Barony Place I/Barony Place II

The January Board of Directors meeting will be held Tuesday, January 6, 2026, starting at 6:30PM at the North Springs Park Community Center, 1320 Clemson Road. I believe you can expect a completely different (and better) atmosphere at monthly board meetings, following the election last November 18 of four directors who are now the officers of the Board. These officers are Brenda Bryant, President; Jeff Lummel, Vice-President; Angelo Moore, Secretary; and Linda Potter, Treasurer. The Board and three other directors have their work cut out for them in 2026. I believe you'll see improved transparency, new committee chairpersons, and more opportunities for participation and contribution to the smoother operations and success of the HOA. Remember: The Summit's HOA is your HOA. I suspect the Board will provide guidance in the best way for you to communicate questions and problems.  There should no longer be a "Bermuda Triangle" into which questions disappear. If you ask a q...

Do you ever get confused about the pick-up day for recycling and trash, when there is a holiday during the week? Richland County has a good notification system, and it's free. You can receive an email and/or text message the day before by signing up for the notifications. Sign up for notifications and the app by clicking here . Enter your home address on that page. Follow the prompts to create a free reminder.  When you use the app, you can inspect the calendar for the upcoming pick-up dates. Pick-up is delayed one day, if a holiday (New Years Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day) occurs on a weekday.

Yesterday the HOA's office sent out an email about street lighting on Summit Parkway. The message read, in part, "We want to inform you that there is currently an electrical emergency affecting the street lighting along Summit Parkway, resulting in the street lights being out until further notice. Crews have been notified, and repairs will take place as soon as possible. "We understand that this is occurring during the New Year holiday, and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. Please use extra caution when traveling through the area, especially during evening and nighttime hours, and remain alert while driving or walking near the outage zone." Anyone who has driven at night on Summit Parkway in the past few weeks (and months) has noticed a high number of street lights that are out. The lights are owned and maintained by The Summit's HOA. An online dictionary defines "emergency" as " a sudden, urgent, usually unexpected occurrence or occasi...

 Who is responsible for publishing the Minutes of the November 18, 2025 Annual Meeting of Voting Members*? the Minutes of the November 18, 2025 Board Meeting? the Minutes of the 2025 Organizational Meeting** of the Board? (Should have been held on November 18, but was held on December 1.) the Minutes of the December 2, 2025 Board Meeting? the Financial Operating Results for September and October 2025. (The November 2025 Results should be available at the January 6, 2026 Board Meeting.) the 2024 Annual Report? the 2023 Forensic Internal Audit? the 2023 Forensic External Audit? the names of the Directors and their terms-of-office on the HOA's website? the names of the Officers of the HOA on its website? If any of these are still outstanding when the Board Meeting starts on January 6, will they be listed under Old Business? * This may be the most-important meeting of the Association, because 3-4 Directors are elected at this meeting. ** This is the board meeting at which officers a...

A story on FoxNews today illustrates how a HOA should NOT operate. The "Christmas Lawyer", Jeremy Morris of near Hayden, Idaho, likes Christmas. The HOA into which he moved? Not so much. Read the story. The HOA and Morris ended up in court. A jury awarded him $75,000 in 2019. A judge overturned the award. The case eventually reached the SCOTUS. Then the case went to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the 9th Circuit.  Enter a moderator. According to the article,  "They (HOA) ended up paying us significantly more, ironically, than the jury awarded us many years ago. The jury previously awarded us $75,000 (in 2019), and I will tell you that we actually settled for significantly more than $75,000," Morris said. M orris estimated that the HOA spent over a million dollars fighting the $75,000 award. Remember, Board members of a HOA are not spending their own money. They are spending OPM - Other Peoples' Money. They spend the money of their Members. If it's your HOA, i...

The good news for homeowners about the HOA is that the Board of Directors now has a strong leadership team in place for 2026. The HOA has a difficult financial year in front of it, because of the circumstances it inherited on November 18. The leadership team (the four officers) will meet it head-on, rather than burying problems out-of-sight. The officers now are Brenda Bryant, President; Jeff Lummel, Vice-President; Angelo Turley-Moore, Secretary; and Linda Potter, Treasurer. Homeowners (Members) should remember that the Board members are homeowners and unpaid volunteers. Well, not quite "volunteers", because they were elected. Board members should be able to rely on strong support from a professional HOA management company with the experience and knowledge to lead them through murky waters. One of the first things the new Board will want to do is extricate the HOA from the illegal lawsuit that was filed in its name in December 2024. That lawsuit was filed in the name of the ...