On the Docket: More RA Lake House Discussion, Decisions

When Reston Association’s Board of Directors holds its June meeting on Thursday, there will be several more areas of discussion related to the purchase and renovation of the Lake House/Tetra property.

The Lake House has been in the news recently since RA announced it needed to cover a $430,000 cost overrun incurred since the property was purchased for $2.6 million in July 2015.

RA plans to use the 3,100-square-foot building on the shores of Lake Newport for after-school care, camps and community event rentals.

The overrun occurred due to several factors, said RA CEO Cate Fulkerson. The previous tenant, Tetra Partners, opted not to sign two six-month rent backs, so RA did not get more than $100,000 in rental payments (and had to speed up renovations in order to start earning income from the property). Renovation costs also have come in much higher than expected.

Fulkerson said she has already found $400,000 in cost savings — including forgoing her annual salary increase — to put most of the $430,000 back in RA’s operating fund. That will be part of tonight’s discussion as she presents a financial report on 2016 Lake House Operating & Capital Budgets.

Other Lake House items to be discussed/voted upon:

• The Board Governance Committee’s recommended process to conduct an independent review of the Lake House Budget Development Process. The Board Governance Committee held a long discussion at its meeting last week on whether to hire professional consultants (which may cost $250 an hour) to discover what went wrong with the project or reach out to people in the community with expertise who are willing to volunteer their time.
• A request from several RA members, who are seeking significant amounts of information regarding the project’s interior and exterior construction.

See more details on the Board Agenda for tonight’s meeting.

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at RA Headquarters, 12001 Sunrise Valley Dr. There will be a member comment period at about 6:45 p.m.