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24 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | APRIL 2021 THE BEST OF TIMES AND THE WORST OF TIMES Four Seasons at Beaumont residents should try to prepare for the possibilities of extreme weather. We need to look only to the mid- February deep freeze in Texas as an example. Texas was caught off guard by the high demand and the low supply of energy available. They do a very good job of supplying energy during summer heat waves but their grid was not designed to withstand the record cold temperatures that they endured. We must begin now to prepare here in Beaumont, California to survive an emergency. The consumers and the suppliers need to work toward this goal but they need a little political persuasion. The Texas deep freeze exposed weaknesses in their electric grid which were known way back to 2011 when a similar freeze caused power outages and a few deaths. The jet stream has altered to bring the Arctic cold further south. Since they are not exposed to freezing temperatures they did not insulate their grid. Wind energy could have helped but it only supplies about a quarter of the electric energy to the grid. The Texas wind turbines were not weatherized like the ones in the northern Great Plains or Canada. Luckily here in California, Southern California Edison has been feverishly working on hardening all of their transmission lines and transformers to protect them from causing a fire. California and the utility companies offer rebates for energy efficient appliances and windows. Texas usually closes some of their power stations in the winter. In California we are used to a spike in gasoline prices caused by the closure of the oil refineries in the summertime. We then have to live with the increased gas prices caused by high demand and low supply. Many Four Seasons residents have solar panels which help to keep their energy costs down. Their system is designed with enough solar panels to replace the energy supplied by Southern California Edison. The public safety power shutoffs have shown that we need batteries with the storage capacity of a couple of days to protect our food supply. A back up energy supply should be viewed as a necessity and not a luxury. If enough of our residents demand them maybe the price of a storage battery will even come down. We should always prepare for worst and hope for the best. The Emergency Preparedness Committee meets on the third Tuesday of the month. Our next meeting will be Tuesday, April 20 at 10 am on Zoom. ~ Michael A. Mendoza EPC Chairman, srmendoza@verizon.net Emergency Preparedness Committee Finance Committee At our February meeting, the financial statements for December 2020 and January 2021 were reviewed and recommended for BOD approval. The December financial statement reflected adjustments recommended at our previous meeting. Highlights of the January financial report follows. As of January, Total Cash is $10,332,232 including operating cash (checking, CDs, petty cash) of $1,987,157 and reserve assets of $8,345,075. There was a net income loss for the month of $32,106. Front yard cost center expenses were under budget by $662. Springdale cost center expenses were under budget by $846. As a result of a large tree trimming project, expenses tracked slightly higher this month. Since the budget for tree trimming is spread equally over 12 months, planned annual expenses in this category are expected not to exceed the annual budget at year-end. The Springdale's cost center ended 2020 with a negative net income of $534. This negative income will be offset from the positive net income accrued over previous years. At the Finance Committee meeting in February, five proposals were reviewed. Four were recommended for BOD approval. One proposal was not recommended. Additionally, the Committee reviewed and recommended the approval of two service contracts. A contract sub-committee has been formed so that the HOA can optimize our vendor contracts. The sub-committee is comprised of three BOD members and three Finance committee members with David Sweet as the Chair. Initial objectives were to define our RFP process, develop our contract templates, and improve the tracking of contract expirations to ensure timely action. A follow-up article will be written to discuss specific actions and progress. Eight committee persons and Board Liaisons Kathy Craven and Joe Barletta were present live or via Zoom for the meeting. We encourage you to attend our meetings on the last Tuesday of the month. The next meeting will be April 27 at 1 pm. Please check the Daily Report for meeting location. ~ Baron Ginnetti, b2ginnetti@ gmail.com

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