Before I start, let me give you all a very quick recap of the Special Meeting: 117 members attended the meeting. There were 53 proxies submitted. Both the Board and the Member who had the resolutions on the ballot were given the opportunity to discuss their resolutions and answer any questions. The Assessment Increase passed by a narrow margin of 86-80. The RV Resolution failed with a vote of 57 to 91. This was one of the largest attendances we have had at a meeting for a very long time. The Assessment increase was greatly needed and will go into effect as of January 2018. Thank you to all of you who worked long and hard to educate folks on the need; as well as those of you who made it important enough to come to the meeting!
Good afternoon to all of our Clearwood Residents!
As you can see, FALL is upon us, and the weather is becoming brisk and chilly! In this article I want to address a couple of issues that we are facing in Clearwood and let you know how we are going to handle the problem:
First, we have reviewed the vandalism report at every board meeting since March and the amount of vandalism to our beaches, parks, and restrooms is not going down. It continues to go up. Now that summer is over, and it is a little bit easier to determine a “causation” for a lot of the damage, we have made some observations. Let me say, that I do NOT think that the vandalism is coming from our residents or our kids. Sure, I am sure small pockets are, but I find it hard to believe that residents or kids would do some of the things that are being done. I agree that we had “stranger’s” kids likely trespassing over the summer, but I don’t think they are still around because there is not a real “draw” for them to come here right now.
Restrooms:
The Board has made a decision to close and lock all of the restrooms effective immediately during non-camping season. We have identified a large amount of used hypodermic needles, trash, and other items that make it highly probable if not certain, that w e have a number of homeless people who are either camping near or sleeping in the shelter of the restrooms. I see the large numbers of them on bikes and walking with backpacks towards the back gate and on BHR on my way to work nearly every morning. Maintenance cleans the restrooms and finds them regularly vandalized with objects stuck in toilets, broken fixtures, needles, feces, etc. Leaving them open is not safe in respect to the needles and disease; closing them will make them unavailable as shelter, and perhaps drive folks out of Clearwood as their primary source of hiding out. Not to mention the economic gains in not paying hundreds of dollars every month just to fix what get’s broken just after it has been fixed!
We are exploring the possibility of leaving one or two of the facilities open during the day during the business week, but that will require that Maintenance open it in the morning about 8 or earlier, and then close it before they go home for the day, not much later than about 4 PM. This would allow there to be a restroom close to the walking trails so would consider the Rampart restrooms and the Longmire restrooms. We would like to make it possible for residents to get a key for the restrooms when they are planning an event or something at one of the locations, but are exploring what that means to the winterizing process as it would include the turning on and off of water and ensuring the pipes are taken care of so they don’t freeze or leak. We are going to talk more about that this next week at the Operational Staff Meeting. In the interim, until the Board comes to a different resolution, all will be closed during the Non-Camp season.
Inclement Weather Planning:
The community is in the process of doing planning around Inclement Weather events such as windstorms and snow storms. We have already checked out our equipment and supplies in the event of ice and snow and have a Snow Removal Plan that will be in place and posted once it is finalized. Priority during the week will be given to the School Bus Routes and Albert has meet with district officials and identified with them their snow routes etc. I am going to leave it to the School District to report to parents what those routes will be so that it is coming directly from them to you as parents. There will be maps of Primary and Secondary roads that will always be plowed or cleared first; followed by the terciary roads when there is time to do those before needing additional plowing done on primary roads. I can assure you that our maintenance crew will do the absolute best they can to get to everyone, but if you live on a steep hill or a cul-de-sac (as do I) that is not considered primary or secondary, you need to be patient. If you need chains, or to make arrangements to park your car in a different place to avoid a hill or curve that you are not comfortable with, then please plan ahead. Please do NOT park your vehicle on the street or pavement as they will not be able to plow. Not only will this affect your service, but will also affect that of your neighbors. Albert will be making daily judgment calls based on weather forecasts as to what time to have staff report to work to start the snowing or clearing processes.
We have had residents who have offered to help in the course of such storms, should we have them again this year. I have worked with the Insurance Company to find a way that we can engage one time volunteers or work parties to help with specific situations. If you are interested in being someone called on to help in one of these situations, please contact me at [email protected] or Emily Martin at [email protected]. Depending on interest we may set up a quick orientation meeting in order to get everyone on board and develop a call list for Albert. We will be looking for folks who would help with any of the following:
- Use their tractor, ATV or other equipment to help remove snow
- Serve as a ride along on one of the snow plows to work as a spotter
- Help to shovel berms left by plows that obstruct traffic flow.
- Assist elderly or disabled residents to ensure their ingress and egress to their house or garage is safe
- Direct traffic when sloped steep roads need to be closed to avert accidents
- Remove trees from roadways
Violations
You will see a very active community this year when it comes to setting up our community to increase property values, enhance safety and security and improve our environment. Our Violations Committee has become very active and is moving in the right direction. If you have a particular problem with a neighbor or a resident who is in Violation of the covenants, please email me or one of the other board members so that we can look into the issue for you. We will walk you through the violation process and help you navigate the issues. The Patrol Committee will continue to focus on speeding, parking violations, and having vehicles towed if they are being stored on Community Property without proper authority. If you see something that you need to report, please take the time to write up a violation form. We must clean up our community in order for it to be inviting and pleasant and somewhere that new people want to consider moving to. Fall can be a “messy” time of year when leaves fall and are left to rot and not raked and removed. Roof tops become damaged and need expensive repairs when they are not cleaned and allowed to grow moss that is so green it looks like a frog’s paradise. Cars that do not run and are left to park and rust on the side of the house. Winter will bring a delay in the growth of grass, but branches and pine needles and pine cones will fall and if not cleaned up regularly can become very unsightly. Please take the time to keep your property in good shape with the kind of curb appeal that we all appreciate so much when driving through any community.
And in closing, I want to remind everyone that EVERYONE is invited and encouraged to Volunteer in this community. Emily is your go to person if you are looking to match your talents and desires with projects or committees that we have here in the community. We also invite each and everyone one of you to come to the Board Meetings that are held on the third Saturday of every month in the Clearwood Office Board Room starting at 9am. This is where the board discusses business and makes decisions for you in the best interests of the community. If you want to learn about the inner workings of a HOA and how they are governed, this is the place to come. A lot of people have a lot to say about what we could or should do, but haven’t taken the time to understand what we CAN and MUST do because of the governing requirements that we have under both the Revised Code of Washington and the Governing Documents that set forth the rules, regulations, and bylaws of the Community.