GM Viola touts Golf rebound, strong financial performance to budget in monthly report

(Oct. 21, 2020) In his monthly report to the Ocean Pines Board on Saturday, General Manager John Viola highlighted the strong performance of the Golf amenity, and continued good economic news based on the latest financial reports.    

Viola said Golf lost about $150,000 in May and the beginning of June because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but has since rebounded and is close to breaking even, as of September. 

The Golf operation, he said, has turned a corner.  

“We have a plan that is showing results,” Viola said. “What I’m asking everybody is, let’s stay the course and not continue to shift gears.” 

He said staff worked to address issues with mold just below the surface of the golf greens. Included in a new action plan, staff used “ninja tines” to help improve aeration and stopped using certain chemicals and fertilizers.  

“We had a situation … we’ve certainly addressed this and we’re getting the [positive] results,” Viola said.  

Additionally, Viola noted that the Association recently announced the promotion of Golf Superintendent Justin Hartshorne and the promotion of Assistant Superintendent Kurt Joseph.  

On the finance side, Viola presented a “flash” look at September financials and said the Association appeared to be ahead for the month by about $100,000. The September monthly financial report, released two days later, showed a positive operating variance of $147,876.  

Year to date, Ocean Pines has a positive variance to budget of just over $1.1 million. 

To view the September report, visit www.oceanpines.org/documents/20124/118434/Sept20%20-%20SUMMARY%20FINANCIALS%20PACKAGE.pdf/15d098f8-0ba4-484b-1843-3cb6e5dfed78.   

Viola also said requests for proposals (RFPs) for waste services and accounting services were released and are due back in November. For information on current Ocean Pines RFPs, visit www.oceanpines.org/web/pages/rfps.  

Director Doug Parks, during the monthly treasurer's report, said the Association had roughly $13.8 million in cash as of August, including $7.1 million invested in FDIC insured CDARs and $6.7 million in fully insured Money Market accounts.   

He said assessment collections, as of September, totaled roughly $8.6 million or between 94-95%. Current reserves total $7.1 million, including $4.3 million in replacement reserves, $2 million in bulkheads, $700,000 in roads and drainage, and $100,000 in new capital.   

To view slides from the meeting, visit www.oceanpines.org/documents/20124/70275/10-17-20%20Meeting%20Power%20Point.key/5d30ee8e-e32f-c46f-08df-24fb1a9fbd2e.  

To view a video of the meeting, visit https://youtu.be/U08JUkyV5G0.