We will not be picking up garbage on Monday, July 4th. We will be picking up garbage on July 5th, Tuesday.
Category: Information - page 25
During the past week, we have had a few events which required a visit by the Grand Prairie Police:
- an auto burglary on the East side, 2 of the 3 alleged suspects were apprehended in the act, the third seems to have gotten away.
- another auto burglary was attempted, but the homeowner caught them in the act and gave chase. The young man got away from him.
- on Friday, a young man walked into our maintenance shop and walked out with a camo hunting hat valued at $80; this young man now has a felony burglary charge over a stupid hat. I am not sure if they have arrested him but they know where he lives and have photos of him off the surveillance cameras.
The GP Officer that came out for the shop burglary call told me he used to work this area (the HOA area) and that it was well know for vehicles ducking in and parking here because it is out of the way and off the main roads. These individuals that do this are more often than not up to no good and use our property to drink, smoke dope, and other activities for which they hope not to get caught doing. We have called the Police on several of these people. some ending in their arrest for possession.
The take away here is that we all need to keep a better eye on our neighborhood and those who do not belong here. We have had 5 or 6 vehicles in the past few months that the Police came to check out; some were innocent, others had drugs in the car and were hauled off. Don’t be afraid to call the GP Police non-emergency number to report suspicious vehicles, people or activity. That number is (972) 237-8700
We can reduce crime within the HOA by reporting suspicious people and vehicles.
We have been using Metroscape Landscaping for the past 2 years at a cost of about $76,000 per year, which included mowing, edging, flower bed turning and shrub trimming. It also has 2 “weed and feed” applications scheduled for Spring and Fall. This annual contract was up for renewal at the beginning of June 2016. We looked into other landscaping contractors to do the job but did not like the prices we were given, between $92,000 and almost $100,000 per year.
After doing some digging and looking for possible alternatives, we arrived at a solution. The Board voted at the April 2016 meeting to do the landscaping ourselves and approved the purchase of the required equipment. We now have 2 mowers, a 60″ and a 48″ which were delivered today.
Both are the Toro 5000 Series commercial grade -Zero-turn mower. Here is a picture of the mower type we bought:
There are a few more items we need to get to have the proper equipment to do the entire subdivision. We have hired someone to mow and he has many years experience on the grounds here because he used to work for one of our previous lawn contractors. When necessary, our maintenance guys will assist as needed when schedules permit. We should have much better control on things using our own people to do the landscaping.
The HOA will begin doing landscaping on July 1st.
Terry is still not feeling well, so the Office will remain closed today.
Office will be open again on Friday, June 10.
The Office will be closed today, Monday, June 6th.
The Office will be closed at noon on Friday, May 20th. We will reopen on Monday at 8 AM.
Barbara Eden, long time and valued employee of the HOA, has passed away following a hospital stay. We were informed about her death yesterday. Ms. Eden was the Office Manager for over 20 years.
There will be a time of Visitation from 10:30AM until 11:30AM on Wednesday May 18, 2016, at Jeter & Son Funeral Home, Cedar Hill Chapel, 332 Cedar St., Cedar Hill, TX 75104.
We had a resident come in this morning and ask why they could not use clear trash bags for trash. The front of the box of clear trash bags showed pictures of these bags filled with leaves and with empty water bottles. The main problem with these bags is not that they are clear, it is that they are meant for leaves and light materials. They are not very thick and the seams are not well sealed. They are perfectly suitable for leaves; we do prefer a heavier gauge trash bag for general trash usage.
We have residents here who repeatedly load up the clear leaf-type bags with about 30 pounds of trash; the result is these bags tear open and we have to clean up the streets or the front of the compactor. This is why they were mentioned in the latest Notice sent out to all addresses. This same phrasing has been used in the previous Notice sent out in November 2105, which said:
Please do not use clear leaf bags for trash; they are made for leaves and will tear open if used for trash. Regular trash bags are preferred, tied/secured properly. Contractor bags are too big.
The April 2016 Notice that just went out says exactly the same thing as in November 2015. It asks to please not use clear leaf bags. It does not prohibit the use of clear leaf bags as such.
I saw 2 trucks last Saturday, installing cable to a property on the East side. I noticed they both left and did not pick up the empty spool and just left it on the grass next to the house. What bothers me more than an empty spool is how they did this install. (See the photos below) This cable runs across 2 sidewalks leading to someone’s front door…. Time Warner has a really bad habit of these types of install; we have been trying to get them to bury cables for the past 2 years, cables that also run across common property and across sidewalks.
