Gate Update March 3, 2023

Good day,

As we move into March, we're aware of the escalating frustration level in the community regarding the gate.

As mentioned in previous updates, the board is also highly frustrated with the gate situation and has been for some time.

So, here we are: hoping to answer the questions on everyone's mind:

· What's going on, and

· Why has the gate been left wide open so many times?

We'd like to take a moment to address concerns that the board is doing nothing to rectify the situation. We understand how it can seem that way when you are not involved in the details. We also understand how that can cause frustration.

We share your frustration. We understand how difficult it is to understand why "things just don't get fixed." We've been asked, "When will the gate be fixed?" too many times to count, and perhaps some considered our response of "I wish I knew" or "we don't know" to be dismissive or flippant. It was neither. There are simply times when we have no answer because of where things stand in figuring out the problem and then actually making repairs.

That being said, some have stated they would like to know what we've done. That's a reasonable request, and we're happy to comply. The following is a report from the board on the problem with the gate.

We had to deal with multiple issues and complexities in the background.

1) Service agreements.

Ask our property manager, Claudette, who has a deep knowledge of community management. She will tell you that ALL gated communities, without exception, will suffer this problem at some point.

Your board purchases a multi-year maintenance service agreement with a vendor to repair, maintain, and keep the gate operable. Our vendor has been ACT for most of the last decade. They were the only game in town, so to speak—specifically, the only company that serviced this area.

This isn't the first time there have been catastrophic gate failures. After hurricane Irma in 2015, we had to replace most of the gate components. Once we put in new equipment, things went smoothly, with brief interruptions.

If you recall, our latest issues with the gate began in September 2022. The service agreement at that time had one year left in its life, and that's usually when the honeymoon starts to fade.

As equipment ages, it requires more frequent service calls to keep it running. Your board noticed the start of a systematic slow-down in ACT's responsiveness when we called for repairs. That was the first red flag.

After the first few failures in September, which ACT appeared to rectify, the gate began to suffer more frequent service interruptions. It would work for a few days and /or weeks, but unexpectedly, it would fail at some point, and nobody could get in.

Remotes, magnetic cards, codes, nothing would work. Each time Claudette was tasked with dispatching ACT ASAP. This went back and forth for a few more weeks and months, and over a holiday period, mind you, which brings us to today.

Since the first of the year, with Claudette's help, your board began to inquire about a second vendor and a second opinion. ACT wasn't providing an acceptable service per our agreement, much less a definitive answer as to the core issue.

Each service call to ACT would more or less result in a gate reset, and see you later, Hidden Harbor. The situation was untenable and placed a lot of strain on the community and the board. We were all increasingly frustrated with the situation.

We met with the president and head technician of Millennium and decided to take a chance with them. (At that point, we'd have tried Wiley Coyote and his bag of tricks.)

Thus far, they have been accommodating, and we are leaning towards making them our future service provider. It must be noted that while the board is cautiously optimistic, we also have concerns, for this new vendor will also require signing a new service agreement.

With luck, it will be a mutually beneficial working relationship, and we'll be given good service, but it's a wait-and-see to discover how long that honeymoon will last.

Regardless, we are severing our service with ACT, the party responsible for the delays we've endured, along with an unacceptable level of service since September of last year.

So, let's move to the next issue we faced:

2) Component testing and service interruption without warning

In the last two months, Syneca and Manny spent time at the gate during three service calls. They witnessed Techs from both companies conduct continuity electrical tests along with reliability signal tests on the system and its components.

As you would expect, everything works just fine while the techs are here.

Until it doesn't again.

That's why you have seen the gate closing, only to reopen some short time after. We would love nothing more than to keep the gate closed; but if it unexpectedly fails in the middle of the night or during work hours; we feel sure none of you would appreciate having to drop everything you are doing, leave your place of work; free of charge, to come home and open the gate.

Therefore, the gate is left open until the next service call.

The good news is we're in the home stretch. After many troubleshooting sessions and components tests, both vendors now report that we must replace the motherboard at the call box, which is failing.

Cross your fingers that this is the answer. One thing we learned that should encourage everyone is that it took ACT six months to figure out what Millennium determined in two short months. When you consider that ACT has serviced our gates for a decade, and Millenium came in having no clue what they'd encounter, our hats are off to them for finding what we hope is a solution.

Thus a decision to move forward and replace the motherboard has been made. Now it's a sit-and-wait for the parts, but it doesn't resolve the entire telenovela (soap opera ).

( 3 ) Transition of vendors and back to problem ( 1 ) Service agreements.

We do not want to buy any new equipment from ACT, but we have an open service agreement with them that doesn't sunset until September of this year. Our preference would be to cancel the agreement, but service providers aren't stupid. They craft these contracts to essentially hold you hostage, in a way. If you do not like the service and want to cancel ahead of the end date, HOAs are still financially obligated to pay through to the end date.

Unfortunately, this is very standard and not an ideal scenario any of us on the board like, particularly for the reason described in section ( 1 ) but also from a cost-benefit standpoint.

We would ideally move toward the new vendor ASAP while keeping our cost of transferring such service reasonable. Therefore, we are trying to negotiate a way out with ACT to minimize our exit cost since the end date is just seven months away. We are attempting to consider all available options, including involving our attorney if necessary, while striking a balance of how much longer we can continue to have this gate open and unreliable.

And that brings us to conclude our report. We understand the frustration this may have caused with having a gate that doesn't ever seem to work. We are and have been worworking diligentlyking rather diligently in the background on this issue and several others. We thank everyone who has shown support, and hopefully those who have had concerns now feel fully up to date on our efforts on your behalf.

Here's hoping we've found the solution.

Respectfully,

Your board of directors