Dear Residents:
Another year has passed and we have accomplished so much. For this I would like to thank all of the members of the Association for their cooperation and support, without which the Board of Directors would not be able to succeed in making Turnberry on the Green the beautiful community it is today. Additionally, I would like to express my appreciation for our maintenance team, who keeps everything running smoothly, housekeeping team, who keeps our property in tip top shape, and our office team, who are loyal and work diligently to serve the residents of our community. Also, I thank the members of the Board for their unity and good fellowship and for the selfless job they do. FULL STORY
Since our last newsletter, there have been a few new developments in Turnberry on the Green. The first item I would like to bring to your attention is the completion of the replacement of the common area air conditioning units with the same match units on the roof. You cannot imagine how complicated this project was; just the rental alone of this special crane that was brought here from Georgia cost almost $22,000, for five days of use. After we completed the installation of the valves on the personal A/C’s in 263 units, our electric bill went down from $32,000 to $15,000 a month, which is a savings of more than $160,000 a year. Now we have almost 50% improved energy efficiency after replacing the air conditioning system and adding the valves. After completing an analysis with our Chief Engineer, Igor Bond, we believe that we still have potential to save more on our water, natural gas and electric bills, and your Board is working on attaining these goals.
In addition to our other responsibilities, the Board is giving our landscaping more attention than usual. Perhaps you can see the difference.
The area north of the BBQ was, unfortunately, ignored for many years. But now we have installed a Tiki Hut, which is three times wider than the previous structure, which gives everyone more room to host parties, etc. The old structure was refreshed and relocated to the end of the sidewalk, (the northeast corner of the garage). Both structures will be linked to one another in Stage 2 of the project, which includes the installation of lawn lighting along the playground and the sidewalk, which we are installing at this time. Our Tiki Hut grand opening in the beginning of August was a great success and everyone gave us very positive feedback.
The equipment of the second floor gym was upgraded; we have three new treadmills, two new recumbent stationary bikes were added, and three flat screen monitors were installed, which replaced the old-fashioned TVs.
The Association is in the middle of negotiating with one of the best carpet manufacturers in the world that is based in England regarding the replacement of the hallway carpeting. And we have found the original source of the marble flooring from a remote area in Spain to install in all of the elevator lobbies, which will commence right after the new year.
Even our administrative department has benefited with upgrades; the administrative staff now has a warm and luxurious paneled office that promotes a more welcoming atmosphere. Many of the residents have seen the new management office and have expressed their delight.
The office moved to its new place in May in order to have the old management office available for a café, and the Board is still open to any proposals. This space has great features such as a fully-equipped kitchen, and access to the pool area and lobby for added convenience.
We replaced our internal dinosaur telephone system with a state-of-the-art system by Cisco with so many more features than the old system, which saves the Association more than $15,000 per year.
From the day I started on the Board, my primary concern was, and always will be, our security. The fact that the percentage of young families with children that are moving into our building has increased proves to me that we are going in the right direction. At the August board meeting, we approved to upgrade the existing cameras with high resolution cameras and to add 28 new ones, which will cover almost the entire property; the privacy of the residents will not be compromised. This project is very costly but necessary and will not affect the maintenance fee.
Because of the concern for our security, the Board found it necessary to break the contract with Marksman Security and hire another company, Bryant Security Corp., who will bring us closer to what we require in maintaining a high level of security. They are contracted with Channel 10, Channel 7, the Miami Port, and the Aventura Beach Club, to name a few places.
We all want a secure community, and up to now we have been quite successful in maintaining the safety of our residents. But there is room to grow in this field. The Board has been discussing the possibility of making Turnberry on the Green a gated community, creating a completely private environment that will substantially increase our security and our investments. The area between our property and Country Club Drive is very limited and not very conducive to the construction of a gated community, but there is a way to bypass this obstacle and the Board is doing extensive research to make this happen .
Another item in our future projects is to replace the joints and paint the garage and, as mentioned previously, add security video cameras. Also, the Board is very excited about the possibility of building a tennis court on the fourth floor of the garage, which, at the same time, will be replacing the roof of the garage. I know we 
have mentioned this before in past newsletters; I just want you to know that it is still on our agenda.
I am personally involved in designing a remotely operable special LED panel for the elevator announcement board, which will have immediate updates, such as: hurricane warnings, Board meetings, special projects, announcements, congratulations, etc. This type of device does not exist as yet.
We are working on making it possible for owners to have the option to pay their maintenance fee through our website, turnberryonthegreen.com. We will notify you when this is complete.
No one believed in 2008, when every second unit owner was delinquent with the maintenance fees, when we only had $5,000 left in our bank account, and we were not financially able to survive, that we would be in the healthy financial state we are in today. Below you will find a graph of the percentage of our delinquent unit owners. As you can see, in 2009, almost every second unit owner (more than 43%) was not able to pay their maintenance. Today, only 2.8% of our unit owners are delinquent. We are now in the best financial situation, and banks are now financing applicants purchasing in our condominium.
From January 2012, the water bill was eliminated from your expenditures. Your maintenance is now paying for your water.
Below you will find graphics representing our unpaid maintenance in dollar amount for the last 6 years, which includes funds in our reserve account. From $756,000 in 2010, we went up as high as $248,000 in 2012. All of the projects that were done and are in the process of commencing could have been done much faster, but they are financed solely through our savings. The savings process is, unfortunately, not an overnight process. This is the only way we are able to accomplish our goals without incurring an assessment. 
To the best of my knowledge, I am not aware of any other condominium association that has not assessed their owners sooner or later. So far, the Board of Directors has been able to avoid this from happening to you.
The Association is proud to announce that we have been awarded by the City of Aventura’s Mayor, Susan Gottlieb, the “Go Green Recognition Award for 2012.” We have also become a proud member of the Aventura’s Premier Not For Profit Business Organization, Aventura Marketing Council in September 2012.
After reviewing the sales for the last 12 months, I can state that our investment is going up. one bedroom just sold for $215,000 and a two-bedroom just sold for $430,000.
In conclusion, I thank you all for the opportunity to be able to continue to help uphold the high standard of living that we all are privileged to have at a cost that is affordable in Aventura.
Gregory Arzumanov Ph.D
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