Hope this message finds you and your entire family well. Unfortunately, many of us find ourselves in difficult times. We owners in CRCC are no exception.
The infrastructure that was put into place during the construction phase of the Park in the 1960s is showing its age. This includes the roads, bridges, and especially the water system.
Some tough decisions are being made by the new board of directors on how to proceed with and, most importantly, fund the upgrades and repairs necessary to maintain the viability, not to mention enjoyment, of our time spent in the Park.
The proliferation of potholes in the roads this year is because the roadways desperately need to be “crowned”. This is where the center of the roadway is built up to be higher than the shoulders so water runs off rather than pooling on the road.
The Boulder and No Name creek bridges need to be completed. Bernard Bridge needs to be repainted immediately. It is steel construction that will last a very long time if maintained properly. That means rust absolutely cannot be allowed to get a foothold.
Most importantly, the water system in the park needs to be replaced. It has been patched together for years to keep it operational but we are now facing systemic failure. A large water leak on East Cascade Drive was found and patched, but it is an example of the type of problems we will face in the very near future without replacement. No one wants to have the water system fail completely to the point the county comes in and mandates that the entire system be replaced all at once.
Yup, we’ve arrived at the part that nobody wants to talk about: how much is all of this going to cost and be paid for?
In 2020 a viable estimate to replace the entire Park’s water system was put together. The price tag was $1.1 million. Since then the water system has deteriorated and we are living in a post Covid inflation world. Our best estimate is that the new price tag has become $2.3 million of today’s money. The new reserve study that was ordered will tell us more precisely what we should budget.
All of this is to say that by necessity, the yearly assessment in CRCC is going up next year. The board of directors is working diligently to set up a payment plan option to soften the financial burden. Owner participation is necessary to make that happen by voting to change the Park by-laws that stipulate a single payment.
Park reserves to pay for water system replacement have been underfunded for years. Not an accusation, just simple math. We are forced to replace the water system in much smaller steps because reserves are one fourth of what they need to be.
The plan is not ideal. Pending engineering approval, one option may be a 4″ diameter dedicated fill line running from the pump house to the concrete water tank via Cascade Drive will be installed. The addition of this line will dramatically reduce the stress on the old, crumbly asbestos/concrete pipe now used to fill and get water from the tank. This will buy us some time because we will create fewer new leaks.
The next phase is to replace the asbestos/concrete service line. Yes, that requires digging up Cascade Drive again, but we don’t have adequate funds to do it all at once.
Please review the attached budget carefully. The board is committed to full disclosure of the difficult financial path that lies before the Park’s owners. If you disagree with or want to discuss what you find, send an email to boardofdirectors@cascaderiverpark.com. We will be glad to investigate your concerns.
