Skunks love grubs

Skunk on the prowl, Dec. 2014.

In addition to the visits we get from wild turkeys, possums, woodchucks and the occasional deer here at the Manors, we are also visited by skunks.  However, since they are nocturnal animals, we only occasionally see them out and about.

What we do see is the damage they inflict on our lawns each fall when they feast on the grubs that are beneath the sod.  The Association does pay for an annual application of grub killer, but many grubs still survive at the perimeter of the lawns near the sidewalk and driveways.

The Association's landscaper is attempting to repair the more heavily damaged areas by removing the damaged lawn, applying an insecticide to kill the remaining grubs and then installing new sod a few days later while we still have our lawn sprinkling system available.   Smaller damaged areas are being repaired by tamping the loose tufts of grass back into place and adding grass seed.  However, once the irrigation system is winterized, we will have to wait until spring to repair any more lawn damage.

Lawn damaged by a skunk feeding on grubs.

Damaged lawn after tamping.

Our wildlife control contractor does not recommend setting traps for skunks.  More often than not, the traps end up catching other types of wildlife instead of the skunks, unless the trap is placed adjacent to the skunk burrow.  Since we have not identified any skunk burrows on our premises, they are probably living in the fields to our north and west and venturing onto our property at night to fatten up for the coming winter.  Also, if a trap was placed on the lawns where they have been feeding, you could find an angry possum or skunk snarling or spraying at you in the morning!

The Board of Directors believes that grub control is the most appropriate solution to our skunk problem and we are working with our lawn fertilizing contractor to achieve better results in 2016.

Storm Sewer Repairs

The heavy rains we had on August 11, 2014 (post with photos) caused two sinkholes to develop on our property.  The sinkholes resulted from breaks in the underground storm sewer pipe that had gone undetected until then.

What happened that day is that the retention basin filled up from the 5.1 inches of rain we received that day, causing the water to back up into the storm sewers and catch basins.  By 9:00 p.m. some streets were covered from curb to curb with standing water that had no place to go until the retention basin eventually drained down later that night.  In the meantime, the backed-up storm water escaped from the breaks in the two buried pipes and as the water receded, it sucked the surrounding sand into the pipe, causing a small sinkhole behind 49995-50011 Regent and a much larger sinkhole between 49992-50008 Watling.

The Association hired a contractor who managed to get the storm sewer pipe at the smaller sinkhole repaired later in the fall of 2014.  However they found that the pipe at the larger sinkhole was much deeper and after an initial attempt had to be abandoned, they brought in heavy equipment last week to make the repairs.

In both cases, it's believed that the breaks in the plastic storm sewer pipe were caused by construction debris that was dropped directly onto the pipe during the backfilling of the storm sewer trench in 2004.

Landscaping repairs at the smaller sinkhole have already been made and the Board of Directors intends to have the landscaping repaired at the Watling sinkhole sometime after Labor Day.

Below are photos of the Watling sinkhole repairs that were made on Aug. 13, 2015.

The excavator had to dig a hole about 7 ft. deep and 12 ft. wide to expose and repair the broken storm sewer pipe.

The worker's foot is next to the break in the storm sewer pipe.

The broken section was cut out and replaced with a new section of 12 in. diameter pipe.

Tree-planting activity along our berm

As I'm sure you are aware, there are many gaps in the tree line atop the berm that runs along the north and west perimeter of our property.  The gaps are where dead trees have been removed in past years and not replaced because of budget constraints. The Board is also aware that more trees will be dying in the coming years.  That is because some of the original trees did not have the supporting tree ties and stakes removed a year or two after being planted and the ties have recently begun strangling the upper half of the trees to the point where they cannot be saved.  Also, some of the Blue Spruce trees here at the Manors have been infected with rhizosphaera needle cast and phomopsis canker.  Our budget can only support the cost of fungicide treatments to the Blue Spruce trees in our side yards, so the ones on the berm will have to remain "at-risk".

Therefore, at their Sept. 28, 2012 meeting, the Board of Directors authorized the purchase and installation of 100 young evergreen trees along the top of the berm, provided we could get volunteer labor to plant them. We were able to purchase (50) Norway Spruce and (50) White Spruce trees at a total cost of $280, including fertilizer tablet and root dip.  These are bare-root, 4 year old trees with a minimum height of 2 feet.

Lawn watering schedule changes

Depending on the settings, our lawn irrigation system uses between $300 and $400 worth of municipal water every night it runs. This has been an unusually hot and dry summer - through September 1st, Detroit has had 30 days with high temperatures at or above 90 degrees (compared to the annual average of 11 days) while Detroit's year-to-date precipitation is 3.58 inches below normal.  Here at the Manors, our monthly rainfall totals have been 3.45 inches in May, 1.05 inches in June, 6.30 inches in July and 4.70 inches in August for a four-month total of 15.50 inches.

However, as you can see from the chart (click it to enlarge), more than half of that rainfall (8.05 inches) came from just three separate storms.  With our sand, a two or three inch rainfall drains away very quickly and is of no greater benefit to the lawn than a half-inch of rain.

Because of the heavy watering schedule necessitated by this summer's weather (usually at the $400 per night setting), I've been reading our water meters regularly and it is clear that we are rapidly approaching the point where we will have used all of the $37,500 we have in our 2012 budget for watering the lawns. As of yesterday, we had only enough money left to water the landscaping for 12 more nights.  Therefore as of last night, I reprogrammed the automatic timers to run every other night beginning tonight.

I have been manually reprogramming the automatic sprinklers throughout the summer to stretch our budget dollars.  By my records, my reprogramming efforts have saved more than $4,000 worth of water so far this summer.  When there have been forecasts for a high chance of rain, I have turned the system off the night before to keep them from running unnecessarily.  Also, after the occasional good soakings, I have also stretched our dollars by reprogramming them to run every other night for a few days.  The last time I tried this I discovered that after dusk on the evening of Aug. 22nd, someone decided to manually operate a zone valve to provide "extra" water to the lawns in front of their units.  This is unacceptable behavior and it has caused me to decide that in 2013 I will no longer "bust my hump" by reprogramming the irrigation system every time there is an opportunity to save this association some budget money by not watering.

Please do not tamper with the sprinkler system to use extra water or I will be forced to shut the entire system down at the water meters and lock the covers.  I will not allow this association to overspend its budget for municipal water.

Lawn appearance

Note the nice, green swath of lawn behind the tree which received enough shade from the tree on May 17 & 18 to avoid getting dried out like the lawn in front of and farther behind the tree (taken at 3 PM, looking north).

The stressed appearance of the lawns is due to the very low humidity (<30%) we had last Thursday and Friday (May 17 & 18) along with those cloudless skies and temps in the upper 80s.  The blazing sun and hot, dry wind turned the shadeless grass into straw.

While we had received about 0.95 inch of rain between May 7th and 12th, only 0.1 inch of rain fell between May 13th and the 18th.  So the lawn was already dried-out when it got hammered on the 17th and 18th.

The stressed-out areas of lawn will slowly recover now that we are watering it nightly, which began last Friday night (May 18th) after the water meters were installed earlier that day.

Phase 2 of the Exterior Paint Project is Set to Begin

U&S Painting will be starting work on Phase 2 of our exterior painting project sometime next week, weather permitting. Their first steps will be to powerwash the surfaces to be painted (update: this work started on May 7th), make necessary caulking repairs and replace and prime all dry-rotted trim boards. Then they will begin the painting of the exterior trim, garage doors and front doors. The painting work will probably take all month and perhaps into June. You will be notified in advance of when they plan to paint your front door. Per their advice, I am keeping with the same color for the front doors, since a lighter color will only lower the surface temperature by 10 or 15 degrees when the sun is shining directly on it through a storm door window.

As a reminder, your 2^nd and final payment for the exterior painting “Additional Assessment” is due on June 1, 2011. If you have not already done so, please remit your payment of $420 along with the 2^nd payment coupon you received a year ago.

If you are unable to find your 2^nd coupon, please remit your Additional Assessment payment as follows:

a) add the $420 to the regular $175 amount when you mail in your June 2011 monthly Condo Association dues. It will automatically be credited to your Additional Assessment.

b) If you’ve already sent in your June dues payment or if your dues is automatically withdrawn from your bank account, mail a check for $420 directly to Kramer-Triad’s office at 320 E. Big Beaver, Suite 190, Troy, MI 48083. Include a note listing your name, address and the words "Manors at Central Park Condo Association Additional Assessment payment" so that it will be properly credited.

Additional Assessment payments received after June 30, 2011 will be subject to a $25 late fee.

Click here to view a list of the Units that will be painted in Phase 2 (the units painted in last year's Phase 1 are listed here).

After the painting work is complete, we will have new mulch installed throughout the common elements.

Shrub trimming and replacements

UPDATE: Shrub Trimming was completed as scheduled. The dead and dying shrubs will be replaced on or about August 30th.

Our landscape contractor plans to trim our shrubs during the week of August 23rd.

I have submitted a work order to replace dead and dying shrubs at the following locations:

Globe-shaped evergreens
(1) at 6995 Central Park North
(1) at 6803 Central Park North
(1) at 6557 Lexington Ave North
(1) at 49960 Watling Ave

Creeping evergreens
(1) at 6731 Lexington Ave North
(3) at 50008-50024 Watling Ave.

We also plan to remove the dying short evergreen hedge that was installed in front of the arborvitae at the irrigation well near Regent and Lexington North. The arborvitae behind them are surviving despite the deer damage from the winter of 2008-2009. We intend to replace the removed hedge with a planting of boxwood evergreens (deer do not like the smell of boxwood).

Maple Tree Infestation

Some of the silver maples along the walkway behind the units on Lexington East have leaves that are covered with red bumps. These bumps are called "galls" and are caused by the Maple Bladder Gall Mite. More information about the mites and the galls they produce can be read here and here, but the bottom line is that this is a cosmetic problem and they are highly unlikely to harm the trees. Therefore, I do not plan to spend any budget money or take any actions to control them.

Additional Assessment

The Additional Assessment for exterior painting that I mentioned in the April 2010 Newsletter was approved this past week by the Board of Directors of the Manors at Central Park Condo Association. Co-owners of Units 16 and higher will soon receive a letter from our Managing Agent (Associa Kramer-Triad) with full details on how to make your payment.

The exterior painting contract was awarded to U&S Painting, which plans to begin work during the second half of May. They will be painting 46 units this year and the remainder during 2011. The initial 46 units were all originally painted during 2004, while the remainder were painted in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Click here to view a web page that lists all units in the order that they were initially painted.

The Additional Assessment also provides funding for the application of landscaping mulch throughout the condominium common element areas. The contractor plans to do this work within the next seven to ten days.

Replacement trees on berm

Our landscape contractor is currently installing evergreen trees along the berm to replace some of the ones which had died over the past few years. In early September, I surveyed the berm by first identifying all of the gaps in the tree line and then determining that it would require a total of 27 evergreens to fill them. Some gaps were larger than others and their locations were identified as such on my project sketch. Upon receiving the estimate from our landscape contractor, the three members of the Board of Directors decided to only fill the larger gaps, since our 2009 budget could not cover the $8,200 it would take to fill all of the gaps.

Based on the Board's decision, I re-surveyed the berm to re-confirm the number of trees needed to fill the larger gaps and we added 1 more evergreen tree to the project, resulting in the total of 15 evergreens which are now being installed.

Since the work has started, I have received several phone calls from co-owners complaining that a gap near their unit was skipped. I have tried to explain that there is only so much money available in our budget for this project and that the decision to proceed with the scaled-back plan was made by the entire Board, not just me. My responses seemed to fall on deaf ears and I have even had my integrity questioned by one complainant. If you are not satisfied with a decision of the Board, I would suggest that you put it in writing and address it to the entire Board of Directors, in care of Kramer-Triad.

I intend to remove myself from the process of identifying and prioritizing the locations of any future tree-plantings that need to be funded by the Association. I will propose at our annual meeting in January 2010 that a committee of co-owners be formed for that purpose, who would then make their recommendations available to the Board. The Board would continue to decide how much to spend (if any) on trees during any given budget year and the committee's prioritized list would be their guide for determining where the trees would be planted with the available funds.

Central Park Commons Area Landscaping Project

The commons area to the south of the West Broadway entrance to the Manors is currently undergoing significant improvements to the landscaping. The red outlined area on this map indicates the location of the landscaping project. Grand/Sakwa, the developer of the Central Park Planned Unit Development, has hired Adams Landscaping to rehabilitate the irrigation system and improve the appearance of the trees, shrubs and lawns in this area.

All residents of the Gardens, Meadows, Manors and Kensington sub-associations will be receiving a copy of this letter from Adams Landscaping that explains the type of work that will be performed and asks for our cooperation while the new lawn gets established. The costs for these improvements are being funded by the developer, not the Central Park Master Association. Upon completion, the Master Association will become responsible for the costs to maintain these improvements.

Here is Adams Landscaping's timetable for this project:

• Install Meter – completed
• Repair irrigation – completed 09/21
• Complete vegetation kill – completed 09/22
• Distribute homeowner letters – completed by 09/25
• Begin grading operations, topsoil, seeding – starting the week of 10/05
• Finish complete project by 10/20

Street Signs & Dollar Spots

AUGUST 18th UPDATE: The new street sign posts were installed today along with the available sign plates (shown above is the new post and signs at the corner of Lexington West and Regent) . Because of an error on the part of the sign plate printer, some posts are missing one or both sign plates. The job will be finished as soon as the printer makes up the corrected sign plates.

The street signs which were ordered earlier this summer are scheduled for installation sometime during the week of August 10th. They will be installed where Lexington North intersects Regent, Watling and Lexington East. A sign will also be installed at the corner of Regent and Lexington West. Lack of signage has been an on-going problem for visitors and delivery trucks and could become a safety issue if it causes a delay in fire or police response. For whatever reason, the original developer never saw fit to place signage at those corners, so your Association will fund the installations.





With the recent arrival of warmer and humid weather, the dormant Dollar Spot fungus has reared its ugly brown spots (shown above, click to enlarge) in certain areas of the Manors. It is very expensive to apply fungicide, which may also require repeated applications to fully eradicate it, only to find that it has returned the following season. After consulting with our fertilizer contractor, we will try accelerating or adding to the fertilizing schedule to keep the grass roots healthy so they can recover instead of burning out. You can help by avoiding walking through infected areas, since the fungus can be spread by contact.

Change to lawn mowing schedule

The owner of GM LawnPro and I met earlier this week to discussed the cutting height and mowing frequency. He will raise the cutting height on his lawn mowers beginning with the next mowing.

He said that he is seeing unnaturally slow growth of the lawns both here at the Manors and at his other clients, which he attributes to the cool wet weather we had in early spring that has remained cool but with less rain. He proposed - and I accepted - a reduced frequency of cutting until the lawn growth rate returns to normal. He will make his next cut on Tuesday June 16th and the next one 10 days after that (Friday June 26th) - and so on - until we agree that the growth rate has recovered and requires mowing on a normal 7 day cycle. If we finish the growing season with less than the 26 contracted mowings, we will receive a credit.

Retention Ponds

The Central Park Master Association (CPMA) is responsible for maintaining the six retention ponds scattered around the Central Park development. Kramer-Triad is the property manager for the CPMA (as well as the Manors) and on our behalf, they have contracted with LakePro of Swartz Creek, MI to maintain the six ponds located on our common property.

Per the contract, Lake Pro services our ponds six times each year, beginning in mid-April and continuing at regular intervals through September (about four weeks apart). During each visit, they chemically treat the ponds to control algae, provide floating and submerged weed control and also apply a blue dye to improve the water appearance.

JUNE 4 UPDATE: The CPMA Board of Directors at their June 4, 2009 meeting authorized Kramer-Triad to amend the contract with LakePro to add two additional treatments for the 2009 season, bringing the total to eight. They also directed Kramer-Triad to inform the Board members via e-mail when LakePro notifies them that they have delivered each treatment.

JUNE 8 UPDATE: LakePro has given us tentative treatment dates for the remainder of the summer. They are June 11, June 18, July 1, July 14, July 27, August 11 and September 3.

Factors that contribute to the rapid growth of algae include water temperature, rainfall and the amount of nutrients introduced by lawn fertilization and waterfowl. While we cannot control most of these factors, we can try to keep the geese population to a minimum. Please do not feed the waterfowl (or any other wildlife, such as the deer). Kramer-Triad has also installed exclusion devices on some of the ponds that will hopefully convince the geese to hang out elsewhere.

Lawn Mowing delayed one day

GM ProLawn has informed me through Kramer-Triad that because of the holiday and wet weather earlier this week, they will be cutting our lawns this coming Saturday instead of the regularly scheduled Friday.

Landscaping work

Back to Nature will be doing our fertilizing and weed control this growing season and they made the first application back on May 8th. GM ProLawn will be performing our lawn and landscaping maintenance this year. This is the same company that did our snow removal over the past winter. GM ProLawn has been on-site yesterday and today to do the bed edging and weeding and to also finish repairing snow plow damage from this past winter. All lawns will receive a full cut today and on the following weeks, Fridays will be our designated lawn cutting day (subject to change due to weather or holidays).

Please assist the GM Prolawn crew by removing all of your belongings that are on the grass, such as garden hoses, toys, lawn furniture, etc.

The sprinkler system has been ready for use since April 15th and I am waiting until the grass shows evidence that it needs supplemental watering before I turn it on. Over the past 24 days, my rain gauge has measured 3.8 inches of precipitation, but it looks like later this week it will be much drier and warmer.

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.

New Walkways Installed

Here are photos of the walkway project that was completed on Saturday, October 4th.

We installed four walkways just like the one shown. Each walkway consists of (26) 12 inch, colored concrete patio squares which the Association purchased from Prime Landscape Supply in Sterling Heights.

I wish to thank everyone who helped on this project, including Bruce Bouford, Frank Cox, Larry Cybulski, Greg Despres, Richard Hall, Steve Kozlowski, Bob & Chris Linberg, Ray Sobieski, Neil Stevenson and Jim Storhok.

Sprinkler System Winterized

The sprinkler system was shut down and winterized on Wednesday, October 1st. The green pressure tank at the well has been removed and stored inside for the winter.

If you have plants and flowers outdoors, you will have to water them yourselves for the remainder of the growing season.

Please remember to remove and dispose of them immediately after the first killing frost.