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July 2005 – Issue 7.1
Pages: MISSION - FORUM - FLYER - BROCHURE - ARCHIVE & RESOURCES

Jumping to Conclusions...

The operative words taken from the July Community Newsletter President's report are "...the governing document team presented the Board with 40 suggested change...the Board reviewed the changes and modified only one of the suggestions...these changes are now in the hands of our lawyers...", which seemed to state that only one resident suggestion made it past the board. This precipitated two articles admonishing the Board for its insensitivity to the wishes of residents and denouncing the revised documents. There are reports however, that all 40 suggestions were passed on to the lawyers for incorporation. Believing the latter to be true, and pending confirmation, the Summit Advisor hereby retracts with apology the articles entitled Board Ignores Public and A Second Opinion. We join with red faces, the ranks of CBS and the New York Times in the practice of unsubstantiated journalism.

Road Damage Hits New High

It's hard to see in a small photo, but the recently paved section in front of 529 Northwood Circle has received countless abuses by contractors. There are concrete spills on the side and up the middle of the road, metal tread prints for about 200 feet (which was reported to the office last month without apparent effect), grease/oil spills in the road, chewed up areas where heavy trucks made u-turns, and dirt and rocks tracked from the work site into the road. If the Compliance Committee is looking for something to do, this is it. Will the conformance bond be forfeited? I doubt it - we're too nice. It's probably something we did to deserve this abuse.

Land Mines

So you're mowing your lawn, thinking about fun things to do later, when..."squish". You step in dog s#!+. You don't own a dog, but you have to spend your valuable time prying the greasy stinky mess from between your shoe treads, and risk tracking it into your house. You also have to take your shovel and remove it from your yard so you won't step in it again. And now that the dog has "found" your yard, he will be back and you have to police the yard daily.

How inconsiderate can dog owners be? Some people just let the dog out to roam (illegally) and dump in a neighbors yard. Out of sight, out of mind. Others are more brazen and actually walk the dog to your yard and let it crap - sometimes while you're looking. Personally, I take it as an insult - how would the owner feel if I threw crap on his yard? To find out, I did so in plain sight - I shoveled the dog's crap into the owners driveway while he was present. This is very risky, but remember, I had the shovel. He went ballistic until I showed him the picture of his dog on my lawn. Then he went into denial.

Personally, I hold an extremely low opinion of anyone who abuses a neighbors yard this way. A dog on a leash is supposed to be under the owner's control. Find a suitable vacant lot to relieve your canine, or better yet, pick up after your dog! This problem will get worse as the community grows, both from more dogs and from less vacant lots.

Have you ever wondered where dog crap goes? The answer is downhill...into gutters, drain pipes and finally into the lake. Assuming 1-in-3 residents have a dog, that's about 200 x 365 or 73000 craps per year into the lake. Swimming, anyone?

Idle Speculation

Is the sudden unilateral push to demolish the clubhouse a ruse to hide the misuse of earmarked clubhouse renovation funds for other purposes? Is it predetermined that after the clubhouse is demolished, some condition or event will prevent its replacement? Is the powerboat denial option strategically placed in the new documents so that the lake can become a cheap water source in the future? Is the "Additional Land" clause to remain in the documents despite the public verbal promise to remove it? Is the vote-by-section scheme intended so that developer sections 5-12 votes will trump resident sections 1-4 for the common revised documents, thus rendering unchanged resident sections deeds of dedication inept? Have lawyers conspired with the Developer to deliberately complicate the revised documents to confuse residents and the board, to secure future consultation, to insure their own indispensability, to disguise Trojan horse esoteric language, to impose artificial voting conditions favorable to the developer and/or to camouflage a control takeover by the Declarant?

Residents Forum Section

Starting July 2005 we are printing residents e-mails for the Month right here on the front page! This simplifies your navigation and our maintenance. The same rules generally apply as the FORUM page, which is now an archive. Be a star reporter or commentator and sent your e-mail to thesummitadvisor@adelphia.net !

Date: Monday, July 4, 2005 5:10 PM
Subject: WHY BOTHER???!!!

Why bother decorating your boat for the 4th of July parade when the same persons (family) somehow seems to win year after year!!! The odds are probably better in Vegas that you would hit the Jackpot vs. winning first place for decorating your boat for the contest!! Did anyone notice that there are fewer and fewer boat owners even bothering to decorate their boats?? Other than any idiot would wonder WHY every year there are fewer and fewer boats in the parade, and fewer and fewer people even bother to decorate their boats other than a single American Flag, or children dressed in a costume?? Possibly there should be a rule change that if you win one year, one should only be eligible for "honorable mention" for the next year !! One might observe that the entry of more people decorating again.

FYI - In waiting for the winners to be announced, it was interesting and evident that this year's winner (and last year's.... and the year prior??... and we, as new residents, as hearing there are multiple years of the same family) was just standing around, already congratulations themselves, while waiting for the actual announcement. WHY BOTHER??? Since we were in clear ear-shot, it was very disconcerting. Why not just give them the trophy ahead of time and save the rest of us the bother!

WHY BOTHER!!


Date: Monday, July 4, 2005 5:32 PM
Subject: Update about roads and "529 Northwood Circle"

Considering that it is OUR driveway across from this new development.... AND that some of our newly poured ($4K) asphalt driveway (last November 2004) has been gouged, etc., by the equipment used for the new development across the street, when we saw your photos, it struck home BIG TIME.

I recall the first time we came up to our house late one Monday afternoon. Not only was our driveway totally blocked (and we had a car full of groceries, etc.), the street was covered in mud, gravel, etc., and more on it's way. We were actually in the way of yet another gravel truck dropping a large load off.

We talked with the on-site supervisor who told us this was the only way to get the job done. Who's job??? Thankfully, he sent his crew to unload the car for us and haul it all up our driveway (kind of steep) to be of help. But it surely meant that we didn't get to stay here that night !!

We've had to dodge the load of concrete frames and trailer parked right across from us. We had a lot of company the prior weekend, and it meant parking cars up on our lawn as there was no place to park on the street, safely, without potential damage to our or other vehicles.

What was really interesting was when the trailer truck showed up to haul away the steam shovel, etc. We even volunteered to move the 1 car which was parked on OUR culvert against OUR property so the truck could get through to pick his load. Even HE was "cussing" the pitiful job being done. One cannot talk with the people working there as they are "non-English" speaking.

We have been promised repairs to our driveway...but whadda wanna bet??? Compliance Committee?? yeah, sure. Yet they want us all to only fly certain flags??? Park boat trailers or RVs in certain places??? Make no noise within certain hours??? Paint one's house a certain color??

I believe in progress and in investment. I do NOT believe in free-for-all development. When we asked the "office", we were told they (or the young engingeer person) knew all about it, approved it, and the attitude was basically "TOUGH". We were also told that our newly asphalted driveway was going to be broken into because there was a "main" or "necessary" culvert
underneath it. No one bothered to ask us, nor notify us. We knew from when we bought the house, AND in contracting for the new driveway that there was nothing related to the sewers or "mains" under OUR side of the street. Yet, everyone from the office to the developer folks simply thought they would dig it up without bothering to talk with us. As it turned out, the HOLE was done on the 529 Northwood side, and remains an patch job at this point.

Does anyone care to respond???

Date: Sunday, July 10, 2005 1:48 PM
Subject: compliance or the lack there of
Have you ever been sent a non - compliance notice and see driving around that same non- compliance on the members of the compliance committee their own property.


Date: Sunday, July 10, 2005 12:50 PM
Subject: northwood cicle
As you can see in the picture there is a dumpter partly in the road, as you look up about building house it does state that dumpsters are to be put on the lot only that the house is being

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2005 5:52 PM
Subject: Northwood Circle

As I live near the same building lot, I have had many concerns with the parking of vehicles and equipment in the roadways, as well as cutting the roads up and doing a less than adequate job in patching. Since I moved to our new house 3 months ago, the roads have fallen into a worse condition by all the heavy construction equipment utilizing them. As I have tried to email the general manager and management office several times and attempted to contact someone at the office concerning these hazards?I get no response. Are they all hiding? As a newcomer to the neighborhood, I would have thought that it would be easy to make contact with those charged with the task of enforcement. Is there anyone else out there that when you try to make contact with them that you fall on deaf ears? What are the alternatives? I view the inability of those to at least return contact to me a very unprofessional gesture to those that pay the bill. Looking for help!