We would like to welcome our newest Board member, Jerry Hopper. Our Board Officers will remain the same for another year.
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Farmers Market Opens and Strollin’ with the Mayor
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 The Grand Prairie Farmers Market will officially open for business at 8 a.m. on Saturday, March 28, for the 2015 season. In addition to locally grown vegetables, meats, honey, pasta, spices, tamales and more, exciting activities are planned to kick off the season.
Farmers Market will be open every Saturday, March 28 to December 19 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Market Square, 120 W. Main St. For more information, call 972-237-4599.
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Metroscape will be returning this Saturday, March 28th, for mowing and shrub trimming. Beginning in April, they will be coming out every week.
We have had a report of vandalism on the West side of the property, where a homeowner’s vehicle has been targeted a few times. We have contacted the Grand Prairie Police and have requested periodic patrols throughout both sides of the subdivision. The main problem we have is that we cannot control who does or does not drive through the property; while our subdivision is Private Property and is fully marked as such, it is often used for a shortcut or for people to park off of the beaten path to do whatever it is that they do.
Short of adding our own paid Security patrol, something that could result in a dues increase or a special assessment, all we can do at the moment is ask all of our homeowners to report suspicious activity to the Police. This would include loitering, frequent short-term visitors to the same property and other obviously dubious activities.
This is our home and we all need to get involved.
Our landscaping contractor will be here on Wednesday, March 25, to mow and treat the fire ant mounds.
We are getting an early start on our 2015 painting schedule, in an effort to beat the heat. Those homes being painted this year (East Side) will get notices several days prior to painting, so they can move things out of the way that would prevent unobstructed access to the rear of your home.
We have had several questions recently about “Master Policy”, something that apparently Condominiums carry, wherein they insure the structures and the homeowner/tenant insures the contents. I have had several insurance agents argue this point as they believe this is a Condo association, which it is definitely not. We are a Subdivision HOA.
One homeowner said that it looked like the Declaration (C&R) eluded to a Master Policy in this paragraph:
5.1 Association Insurance. The Association shall have the authority to and shall obtain or cause to be obtained insurance for all insurable improvements which the Association is obligated to maintain, whether or not located on the Common Property. This insurance shall provide, at a minimum, fire and extended coverage, including vandalism and malicious mischief, and shall be in an amount sufficient to cover the full replacement cost of any repair or reconstruction in the event of damage or destruction from any such hazard. Alternatively, the Board may purchase “all-risk” coverage in like amounts.
At first glance, this seems to say that any “improvement” the Association is “obligated to maintain” might just include the individual townhouses. It does use phraseology that might make one think so, but this is not the case. Farther down the Declaration a bit this point is clarified:
5.2 Individual Insurance. By virtue of taking title to a Lot, each Owner acknowledges that the Association has no obligation to provide any insurance for any portion of any Lot, and each Owner covenants and agrees with all other Owners and with the Association that each Owner shall carry property insurance on his Lot and all structures constructed thereon and a liability policy covering damage or injury occurring on the Lot.
I do hope that anyone who has not provided proper proof of insurance does so soon.
We still do not have proof of cost-to-replace insurance (Renters or Condo insurance is not sufficient) on a number of properties, despite having sent several notices and warning letters.
We will continue to impose fines (which are classified as Assessments) on those homeowners who either cannot or will not provide the required proof they have the mandatory coverage specified in our Declaration. As a reminder, all assessment fines left unpaid are added to member accounts and will result in an Assessment Lien on your property.
While we are reluctant to place significant fines against homeowners, they must understand that as homeowners in this HOA, they must have proper home insurance and demonstrate that they do. Fines can be assessed at $250 per week and $1000 per month for any violation of our Declaration (see Fines and Enforcement Policy).
When we were out picking up trash this morning, I noticed a large number of ruts along the easements on the East side. I had thought that people couldn’t see the street because of the snow last week. But, what it turned out to be after later inspection, it’s the USPS letter carrier driving along and putting mail into mail boxes, like he was running a rural delivery route.
There is a LOT of damage to our easements, and I am taking this up with the local Postmaster. If anyone sees someone driving on our common areas or easements, please call the Office.
One thing certain when the snow falls, it leaves really good tracks when people drive over it. It would be somewhat understandable if this person did not know the property well; but, these are repeats of tracks made when there was no snow and when it was readily apparent that they were driving across the common area. There is no excuse for this, other than whoever is doing this doesn’t care. This individual ended up on West MC Drive, near where it joins West Creek. Whomever this is, they need to confine their driving to the streets, not the grassy common areas.
