Villagers packed into the Community Church on March 13, as officials from the Homeowners and Property Owners Association gave their State of the Village address — discussing expenditures, developments and how they plan to build off of those past accomplishments with future progressions.

The meeting was kicked off by Past President of the HOA, Harry Rucker, who briefly presented the association’s list of achievements from 2024. Rucker stated that some of the boxes he wished to check off last year were an increase in activities and a streamline of information for residents. Last year, the HOA coordinated more than 120 events throughout East Tennessee in a number of different interest areas … most selling out early.

Rucker discussed community serving aspects of the group, as well. Last year, Neighborhood Watch and the highway safety group were merged with the POA. The group also uses Litter Angels, a volunteer group in the Village, to do a majority of trash pickup in the area. The HOA has also reimplemented the Aesthetics and Environment Committee, which Rucker said is currently in the search process for a new chairperson.


HOA President Linda Garza followed by naming a number of goals as the group enters 2025. Among the highlights were an increase in the aforementioned events and engagement that were a priority in the prior year, as well as to bolster membership, which saw a slight decrease in 2024. Garza stated that currently, 27 percent of Tellico Village residents are members of the HOA.

Garza also mentioned the possibility of socials for the HOA at University of Tennessee athletic events, such as softball and football, as well as Tennessee Smokies baseball games in the coming months.

Both Garza and the Programs Vice President Lavonne Mitchell made mention of the commitment to keep meetings as open as possible and provide discussion through the use of public comment.

“We want to have forums that are valuable to you,” Mitchell said. “We don’t want to just get up here and try to read your mind, so if there is stuff that you want to hear about please let us know and we’ll make sure that we make it happen.”

The POA also offered insights into their milestones and marked agenda items. Board member John Orr spoke to the group’s 2024 goals, most of which were satisfied due to a tenacity from the team, Orr said.

“In my opinion, we had some of the more aggressive, very specific goals for the POA that I’ve seen in my short history here,” Orr said.

One of those was the production of a reserve contribution greater than $10 million. Orr said that they saw far above that, around $12.5 million altogether from sectors like administration, public works and golf. The POA also grossed around $956,000 for continuous improvement in 2024. Orr said that those numbers are now the threshold for this year’s financial goals.

Orr also said that the POA plans to move into a new software for accounting purposes, hopefully by the mid-year mark. He also mentioned that every organization across the Village is planning on participating in what he referred to as a “balanced scorecard,” in an effort to ensure uniformity.

One of the more constant projects for the board, the rebuild of Tanasi, was mentioned and confirmed to have an estimated finish date within quarter one of 2026.

One of the major future goals for the Board specifically mentioned was a desire to have better continuity in its staffing, and make the hiring process more thorough and conscientious in tandem with that longevity. This highlight comes just weeks after CEO Chet Pillsbury stepped down from his position, with Matt Benoit soon after stepping in as the interim General Manager in his place. Benoit expressed an interest and a mission to the cause of improvement as reason to do so.

“I kind of expressed, I really wanted to keep the band together,” Benoit said. “And step forward for that very reason because I care about the people I work with.”

Off the back of that sentiment, Benoit also spoke on the desire for the Board to hire intently. He said they’ve been more inclined recently to “take a deep breath” and observe the needs and requirements of the position as they fit into the context of the current administration.

“You don’t generally like the circumstance that brought a vacancy in your organization,” Benoit said. “But it’s an opportunity to take a nice, long, deep breath, think about what you’re doing, who’s doing it, the service that you’re providing and we are embracing that opportunity at this point.”

The POA was scheduled to reconvene for their next board meeting on Wednesday, March 19.