Social Committee Review Election Committee Report Lake Committee Review

Election Committee Report

By Mike Breslin SRCA Election Committee Chair www.scottsdaleranch.org

By Brian Munson SRCA Lake Committee Chair

Scottsdale Ranch Community Association’s (SRCA) Election Committee oversees the SRCA Board of Directors’ election process to ensure fairness and integrity. As you may know, it is very easy to throw your hat into the ring and run for a position on our board. There is no nominating committee that preselects candidates for you. The only requirement is that you are in good standing, which means your assessments are paid.

For the 2020 election, SRCA only received two applications for the three open positions. Brian Munson, SRCA Treasurer, and I must go off the board this year as we have served the maximum number of consecutive terms on the board (three 2-yr. terms). Those running for the board are incumbent, Michele Holzman and returning board member, Matt Metz. We are lucky to have these residents who are willing to volunteer their time to serve our community. They will be the only two names on the ballot. For this year, the board is not presenting any amendments to our legal documents.

SRCA will continue to utilize the electronic on-line voting option which has been proven to be easy and efficient. Last year, we saw that more homeowners particpated in the election by a couple hundred ballots which accomplished another one of our goals.

Once again, as an added incentive to encourage members to vote, we will be holding a drawing for five $100 gift cards to be awarded at random from those members who cast a ballot. All you need to do is vote to be entered!

Thank you for taking a part in SRCA by casting your vote!

The Scottsdale Ranch Community Association (SRCA) Board of Directors feels that it is very important to maintain Lake Serena as an asset for both the residents who reside on the lake and for those residents who also use it for recreation. It is an asset for all residents in that it is a mainstay for our property values as well.

You may or may not realize that Lake Serena is a man-made lake within a substantial drainageway that flows through the Ranch. Water in the lake is supplemented by groundwater, for which the Association has rights for withdrawal. So, it is not a flow-through system except for those times when there are storm water flows from upstream (north of Shea Boulevard). The setting for the lake creates very interesting challenges for the association.

The challenges include balancing lake chemical and physical characteristics to avoid potentially unpleasant conditions for residents and to encourage healthy populations of maintenancerelated and recreational fish. A desert lake that is not a flowthrough lake will tend to experience greater losses through evaporation than those supplemented by natural inflow. This condition can lead to the concentration of undesirable water quality constituents, an increase in algae and other similar undesirable organisms, decrease in dissolved oxygen, and overall decline in lake conditions and fish populations.

The SRCA Lake Committee is tasked with monitoring conditions of the lake over time and making recommendations to the board for lake management. The committee oversees the testing of the lake at critical times, selecting options for lake treatment based on expert opinions, and making recommendations to the board for additional treatments. Such treatments may include the addition of chemicals to control algal growth or the dredging of lake sediments in certain areas.

The Lake was last tested in December of 2019. Overall, the lake was in fair to excellent condition in most respects, but poor for phosphorous and algae, for reasons discussed earlier. The Lake Committee has constructed and installed “fish condos” in various locations in the lake to provide shelter and breeding habitat. In most respects, the lake has a self-sustaining population of many species, but we occasionally supplement them with food fish and bottom cleaners. We have been making efforts to assess the condition of the condos, but they are somewhat difficult to monitor. We will continue to try to assess the efficacy of these condos over future months. There have been observations of potential issues regarding the health of certain fish populations, such as bass. We will continue to monitor the population’s health and ascertain whether other measures are necessary.