Stone Canyon Neighborhood Newsletter www.stonecanyonoa.org
January 2012
Volume 7, Issue 1
Official Publication of Stone Canyon Homeowners Association
NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH by Joanie Brown Our fledgling Neighborhood Watch network is beginning to take shape. Our initial “shout out” resulted in five most welcome volunteers; November’s newsletter brought an additional seven on board; and another resident signed on following last month’s article. Hopefully (call me greedy), by the time you read this, I’ll have heard from even more of you. Thirteen Block Captains will increase our ability to pass safety alerts/information throughout our neighborhoods. As you know, for this process to work most effectively and efficiently, we need a volunteer for each street. Stone Canyon consists of 1101 homes, spread out along approximately 42 streets—many long enough to require 2 or 3 people to split their street into sections. If we don’t have enough street reps, each with their own list of e-mail addresses and phone #s gathered for their neighbors, we’ll remain extremely limited in disseminating info quickly. What will take the most time is initially touching base with the residents on your street, letting them know you’re their Neighborhood Watch rep/ Block Captain, and asking their permission to collect their contact info to use only for Neighborhood Watch purposes. You may wish to assure them that their info will be kept confidential. The list you compile for your street will be for your use only; no requirement to share with any committee or Board member. When either a Board member or the Neighborhood Watch committee chairperson receives a safety bulletin from law enforcement, that message will be forwarded to you as your street’s rep; and you will be requested to pass it on to your contact list. If you are hesitating because you work outside your home but would be able to receive Neighborhood Watch bulletins while at your office, it should take a minimum amount of time to forward those alerts. Now that our group is expanding, I’ll contact the Sheriff ’s Office Neighborhood Watch representative to see if he’ll be available to meet with us sometime in February. He’ll be able to explain how other communities work their programs, answer our questions, and share ideas on what might work best for Stone Canyon. I’ll keep you advised as things move forward, let you know which streets are covered and which still need a Block Captain. Neighborhood Watch is a major weapon we residents can use against anyone who enters our neighborhoods with wrong intentions. It’s our way of staying aware and looking out for each other and our families. Please join us in keeping Stone Canyon “plugged in” and safe. Thank you. Joanie Brown paulandjoaniebrown@hotmail.com hm: 733-2913; cell: 784-3512
Happy New Year! I hope all of you had a lovely holiday season and that 2012 will be full of joy for everyone. I want to apologize again for the coupon payment booklet being mailed out without the advance payment option discount of 5%. Our management company quickly responded with a letter sent out at their expense correcting the mistake. It also gave notice of a 5% increase in our association fees. Even though the board is delaying projects planned for 2012, our income was not sufficient to meet our estimated expenditures for the year. A few years ago a reserve study evaluated our association and projected our expenses over the next 20 years or so. The current assessed fee was not enough to fund the reserve fund at the levels needed to do repairs, maintenance and replacements that are projected in the study. The study underestimated the cost of doing upgrades at our pool and did not offer a timeline to complete the work that our contractor advised us that needed to be done. It also did not take into consideration that the SCOA is responsible for repair and maintenance of sidewalks in our community. In conversations with other HOAs that have the same fencecrete that is used in our common areas, I believe the study greatly underestimated the cost of maintaining our fences. That’s something we’ll have to consider in the future. The SCOA will continue to review the study to ensure that our reserve fund is maintained. As our community has aged, we’ve needed to increase our funding to keep keep our irrigation in working order and to restore our landscaping to a more desirable level. The Wyoming Springs widening project caused unexpected expenses for irrigation and sod replacement. We’ve also learned the original irrigation installed by the builder did not take into consideration the best coverage for (Continued on Page 3)
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Stone Canyon Homeowner's Association Newsletter - January 2012
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