OWW1 ANNUAL DUES INCREASE


After careful consideration, and having already received general support at last August’s Annual Meeting, the OWW1 Board has voted unanimously to raise the annual dues to $150 per lot, per year, beginning July 1, 2023.

The reasons for the increase have to do, mainly, with the expected costs of repaving our roads, which will occur in 2024 or 2025.  Because of substantial increases in material and labor prices, we anticipate that the repaving project will cost considerably more than the last one, completed in 2015.  This increase is also affected by the fact that two more roads, Casper Drive and Heierman Drive, will be added to the project, which had not been included in 2015.  In particular, Heierman will not only be repaved, but will also be widened, to accommodate the increased traffic caused by recent home additions on that road.

Currently, we have $140,000 in savings.  Without an increase in dues, this amount might be expected to grow to approximately $180,000 by the time repaving is needed, which is not likely to be enough, particularly as we will need to be able to pay for it, with a sufficient balance left over when we are done to maintain a responsible reserve for snowplowing, maintenance and other ongoing costs.  The one thing we want to avoid is a situation where, short of funds, we are forced to borrow the money at high interest to complete the project, which would drive up the overall costs even more, and would result in our having to resort to a special assessment.

Therefore, we have made the decision to raise our dues pre-emptively, in order to provide enough lead time to allow us to amass sufficient additional savings to be able to afford the repaving project exactly when it is needed.