Greetings, Neighbors!
2025 has been a very busy year for our Association. Here are some highlights of activity after our last newsletter. We have lots of important news to share with you.
APRIL BOARD MEETING – The Board approved amended Association By-Laws in this meeting. One amendment of note is the terms were changed so that all Board members are elected for a 3-year term. The existing Board members were assigned to three classes with varying end dates so that 1-2 of the 5 Board member terms would expire each year. The amended By-Laws are posted on our website: https://elcaryestates.com/document-library.
The Board also reviewed a proposed amended Certificate of Formation to be presented to a vote of the membership at the 2025 annual meeting in June.
JUNE ANNUAL MEETING – Our 2025 annual meeting was held on June 26, 2025 at the Taylor Lake Village City Hall. We had several guests from the City of Pasadena in attendance including mayor-elect Thomas Schoenbien. At the meeting, Greg Haronitis was re-elected to the Board of Directors for a new 3-year term expiring in 2028. Other existing Board members are: Ron Poole & Kevin Miller (terms expire in 2026) and Lynn Irvine & Luke LaVanda (terms expire in 2027).
The community also voted to approve the amended Certificate of Formation which has been filed with the Texas Secretary of State. The amended Certificate of Formation is also posted on our website in the document library.
The draft minutes of the annual meeting were emailed out to everyone on July 2, 2025. If you did not receive yours, please contact me at ElCaryEstatesIA@gmail.com.
JULY BOARD MEETING – The Board appointed the Association officers at this meeting which remained the same as prior year:
Ron Poole – President
Greg Haronitis – Vice President
Kevin Miller – Secretary
Kristi Poole – Treasurer (non-Board member)
The Board also reviewed and approved an El Cary Estates Policy Document which has been filed with Harris County Clerk (File No. RP-2025-317209). The document has been added to our website at https://elcaryestates.com/document-library (scroll to Association Policy Manual).
Also, the Board approved the 2026 Fiscal Year Budget with: Revenue of $14,525, expenses of $13,859 and net income of $666. Any one-time costs for park repairs will be approved separately. Annual maintenance fees remain at $100 per lot per year with a $25 per lot per year late fee. The late fee is assessed 60 days after the initial billing date. Items that are new (or changing) are as follows: Transfer fee is now $200. Refinance fee is now $125. Return check fee is $25. And, effective January 2026, interest at 1.5% per month will be charged for past due balances.
ANNUAL MAINTENANCE FEES OUTSTANDING – We have made significant progress in collecting 2025 and prior year past due amounts. Thank you to everyone who has paid. Currently, there are only 5 accounts with a balance due, at least one of which will be paid in full by the end of the year.
COMMUNICATIONS UPDATE – Recall on February 8 I reported that The City of Pasadena Office of Emergency Management (OEM) has announced the Warning Sirens & Sheltering in Place program. A warning siren is tested weekly on Saturdays at noon. They were supposed to begin on Saturday, February 8, but there were delays between OEM and the Harris County Park where our siren is located. They finally began around mid-July.
The warning sirens are a safety notice for Pasadena citizens to shelter in place (at work, home or school) for emergencies until an "all-clear" is issued. Sheltering in place is not necessary during testing.
Click on the link below to find out more about the warning system including location of the sirens, when and how they will be used, and other FAQs.
https://www.pasadenatx.gov/331/Warning-Sirens-Sheltering-in-Place
You may have noticed that we have done away with neighborhood signage announcing our Annual Meeting and our Quarterly Board Meetings. We now have email addresses for 98% of our property owners. We also have the Facebook page. Sending our meeting and annual dues notices via email and Facebook saves money and prevents neighborhood clutter. If you haven’t already done so, please add the following email addresses to your address book so you can receive updates:
ElCaryEstatesIA@gmail.com
ElCaryTreasurer@gmail.com
PARK UPDATE – Recall the board passed a preliminary budget proposal to allocate $1,000 to the cleanup of the park from Hurricane Beryl. Of this, a $500 bonus was paid to members from our park landscape team following their cleanup of the large debris. The Park Committee is working to coordinate future work efforts from members of our community. Please let us know if you’d like to help. We plan to use most of the remaining $500 to rent equipment to help clean up the park. Watch your email for announcements of group clean up events this fall.
GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE – As promised the Governance Committee has made progress on amending our governance documents as noted above. In addition, we are now compliant with the requirement to file a “Management Certificate” of information about our Association with Harris County Clerk and post this on the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) website for reference by realtors and title companies.
ARCHITECTURAL PLANNING COMMITTEE – If you’re thinking of making improvements, just send an email to ElCaryEstatesIA@gmail.com along with your plans. You’ll receive a timely reply as our rules are not strict, and we want to help any way we can.
YOU’RE INVITED – Please join the growing energy in our community! We hope you will participate in one of our fall park cleanup events. The time commitments are minimal, but the work is rewarding and so much fun! If you have some time and the desire to help, please let us know. We need your ideas and your energy!
Remember that our board meetings are open to all property owners. Our next quarterly meeting is scheduled for October 15 at 6:30 p.m. at 204 Lake View Blvd. Please come and join us. See you soon!
G Ron Poole, President
El Cary Estates Improvement Association
832-985-2424
