MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD
APRIL 2025
It’s another fiscal year for Whispering Pines POA, and we will present a budget on April 1st for your review and approval.
The 2025 budget will maintain the same lot fees as last year, at $400 for full-time and part-time residents, and $250 for landowners. The WPPOA is recommending these annual assessments and hopes you will approve the budget during our Annual Meeting.
Costs for everything have slightly increased, and it is more expensive to operate our Association. So what do we pay for? First of all, we have to manage our accounting. We must pay for a part time accountant, the monthly charges to use software called Quicken, the annual cost of a PO Box, bank fees, snow removal costs, gravel and grading fees for our dirt roads, automatic gate repairs and maintenance, Black Canyon water management costs for a camera and ditch clean out, Pond area costs to maintain our pond & common area, our parking lot, our Whispering Pines parking area and trash receptacle area, street signs and culvert and drainage work throughout our subdivision.
I believe we have very low monthly living costs here, considering our annual lot fees and water costs. If you are a full-time resident, your monthly cost is $33.33. Water is even less, at $19.16 per month — great-tasting water!
Whispering Pines is the Premier mountain community in San Pete, offering year-round living and its water utility! Our water Utility Company has two wells, a 125,000-gallon water holding tank, and 28 fire hydrants. We also own water rights to Black Canyon water, a separate water resource, which fills our pond each year.
Property values in Whispering Pines are also among the strongest in the area. Our water rights, in the form of shares, through the Water Utility, and Black Canyon water, as well as our Pond, help drive that. Additionally, our careful planning and development of homes in our community, along with consistent architectural controls, have helped keep Whispering Pines a desirable and top-rated Mountain home community. Home values in Whispering Pines include mountain homes with values ranging from $ 450,000 to almost $ 1 million.
We are also a Firewise community, which offers our property owners lower insurance rates. Every hour you spend cleaning & thinning your property of dead wood helps Whispering Pines keep its rates low and helps us maintain our Firewise rating. We also continue to make improvements in our subdivision.
I am pleased to report that over the past year, we have saved nearly $18,000 compared to our previous year’s budget. This is important because the POA did not have any savings, and we needed to get back on track and save money for a rainy day.
I propose to the Board that $12,000 be allocated to our savings for the 2025 fiscal year. The remaining cash will be used for various road & other projects. We expect to use all the budgeted money for 2025 to cover our expenses and make road and area improvements for all residents. This includes our ongoing effort to enhance the beauty of the North Gate entrance area. This means fresh paint on the Gate, a new stain, and additional signage on our North Gate wooden sign, as well as some more trees and rocks.
We will also make further improvements to our Website, including creating a Resident Only Page for financials and meeting minutes, as well as a “For Sale” section where you can list land or homes for sale.