Winter Park Pines Community Association

Mall Wall & Sign Update (June 2022)

 

Today (6/3/22) is the day!! After so much work from so many, we are FINALLY seeing the wall being replaced. This was a marathon of a project, and so thankful for the help for the sign committee, the board members, and the patience of everyone in the neighborhood.

Mall Wall & Sign Update (April 2022)

 

By Ben Taylor

Update Recap: In the February/March Needles I published and update on the status of our mall wall & sign. As reported in each of the monthly board meeting minutes, I have been giving updates on the progress monthly. I wanted to publish another update for the Needles which is below.

Timeline of Events:

• February 2022 – Creative Signs has started the permitting process. Since the last time we replaced the sign the county has changed the permitting procedures and we need a Right of Way Use Permit due to the location of the wall. According to Orange County to get that permit we also may need a Maintenance of Traffic Permit. We have provided Creative signs some old site surveys that they are using in the permitting process.

Summary: We have navigated a lot of hoops so far including settling the insurance claim with the help of an attorney and chasing & selecting a vendor. We selected Matt DiSalvatore with Creative Signs, Inc. and they have been very responsive with us. Now we move to the governmental stage of permitting. I wanted to thank all residents for your patience as the WPPCA undertakes this long and complicated process. We hope the permitting process moves along quickly and we don’t get bogged down in red tape but we are still in the early stages of that. 

Mall Wall and Sign update - January, 2022

 

By Ben Taylor

Update Recap:

In the June/July Needles I published and update on the status of our mall wall & sign. As reported in each the monthly board meeting minutes I have been giving updates on the progress monthly. I wanted to publish another update for the Needles which is below.

 

Timeline of Events:

• May 4, 2020 – Date of the accident where the mall wall was hit by a Pines resident.

• May 11, 2020 – David Ray sends initial information to Geico. There were several emails exchanged with documents sent to Geico.

• May 22, 2020 – Sign committee is formed to begin planning for replacement wall.

• October 30, 2020 – Engaged the law firm of Burr and Forman to represent association interests as we were not receiving communication from Geico.

• November 5, 2020 – Documentation, including estimates for replacement, accident photos etc. resent to Geico.

• January 28, 2021 – Geico approves a policy limit settlement of $10,000.

• February 2, 2021 – WPPCA requested a certified copy of the Geico insurance policy which was received. Policy limit amount of $10,000 confirmed by WPPCA and our attorney.

• March 22, 2021 – Insurance payment of $10,000 sent by Geico.

• April 2021 – Reaching out to multiple vendors for firm quotes.

• July 2021 –Posted on Nextdoor for vendor leads as initial responses were low.

• August 2021 – Meeting with more vendor leads.

• October 2021 – Only 3 quotes received so far and they were mostly incomplete.

• November 2021 – Received more quotes.

• December 2021 – Bids from 9 vendors were finally received, recapped and presented to the WPPCA Board of Directors. A pro-forma affordability analysis was done showing how the funding of the wall would be done based on bank balances, the strong 2022 memberships so far and anticipation of more residents joining as members this year.  Motion was approved by the Board of Directors to enter into negotiation with Creative Signs to rebuild our wall and sign at a cost not to exceed $32,900.

• January 2022 – Contract agreed to with Creative Signs, Inc and deposit paid.

 

Summary:

I wanted to thank all residents for your patience as the WPPCA undertook the task of navigating insurance claims and chasing vendors to get firm quotes to replace our mall wall & sign. It took us over 10 months to get the insurance money even with engaging an attorney to collect it. It then took 9 months to secure quotes that were complete. Most vendors didn’t respond to our follow up questions. I appreciated the level of service and follow through from Matt DiSalvatore with Creative Signs, Inc. It was very important that when we committed to a company that they will show up and do the work. Creative Signs worked with multiple designs and were very responsive to all the questions that we sent. Now that we have selected a vendor we will move into the next phase of construction planning and hope that material shortages don’t slow us down.

Front Entrance Wall and Sign update of October 13, 2021

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As most of you know our beautiful Winter Park Pines front entrance wall and sign at the intersection of N. Ranger and Aloma was destroyed by a car accident on May 4, 2020.

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Without delay, in May 2020, the WPPCA President appointed an Ad Hoc Sign Entrance Committee to supervise the demolition and redesigning of the sign. This committee was composed of David Ray (Chair), Ben Taylor, Jessica Hazard, Jack Lokken, George Huddleston, Fran Frataccia, Fran Wyatt, Peter Mason, Beau Wingfield, Janell Ray and Stephanie D’Amico.  The committee received bids for the sign demolition, and the repairs of the irrigation system and a preliminary bid to rebuild the wall as is to be submitted to the insurance company. Once deciding on a demolition company, we supervised the repairs, had mulch laid down and put a temporary sign up. The committee then turned their direction to pick a replacement signage and wall.  Twelve designs were submitted, all with good possibilities. In turn these designs were narrowed down to four. The top four choices were then sent to the board and narrowed down to two (see below pictures). The top two designs were discussed by the Sign Entrance Committee, the full board and we received feedback via Nextdoor from residents. Then in July 2020 based on all the feedback option #1 (below) was chosen to return to essentially the same look that we had before but to have a straight wall instead of a curved one. 

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At the same time the Sign Entrance Committee was doing their work we engaged with the driver’s insurance company. Calls were made and documents were sent to the insurance company in May 2020 shortly after the accident. Unfortunately the insurance company become nonresponsive and we were forced to hire an attorney in October 2020 to verify the true policy limits and demand payment. After many months of attorney work we were sent the policy limits and received a check in March 2021 for the full policy limit but it was only $10.000.   

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While the negotiations were going on with the insurance company we were actively soliciting contractors for firm bids to replace the sign based in the design that was chosen. We have received three bids so far but the bids are double and triple what the insurance company paid us so we have some concerns not only about the price but the timeliness of getting the quotes and past issues with some of these companies. We are trying to find a good relationship company so when we chose one they don’t take the money and run or do shoddy work or we are disappointed in the results.  We have two more companies that have expressed an interest and are awaiting their quotes. Another current challenge is that contractors have more work than they can handle and material prices are very, very high.

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It might appear nothing has happened but rest assured a lot has been going on but slow payment by the insurance company and the slow responses from contractors has been a challenge.  If you know of any contractors please contact Ben Taylor at wppcamembership@gmail.com. We will update this information periodically.