From The Blog

Board Meeting Recap – Jan. 9

KICA’s board of directors met this Monday, Jan. 9 (listen to the audio recording here) for the first time in 2023. At this meeting, many substantial community issues were discussed. 

Shannon White shared some highlights in her COO Report, including the status of repairs to The Sandcastle facility (due to the recent freezing event), progress with our water management projects, and some highlights of member engagement from the last year. Project 5 of KICA’s water management projects at Halona Lane and Turtle Point Maintenance is currently underway, and expected to be completed shortly. Outstanding is the last third of Project 6, which will be done before the end of the year. Shannon reported that in 2022, the board of director’s pulse polls were KICA’s top engagement items, along with island access information. Members displayed significant interest in the beach cam; the beach cam charted as the 6th most-clicked link in a weekly email newsletter as well as the 2nd most visited page on our website. Kiawah is lucky to have an active and engaged membership.

Alex Fernandez gave the Treasurer’s Report and noted that the Contributions to Reserve (CTRs) fell within the projected budget for this past year. In December $280,000 in CTRs were collected, leaving KICA to finish the year at $3,217,000 in total CTRs.

KICA director of Security, Mark Ruppel, shared the Traffic Calming Initiative Report from the 4th quarter of 2022, as well as details about improvements in emergency response on the island. In the fourth quarter, we saw Kiawah Island Parkway record 98.62% compliant or low risk drivers, which is a slight improvement from the first quarter. Flyway Drive recorded 72.5% compliant or low risk drivers, an improvement from the past quarter.

These statistics gathered in 2022 will provide us with a baseline for traffic calming in the coming year. (Read more about KICA Security and their emergency response here.)

The board also discussed the status of ownership and maintenance of the Maritime walk bridge. The walk bridge was not conveyed to the association by the builder, leading to a legal review of the ownership question. The board voted to authorize KICA’s leadership team to negotiate ownership of the bridge and then to make repairs (not to exceed $40,000) to ensure the bridge is safe for member use.

Brad McIlvain, chair of the Governance Task Force, requested $15,000 in additional funding for legal counsel to review drafted documents. The request for funding was approved by the board.