Just wanted to take a few minutes during this busy holiday season to give the community a quick update about recent happenings at AW Estates. The next big project in the works is the street resurfacing. You will be receiving more information in the near future, but here’s how things are looking at this moment:
- Crack repairs will be taking place in early January 2016. This does NOT require us to shut down any of the streets,. Your board negotiated a 15% discount on the crack repairs by getting it done in January. We made sure to wait until the holiday season is over.
- The street resurfacing project is tentatively scheduled to take place in mid-March 2016 (but no firm dates have been set yet). It’s looking like it will either take place over a 2 or 3 day period. More details will follow in the near future.
- After extensive research and negotiations with several companies, your board has elected to use a street resurfacing material that will hopefully give us a 7 year life (as opposed to the 4 to 5 year life of the previous material being used). Also, we were able to negotiate a price that was more than $15,000 under budget.
- We also had our street resurfacing reserve study updated and it had mostly good news. They are currently projecting that our streets are in better shape than originally projected and we may not have to do the major resurfacing project previously scheduled for 2020 until several years later.
- Notwithstanding, the reserve study recommended that we put aside an additional $4,000 per year into our reserve account, primarily for future street repairs. Also, as the price of asphalt is tied to the price of oil, it’s hard to project what the exact costs for future street repairs will be. For this reason, your board elected to go with the study’s recommended conservative approach and put aside an additional $4,000 per year into our reserve account. This necessitated raising each homeowner’s dues by $50 per year. You should have received a copy of the updated 2016 approved budget from Amcor by now. As you can see in the budget, we are working hard to spend your money wisely and to make sure plenty of money is being put aside for future street repairs, thus hopefully minimizing the potential need for special assessments in future years (nobody wants that).
DEFERRED MAINTENANCE
- Lots of deferred maintenance has been done over the past few months. Much of it was done by your board members personally, thus saving our HOA substantial amounts of money. There has been tree trimming along the roadway, uprighting of a leaning saguaro by the front gate monument sign, trash pickup, fixing the lights by the gate, painting of monument signs, fixing of decals on some of the street signage, etc.
- Your board believes it is very important for there to be ongoing maintenance in our subdivision. Said ongoing maintenance will keep things looking good and will help preserve our property values and keep everyone happy. Our community is gorgeous and we want to keep it that way.
CLEANING OUT THE WASHES AND CREATING A DEFENSIBLE FIRE PERIMETER AROUND OUR HOMES
- We’ve noticed that most people have already done the requested work and things are looking good. This is important as it not only keeps our community looking good, but it reduces the risk of fire as well. Thank you.
NEIGHBORHOOD MEET AND GREET PARTY
- As previously mentioned, the Neighborhood Meet and Greet Party on Sunday October 25, 2015 was a smashing success. It was a fantastic opportunity for more than 40 members of our community to socialize for a couple of hours. Because it was a potluck event and it took place outdoors, the HOA hardly had to spend any money on the event ($35). While many people attended, there were also at least 10 other homeowners who said they’d love to have attended, but unfortunately we happened to pick a weekend when they were out of town.
- Your board is tentatively planning on scheduled another Neighborhood Meet and Greet in Spring 2016 at a date and time to be determined. Hopefully you’ll be able to attend.
Until next time, have a safe and happy holiday season. Your AWE Board
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