2015 Annual Membership Meeting

The 2015 Annual Membership Meeting of the Manors at Central Park Condominium Association will be held on Wednesday, January 28, 2015 beginning at 7:00 PM.  Registration will open at 6:30PM

The meeting will be held in the Board Room at the Shelby Twp. Municipal Building, which is located at 52700 Van Dyke, Shelby Twp., MI 48316.

The purpose of this meeting is to elect three members to the Board of Directors was well as to review last year’s accomplishments and plans for the coming year.
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Updated Jan. 26, 2015

Click here to view the meeting agenda.

Here are the minutes from last year's annual meeting which the members will be asked to approve during the Jan. 28th meeting.

Here is the 2015 Financial Report that has been prepared for the membership, as required by Article V of our Condominium Bylaws.
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If you are unable to attend (or even if you are not sure whether you can make it), please fill out the General Proxy form you received in the mail last week from Casa Bella and give it to the person who will be attending the meeting and acting as your proxy.  This can be a neighbor or any member of the Board of Directors.  Please do not send your General Proxy to Casa Bella.

If you have not already completed and returned the Co-owner Questionnaire form that you received from Casa Bella in early December, please do so as soon as possible so that the Association's records can be updated prior to the Annual Membership Meeting.

Also, please take the time register as an Association Member on the Casa Bella web site.  More information can be found here.

Casa Bella is now our Property Managing Agent

As of Jan. 1st, Casa Bella Property Management is now the Managing Agent for the Manors at Central Park Condominium Association.

If you have not already completed and returned the Co-owner Questionnaire form that you received from them in early December, please do so as soon as possible so that the Association's records can be updated prior to the Annual Meeting on Jan. 28, 2015.

Casa Bella provides each of our Association Members with the opportunity to register and create their own on-line account, from which they can make and track maintenance & modification requests, download available financial statements and make payments online quickly and securely

To register as an Association Member, simply click on this link and follow the instructions:
http://www.casabellamanagement.com/user_signup_association.php

During the registration process you will be asked to provide your Unit Number.  If you are not sure of your Unit Number, click on the link with your street name that appears under the heading "Useful Links" on the lower right side of this blog.  Find your name, address and parcel number.  Your Unit Number corresponds to the last three digits of the parcel number.  For example the parcel number for 49997 Lexington East is 23-07-21-199-085.  Therefore, during the registration process, you would input 85 for the Unit Number.

Members of the Board of Directors will also be able to utilize these on-line account features not only as a co-owner but also to keep track of all requests that have been submitted by members as well as to monitor our monthly financial progress relative to the budget.  In the past the Board had to rely on paper-based reports that were usually outdated by the time we received them.  The Board also hopes to be able to communicate directly to all co-owners in a more timely fashion using the on-line accounts.

The Board strongly encourages all of our Members to register and use their on-line account so that requested services can be delivered and followed-up in a more efficient manner and the Association's administrative costs can be reduced through the elimination of reproduction and mailing costs. 

Winter 2014-5 Newsletter

Click here to read the Winter 2014-5 Newsletter that will be mailed to each co-owner during the coming week.

It contains important information regarding the transition from Kramer-Triad to Casa Bella, the 2015 Budget, the recent sale of the vacant lots and the appointment of Ruehle's Towing to remove "unauthorized vehicles" that are improperly parked on our streets and access drives.

UPDATE: We apologize for the quality of the copying of the front page of the newsletter.  Here is the text that appears in the feature box on the right side of the page.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
 - - -

The Board of Directors hopes everyone has a happy and safe holiday season.

Please take care to avoid any possible damage to your outdoor lighting and extension cords during snow removal operations by routing them away from the sidewalks and driveways.

All exterior holiday decorations and lighting must be taken down as soon as possible in January.

Units 16 through 167 have exterior garage light bulbs that are the property of the Association.  These are energy-saving LED bulbs that cost about $11 each and those residents who have removed them to use holiday colored bulbs must reinstall the LED bulb in January.

recent Board of Director Meeting Minutes

Here are the minutes of the Board of Directors meetings that were held in November and December of 2014:

Dec. 6, 2014

Nov. 7, 2014

Monthly payment options with Casa Bella

If your monthly Association Fee has been automatically withdrawn from your bank account through an ACH Debit by Kramer-Triad, the authorization you gave Kramer-Triad has been discontinued following the final withdrawal that occurred today for your December payment.  You do not need to take any action to cancel the ACH authorization that you gave to Kramer-Triad.

Casa Bella does not use ACH Debits but they provide multiple other options for making your monthly payments, beginning with the payment that is due on Jan. 1, 2015 (and late on the 10th):

1) Pay by mail - send your check or money order along with the coupon to
Manors at Central Park Condo Association
c/o Casa Bella Property Management, Inc.
850 N. Crooks Rd., Suite 100
Clawson, MI 48017

(coupon booklets are being printed and you should receive them in the mail shortly)

2) Pay on-line using the following available methods

a) One-time payment:
       1) direct payment from your bank account (e-check)
       2) credit card payment
b) Automatic (recurring) payment:
       1) direct payment from your bank account (e-check)
       2) credit card payment

(click here to view the demo page on the Casa Bella website that shows you these payment options; this demo page shows the typical secured on-line form you would use to make on-line payments after you become a registered user on their website after Jan. 1st)

How to winterize your outside faucets

Residents of the Manors are responsible for shutting off the water to their outside faucets and draining the water from the lines so that they do not freeze.  Failure to do so might result in freezing that causes the water line to burst and/or the faucet to be damaged. The co-owner is responsible for the cost of repairs and any resulting flood damage in their basement. 

(click image to enlarge)

Some units at the Manors have two outside faucets (also called a hose bibb), one in the rear and one in the front or inside the garage. The photo above shows the typical location of the shut-off valve for the outside faucets on all units at the Manors  It is located in the basement ceiling just inside of the faucet.  Since the units at the Manors do not have "frost-free" outside faucets, it is crucial that they be winterized every fall. 

The following video shows how to winterize your outside faucet.  Use the reverse process to turn the water back on in the spring.

Sunrise Manors

(click to enlarge)

In case you missed it, here is what the sunrise looked like at 7:18 AM this morning over the Manors at Central Park.

Trash and recycling regulations

A Watling Street resident's windblown trash,
Oct. 21, 2014.

Click here to read about the new trash and recycling regulations.

Basically, everything you set out to the curb for collection by Rizzo needs to be inside a container and it has to be covered with a lid.  Plastic bags containing trash or recyclables may not be set out on the ground.  They must be inside a closed container.

The only exception is a recycling tote bin.  If you use a tote bin, all recycling items must be enclosed inside a clear plastic bag, which is securely tied and then placed in the tote bin.

Clear plastic bags for the recycling items can be purchased at Home depot, Lowes and other similar stores.

Packard Proving Grounds Open House and Classic Car Show

Fall Open House And Cruise-in Classic Car Show


Packard Proving Grounds Historic Site
49965 Van Dyke Shelby Township, MI 48317

Sunday, October 19, 2014
1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Rain or Shine

Lombardo Homes to construct 47 new condos in the Manors at Central Park

The members of the Board of Directors of the Manors at Central Park Condo Association are pleased to announce that Lombardo Homes, Inc., through their "Blue Heron Communities, LLC" subsidary, has purchased all of the 47 vacant lots in the Manors that had been owned by the Carpenters Pension Trust Fund.

Lombardo Homes also acquired the rights to use the building plans for the duplex and detached,  ranch-style models that had been constructed in 2007 (refer to the existing duplex units at 49831-49847 Lexington West and the detached unit at 50156 Regent); these and ten other units were built by Sable in 2007 but completed and marketed by Lombardo Homes in 2008-2010). It is Lombardo Homes' intention to keep the exterior appearance as close as possible to those units when building the remaining 23 duplex buildings and the 1 remaining detached unit. The building codes have changed since 2007, so there will have to be some changes made to the interior plans of the new units.

Lombardo Homes is currently projecting the first quarter of 2015 for the start of sales, but that is very tentative and could slide.

Lombardo Homes already owned Manors Unit #1 at the corner of East Broadway and North Central Park and they have recently begun construction on that "site condo".  This will be a "spec" home similar to those just to the west and it will be marketed through their Lancaster at Central Park subdivision sales office, which will likely occupy a model that will be built on North Central Park near the Genisys Credit Union.   Lombardo Homes intends to install and pave the interior streets in Phase II of this subdivision before the end of this year [Lancaster site plan].

When the new construction and sales are finally complete, the Manors will have a total of 166 units, fourteen of which will be "site condos".

Trash & recycling containers

The recent changes to the rules and regulations regarding trash and recycling containers are now in effect and will be enforced beginning on Nov. 1, 2014.

All trash placed at the curb must be inside a rigid container that is between 32 and 96 gallons in size.  The container must have a lid and the lid must be in place when the trash container is placed at the curb for pick up.  Plastic bags of trash placed at the curb cannot be handled by the trash truck's lift arm.

Recycling symbol

All recycling items must be in a container that is clearly marked with the recycling symbol.  You may use the 96 gallon recycling cart provided by Rizzo back in 2012 or you may continue to use the 18 gallon tote bins previously provided.  However the new regulation requires that when using a tote bin, all recycling items must be enclosed within a clear plastic bag that is securely tied and placed within the bin. 

The Board of Directors is requiring that the tote bin items be securely enclosed in a plastic bag so that they are not blown away by the wind or spilled onto the pavement when the lift arm dumps the tote bin contents into the truck. Rizzo requires the use of a clear bag so the operator can visually confirm that it contains only recycling items.

How to obtain a Certificate of Insurance

How to obtain a Certificate of Insurance

UPDATED: As of April 2015, the condo association has a new insurance agency and coverage is now provided by the Maris-Brown Agency.  Therefore there are new procedures for requesting a certificate of insurance that you or your lending institution may use.
 

• E-mail:  send your request to certs@mbrinsurance.com and include your Unit number and street address, the banks name, fax and bank account numbers
• Telephone:  call them at 1-855-266-3646.