The January 2019 GP Pipeline newsletter has been posted.
Category: Information - page 11
We have changed the PayPal button on the left to reflect the 2019 assessment dues. Please remember that the added fee is from PayPal for using either a credit or debit card to pay your assessments; we do not get that, PayPal keeps it as a service charge.
You can also use your bank’s Bill Pay to either pay monthly or set it up as Auto-pay. If you already have Bill Pay set up to pay the 2018 monthly dues, please remember to change it to reflect the added $5.00 per month. Dues for 2019 are $177 without a security light and $167 with a security light.
Below is what we call a security light. It must illuminate a large area of the common area adjacent to your property, and is usually mounted on the gables or on a pole, with you providing power to it. Motion sensing lights or other lights under your carport do not qualify.
On Friday, we noticed water standing near one of the main sewer main hole covers in the common area near East Townhouse Lane. Upon further inspection, we saw this (photo on the left):
The top center shows a wipe poking out of the lifting hole in the cover; the bottom center is a fountain of water coming it of the opposite lift hole. Directly in front of that is another wipe.
This sewer line starts on East Mountain Lane, so whoever is flushing these wipes, despite out asking residents not to flush them, continues to do so. We could not clear it with our power rooter, so we had to call in a Jet truck to clear the lines, at a cost of around $600.
It is one thing to have a sewer blockage due to age and/or build-up of grease; it is another to have people flushing wipes and clogging up a 6 ” line. So, if you use “flushable” wipes, they are not flushable and do not disintegrate as one might think.
In fact, the City of Grand Prairie posted about this on their website in 2016. I already posted this but here it is again:
Keep Wipes Out of City Wastewater System
“Flushable” wipes clog the city’s wastewater system when flushed down the toilet.
Post Date:09/01/2016 12:35 PM
Do you use wet wipes that claim they are flushable? These wipes are actually not flushable and can cause harm to plumbing and wastewater systems because they do not disintegrate after flushing. Instead, they wrap around other flushed wipes and debris, damage pumps at the wastewater plant, and have to be removed from wastewater screens and lift stations.
Wipes also create clogs in main wastewater lines and customer lines that have to be manually removed because fats, oil and grease deposit on them.
Toilet paper disintegrates almost immediately, but the strong-fiber wipes cause havoc in city wastewater lines and at wastewater plants.
When using flushable wipes, please throw them into the trash, and do not flush them down the toilet. This keeps the wastewater lines clear and helps avoid costly clog removal at your home and the wastewater plant.
We are in the process of adding in solar powered LED lights to illuminate the parking areas on the West side of the subdivision. These lights are totally solar powered, stay on low power until they detect motion and then it switches to high power for about 30 seconds. We have one of these currently installed on West Mountain Creek Drive, on the South parking lot. We have 3 more of these lights on order and will be placing them in parking areas on the West side in the next few weeks.
The Office will be closed December 24 and 25, 2018, and New Year’s Day, January 1, 2019. Maintenance will be off during the same dates.
However, we will be picking up trash on Monday, December 24 and December 31, as usual.
We have another water leak at the City water meter located in the common area across from #40 East MC Court. Our guys are working on it now and we will have the water back on as soon as possible. This is a 2″ connection leaking at a rate of about 40 gallons per minute and we have to repair it now. The connection into the meter sheared off due to ground motion and the water meter not being situated inline with out stuff. A slight ground movement puts lateral force on a threaded PVC connector and you get this:
The HOA is fortunate to have people that can do these types of repairs and save the HOA a lot of money as opposed to hiring a plumbing company on a Sunday to repair this leak.
The December GP Pipeline newsletter is now published.
We have had issues with the recent rain causing dirt to wash down the incline onto the pool deck area. You can see a mark on the deck where the dirt usually sat. So, to alleviate this problem, we added in a retaining wall to stop the erosion and loss of soil. While we were there, we added in a sidewalk between the pool deck and the rear BBQ area. Previously, people had to walk past the Women’s restroom to get to the rear area.
We are fortunate to have acquired maintenance staff members over the years who have a wide variety of experience and can do these projects so we can reduce costs, as opposed to hiring subcontracting companies to do them. The last major sewer repair, requiring a back hoe and a lot of man-hours, would have cost the HOA over $10,000; we spent around $1500 including equipment rental and labor. This is one example; we did 5 similar repairs in the past 4 or 5 months, using our people to do them. The same is true of water line repairs and so much more.
Dirt stains 
Declined area 
Building a retaining wall 
Finished retaining wall 
Sidewalk pour 
Sidewalk smoothed 
Sidewalk finished
