Wildlife ?

On Saturday afternoon, April 18th, I spotted this animal near the well by the corner of Regent and Lexington North (click on the image to enlarge it). It appears to be a young red fox, but I'm no expert on identifying wildlife. Maybe it is someone's pet dog? It kind of resembles a Welsh Corgi, but this has a long tail and the legs are not a short as a Corgi. UPDATE: It turns out that it's a pet and that it's a Long-Haired Chihuahua.

As a reminder, please do not feed the real wildlife, since it serves to attract them as well as other species who cause damage and costs for the Association. Last year the Association had to spend precious budget dollars to "evict" multiple woodchucks who migrated from the fields to burrow under rear decks, and then to have another contractor fill in the holes they made. Feeding the ducks and Canadian geese results in a terrible mess on our sidewalks and lawns and "baiting" the deer causes them to want to browse on our foundation shrubs and arbor vitae while they are here. Deer damage was particularly heavy on the arbs near the well, to the point where the lowest five feet of each arb is now too thin to provide any visual screening of the well equipment.

Lawn and landscaping maintenance

GM Prolawn has been awarded the contract to cut our lawns and maintain our landscaping for the upcoming growing season. Friday will be the regularly scheduled day of the week when they will be on-site. This is the same company which had our snow removal contract over the past winter.

Amendments to our Master Deed and Bylaws

All co-owners of units at the Manors at Central Park will soon be receiving in the mail a copy of the "First Amendment to the Master Deed of the Manors at Central Park" as well as a copy of the amendments to the "Manors at Central Park Condo Association Bylaws".

These amendments should be kept with the "Manors at Central Park Documents" book you received at your condo closing. You do not have to respond to these amendments, they are being sent to you since they amend legal documents which you agreed to with your signature at the time you closed on your condo. However, since they consist only of the amended portions of the document, reading them will not tell you the full story of what is happening. I have prepared the following summary for you that explains in plain English why and how the changes were made.

Lombardo Homes, the "developer" of Lots 1 through 14 (Lot 15 no longer exists), desires to create and market the single detached units to be built on those lots as "site condos". Lombardo Homes looked at the possibility of creating a new and separate Condominium Project for those 14 site condos, but has since decided that they should remain a part of the Manors at Central Park Condominium Project, which will now consist of a total of 166 units at completion. Therefore, the developer has exercised his rights under Article IX, Paragraph H of the Manors at Central Park Master Deed to amend our Master Deed and Bylaws so as to redefine the unique set of ownership and maintenance responsibilities that will exist between these 14 site condo co-owners and the Association.

Co-owners of a site condo own and are responsible for their own exterior maintenance and replacement, including the structure, driveway, front walkway and landscaping. Therefore, because of their greater amount of individual ownership in their units, each of the 14 site condo co-owners will have a lesser "percentage of value" ownership in the overall Manors at Central Park Condominium Project. Thus, they will be charged a correspondingly lesser monthly Association fee to reflect the exclusion of allocated maintenance and replacement costs which are unique to the 152 regular condo units on Lots 16-167. When it comes to voting rights, each co-owner of units 1 through 14 will be entitled to (1) vote when voting on those issues that are to be determined with "voting by number" as defined in the Master Deed and Bylaws. When voting on issues that are defined as being determined with "voting by value", each co-owner of units 1 through 14 will have a vote equal to the "percentage of value" assigned to their unit. The maximum total number of votes cast when "voting by number" will be 166. The maximum total of votes cast will be 100% when "voting by value".

As your elected member on the Board of Directors, I have been working closely with Lombardo Homes and Kramer-Triad to determine a fair "percentage of value" for the two types of condo units we will now have in the Manors at Central Park. The "percentage of value" for each type of condo was determined by looking at all line items in the 2008 budget and then allocating them in accordance to the amended Master Deed responsibilities into "equally shared", "partially shared" and "non-shared" costs. "Equally shared" line item are those that all co-owners own and benefit equally from and thus each co-owner bears 1/166th of the costs associated with the line item. "Non-shared" line items are those that pertain to only to the regular condo units 16 through 167 and are allocated to those 152 units. "Partially shared" line items are those in which the site condo co-owners have a partial ownership and benefit.

The "partially shared" category involved most of the work in determining the percentage of value that has been assigned to each of units 1 through 14. For example, the asphalt private access drive in front of units 1-14 is owned and maintained by the Condo Association but unlike the driveways and front walks of units 16-167, the co-owners of units 1-14 will own and maintain their own driveways and front walks. Based on this new difference in responsibilities we looked at the 2008 budget line item for snow removal and estimated what percentage of it is directly attributable to the total square footage of the road surfaces. On a square footage basis, we measured the roadway portion of the snow plowing work to be 25% of the total area that is kept clear, with the remainder consisting of the sidewalks, front walkways and driveways. All 166 eventual co-owners own and can benefit equally from our roadways, therefore, each eventual co-owner of units 1-14 has been allocated 1/166th of 25% of the total 2008 snow removal budget line item cost.

After thoroughly analyzing the 2008 Budget in this manner, we have determined that each co-owner of Units 1 through 14 will be assigned a "percentage of value" equal to 0.21271% (0.0021271). Accordingly, each co-owner of Units 16 through 167 will be assigned a "percentage of value" equal to 0.6383% (0.006383).

These percentages of value add up to 100% as follows: (14 x 0.0021271) + (152 x 0.006383) = 1.0000000 or 100%. For reference purposes, previous to these amendments, each co-owner of the 166 units would have had an equal "percentage of value" of 0.6024% ( 1/166 = 0.006024).

Based on the 2009 Budget spending and the assigned "percentage of value" of 0.21271% for each of Units 1 through 14, the co-owner's estimated monthly Manors Condo Association fee would be $60 which will be paid starting when their house is issued a certificate of occupancy. There is no change to the 2009 $175 monthly Association fee for each of occupied Units 16 through 167.

Feel free to call me if you have any questions about these amendments. After a long process that could have potentially resulted in Lots 1-15 having two-story buildings and being spun off as a separate Condo Association, I think these results are the best we could have hoped for.

Sewer Repairs

The faintly familiar sounds of heavy construction equipment echoed across the northwest portion of the Manors this afternoon. Unfortunately, it was not the welcome noise emanating from new construction work.

A sewer line owned by the Condo Association was blocked, causing the waste water from Units 55 & 56 to back up into their basements. Repeated attempts to open the sewer with a power auger were unsuccessful and a video inspection revealed that a section of the sewer lead pipe was completely separated. Kramer-Triad received approval from the Board of Directors to hire Paul C. Scott & Sons Plumbing to excavate and fix the line as soon as possible to alleviate the problem.

Once the sewer line was uncovered at the bottom of a 10 ft deep hole, the cause of the problem became evident. The contractor who made the tie-in to the sewer lead when the basement was originally excavated in 2004 must have hit the lead with their backhoe and pulled it out of the rubber friction boot on the 10 inch sewer main. This single 6 inch sewer lead services both units and it had been pulled out about 18 inches from the boot. The situation went unnoticed because that end of the sewer lead remained covered with backfill. Ever since the units were sold in 2005, all of the sanitary waste from Units 55 & 56 has had to flow through this 18 inch long tunnel in the sand in order to reach the sewer main. Eventually this tunnel collapsed and the sewer lead filled with sand. It's a wonder that this problem did not surface much sooner and that a sink hole never developed in the front lawn.


"Men at work" on Lexington North.


Workers excavated an 8 ft. x 15 ft. hole that was 10 ft. deep.


The worker in the hole is standing on top of where the sewer lead should have been connected to the sewer main; the manhole structure is at his side.



The section of sewer pipe between the two black Fernco flexible couplings is the permanent repair and it bridges the gap apparently created by the backhoe operator in 2004.

Refuse & Recyclables Curbside Pick-up Location

Our refuse collection company has requested that we assist them so that they may more efficiently collect what we set out at the curb. They can reduce their number of stops and starts nearly in half if duplex residents would voluntarily place their items at the curb on the side of the driveway closest to the driveway of our neighboring unit. This drawing shows the preferred placement location for refuse and recyclables in blue.

Central Park Master Association Board Officers

The newly-elected Board of Directors of the Central Park Master Association held their first meeting earlier this evening. Following their election of officers for the current year, the Board discussed budget issues, items of concern and the process we will follow to complete the transition of control from Grand Sakwa to the new Board. Ryan Dorner was also in attendance, representing Kramer-Triad, the Master Association's property management company.

The 2009 officers of the Board of Directors are:

President - Mike Grobbel,
Vice President - Mike Malone
Secretary - Ted McCoy
Treasurer - Brian Pesola

The Board will meet again in about two weeks as part of their preparation for an upcoming meeting with Grand Sakwa.

Master Association Board of Directors election results

At tonight's transitional meeting, the following people were elected to serve on the Board of Directors of the Central Park Master Association:

Mike Grobbel, Manors (2 year term)
Mike Malone, Meadows (1 year term)
Ted McCoy, Kensington (2 year term)
Brian Pesola, Gardens (1 year term)

5/26/2009 UPDATE: The approved minutes of the April 6, 2009 Annual Meeting of the Central Park Master Association can be read here.

Reminder - April 6th Master Association Meeting

The Transitional Meeting of the Central Park Master Association will be held this coming Monday evening, April 6, 2009 in the Commons Area at Eisenhower High School [map].

Sign-in starts at 6:00 PM and the meeting itself will begin at 7:00 PM. It is important that we reach a quorum so that we can conduct the election of 4 co-owners to the Master Association Board of Directors. If you will be unable to attend, please fill out the General Proxy form that you received in the mail from Kramer-Triad. You have several choices for filling it out and having it voted for you.

a) write "Board of Directors" if you want Grand Sakwa to cast your votes for whomever they want. Mail or Fax your Proxy per the instructions on the form, or you can give it to me or a neighbor to bring to the meeting.

b) write in the name of a neighbor who is the designated voting representative for their condo unit and who will be attending the meeting. They will be allowed to receive your blank ballot and cast your votes for you. You may instruct them in advance how you wish to vote or give them permission to cast your votes for whomever they want.

Make sure you sign and date the General Proxy when you complete the form. Call me at 726-0317 if you have any questions or wish me to stop by and pick up your completed General Proxy.