Neighborhood News

Neighborhood News

Annual HOA Meeting

Held in Invermere Park – August 21, 2025

40 attendees

  1. The meeting, led by Harry Northey, commenced at 6:45pm.
  2. Harry stated that the Board’s efforts over the past year had focused on addressing the continuation of issues surrounding the care and keeping of the Invermere Open Spaces. He mentioned that the city dropped their contract with Drake Lemm and retained the remaining Bond money (approx $16,500). This bond money has now been reduced to approximately $15,500 due to the City using some of that bond money to pay for the park water/irrigation bill that Mr. Lemm never paid in 2025.
  3. Acknowledgement of Harry Northey, Dave Tweet, Dan MacDonald and Lee Bowman was made for the extensive work they’ve put in to maintaining the Open Spaces and to further the Open Space issues along.
  4. Harry stated that most of the Board met with Donna Gaukler and David Selvage regarding the Open Space issues on 7/31. He outlined several things: a. that the City offered to give the HOA the remaining Bond to finish the Open Space work doing what they chose, b. that the City mentioned they could potentially turn over the ownership of the Open Space land to the HOA, c. that the City stated they could not take over the full responsibility for the Open Spaces without there being a SID tax for all the Invermere residents.
  5. Harry stated that the Board voted down accepting the Bond at this time. However, a “contract from the City” to implement this proposed plan will be examined by an attorney to fully understand the risks and benefits to the IHOA if this plan was to be eventually re-examined and/or accepted.
  6. Brooke provided an update on the financial report: a. Collections from HOA dues are approximately $16,500 yearly. b. Costs for the maintenance of the Open Spaces are slightly lower than the collections of HOA Dues. c. Brooke announced that for 2026, all HOA dues must be paid by Jan 31, 2026 or interest will likely be levied. d. Options to pay online will be available for the next round of dues collection. e. Balance in IHOA account is: $43,514.05.
  7. Dan and Harry spoke about the City failing to do weed mitigation for the Open Spaces in the Spring and how much of a problem the cheatgrass and other weeds are. Basic mowing and hand removal by volunteers has worked to mitigate the spread of weeds but the Board decided to implement professional weed mitigation this Fall as part of an 3 year plan (Fall and Spring applications) to manage the weeds and allow the natural grasses to thrive. Dan procured a bid from the best company in Missoula for this, WMA, at a cost of approximately $4,300, for all the Open Space Land (the Park, Miller Creek Frontage, and the gully behind DJ Drive).
  8. Questions from the audience occurred with people stating both positive and negative reactions to accepting the bond from the city. There were also questions about potential liability for the options where the HOA has responsibility for thepark and questions about expenses for the park thus far.
  9. Harry asked for approval for Lance’s official appointment to the Board. It was approved.
  10. Harry asked for more volunteers for the Board, to replace Tracee and possibly Dan and/or others. No one volunteered. Volunteers are encouraged to reach out to a current Board Member with their interest. Thank you.
  11. An announcement was made about the Website: https://www.invermerehoa.org/
  12. The meeting was adjourned at 8:35pm.
  13. Thank you to Dave, Dan, Jan and Tracee for bringing treats, beverages and supplies (tables and chairs) to the meeting.

Meeting recorded by Tracee Anderson

Neighborhood update: April 2025

As of the end of April, 2025, the City had not taken any actions to complete the Park or the
Miller Creek Rd Frontage area. Harry, the Board President has been in contact with the
folks from City Parks without any success in moving the park completion forward. Please
feel free to write a letter to the City of Missoula or the Mayors office (as some residents
have) to state your concern about the City not following through with their responsibility to
remedy the delinquency of the Park and Miller Creek Rd Frontage area completion.


To review the Invermere Parklands Agreement with the city of Missoula (copy does not include signatures) you can link to:
https://pub-missoula.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=67424


As a result of the City not moving forward with the park completion, the spread of noxious
weeds remains a top concern. Several residents have spent many hours working on trying
to pull up those weeds by hand (thank you Harry, Dan and Lee!) and the Board will initiate
mowing of the grasses before they weeds drop their seeds. This is not ideal but it will
hopefully mitigate some of the spread of weeds.


The annual meet will be held in late August of 2025. Date and time announced soon.
The Board encourages all residents of Invermere to notice and mark/pull noxious weeds
when you see them. The specific weeds that are problematic are:

Canada Thistle Dalmatian Toadflax

Spotted Knapweed Leafy Spurge

Leafy Spurge Ventenata (looks similar to Cheatgrass but has a more upright bloom)

Cheatgrass(looks similar to Ventana but has a droopy bloom)

City’s Revocation of Invermere Developer’s Bond

March 8, 2025

Fellow Invermere Homeowners,

The following information was received on March 2, 2025, via email from Donna Gaukler, Director of Missoula City’s Parks and Recreation:

“The City’s best tool for holding a developer to their improvement requirements is the performance bond. We have already used this tool for Invermere and taken the full amount of Lemm’s bond (~$16k).”While it is frustrating that this amount doesn’t pay for everything the HOA thinks should be paid for, the City made an agreement with Lemm in Feb 2024 that this amount was the appropriate amount for the remaining improvements. One of its recitals says that Lemm and the City intended this bond to guarantee the full and satisfactory completion of the remaining improvements. On March 5, I spoke with David Selvage, Associate Director of Parks and Recreation, and we discussed moving forward. At this time, his intentions are to put out invitations for bids for weed control and reseeding of portions of Invermere Park, and to complete the planned improvements along Miller Creek Road.”

The HOA will keep you informed when there is progress to report.

Thank you,

Harry

Invermere Homeowners Association Board: Harry Northey, President Dan McDonald, Vice President Tracee Anderson, Sec/Treasurer Dave Tweet Janne Joy Janice Jennings Brooke Bowman

Mayor Davis letter regarding our park

City Response to Park (PDF)

2025 Dues Notice
Please read this dues notice for 2025.

Invermere Park and Frontage area update – December 2024

Collectively, the Open Space areas of Invermere include: Invermere Park, the Miller Creek Frontage area, and the undevelopable land south of Drake, west of Carla-Jo, and north of DJ Drive (see the Plats of Invermere Phase I, IA, 2A, and 3A). The City of Missoula has yet to approve the developer’s contracted responsibilities for the improvements to the Invermere Park and Frontage areas. Once the City approves, the common Open Space areas will be ‘turned over’ to the Invermere HOA. As many of you know, there have been some challenges between the City and the Invermere Developer, which has prolonged the completion of the Open Spaces well past the contracted date in 2021.

Due to the delay in the Open Space completion, the HOA has chosen to do some park upkeep (mowing, improving the drainage, applying weed suppression, and snow shoveling) in order to mitigate the degradation of the work that has been completed and to better ensure the safety of the Park grounds and sidewalks. Several Board Members and Invermere residents have contributed many hours of hard labor moving rocks and shoveling snow. Many thanks to them for their dedication to help make Invermere a safe and beautiful place to enjoy.

The HOA Board will continue to work with the City of Missoula to support the City’s responsibility for ensuring that the improvements to the Park and Frontage will be completed, all of the Open Spaces issues will be addressed, and to represent the best interests of the Invermere HOA.

Please direct any questions you may have to any of the Board members.