The Office will be closed periodically all week. Some days, it will be closed 8AM to Noon, others, Noon to 5PM.
The best way to see if we are open is call the Office. Terry is taking care of someone who has been hospitalized.
The photo to the left is the remnants of a local moving van backing up to someone’s front door. This was not a pickup truck or a U-Haul, but a moving van composed of a trailer and truck. The ground was wet from the recent heavy rains, which a reasonable person might think would not be an appropriate surface to hold up a vehicle that holds an entire house full of furniture. In the center of the photo is a drainage area that had standing water in it, another indicator of wet ground.
When I spoke to the individual whose house the mover backed up to, they told me they asked another resident and were told that it was OK to drive a vehicle onto the common area, because they had done the same and no one said anything. The Notices we have sent out for the past year specifically state that no vehicles are allowed on any Common areas, so I have no idea why someone would think it was permissible.
The only motorized vehicles allowed on our common areas are the maintenance carts and they use the sidewalks as much as possible when the ground is wet. Some areas require them to cross the grass, and they do leave tire tracks on the grass; the maintenance carts weigh about 800 pounds, a significantly lower weight than a fully loaded moving van, a pickup truck, or a U-Haul truck.
In an effort to qualify how much trash is throw out by homeowners, renters and their guests, I asked our guys to bag it up and set it aside. Over the course of 5 consecutive days, we picked up 5 contractor size bags of trash that our residents and guests intentionally tossed out onto our common areas. The average contractor size bag holds approximately 9 cubic feet. That means we picked up 45 cubic feet of loose paper, plastic drink cups, fast food bags, candy bar wrappers, snack packages, discarded food, and a variety of other trash that could have just as easily be thrown in the trash at the home of the originator.
To put it another way, the man-hours expended to try to keep the subdivision presentable amounts to around $30,000 per year picking up garbage from our common areas. This is money that could be better spent on other things. We sometimes have to send out two guys to pick up the grounds on Monday as the volume increases over the weekend. All of this trash has an effect on our property values, and ties up both men and money that needs to be used for repairs, painting and other projects around the 22 acre subdivision.
If things do not improve over the rest of the year, we may need to look at an increase in assessment dues next year to compensate for the money spent to pick up grounds litter that shouldn’t be there in the first place.
The March 10th GP Pipeline is posted.
This Friday, March 11th, Oncor (or a subcontractor) will be working on a transformer which feeds the following addresses:
- 1 to 13 West Townhouse Lane
- 2 to 12 West Townhouse Lane
Notices have been placed on the effected homes. They estimate the power will be off from 1PM to approximately 4PM. They will also be replacing a meter housing which is corroded due to age.
Since the weather is conducive, we have started the 2016 painting schedule.
The townhouses on this year’s schedule include:
- One story homes on East Creek Drive ( 1 – 15 and 2 – 14 )
- Two story homes on East Mountain Creek Court ( 32 – 56 and 58 – 92 )
- One story homes on East Mountain Creek Court ( 27 – 45 )
We will be holding our 2016 Annual Membership Meeting on March 31, in our Office located at 3402 South Belt Line Road, Grand Prairie, Texas. The meeting will begin at 7 PM.
There are 2 Board positions which need to be filled. For these 2 positions we have 3 candidates, 2 of which are incumbent Board members. On the Ballot are Bobby Gentry, John Moreno and Karen McCrary. Mr. Gentry and Mr. Moreno have been on the Board for many years and Mrs. McCrary is running for the first time. We appreciate these individuals expressing an interest in our HOA.
We are currently putting the 2016 Election Packets together and they will be mailed out in the next few days. Please remember to send in your Absentee Ballot or Proxy at least 10 days prior to the Meeting. Please do not include your assessment dues payment with these. We will not open any election related envelopes until the Annual Meeting has begun.
There is an Oncor subcontractor doing work on West Mountain Creek Drive, between number 9 and 42. They are replacing an underground electrical cable and will be drilling into the street at intervals to allow access. They did not indicate how long they will be working there.
We have recently updated both of the restrooms at the Pool with new partitions and privacy screens, wall panels, floor painting, new sinks and added lighting.
Our office will be closed today, February 23, due to an illness. We will open tomorrow.