Its always a great time to be here at Kontiki, but this time of the year may be the best. The weather has been decent, the fishing has been decent, and we have the more owners here at one time than most any other time of the year. Its really good to see everyone at one time.
Real estate activity has increased. I am told that 508 has a contract on it now. Nancy Jacobs is still having some health issues. Donna is filling in for her. I didn't even realize that she has moved from Lynn Johnson Realty to Remax. The listing price on 305 has gone down from $280,000 to $255,000. Two owners are testing the market on their own.
Today a boat of guests were stranded in the bay and out of gas. Rob came by to see if I could launch and tow them in, but before we could get started, an oyster boat had hooked them up and towed them to the end of our channel.
Yesterday, Scott and I tried out his big Mako for the first time. It runs great and is very smooth riding. We weren't out real long and caught only small trout.
John continues to work very hard at fixing all the little things around here that need attention. He is very personable and friendly to both owners and guests. He's really a valuable addition to the maintenance crew. Justin did good when he found John.
The new pest control company came by today to treat the units. Bug Free has been let go and the new company is Bedingfield of Ingleside. They will come on the fourth Friday of each month. I have no idea how their cost will compare to Bug Free, but the employee who came by today used to work for Bug Free and did our place up until June.
Sears owner, Lynn Woods, waited on me this week when they had their "after Christmas sale". I bought a new vacuum cleaner that was on sale for $50. When I opened it today, she had had her son put a unit in my car that retails for $179. I think I better go back tomorrow and make a trade. Sears has been very generous with their discounts for Kontiki owners and I want make sure they stay in business. If anyone plans to buy anything from Sears, be sure to tell them that it is for Kontiki. Only the owners, Lynn and Cleve, can authorize the discount.

The electricians returned this morning and stayed until about noon. They worked on the tennis court lights and the security light in the boat parking area. The security light works fine now, but the tennis court lights will be confusing. One timer box is on the southeast post and operates the southmost lights on the court. The other timer box is still in the pool pump enclosure and operates the northmost lights. If the lights come on automatically on a cold winter evening, the only way to prevent them from burning needlessly will be to manually turn them off at each box. There are still about 15 lights around the place that may just need bulb replacement. There are still electrical problems with the pier lights and the control box beneath the window of 307 hums loudly. It looks like a transformer in the box is having some impedance problems. I hope it doesn't overheat. The beach lights look great, especially from out on the pier. Only one fixture is dysfunctional.
Early this afternoon I saw some folks fishing on our pier that I didn't recognize. You know me, I had to check it out. I was surprised to hear them say that they were not staying here, but they were renters at the another Crowley property in town and that since they also owned Kontiki the renters had been told that they were welcome to use our facilities. I have heard that renters here are told that they have free use of the fitness center owned by the Crowleys, so I guess it just figures. I guess our pool, tennis court, and pier will get plenty of use!
On the way back off the pier I was again surprised to see a young lady in a bikini splashing around in the bay behind the condos. It turns out that she grew up in Russia and today was like a summer day to her. Her husband, Larry, is doing some software consultant work for the Crowleys and they put them up in the motel. She has been here only seven years, but took english in school there, and her language skills are excellent.
The stucco crew of Victor Barrera has finished and been paid, but their last few efforts were not the best. As the picture of my upper deck shows, the stucco was too thin and slumped down the wall. Mike Piwetz(108) was here today and said his is the same way. Someone should have checked before the job was paid for. Maybe they will return. They seemed like very nice guys.

There seems to be an unusually large contingent of white pelicans in town this year. It is interesting to note that you will never see the white pelicans dive into the water as the brown ones do. The white pelicans herd their meals and attack from water level.

Ron Layton is still progressing on the rock decor around the entrance walks and shrubs. He is unlike former employees from years back, with the exception of Jerry and Ryan, as Ron works nonstop. Outside of lunch I've never seen him take a break. We are getting our money's worth with Ron.
He trims all the shrubs and removes all the weeds and places a weed barrier material on the ground before the rock is distributed. He is working here between 605 and 606. Its just one of the disparities of American life that Ron works for eight hours for a dollar less than Justin charged to come out at night and reset the outside breaker switch on a condo earlier this summer. I have no problem with Justin's charge. He can set his own prices and who else would come out at night for an electrical problem and charge less. It just strikes me as ironic.
Christie and Jim Jacobus(208) came in today for a short visit. I got to meet their son, Jason, who just graduated from TCU with a degree in psychology. They will be renting to the Kruegers from North Dakota who stayed in 307 last winter.

I reviewed our HOA books for three hours yesterday afternoon. It seems great liberties have been taken with our HOA account. I am very concerned. I did not finish reviewing the whole year and will have to return to complete my review. Since we have not had a recent audit, I was afraid there were problems. I showed some of the issues to Beverly and she said," we do as we are told." I see no problems with what Johnson and Cate are doing, but I seriously question what they are being told to do. I will post a listing of questionable expenses and activities when I complete my review. I do not see how they can be resolved without professional or legal intervention. I can report that all payments made to Rob appear to be in good order and accurate.
The issue that I was most interested in was the billings for security lights. Earlier this summer a board member looked into the issue and it appeared then that the HOA is being charged for someone else's lights. Richy sent and email that requested that this pursuit be curtailed. At the Sept. 22 board meeting the board asked Justin to look into the question. He was given the contact information.. At the November 9 meeting Justin reported that he had been in contact with the AEP and that they had not been cooperative. Last week I contacted Hilda Bernal at the AEP. She said no one had contacted her recently, but she had come out several months ago and had gotten it in writing that she was to leave things as they are. My review of the bills clearly showed that we are still paying for six security lights from Reliant Energy and five lights from Startex Energy, while we have only four on our property. I have my own ideas why our board doesn't want to correct this. I'll go into that in a later post.
I picked up the November financial statements while I was at Johnson and Cate. Our long term liabilities show a new item "Improvement Loan-Crowley" in the amount of $50,000. I'm not sure what that means. Under current assets a new item from last month is listed as "Cash-Wells Fargo-Capital Improvements" in the amount of $50,100. Maybe the Crowleys advanced some of their part of the recent assessment, but then I don't see why it would be a liability. I asked Karra last month if she would ask Justin to attach a note to monthly statements, as John Knostman did, to explain any unusual expenses. I noticed also that the fine imposed by the GLO was paid in November. Since it exceeded the $1,000 limit set by our declaration for non budgeted items, it should have been approved at the owners' meeting.
I met a new employee, John, this morning. He was cleaning out our maintenance building. He said he has been hired for maintenance for all the local Crowley properties.
An electrical contractor spent all day here today to try to repair our lighting problems. Tuesday night I counted 51 lights that were not working. At least we were saving on the energy bill. He still did not finish and I guess will return tomorrow. He said that the beach lights that had been installed by another company earlier this summer, had never been connected to the main circuit and had never had any power. The beach lights are all on tonight for the first time.

This time of year it is pretty much of a ghost town around here. The only weekend rental I saw last weekend was in 102. They had a great time fishing off the bulkhead and did catch a 26 inch red on pin perch. News is hard to find, but I know some people look at this blog often, so I keep posting. Last week logons were posted from ten states and thirteen Texas cities. One person in northwest Texas logged on nine times. I hope he wasn't disappointed by the lack of news.
Bill and Barbara Jessee arrived last week. They were disappointed to see how many things had disappeared from their place during the summer, but that is not uncommon, or so I have heard.
All available help has been working on the motel. Rob said we will not recognize it when it is completed. They even worked all weekend. Nearly all the metal is being removed and replaced with wood. Two additional stairwells have been added at each end of the building. I'll post a picture when it gets further along.
The new Chili's has opened. I tried it out last week and the food was great, but the place was crowded. I think they will do well. The old Back 40 had reopened as the Cancun Cantina. I guess that failed and now the marquee says a buffet diner is coming.
Hearst newspapers will no longer be available in the Rockport area. This includes the San Antonio Express News and the Houston Chronicle. They said they were losing too much money on the south Texas deliveries.
Ron is still working on the rock dressing of the area around the shrubbery. He is about halfway through the 600 building. He drags the beach on Friday and Monday. Today the tide is very low so he picked up thrash under the pier behind the 300 building.
The channel and breakwater still are a problem. The channel is really filling with sediment. It is now shallow all the way out to the end of the old pier. Last Wednesday the tide was near normal and my depth finder read two feet. I'm sure its near one foot with the tide we have now. Interestingly, the very end is still deep. This would indicate to me that sand is coming in somewhere besides from the end. The 30 inch all thread bolts that secure the pilings to the shoreguard continue to come out. I can see five that have come out and fallen into the water with two more on the way. This problem will only become worse if not taken care of soon.
Tomorrow I have an appointment to go to Johnson and Cate to pick up the November financial statement and to look at revenues and expenditures for other months. Since we are not having an audit, I wanted to look over some receipts to get a better feel of where all the money goes, especially the large amounts that have exceeded our 2007 budget.

Another owner asked me earlier this week if I knew when the next board meeting was scheduled. I have no idea, but I did look up the applicable statute. The information is contained in Texas Property Code section 82.108 (f) which is cited below.

 (f)  An association, on the written request of a unit owner, 
shall inform the unit owner of the time and place of the next 
regular or special meeting of the board.  If the association 
representative to whom the request is made does not know the time 
and place of the meeting, the association promptly shall obtain the 
information and disclose it to the unit owner or inform the unit 
owner where the information may be obtained.

So if anyone else wants to know about the next board meeting of the association, simply contact a board member and I'm sure they will get back to you with the information.

Fishing has been interesting. Tuesday I had a rod set off the back deck baited with two mullet. I caught a 15 inch flounder that had grabbed both mullet. It had both hooks in its throat. I have never done that. On Wednesday I took John, he and Ellie are in 604 this year, out in the boat. Trout were everywhere, but small. We caught about 50 in four hours, all on DOA shrimp, and only three were big enough. We found trout at every reef we tried. The keepers were at Scotch Tom. While we were at the "pipe" I placed a 4 inch PVC over what is left of the old pipe. The PVC is about 7 feet out of the water and can be seen at least a mile away. This will make the "pipe" much easier to find. Bradley Phair had first shown me how to line it up with the gas well at Goose Island and the end of the causeway. Thursday morning Chuck(107) and I went to some of the same reefs as the day before and not much was going on. We caught about six small ones in two hours. There were six guys wading north of the HEB property near the causeway. I saw them catching small ones too. Chuck as geared up for the reopening of duck season tomorrow morning. His brother Dan(105) is coming in to hunt too.
The Diner did not stay on the market long. It has been sold. I don't know if it will reopen as an eatery.
Charter cable is now advertising for HD services. There regular service is not that good. Today ABC has not been available.
Wednesday the water was off at the condos most of the afternoon. There was a water leak just north of the maintenance building. Rob was working on it after dark while Kenna kept his favorite dinner, meat loaf, warm. I'm told there is a problem with the well water pump and there is no well water. At least there is little boat washing going on right now so the water will not be too badly missed. I washed mine in front of the condo yesterday.
Stucco work has been completed on the lower decks of the 200 building. The workers said they were not contracted to do the upper decks as yet.
I did send an email to Justin to ask about the security light situation. He has not yet answered. I have learned that the Public Utility Commission of Texas will look into the situation even if as I was told CPL will not talk to individual owners.

I'm still trying to make sense of this year's budget numbers. I may be the only one who cares and that may be why my request for the required annual audit went down in flames at the owners' meeting. I looked back at last year's meeting notes and it shows that I moved to set the monthly dues at $240 per month and that would produce $30,000 more revenue than budgeted expenses. Chris said that he would not support that and my motion died for lack of a second. The dues were set at $250 and that was supposed to bring in $37,000 more than was needed for the budget.
We started the year $6,560 in the red. We borrowed an additional $125,000. If nothing else happened we would be $131,560 in the red. We did, however, pay back $15,336 on the loan. So if other expenses and revenue matched, we would be 116,224 in the red. If we take 10 months of the $37,000 extra money that we put into the dues, it would be $30,833 to the positive and we would be only $85,391 in the red. That would be the association equity at the end of October if we were on budget with the other items. The actual equity is a negative $112,434. This tells me we are, at this point of the year, $27,042 over budget with no explanation. The Johnson and Cate statement shows we are $29,580 over budget for the year. That may be because I used rough estimates that were supplied at last year's meeting and straight line regression for revenue estimates. Either way, it would be nice to hear why we are so far over budget. I don't see the purpose in adopting a budget, if no attention is paid to it. Bottom line, where is the accountability?

Stucco work has restarted. They are preparing the surfaces that were damaged during the rebuilding of the decks and stairs. One of the workers told me that it is just so hard to work on these buildings because there is just so much rotten wood. I know we can paint and repair, but ultimately these are old buildings that have suffered from exposure to the elements. Its been about 14 years since we had a major repair of the stucco on the outside walls. Now you can see large areas of stucco that are bulging again. Those probably should be repaired before the outside painting begins. As I remember the cost last time was over $100,000. I would guess it would be twice that now.
Ron has almost finished placing the river rock in the shrub areas on the 500 building. Yesterday he and I took the birdhouses down for the winter. He said he has had Purple Martins at a previous residence. Saturday, I saw Ron mixing concrete to repair the bulkhead on Richy's property. This is disturbing since that raises the question of an employee working on the private property of a board member. I'm sure Richy will reimburse the HOA for time and materials, but then how would we know.
The Parrots have decided to put their unit on the market. They were here two weeks ago and were not happy at the way things were going. They have priced it(608) at $295,000. That could be a hard sell with an identical unit(508) priced at $245,00 and no takers in the year that it has been listed.
I looked into the electrical energy supplier question again. The website www.powertochoose.org shows that for a one year contract, YEP has the best rate. It appears I would have saved over $600 last year with YEP. Jim(210) has switched to STREAM and they have the best rate for a three year plan.
The Cut Ants are still a problem. Ron sprays for them almost every day, but they just keep coming back. Yesterday they attacked my Pansy plants again. Jerry had that problem solved in years past with the bait from Adams Nursery, but we are determined to reinvent the wheel.
Tony, who worked maintenance, is no longer employed here. Colette's husband and Rob are trying to keep up.
We were told at the owners' meeting that Rob had purchased a unit. The Aransas Appraisal district shows a corporation, Bayfront Enterprises, as the owner with a mailing address the same as the rental office. Lisa Stech tells me that is who she makes out the check to when Rob does work for them so I guess he has incorporated his company.
I'm still concerned that we may be paying for eleven security lights when we have only four. The board asked Justin to look into it and he reported last month that CPL was not being overly cooperative. I will send him an email to see if he has determined what the situation is and post his response.

Joyce and Jack Humphreys have been coming to Kontiki for many years.  Last Wednesday Jack passed away at Spohn Hospital in Corpus.  The obituary below will appear in the Wednesday edition of the Rockport Pilot. It will likely be on the Pilot website on Thursday and a link is on this page at the right.


Jack Humphreys, 83 passed away Wednesday, November 28, 2007. He was born May 5, 1924 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Jack lived in Hackensack, MN and had been a “Winter Texan” in Rockport for the past 16 years. He served in the U.S. Marines during WWII. He retired from U.S. Equitable Assurance as a commercial real estate appraiser. Jack is survived by his wife Joyce; his children Michele and Lynx Johnson, Todd (Nancy) Johnson, Doriann (Brad) Myers, Joni(Jeff) Fauchald; and eleven grandchildren.
A Memorial Mass will be celebrated at St. Edwards Catholic Church in Longville, MN on December 29, 2007. Interment will follow at Longville Cemetery. Memorials should be sent to U.S. Marines Toys for Tots.

This is a copy of the loan agreement that the Kontiki Condominiums Council of Co-owners, Inc. has with Chris and Karra Crowley. It says it was adopted at a meeting in 2006. I can find no minutes of such a meeting. I have heard that a late fee of 6% was added for late payment. I have to say that the failure of the board to conduct business and keep records in a business like manner gives me heartburn. I overheard a board member say after our last owners' meeting that now with the new board membership, board meetings can be done by email. I think he was serious. Corporations have to keep records and they are supposed to be kept at the place of business, or in this case, at Johnson and Cate. The Texas Attorney General's office tells me that only a civil lawsuit will resolve the issue and I would surely not want to see our resources spent this way!

RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF

KONTIKI CONDOMINIMUMS

I, Richy Ethridge, President of the Board of Directors of Kontiki Condominiums Phase I, organized and existing under the laws of the State of Texas, hereby certify that the following is a true and correct copy of a Resolution adopted by the Board of Directors of the Corporation at a meeting convened and held on NOVEMBER 11, 2006, at which a quorum was present and voting throughout and that such resolution is now in full force and effect and in accordance with provisions of the charter and by-laws of the corporation.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED: that upon a vote of the Board of Directors, the Board approves accepting a loan from Christopher and Karra Crowley on behalf of Kontiki Condominiums Homeowners Association Phase I (KONTIKI) with the following terms:

· Chris and Karra Crowley have agreed to loan KONTIKI up to $150,000.00 for repairs required to cure potential safety hazards at Kontiki.

· The loan will be fully amortized over a four (4) year period with a fixed interest rate of 6% interest per annum.

· At any time, KONTIKI may repay the balance owed on the loan in full with no prepayment penalty assessed.

· This loan will be paid out to KONTIKI in $25,000.00 increments unless otherwise agreed to by all parties. Interest will begin on the date funds are delivered to KONTIKI and will only be charged on the amount delivered.

I further certify that this Corporation is duly licensed and existing, and has the power to take the action called for by the foregoing Resolution.

Dated:_______________ ___________________________

Richy Ethridge

President of the Board of Directors