Happy New Year!

Happy 2024 Bear Creek!
We hope this newsletter finds you warm and cozy in your homes or bundled up enjoying the beautiful snow.

As we have begun the new year it seemed appropriate to officially launch this website as an additional form of communication as well as a hub where you can find answers to many questions including dues, and items discussed in last July’s Annual HOA Meeting (See ‘Meeting Minutes’ at the top of the Home Page.).

A few key items to notice as you look around:

• To help new neighbors have a smooth start joining and getting in contact with the community, we have the button right on the Home Page. By simply clicking on ‘New Neighbor’ they will be directed to a form that is then sent off to our HOA board.

• Under the ‘Community & Events’ tab you will be able to see upcoming events as well as other community information.

• Very self explanatory; the ‘Meeting Minutes’ tab contains exactly that so you can easily find them, and stay up to date if you missed attending in person.

• Photos of your current board members to help you put a face to the name in such a large community, as well as direct email contact for each member.

• A FAQ section, which contains a lot of valuable information, especially surrounding questions about our annual dues.

We hope you all find it is useful, and will help us by sharing it with our newest neighbors as they move into their homes.


The following is a friendly reminder that our Annual dues letters will be headed out soon, please read on for all the information regarding payment options and due date:

BCE Community,
The HOA Treasurer will be sending out HOA Dues letters soon – ALL Dues letters will be mailed through USPS – HOA Dues for the 2024/25 period will be $488.00 and due on 01 April 2024.

Please see below for the processes for CHECK or ONLINE payment:

IF PAYING BY CHECK, MONEY ORDER, CASHIERS CHECK: Please make checks payable to ‘Bear Creek Community Association’ and mail or drop off to Bear Creek Estates, Attn: Greg Houk, 5379 Bear Creek Pass, Auburn, IN 46706.

IF PAYING ONLINE: You MUST email your name and address requesting online payment option to HOA Treasurer Greg Houk at ‘bearcreekestatesAP@outlook.com’ so that he can create a pay link for your specific account. (Unique pay links are necessary to alleviate issues between the 2024/25 Dues Rate and the 4% online pay surcharge based on how the accounting software generates the invoice and the pay link.)

On the Invoice you will receive there are two lines for amounts listed: ‘Current Year’s Annual Dues’ which note the dues for this coming period; AND ‘Total Account Balance’ & ‘Balance Due’ which is the total amount due on your account. The ‘Total Account Balance’ & ‘Balance Due’ will be greater than ‘Current Year’s Annual Dues’ if your account has a past due amount from previous years dues being unpaid.

(if you need a digital copy of your invoice emailed to you, you can email a request to the HOA Treasurer at bearcreekestatesAP@outlook.com)

During Dues period, the Treasurer only makes 1-2 deposits per month to be able to log updates and payments in batches, please be patient and if you have any questions about status of your payment, please email the HOA Treasurer at bearcreekestatesAP@outlook.com and he will reply as available.

REMINDER: If you have issues paying dues as a lump sum, contact the Treasurer about a payment plan; we can try to work with you to keep your account current... Communication is Key.

Thank you,

BCE HOA Board

And finally, in the spirit of the new year we are trying something new for Bear Creek. It has been brought to our attention that many residents would appreciate more opportunities to meet with the board for discussion about BCE HOA, review the financials with the Board Members and have open discussion for any related questions. We have planned four opportunities within the year of 2024 to do so; February 3rd @11AM, April (TBD), July (TBD), and October (TBD). We hope many of you are able and choose to attend so the meetings can be as productive as possible in offering you more transparency into what the board has been doing throughout the year vs. overviewing once per year.
**The meeting held in July will remain our ‘Annual Meeting’ and will continue to be when we elect the next board members.

At this time it is planned that all meetings be held at Quiet Knight Hall;

1721 Wayne St. Auburn, IN (Next to Pizza King)

If you cannot attend February’s meeting in-person, there is a Team’s option available:
https://www.microsoft.com/.../microsoft.../join-a-meeting...

Meeting ID: 261 855 992 474

Passcode: jTVoHh

Meeting minutes will be available following the meeting for review or if you are unable to attend.

Please direct any questions regarding the upcoming meeting to: BearCreekEstates@outlook.com

Let’s make it a great year, Bear Creek!
Kindest Regards,
Your HOA Board

Summer Kick-off Party

We had an extremely successful Summer kick-off party on the last day of school for our Bear Creek kids, thank you for coming out if you joined us! YMCA CEO, Bob Krafft brought out the “Y on the Fly” trailer with a bunch of fun outdoor activities and games inside. There was face painting, food, children playing (big and small), and lots of community time. A big thank you to neighbor Rob Randall for donating a case of hotdogs, as well as Jim Connors & Chris Lamm for their combined efforts in grilling and food distribution. It sure seemed like the kids especially had fun with each other, and it was great to see our park area full of people.
Overall a great event, we hope to keep doing sporadic neighborhood get togethers as time goes on. It’s nice to meet new neighbors and catch up with the old.
One more thank you to neighbors who pitched in with clean up after the event ended, it was greatly appreciated!