ANTIGUA NEWSLETTER – JULY 2022
First, a big thank you to Robin for putting together the Village social in June. Great turnout and a lot of fun. Hope to do another one later this summer.
Just some quick notes of things going on and updates.
LANDSCAPE CONTRACT. The Board solicited bids for the landscape maintenance contract. Those responses were narrowed down to three bidders. Management and board members then met with those vendors on sites around San Diego and Coronado to look at the work they are doing for other HOA’s. After all the reviews, the management and Board selected Crossman Landscape to replace the current vendor. They started as of July 1. I personally went on these tours. The property Crossman showed us was in Carlsbad. It is a resort property development, comprised of numerous, separate owners or villages, like the Cays, set in a master association. It’s larger in acreage than all of the Cays, but very well maintained. They are proposing using the same amount of labor, material and supplies as this property. The cost is nearly the same as our previous vendor with their proposed 3% increase. We’re looking forward to an improved level of service throughout the Cays.
The new company will proceed to go through all of Antigua and trim, spray, adjust sprinklers and just in general get the Village cleaned up for summer. Part of that work will be to remove and replace the existing bark with a new type of mulch. The new material will not “grey out” and makes it easier for them to remove leaves and trash from in their cleaning process.
As you have noticed we are cutting back on the water to the turf to comply with the new drought requirements. I’m hopeful we can have a nice stand of grass while only using the minimum amount of water.
PALMS We were just a little late this year in getting the palm seeds trimmed. This work should be completed very soon. Our next trimming will be sometime in Nov/Dec. timeframe in preparation for the winter storms and winds. Antigua is the only Village that trims the palms twice a year. At some point in the near future, we are going to need to address the removal of several of these old trees. The tree company is saying they are getting too high to trim as well as increased risk of one falling. As you may know, we planted King Palms years ago to replace these trees. The King Palms have now grown to approximately the roof heights as we wanted and provide a much cleaner, easier to maintain tree (no trimming required).
SEAWALLS. We have begun doing minor repairs on the small cracks and damaged areas along our seawalls. We have started at unit 1 and are proceeding around. Once complete, we can then get bids to complete the remaining portions. We did have a ground penetrating radar go around Antigua this year. We have only found one area in the turf on the north side near the guest docks and the northeast corner under the concrete that we need to address. Currently trying to get a cost to correct this matter.
INTERIOR CONTENTS. Make sure you have coverage for all your interior contents in the event of a leak or other problem. Your HOA will of course respond and contain the damage. They will repair and restore the actual structure; however, the contents are yours to replace and repair. It’s kind of the old rule, if you can see it in your unit, it’s yours to insure and replace.
Secondly, homeowners who leave their properties for extended periods need to make some arrangements to have a representative do a minimal inspection that all is good within the unit. Too many times people have walked in on a major problem that has compounded over several months because it wasn’t reported. What should have been a simple repair has turned into a major problem because nobody knew.
POSSUMS. Recently we have removed two possums from within Antigua. If you see signs of them in your patios, let us know. They usually are under covered items on decks or areas they can hide in the daytime. We are continuing to check the rat bait stations as summer is the big time for this rodent. Keeping the common area grounds shrubs thinned out helps prevent these guys from finding a hiding place. We usually find them in cluttered trash areas and dense foliage along the water.
HYDRO-HOISTS. We recently passed a rule that any resident who wants to install a hydro-hoist will need to provide a $2000.00 refundable deposit. This was done because not only in Antigua, but other Villages, people just seem to abandon them when they fail or move. That puts the Village on the hook to remove them and that runs 2000.00 to 3000.00. Further, depending on how they are attached, they can damage our docks, especially if they are left sunken for days. Still OK to install with HOA approval, just don’t want everybody else in the Village to pay to clean up the mess. Contact the HOA Office for a hydro-hoist application.
A lot of great things are going on around the Cays and some remarkable progress on a variety of subjects that affect us all. Looking forward to a great summer in Coronado.
Dennis