NST December Open
Finance
Meeting
BY JILL DAVIS
The Board of Directors held
its last open meeting of 2019
on Tuesday, December 17,
to present the 2020 budgets for the
Country Club and the North Shore
Towers Apartments. Capital Improvement
and Operating Budgets
for both were presented, as was a
summary of the Reserve Fund.
Board President Bob Ricken
was unable to attend. In his place,
First Vice President Fred Chernow
introduced Board Treasurer Marty
Schwartzman and NST Controller
Robert Serikstad to walk the
audience through the numbers.
For those who were unable to
attend, below is a summary of the
presentation.
Schwartzman, who joined the
Board and was named Treasurer
last June, opened his remarks by
saying, “The board has a fiduciary
responsibility for shareholders’
funds. They need to be protected.”
He further explained that “we
need to budget for future capital
improvements while also seeing
where budget cuts can be made.”
He went on to say that “there are
challenges; we still need copies of
various contracts to have more
information to make some better
budget decisions.” (Note that the
issue of contract review is being
followed up on; please see Bob
Ricken’s President’s Message in
this month’s paper on Page 3.)
COUNTRY CLUB
Schwartzman thanked board
member Ed Phelan for his help
in working out the Country Club
budget.
Combined increases in mandatory
and golf membership fees
(see Sidebar) will yield approximately
$130,000 in additional revenue,
which will be used toward
increases in payroll, supplies and
administrative costs. However, cost
reductions in such areas as repairs
and maintenance will help offset
these increases, with a net projected
reduction in expenses of $25,000.
In addition, capital expenses for
the Country Club are budgeted to
be reduced significantly, since much
of the capital work has been completed,
e.g., pool and golf course
renovations as well as purchases
of new equipment that were done
in 2019. Overall, capital expenses
for the Country Club are planned
to be reduced by just over $350,000
in 2020.
Because of the sizeable reduction
in funds earmarked for capital
expenses, the 2020 year-end cash
position for the Country Club is
projected to be just over $560,000,
up from $334,000 in 2019.
NST APARTMENTS
Funds have been put into the
Capital Expense budget for VIP
Room and Arcade/Hallway renovations
at $1.5 million and $1.3
million, respectively, and account
for the vast majority of budgeted
capital improvements. Notably,
Schwartzman emphasized that
these funds are strictly placeholders
in the budget at this time, and
discussion of possible work will be
put forward for committee review.
With regard to the Operating
Budget, the 2020 maintenance
increase will yield approximately
Fred Chernow opens the meeting
NST Controller Robert Serikstad (left) and Treasurer Marty Schwartzman
8 NORTH SHORE TOWERS COURIER ¢ January 2020