ARBOR COURT VILLAGE

President's Message - August 2010

(re-printed from Aug - Sep edition of News & Views)

As I compose this in late June it is early summer but oh so hot, hot, hot. Snowbirds should be glad they’re up in the relatively cool north.

Our April membership meeting was poorly attended. As a result, many members missed the workshop we had on homeowner’s insurance. It was very informative and caused several of those who attended to reconsider their coverage.

In May we paid $7,000 to fix some drainage problems behind Ainsley and repair the drains into our retention pond behind Envoy. Hopefully, this fixes these problem areas for quite awhile.

June marked the sixth month with EarthScapes as our landscape maintenance company. Last fall when we hired them, they had such promise. They seemed sincerely interested in working with us to maintain and improve our landscape. They were going to provide comprehensive landscape service which included irrigation maintenance and horticultural services (spraying for weeds and pests). At last, we thought, all these services would be coordinated and, unlike when we had three contractors, we wouldn’t be trying to figure out whom to blame if our turf died.

The reality since January has been somewhat less than the promise. They didn’t hit the ground running but seemed to stumble, then, like everyone else, they got ambushed by an outbreak of weeds in March. Some residents blamed them for the weeds but it was not their fault.

This has been a learning experience for us, because they don’t operate like Greenbrier. We’ve figured out that they are understaffed and have internal communication problems. They only give us one day per week so if we ask them to do too many other tasks, the basic work doesn’t get done. To deal with this situation our property manager, Diane Evans, has implemented a written work order system so we can track work progress. They are slowly getting better.

After six months our village looks about the same as it did with Greenbrier. EarthScapes irrigation system maintenance has improved. Their horticultural services are about the same as what Florida Pest provided. People might complain about their trimming but they trim selectively rather than everything all the time whether it needs it or not, as Greenbrier used to do. (You may recall, our shrubs suffered severe damage from this past winter and we’re trying to let them grow out to recover.) Finally, our property manager, reports only a low volume of complaints about EarthScapes.

We’ve talked to all the other villages and VP Joe Hopkins and I attended a meeting of all the lawn maintenance committee chairs in Meadowcrest to find out what they think of EarthScapes. The consensus around Meadowcrest seems to be that EarthScapes is no worse than Greenbrier and costs us all a lot less. It’s true, we’re saving about $30,000 a year by using EarthScapes to do all our landscape services. If we were to go with another company it would cost us between $1,000 and $2,000 more per month.

While I’m on the subject of landscape, I’m following the lead of our friends in Fairmont and decided not to replace sod or shrubs this year. Last winter set a record for cold and the damage to our turf and shrubs will take more than a year to recover. If you think your shrubs are dead just look down around the base of the shrub and you’ll probably see new growth. We’re going to wait until next year. However, we are xeriscaping some test beds where we know sod just won’t grow. Look for these around Dalary and Croyden. Let us know what you think.

Meanwhile Lane Vick and the Documents Committee have finished their important work revising our governing documents so that they are in accordance with Florida Law. They have also removed some confusing and conflicting language in the Covenants and Restrictions. The Board approved their revisions and now they are being reviewed by our attorney. Then they will be presented at our October membership meeting for your approval. We will also vote on our ACPOA budget for next year at the October meeting.

Our At Large Board member, Leonard Lockwood (564-7018) is hard at work trying to rebuild the DAB. Thus far they’ve helped a resident who got herself into some trouble with a company trying to sell her energy efficient windows. Unfortunately she paid them before she realized the dual-pane, low-E windows had frames that didn’t match those in our villas. They also cost $800 apiece. Leonard is trying to help her get her money back. He’s also become our resident expert on gutters. If you have a question on gutters give Leonard a call.

Submitted by Ralph Shafer

Updated 07/10/2010

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