOA. Please let us know if you are interested.

Two residents were nominated by proxy for the position of president, but no additional names were added by those in attendance.

The residents at the meeting voted and those votes were added to the proxy votes received, resulting in overwhelming support for the increase of the HOA fee.

Paula Kleypas was voted in as president of the Shadowoak Subdivision.

We want to thank Bill Oesterle for his many years serving as President of the Shadowoak HOA.  He put in much time and effort to take care of our subdivision.