Facing a sharp budget shortfall from the rising cost of community security, the Marsh Creek Board of Directors voted unanimously Tuesday to close the Mizell visitor/vendor’s gate overnight from 11:00pm to 7:00am in 2023. (24-hour access through the Mizell homeowner’s gate would not be affected. The A1A Main Gate would remain staffed 24/7). The exact start date was not announced or discussed.  However, homeowners may get the chance to reverse the decision in favor of paying higher quarterly dues in ’23 when they are asked to respond to a Community Survey due out before the end of September.

“We have no choice … to renew the contract and explore options”, MC Safety and Security Chairman, Scott Herrington, told the Board, signaling a temporary closure would avoid a budget crunch and potentially higher quarterly dues, and buy time for his committee to explore innovative ways to reopen the Mizell visitor/vendor’s gate overnight using technology.

The community’s financial predicament was made clear by his presentation before a Security Committee public meeting last week.  

Marsh Creek’s security contractor, Garda, is seeking a contract renewal with significantly higher fees. The company’s demands appear to have caught the MCHOA Board by surprise, leaving it little time to find a new security vendor.

Closing the Mizell Gate to overnight visitors and leaving it unmanned would plug a $77,000+ hole forecasted in the 2023 MCHOA budget.

As reported last week by the Spoonbill Courier, the Garda security contract claims 47% of the MCOA budget. In 2023, Garda is seeking a raise from the current $520,000 to more than $600,000. Garda supported its demands, according to Herrington, by claiming a need to raise guard salaries because it cannot recruit candidates paying the current minimum wage. An additional cost will come from a contract clause stipulating that Marsh Creek pay for a new Garda patrol car at a cost of $17,000.

“We can get out of our contract”, Herrington assured the Board.

He went on to state that his committee has identified “an alternate security company” with the technology to transform Mizell into a “virtual” gate, manned by cameras, two-way TV screens and microphones. Visitor entry would be monitored and controlled by the on-duty guard stationed at the A1A Main Gate.

In the meantime, the Board is putting the finishing touches on a community survey that will, among other things, allow homeowners to ratify or reject its Mizell Gate decision.

Homeowners objecting to the overnight closure, said Herrington in a later interview, will be offered the alternative in the survey to approve raising quarterly dues to cover the expected $100,000 budget shortfall. 

The Board has not revealed by how much dues would need to rise and the community survey will play a pivotal role.  Under MCHOA bylaws, two-thirds of Marsh Creek homeowners are required to approve a quarterly dues increase greater than 10% in any year.  Due to the delay in collecting those funds, the Board would likely have to take funds from reserves to meet the higher cost of the 2023 Garda contract.

Herrington said he hopes the community approves the temporary overnight closure of the Mizell Gate while his committee studies other security companies and their technology.

Such a move, he said, would save “a couple of hundred thousand a year”.

“Technology will allow us to reopen the gate”, Herrington reassured the Board and the handful of homeowners and residents watching by Zoom.