5/18/2023
Finally, it’s starting to feel a little like spring after a long, wet winter. Can’t wait for the nice sunny summer days. A few quick updates on Village items.
LANDSCAPE: We have completed a special fertilizing of all the king palms as well as the entire village turf and all shrubs. Now after a few months we’re seeing them green up. The irrigation has been turned back on as the days are getting warmer. However, I will continue to monitor water usage to minimize waste. Unfortunately, even using no water through the winter, we still get a bill each month for approximately $660.00 for the “service charges” to have the water meters in the Village. As you can imagine, I’m working to reduce that expense.
We have gone through the Village and freshened up the mulch as well as installing a few new plant replacements.
MEXICAN FAN PALMS: We were able to remove the problematic palms. We know there are a few others and will be looking at those in the future. This process was far more involved than I thought and certainly created a mess with all the saw dust. They will be removing the stumps and we have made arrangements to get things restored after that work is complete.
DOCK REPLACEMENTS: Henry and staff are continuing to make progress. We’re getting closer. The number of state and federal agencies involved is somewhat amazing considering we're just replacing like for like. It ranges from City of Coronado, The Port, State Water Board, CEQA, The Coastal Commission, and the Army Corps of Engineers. Hopefully, this July, we can get a permit and then move forward with getting the docks built. I am not comfortable ordering docks without a permit as it requires a substantial deposit.
POWERWASHING: First, an apology for the confusion with all the notices. We were however able to clean the northern units of the green algae. The process certainly didn’t go as anticipated. I am making arrangements to get most of the walks, breezeways, lower areas, etc. cleaned off.
DUES INCREASE: HOA dues will be increasing approximately 3.41 percent or an average of $19.45 per month for Village fees and 6.04 percent or $8.23 per month for Administrative fees starting on July 1st. Between the amount of inflation on staple items and the even larger price increases we are seeing in contracting and other services I believe it's more than reasonable. Just for example our best bid for painting is almost double what we paid 5 years ago. Our insurance cost increases every year by 10 to 15 percent. Water, power, labor, etcetera, have all jumped up.
WOOD REPAIR AND PAINT: We have begun marking all dry rot wood for replacement in the Village. This will involve not only wood posts and fencing but checking hinges, latches etc. It will also include the waterside trestles between upper and lower units. We’ve seen a number of problems in this area. Once we complete the wood repairs, all wood surfaces will be painted to match.
ROOFS: You will have seen a contractor installing metal flashing over some parts of the stucco walls in the Village. Most of Antigua had metal caps over the walls above the living units. These are being installed in areas which were never covered before. These areas are the ones that protrude out toward the water. Given the number of storms and amount of water in the recent rains, we have discovered a problem with water entering through this area. We moved quickly to get this addressed.
We will be doing additional roof maintenance this summer in order to be prepared for next winter.
GARAGE ELECTRIC: Still working on this. SDG&E just never responds or cares. We are looking to move ahead with getting each garage individually wired in preparation. We have had a number of garages lose power recently because of items being charged. As you may know, when one garage causes a problem, it usually shuts down several (3 to 5) at the same time. The process of charging cars, bikes, tools is very taxing on the existing wiring as the chargers never shut off. Also, leaving items unattended and charging presents a real fire hazard. We all saw the electric bike and car fires on the news.
Recently we had a fire within a Cays Village from an unpermitted and unapproved mini-split air conditioner. Not an easy situation for that owner or the affected owners around them, which they have to restore.
GARBAGE DISPOSALS: Over the past few months, we have had several sewers backed up due to people thinking that a garbage disposal would grind materials small enough to wash down our very small pipes. They don’t. Plus, when this material gets into the pipes it sits for days or weeks. Maybe even longer. Our drain lines are almost flat with very little slope to the city pipes in the street. You can imagine the amount of water it takes to move this material over 100 feet or more to get into the city system. Not a pleasant thought, but all that material just sitting in the pipes tends to attract a lot of roaches who feed on it. Far better to just throw that green material away in the trash areas.
SUMMERTIME: Our Village will begin to fill over the summer months. Welcome back to all our neighbors. As parking is always a concern, parking in front of your garage on the fire lane is a violation. Coronado PD will be, and has, ticketed those cars left unattended. That ticket runs around $70.00.
I get a number of calls about cars parked for weeks, the number of cars on the street, speeding in the Village, car noise, alarms, you name it. While I certainly agree with many of these concerns, the reality is the street is owned and controlled by the City of Coronado. Our Safety patrol can do little to solve any of these concerns. These calls need to go to Coronado PD. We have found the City to be very responsive to the owner's concerns.
Dennis