Community Internet, CCTV & Wi-Fi

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Hello everyone!

Since being elected last Wednesday, I have been extremely busy pushing to ensure this community becomes more secure, more cost efficient and more modern in its approach.

We are working at pace to urgently improve our security position, develop plans for the long term success of our landscaping crew and deal with some important administrative and budgeting requirements, such as appointing our attorney, setting dates for future meetings and addressing our cost base.

I was pleased we voted as a board to freeze the current HOA fees and roll over the budget for one further year.  This gives us time to settle in to our new positions, assess the income, liabilities and spending practices of the community and start to ask “Can we spend this money better?” or “Should we be spending this money at all?”.

Just because we have always done something does not mean we need to keep doing it that way forevermore.

I want to develop a ten year plan which will make efficiency savings of at least $500k over that period.  By investing in new technology and new ideas, Cumbrian Lakes can reduce its cost base significantly and the savings will benefit us all.

One such efficiency I’ve identified is on our internet bill spend.  Right now we are paying Spectrum $4,400 on two internet connections for the community (one for the park and one for the entrance) just to view CCTV remotely.  By doing nothing, in the next ten years we would be paying upwards of $45k.  I can bring that cost down NOW to around $3.6k for the same period with no impairment on service.

I need to keep the $4k budget for 2024 in place and come January I’ll hopefully have Board support to oversee the installation of a fiber optic network connecting the entrance, the entrance island, the park and the Preserve area.  Installing fiber is not an expensive thing to do either!  For the distances we need to cover I estimate less than $3.5k and our internet bills will go down from $336 a MONTH to $30.  We need a one time spend laying out the fiber cabling and I’ll have Century Link Quantum Fiber installed to drive it all which is a lifetime price of $30 a month!

From January, our spend could reduce from $336 a month to $30.  This delivers immediate savings in the ten year plan of more than $41k (not including indexed annual cost increases year on year! – the savings will easily exceed that figure)

With this system in place, we can roll out CCTV, Wi-Fi, wired internet and even telephony to any of those locations.

We currently have no CCTV covering our expensive landscaping equipment.  We even pay additional monies to employees for using their own phones for data and telephone calls.  That can all stop immediately if we invest in this proposal.

I have my three homes on Cumbrian Lakes running every smart TV, Alexa, Ring doorbell, pool control, guest Wi-Fi, etc all from ONE fiber internet connection that I pay $30 a month for.  I want this for the community too!

Anyone interested in savings for their own home should check out Quantum Fiber and ditch Spectrum!

I will update everyone in January of further proposals that will generate savings of around $400k over ten years!  I am busy working on costings for that part of my plan, but need more time to carefully identify all the issues so I can present credible financial plans to you all.

Any questions or comments about the fiber project, feel free to ask below!

AFM