April 2026 Newsletter
Greetings, fellow Homeowners!
It’s been an interesting winter and early spring for the HOA.
Country Club Estates Annexation: We want to thank all of you for supporting and voting to approve the annexation of Country Club Estates into our HOA earlier this year. The voting results were 170 YES and 4 NO. A total of 165 YES votes were needed to pass this part of the measure. The votes were certified by Odynski Accounting. The HOA needs to collect a total of 188 yes votes, or 75% of all Homeowners, to pass the amendment portion of the annexation to be recorded with Spokane Country to make it official. We will be working with the builder, DR Horton, in coming weeks to finalize the agreement and legally record it with Spokane County. We will share any news at the annual meeting, via the HOA website (deerparkgolfhoa.org), email blasts and the next newsletter as we progress through this process. DR Horton takes possession of the land April 1st and will begin building homes starting in the summer of 2026.
This annexation will ensure we have standard rules and regulations in the new development, like ours, to ensure we maintain our quality of living and protect our property values. When all 32 homes are built and occupied, it will increase our annual HOA revenues by just over $15,000 per year. This will significantly strengthen our financial future and significantly mitigate/defer the need to propose future dues hikes and/or request special assessments, even as our operating costs continue to increase. Along with such increases, we will continue to face the need to repair/renovate/replace our aging common property. property.
Vandalism: Sadly, we have seen an increase in graffiti tags throughout the neighborhood on our mailbox stations, utility power boxes and even the playground equipment at (city-owned) Country Club Park that was newly installed as of last year. We were able to remove all of the tagging except for the playground equipment. The city was notified and was asked if they can remove the graffiti tags there. In addition, a private residence at the corner of 6th and adjacent to the park, had two metal bars of their decorative fence kicked in as well. This is a very disturbing trend we are seeing. We have requested extra Sheriff patrols (now that we have a fourth deputy in the city), during both day and night, to give additional presence to our neighborhood. Please keep a watchful eye out for each other and our common property. If you happen to collect video surveillance data that you think would be useful, please contact Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.
Departing Board Members: The entire HOA Board wishes to thank Carla Phillips and Gayle Swartman for the four years of serving on the Board as their terms are complete as of April 25, 2026. Carla has attending and supported the board at every meeting and annual meetings, despite a very busy and demanding schedule. Gayle has donated several hundred hours, in the Secretary position, and was instrumental in many of the HOA improvement activities over her tenure. Her insurance expertise was, in particular, invaluable. We all thank you both for stepping up, giving your time, insight and efforts improving our HOA.
We Need Your Attention and Assistance!!! With Spring here and summer right around the corner, we need everyone’s continued help. The four issues that are always reported to us during the better weather months are:
Lawn and lot maintenance (mowing/edging and weeding);
Waste/recycling bins (and other containers/debris) left out in street view for extended/ongoing periods of time;
RVs, boats and utility trailers stored/parked on residential lots longer than the allowed 48 hours, and;
Lack of proper irrigation on lawns.
Folks, we are asking YOU to do YOUR part to ensure that your property is maintained in compliance with the CC&R’s and the Rules and Regulations (both of which are available for review on the HOA website). The Board spends an inordinate amount of time dealing with these issues, which can and should be easily addressed by every Homeowner. Please, help us out by doing your part!
Budget ratification needed and new state HOA Law: A new state law, RCW 64.90.525, the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, has been enacted and affects all "common interest" communities in the state, including Homeowner Associations. The highlights of the changes are: open board meetings, having a reserve study done by a licensed agency, establishing a Reserve Fund with appropriate funding, and ratification of the annual operating budget by the Homeowners. We will review this new law in detail at the annual meeting. The good news is that we have always had open board meetings, completed a reserve study, and established a reserve fund. From this year forward, the board will propose an operating budget that Homeowners will vote on for ratification. You may vote via mail, sending it to Deer Park Golf & Country Club HOA at PO Box 2312 Deer Park WA 99006 or bring your vote to the annual meeting on April 25th at 2:00 pm at the District Four Fire Department Community Room. The voting period is from April 10th to May 10th. A simple majority of counted votes will determine the budget's passage.
The HOA's proposed 2026 budget is attached for your review and approval. It contains projected income and expenses by category based on current budget performance and existing contracts with service providers. HOA assessments are due at the beginning of each quarter. January 1, April 1, July 1 and September 1. The amount due is $120 per quarter or $480 annually.
Reserve study and why it is required and important: A reserve study was completed in early 2023. The licensed agency inspected all of our common property for needed and expected repairs and determined the life cycle for expected replacement. RCW 64.90.525 requires this to be done annually at a cost of $1,600 per year for the official study.
All of our common property is 30 years old, except for the entryway fence and ⅓ of the wiring. The purpose of the Reserve fund is to set aside money from the operating budget, to be used only for emergency repairs, capital improvements, and required maintenance of common property without relying on special assessments to address them. Currently the HOA is contributing $15,000 into the reserve fund as of 2026. Of the $480 annual assessments charged to each Homeowner, 12.5% of each homeowner’s annual assessments is currently allocated to the reserve fund. As of January 1, 2026, the reserve study recommended we have $173,527.00 in the reserve fund. The HOA has $20,043.00 in the fund and we are 11.6% funded per the guidance. The HOA currently has 250 Homeowners. The shortfall in the reserve fund is $153,000 or $612 per homeowner.
We share the above information as it is required annually by the new law. The board has no intention to ask Homeowners for additional money to fully fund the reserve fund. Instead, the board will continue to make prudent financial decisions on the budget to grow the reserve fund as demonstrated in our proposed budget. Once completed, the annexation of Country Club Estates will add an additional $15,000 annually to accelerate closing the gap between the current reserve fund balance and full funding guidance.
Board Elections: Serving on the Board of Directors for an HOA can be very rewarding and, at times, very challenging. It is a necessary need to ensure we self -govern and to ensure that Deer Park Golf and Country Club HOA remain the preferred neighborhood to live and raise a family in in Deer Park. With Gayle and Carla departing, we have two open board positions to fill via election. Luckily, we have excellent candidates that have stepped forward to run for election of the open positions on the board. Let us introduce them. Lori Smith and Chris Puffer.
Lori was appointed by the board to fulfil the rest of Gayle Swartman’s term after she resigned for personal reasons. She has been the HOA secretary for the last 6 months and has been a great asset to the HOA in her short amount of time on the board. Here is her bio:
“Lori Smith retired from the Department of the Navy after nearly 30 years of service as a civilian worker. Her experience ranges from administrative duties to creating a Centralized Scheduling and Metric system adopted by the Navy both overseas and stateside. Lori and her husband Randy moved from Bremerton, Washington to Deer Park in 2018. Lori enjoys golfing, camping/traveling and gardening. She is a proud mom of three sons and grandmother to five grandsons. She looks forward to working with the Board members and helping support the Deer Park Golf and Country Club HOA.”
Chris has been our communications chair for over a year and has done an outstanding job in that role. He has also attended literally every board meeting for the last four years and has been an asset to the board during that time. Here is his bio:
“Hi neighbors — I’m Chris Puffer. My family and I have called our neighborhood home for the past six years and Deer Park for fourteen. I’ve worked as a Licensed Optician at the northside Costco for 23 years, building a career centered on service, accuracy, kindness, compassion and trust.
I’m running for the HOA board because I care about you, my neighbors, and our neighborhood. I want to continue to improve communication, increase homeowner engagement, and ensure fair, transparent representation for everyone. I currently serve as Director of Communications, where I manage our HOA Facebook group and website blog, helping keep neighbors informed and connected. I’ve also previously served on an HOA board, giving me practical experience with board responsibilities and decision making. I’d appreciate your support in the upcoming election so that I may continue to work on behalf of our neighborhood.”
We thank both, Lori and Chris, for stepping up to be considered for election to the board.
To vote for new board members, simply mark the ballot with an X for your choice of candidates and send your ballot to Deer Park Golf HOA at: PO Box 2313, Deer Park, WA 99006; or, bring your ballot to the annual meeting on April 25, 2026 at 2:00 pm. The location for our annual meeting is the Deer Park Fire Station Community Room located at 315 Crawford Street.
We hope to see many of you at the annual meeting where we will discuss budget performance from 2025, share additional news on the annexation of Country Club Estates, set the 2026 direction and priorities for the HOA, share in depth of the new law that affects all HOAs and elect new Officers.
See you on the 25th of April or at one of our open board meetings. The schedule of the board meetings will be posted on our website, sent on email blasts and also in our upcoming newsletters.
Sincerely
Tanj, Paul, Craig, Lori and Carla
The Governing Board
