Announcements

BAHAMA VILLAGE UPDATE

September 2015

Village Meeting on Saturday, October 10^th at 9:30 am. I apologize for not holding a meeting during the summer but it looks like my elder care responsibilities are normalizing so that I can spend more time on some of our Village issues, such as –

Paint Cycle and House Colors. We are almost finished with our current painting cycle of 25 homes getting a “whole house” painting, and things have been fairly smooth for the most part. Our Village rules provide for trim painting every five years and whole house painting every 10 years. Member Handbook Section 9.19.13.1.

With regard to house colors, we have not yet adopted a new palate of colors. Our Village Paint Committee worked on a
palate, but we were not able to get a solid consensus regarding the proposed new colors. In order to reach a Village consensus on this issue, we have retained the colorist who is working on Montego and Antigua Villages to tweak our proposed new colors in a way that will give us updated colors and satisfy our traditionalists as well. I think we can do a presentation of the “new” new colors at our Village meeting, if not sooner. I will let you know.

Clubhouse Noise. It’s been pretty bad this summer and I’ve received lots of complaints from the surrounding neighbors. Remember: only Bahama Village (and Antigua Village) residents can reserve the Clubhouse; you must be the host of the event; and you must be present at the event at all times. Events end at 10 pm on Sunday through Thursday and at midnight on Friday and Saturday with music, allowed indoors only, stopped at 11 pm. Often the Safety Patrol is asked to stop by the Clubhouse to keep the doors closed so the music stays inside. The problem is that we don’t have air conditioning in the Clubhouse so it gets hot.

Let’s discuss some options for noise control at our Village meeting. We are going to be planning a remodel of the Clubhouse and pool area together with Antigua Village (we split costs with them) during this budget year. Maybe we could add sound attenuation panels to the Clubhouse ceiling and/or permit only acoustic music? Air conditioning? Some things we want to tackle: wood floors and appliances need replacing; pool bathrooms need updating; perhaps the rarely used back room next to the pool becomes a shaded open air seating area? The idea would be to accomplish the remodel in phases spread over a couple of budget years. We’ve saved money in our reserves (and haven’t raised dues) so we’ve got the funding to undertake some of these capital improvements.

Landscaping and the drought. Even if we have an El Nino this winter, it won’t be an annual event and we need to update our landscaping. I have contacted three drought tolerant landscaping companies that I would like to have present ideas at our October meeting. Two have done work in the Cays (Green Turtle entrance and Kingston Village) and the third I saw on the KPBS program, “A Growing Passion.” We’ve done a couple of small common areas remodels but we are now considering options for an overall plan.

Sprinkler walk through: I will be walking our Village with Bill Barsz, Bahama Village Landscape Coordinator, Nick Arther, General Manger, and Frank Zottolo, HOA Landscape Manager, to check every sprinkler head in the Village. I’m disappointed to still be hearing about HOA sprinkler heads watering the sides of houses or running off into the street, or water pipes that lead to nowhere. I will let you know the date and time and you are all welcome to walk along. In the meantime, please email me photos of sprinklers gone awry (or call me).

Miscellaneous Issues.

Landscaping Noise. Should we consider rules about weekend or after hours backyard landscaping noise? Some Villages are pushing for electric tools only for landscaping purposes. They are much quieter and beat getting woken up at 7:30 am on the weekends by a gas leaf blower or trimmer. Something to consider.

Clothes dryer sheets. Hard to regulate, but our homes are close together and so are the dryer vents, and the stinky smell from nearby clothes dryer vents really gets around the neighborhood. Dryer sheets also appear to be toxic, but apparently there are alternatives. http://ecowatch.com/2013/12/03/six-eco-friendly-alternatives-toxic-dryer-sheets/

Changes to your home. Remember: You live in a planned unit development (PUD) governed by a homeowners association (HOA). If you want to remodel any part of the exterior of your home, change the color, change the front landscaping, replace the fence, change the windows, etc., you must get Association approval. Member Handbook Section 9.4. Forms and helpful advice are in the HOA office. If you don’t do this, you may be subject to a $300 per week fine, a work halt order, double the application fee, etc., etc. Please get any changes approved first.

Have I missed anything? Any suggestions or comments? Let me know. I am sending this update by email and paper copies will be available in the HOA office. If you would like to receive this by email and received only the paper copy, please have Courtney, Member Services, HOA office (619-423-4353) add your name to the Bahama Village email list.

Thank you,

Kim Tolles