ANTIGUA NEWS:
It’s been sometime since my last newsletter so I thought I would send some updates. As always, a lot is going on in our little Village. And a lot of it is really good.
LANDSCAPE. The new landscape firm is performing very well in my opinion as well as a number of other residents. We have completed over seeding the turf, reviewing the sprinkler system and controllers as well as trimming and fertilizing the shrubs. We will shortly be installing a number of new plants to replace ones that have died as well as enhancing areas. I also plan to provide specific fertilizer to the King Palms to improve their color and growth. Henry, our manager, and myself along with others continue to walk the Village once a month to monitor progress and make improvements. I am very focused on minimizing our water usage to just the amount needed. Despite the fact we’ve had a nice rainy, year the water company is not going to lower the rates. If you see any waste, please let us know.
MEXICAN FAN PALMS. These are the very tall palms within our Village. It is becoming increasingly difficult to trim and maintain these trees. Antigua has the tallest ones within the Cays. Recently we had them reviewed and found about 16 that had the possibility of failure or falling. You can see this damage in the long vertical cracks that begin to develop as well as areas that are beginning to rot. Interesting note, palms are not really a tree but are in fact a grass. These are the things you can learn if you get on the Board. I intend to remove these problem trees as soon as funds permit.
DOCK REPLACEMENTS. We have applied to replace the last original docks in Antigua, U-Docks 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9. As these docks are all located on the east side of Antigua, they are all in the Port of San Diego waters and not the City of Coronado. What that means is a very long and expensive permitting process. Probably the reason they haven’t been done. As the permit alone will cost 15K to 20K for one or five, we might as well do all of them. We are making good progress getting all the boxes checked for the permit and hopefully will be ready soon. Just so you know we have to deal with not only the City but the Port of San Diego, Army Corp of engineers, coastal commission, environmental agencies, and several more.
DOCK MAINTENANCE. We have recently conducted a review of every dock and gangway within Antigua. Not fun at low tide but we got it done. Of note was the need to do some wood rot repair on the gangways and ramps, as well as painting. Several docks need the surface coated. I’m going to push to make all the corrections we noted. We have been developing vendors as well as our own staff to try and get this work done. Making repairs and corrections early is so much less expensive than dealing with really big problems later.
HOUSEKEEPING ISSUES. When these units were originally built, they had no hose bibs on the upstairs patios for a reason. They didn’t want people spraying everything onto the downstairs owners. Over the years owners have added these or come up with other ways to hose off their decks. This has caused some big issues between owners. Clearly if someone damages another owner’s furniture and other items, they will be responsible to replace them.
GUTTER CLEANING. This is listed as an owner’s responsibility, but over the years I have gotten many calls about clogged gutters. My intention is to have a contractor come into the Village in Oct/Nov and be sure they are clean and flowing. When these gutters don’t flow, they cause water to flow over and work back into the lower units.
DOCKS AND BREEZEWAYS. Just a friendly reminder to try and keep your breezeways clean as well as your docks. In walking around, you see owners storing all kinds of things within the breezeways as well as on the docks. We have some really big plastic storage units as well as a lot of other items leaning against the walls. Many times, people don’t say anything to fellow neighbors, but they tell me or the HOA. I really don’t want to be the cleaning police. Please, just keep things organized and don’t be the person that tries to take over the common areas.
INTERIOR MODIFICATIONS. Almost every week, or certainly every month we have to deal with an interior modification that has caused a problem for another owner. We don’t know if it was the previous owner or somebody else but it certainly isn’t original to the building. As you can imagine over the past 50 years, many owners have had alterations done. Some by actual contractors and a number by “handyman”. I’ve seen load bearing walls removed from downstairs units that later had to be jacked back up. I’ve seen load bearing walls removed from upstairs units which caused the roof to sag 3 inches which need to be repaired. We’ve had drains capped over, people tiling above weep screeds, sliding windows installed without pans, windows drains clogged, unsealed roof penetrations like plumbing and skylights. A host of plumbing and electrical issues and a lot more. Regardless, these are a problem for the current owners. Just because it's existing or “has been there forever” doesn’t mean the HOA will repair it.
INTERIOR CONTENTS. As you can imagine, the HOA has no idea about the contents within every owner unit. They (HOA) have no idea about the valve of your furniture, wallpapers, floor coverings, art, collections and family heirlooms. That’s why, if it's in your unit, or as they say, “If you can see it” you need to insure it. The HOA will of course repair and restore the actual structure and all its elements, but the contents are on us (unit owners).
This is also why it’s always a good idea to have somebody check on your unit if you're away to be sure things are in order. I also suggest owners develop a method to turn off their water if you are going to be absent. It is quite easy at the valve located in the trash area.
POWER WASH. Planning on getting the Village power washed this year. A lot of black dust, spider webs, bird droppings, and algae that needs to be cleaned off. This will also help with maintaining the Allura siding we installed.
FENCES. We are scheduled to repair and paint all the wood this coming fiscal year. That includes fences, posts, and stairs. This will include getting hinges and latches looked at and oiled. We’re also getting the current cost to do future painting projects. Prices, as we know, have jumped considerably and we want the current reserve study to be accurate.
DUES RATES. We're just starting the budget process now. A lot of info to gather and digest. More to come on this as we work our way through the process.
RAIN ISSUES. As you might expect we had several leaks during our recent rain storms. It was quite impressive the amount of water. Most of them ended up being between the upstairs and downstairs neighbors. Overall, the roofs and decks held up well. We are however going to enhance our preventive maintenance program to include items that we learned and try to prevent them in the future.
VOID FILLING. There are areas behind the seawall that have opened up. It’s caused by the tides pulling out the sand from behind the wall. In our last GPR (ground penetrating radar) survey we had several voids. The contractor uses a special foam that is injected below the surface to fill these areas. The two areas identified by GPR were filled in January as part of our Reserve seawall repair project. As you know it’s far better to fix these now than wait for some massive failure.
GARAGE ELECTRIC. This subject still confounds us. Still waiting on answers from SDG&E about our plans. Hope to have more on this soon as I get several calls about this subject.
Lastly, I would ask everyone to pick up after their dogs, as I’ve been shown some very large droppings on the grass. Maybe I could ask that you clean out your garage so that at least one car fits in it. I certainly have been shown full garages, remote offices, wood shops, etc. Nah, I’ve tried that before. But it would help.
Looking forward to a great spring and summer.
Dennis