The Sunset Dunes PEI Homeowners Association has received seven Board nominations: Aubrey Bell, Rob Dewar, Sandi Dewar, Kim Biggar-McGillivray, Tim O’Neill, Joe Sherren, and Susan Stark. You can find more about them here. The voting period will start July 25th – so keep an eye out for your electronic ballot!
Aubrey Bell
Goals …
Strive to foster a greater sense of Community.
Embrace membership involvement through frequent Consultation.
Streamline board and membership Communication.
Seek to achieve greater membership participation and Cooperation
Longer-term, work to resolve the questions related to restrictive Covenants
Aubrey Bell
125 Campbells Way
(902) 315-3203bellaubrey@hotmail.com
Rob Dewar
My name is Rob Dewar.
I will be moving to PEI as a permanent resident when I retire in 2024 at the end of my career as a licensed professional engineer. My wife and I bought our land in Sunset Dunes in 2017 and we have been dreaming of the next phase of our life ever since. We are so excited to build our new home and we have already started working with local builders to get ready!!
The transition from the developer to the homeowner’s association is a time of opportunity for everyone. The HOA is NOT a continuation of the developer and his interests. The focus of a group of homeowners with some common assets is very different than a developer who was selling lots.
Like other owners of vacant lots, I would like to ensure that the ongoing costs for my property investment are carefully managed.
I would like to join the HOA Board of Directors to promote a balanced approach for all property owners in Sunset Dunes. I will to help ensure that decisions made are beneficial to all owners and will minimize our ongoing costs and liability. I will expect transparency and clear communication especially if there is an issue that will create significant cost or liability for all owners.
Initiatives that I believe would benefit all owners will include the following –
- I will look at the costs and options to bring Eastlink high speed internet and Cable TV to the community. I have already made initial inquiries with Eastlink to confirm that this is possible.
- I will promote tendering of all common area maintenance to ensure competitive pricing. This will include grass cutting, road maintenance and snow removal, accounting, legal and web services. I will also look at options to reduce any unnecessary expenses.
- I will look at opportunities to reduce the burden on the HOA. As an example, I see the value in negotiating bulk deals for private grass cutting and snow removal, but I believe that it is appropriate to transition these contracts so that homeowners are paying the service provider directly. This approach will reduce the accounting costs and the workload for the HOA. It is important to be involved in the first election, so please ensure that you vote. I would appreciate your support to elect me as an HOA Board Member when voting starts on July 25.
If you have any questions for me during the campaign period, please feel free to contact me by e-mail at rob.dewar@eastlink.ca.
Sandi Dewar
My name is Sandi Dewar and I am running for a position on the Sunset Dunes HOA Board in the upcoming election.
I believe in the quiet, peaceful enjoyment of one’s home and property. As long as someone is not violating municipal or provincial law, a homeowner should be allowed to improve their property as befitting their lifestyle. If voted to a board position on the HOA, I promise to ensure that the HOA will not unnecessarily infringe on anyone’s right to enjoy their property as they see fit.
I believe that the HOA should spend community funds responsibly. Contracts for snow removal, grass cutting, accounting and community maintenance should be publicly tendered and negotiated to ensure best pricing. Unnecessary spending on frivolous web domains and Dropbox accounts should be halted immediately. Instead, I propose establishing a private Facebook Group Page whereby community notices and updates can be easily accessed at no cost. As well, residents can opt-in to receive updates automatically via text or email without having to monitor the group page 24/7. This can also be used as a community hub for inviting friends and neighbours for get-togethers, beach cleanups, and maybe even the odd backyard BBQ.
I believe that we should work together as a community; not pitted against each other as enemies. As such, I would like to establish a volunteer community group who would be interested in helping maintain the beauty that is Sunset Dunes. Residents who enjoy gardening, myself included, could band together and take care of the entryway and boardwalk gardens by trimming, pruning, weeding and mulching as the season requires. A nominal amount of HOA funds could be set aside to purchase mulch and/or new plantings as necessary. Another group of residents may hold more passion for the care of our private beach, and wish to organise regular beach cleanups to maintain a safe and clean beach environment for all to enjoy.
I believe that our beautiful South Shore red sand beach is our community’s greatest asset and safe access to our beach is paramount. I am dismayed to see that not only is there damage to the upper boardwalk, but both community stairways appear to be in precarious condition. This concerns me as I would hate to see a friend or neighbor sustain serious injuries if either of these stairs collapsed while in use. If voted to the HOA Board, I would propose that both stairways be replaced immediately with proper industrial-grade metal stairs. While I recognize that the initial cost outlay may be more expensive than simple carpentry repairs to the existing stairs, the investment would pay off in the long run since proper stairs would require less ongoing maintenance and further protect the community from personal injury liability.
Another community asset that I see as a potential liability is our private road which will eventually require re-paving and that will come at an extravagant cost. Route 10 and Bells Point Road are both Schedule C-1 local (Class 1) roads, owned and maintained by the Province. If voted to the HOA Board, I would be willing to undertake the task of investigating the requirements to have Campbells Way re-classified to a local Class 1 road. While I recognize that there may be costs associated with bringing our road to the minimum provincial standard, and property taxes will nominally increase, having the Province assume ownership of our road will eliminate the requirement for annual contracted snow removal and, most importantly, the long term costs of maintaining a private road.
In closing, I’d like to provide some insight into my life’s work. I am a retired business owner of 15 years, an avid gardener, knitter and apprentice potter. I am most proud of my 20+ years volunteering with Girl Guides of Canada as a Unit leader, Cookie Receiver for Community #5, Camp Wyoka summer counsellor and member of the Unit Finance Committee. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with all walks of life, both young and old, and look forward to spending my long-awaited retirement years as an Islander-By-Choice in beautiful Sunset Dunes.
I sincerely thank you for taking the time to read my submission and kindly ask for your vote.
Kim Biggar-McGillivray
My name is Kim Biggar-McGillivray We purchased 217 Campbell’s Way July 2020. I left the island in the late 70’s with my parents to move to southern Ontario where I met my husband Paul and had 2 children and have become a grandparent. I am pretty much fully retired from a 26 year fundraising career in education and Healthcare. I still hold a casual position with Norfolk General Hospital in Simcoe, ON and work remotely from my beautiful ocean view office. We started our search for a home on the island back in February of 2019. I had a showing of our property in the dead of winter and fell in love with this beautiful private subdivision. Choosing to buy in a private subdivision with covenants was an easy decision for us. We loved the fact that the speed was limited to 30KM. The lot sizes and the common areas are spectacular. The PEI Buffer Zone owned by all members of this community is amazing. We walk the buffer every morning with our dog Archie and often see the Bald Eagles that live on the Point. It is a truly amazing Cape. The cape point has been eroding at an alarming rate. The point has been enjoyed by locals and now private homeowners for a very long time. There were picnic tables that have disappeared due to 15-20 feet of erosion over the last few decades on the point. The beach was also at the top of our list. Our daughter Stephanie regularly does a beach clean up and can be seen hauling back large bags of garbage. The covenants and the PEI Buffer Zone regulations are an excellent way of protecting our investments. We left a home in Ontario with million dollar properties and a neighbor with junked cars and old tractor tires on the front lawn. Knowing that we have all signed the covenants and understand our part is very comforting for us. If I am elected I will do my best to bring forward the following goals and ideas to make Sunset Dunes, the very best private subdivision in PEI!
- -Raise awareness of the waterfront PEI Buffer Zone owned by the members of the HOA and regulated by the Province. PEI Buffer Zone Fact Sheet can be found at www.princeedwardisland.ca.
- Create sitting and picnic areas for gatherings on the common HOA areas and have a staircase access to the Provost Cove for all members to enjoy.
- Monitoring compliance of the covenants with regular walkabouts to protect our investments. Promoting respect and compliance is top of my agenda.
- Increasing content of the web site to keep everyone informed with a question and answer section so we are not responding to the same question over and over again. Posting resolutions that are upcoming for Board review.
- Create a safe roadway with better signage for speeding, hidden driveways, hidden walkways etc. as we have to share the road with cars, people and family pets. More speed bumps are required to slow the speeds that reach 80km plus at the mid point of our road.
- Transition the subdivision from a Developer marketed theme with billboard signage and welcoming signs to strangers to a clearly communicated private subdivision.
- Ensure fair distribution of fees for all lot owners to share regardless of dwelling status.
Tim O’Neill
My name is Tim O’Neill and my wife Lois and I purchased the first property in the Sunset Dunes development. We completed construction of our house in 2005 and moved fulltime to PEI in 2006. We have watched the community grow as new homes were built and their owners became year-round residents. We have made special friends among the people in our ownership group and have enjoyed the camaraderie that comes from sharing a small community.
Along with several other residents, I agreed to become a member of the Transition Committee, set up by developer Shaun MacIsaac, to begin the process of creating a Homeowners Association for Sunset Dunes. We spent almost five months gathering the information and discussing the structural options required to make the transition to HOA control and management of the assets as seamless as possible. The Committee decided early on to a transparent process whereby all relevant information about what was happening was shared with owners/residents of Sunset Dunes. Because many people choose not to subscribe to Facebook, we primarily utilized e-mails for those communications. We also initiated two virtual townhall sessions to allow HOA members to discuss issues and concerns related to the new organization.
When the formal creation of the HOA occurred, the developer asked the Transition Committee to form the first Sunset Dunes HOA Board. The Board determined that, as we were an interim Board, we should effect as little change as possible in the processes and policies employed by the developer. This was to ensure that the membership would have the opportunity to elect its own Board and to provide it with the direction for its operations that the group, by majority vote, would determine was appropriate. However, to get a “running start” on establishing operational procedures, the Board created a set of By-Laws to supplement the Restrictive Covenants. As well, a Good Neighbour Policy was written that would provide general guidance to the behaviour that would make our community a truly enjoyable place to live.
Although this is my first direct experience of participating on a property owners board, I have extensive experience as a member of a number of volunteer, public sector and corporate boards. Among those I have actually chaired are Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator [ten years], the United Church of Canada Foundation [five years] and the PEI Premier’s Economic Advisory Board [four years]. As well, as President of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council and later as Chief Economist and Executive Vice President at BMO Financial Group, I have reported to and observed the functioning of two significant corporate boards.
The key things I have learned about the operation of a strong board are:
- Mutual respect for the opinions of colleagues is critical especially where there are strong differences of viewpoint among the board members
- Listening to each other — and to an organization’s members, employees, owners and/or interested observers — is a more critical faculty to engage than speaking
- Before decisions are made by a board, it is essential that it gather and consider the evidence and analysis relevant to the issue being decided
- Once a decision has been made, the board makes the transition collectively to effective implementation even if individual members have opinions that are at odds with the choice made; that is, strong boards dispute freely before a decision but cooperate transparently afterwards
This is a community in which it is clear that there are some issues upon which the residents/owners have differing perspectives and that these can be strongly held and strenuously contested. That is inevitable given our diverse backgrounds and varying life experiences. However, I believe we all share a common interest in living as compatible [even friendly] neighbours so that we can enjoy the beauty of the surroundings in which we freely chose to live. If chosen by you to be a Board member, I view my primary task as to be part of a team that attempts to ensure the effective pursuit of that common interest.
Joe Sherren
It has been my pleasure to serve on the transition committee to ensure a smooth conversion from the developer to the property owners of Sunset Dunes. My desire is that we maintain a community where all residents can enjoy a friendly, peaceful, and supportive neighbourhood.
Although we just sold our big house, Kristin and I love Sunset Dunes so much that we purchased lot 32 across the street where we will be building a new (smaller) house this fall!
I have served on numerous boards and served as president of three other HOA’s so I understand some of the issues that may come up and how to develop a collaborative way to ensure all residents’ views are respected.
My experience includes being the president of the Trails End (Hampton, PEI) Home-Owners Association, The Stouffville Ontario Home-Owners Association, and the Whitchurch Horse Owners Association (WHOA). I am a founding member and currently the Vice President of our Sunset Dunes Homeowners Association in PEI.
Prior to retirement, I was an international business transformational specialist who has worked in over 40 countries around the world helping organizations improve employee morale, increase operational efficiency, and improve results on the bottom line. I am the President of Ethos Enterprises (Ontario) and CEO of Gateway Leadership Inc. (PEI). My past career includes being a speaker, trainer, executive coach, and National two-time bestselling author and have been motivating and building skills with leaders and managers for over 35 years.
I spent 25 years as a senior manager at IBM where we focused on maximizing performance in the areas of leadership, management skills, customer loyalty, team development, ethics, communication skills, and strategic planning. After retirement, I continued this work in my own company Ethos Enterprises Inc. Our high-energy, thought-provoking programs left audiences challenged, inspired, and motivated
I am past-president of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, past-president of the Global Speakers Federation, and have been inducted into the Canadian Speakers’ Hall of Fame. Designations include CSP (Certified Speaking Professional), HOF (Hall of Fame), and the International Global Speaking Fellow. In 2020 I received the coveted Spirit of CAPS award for my work inspiring other speakers and trainers to achieve business success.
For further information call me at 902.437.6998 or email me joe@ethos.ca.
Susan Stark
My name is Susan Stark and I am running for a position on the Board of the Sunset Dunes PEI HOA. Last November the developer of Sunset Dunes, Shaun MacIsaac, announced his intention to turn the management of the Sunset Dunes subdivision over to an HOA. He requested that I be part of the HOA transition committee and the Board, and I have been the initial Board Secretary.
When Shane and I bought our Sunset Dunes lot in 2007 we knew this was going to be our forever home. We have since bought the two lots on either side of our initial property. Our home was built in 2010 and for the first 6 years we used it as a vacation home. With my retirement in 2016 we moved here permanently and have spent the last five years developing our property and building gardens. I have degrees in both Geology and Chemical Engineering and worked as a reservoir engineer and an engineering manager with Imperial Oil for a total of 27 years prior to my retirement. Now that I am retired, I have time to train and participate in triathlons, volunteer as a math and physics tutor and I love to sew and garden. I feel very fortunate to be living in this community and would be honoured to be part of the first elected Sunset Dunes PEI HOA Board.
As a non-elected initial Board, there was a commitment to not make any significant changes to the management of the community and to put effort into ensuring the HOA was legally established and all required documentation and service contracts were in place to ensure a smooth transition to a first elected Board. A tremendous effort was required by myself and the rest of the Board to initiate and progress the creation of the Sunset Dunes PEI HOA and I have learned a great deal during this process about the management and operation of the community. With this base work now complete, I feel the first elected Board can move forward to work to ensure our community is all that we want it to be. I believe that this is a pretty special community and what we need to keep that going is people willing to volunteer to put in the work to sustain and improve it. I am putting my name forward as I am willing to do this.
We are a diverse community and we will have different views on how the community should be managed but we all chose to live here because of what this community has the potential to offer us. I believe that the primary role of a Board member is to ensure that the management of the community’s assets is carried out in a fair and responsible manner and that the Board’s actions are in line with the goals of the majority of the community. A position on the Board comes with the responsibility to put aside my own self interests and work for the betterment of the community as a whole. I have over the past nine months been faced with several situations when I have tested myself on this responsibility, ensuring that I always acted on behalf of the greater community. I also believe that the Board has the responsibility to continue to ensure the whole community has the opportunity to be involved in decisions on managing the community and that the procurement of services is done using a fair bidding process.
As an initial Board, a commitment was made not to change too much, but I have some ideas that I would pursue if elected to the Board for the next year:
- I believe that management of our common area beach access is an area that we can improve on. Replacement of the existing wooden stairs with metal stairs, while having an initial capital expenditure, is worth investigating for reduced operating expense and improved functionality and safety.
- I propose investigating and getting community support for options to reduce speeding and improve the safety of our private road.
- A priority for me is ensuring that we are building a reserve fund at the right pace to fund any unexpected future expenses or improvement opportunities.
Once again, I feel very fortunate to be living in this community and would be honored to be part of the first elected Sunset Dunes PEI HOA Board. If anyone has any questions or would like to discuss anything with me please contact me at susancstark@shaw.ca
