Annual Membership Meeting of the CP Master Association

You should have received a letter in today's mail informing you of the upcoming annual membership meeting of the Central Park Master Association.  It will be held on Friday, May 2, 2014 at the Shelby Twp. Municipal Building in the Board Room. 

Our New Association Manager at Kramer-Triad

Ryan Dorner has resigned his position at Kramer-Triad where he had been our Association Manager for many years.  Our new Association Manager is Marty Tessmar and Ryan has been working with Marty so that there will be a smooth transition.

The Board thanks Ryan for his years of service to our community and wishes him well in his new endeavors.

Installation of WOW Internet, Cable & phone infrastructure

Brian Sommers of WOW Internet, Cable & Phone met with board members from Central Park yesterday morning to walk us through their construction plans.

Click here to read an outline summary of the information they provided.

Snow removal operations

The 13 inches of snow we received over the past week and the extreme cold that followed has been a trying experience for everyone.

Even though it may not always have been apparent, the snow removal contractors operating here in the Manors and elsewhere in Central Park have been doing their best to keep the access drives, roads and entrances as clear as possible as we recover from this "snow emergency". 

Snow Removal

UPDATE: Trash pick-up will be delayed this week by one day due to the storm.  Set your trash and recyclables out on Tues night or very early on early Wed morning. 

Our snow removal contract specifies that snow removal from our streets, driveways, parking areas, porches, sidewalks, etc, shall commence within two hours of the time when the snowfall reaches a depth of 1.5 inches at our location.  The contract also states that for public safety reasons, priority must be given to opening and maintaining access to our site.   

The contract leaves the choice of de-icing and/or plowing our streets (which includes the access drives) to the discretion of the contractor. However it does state that when de-icing, the entrances and exits shall be double treated (salt is the specified de-icing material for our streets and either calcium chloride or potassium chloride must be used everywhere else).

Therefore, when we have a significant snowfall such as we are experiencing today, it follows that keeping the streets open is our contractor's top priority and may require repeated plowing, in which case the clearing of driveways and sidewalks have to be given secondary priority.

Depending on the severity of the storm, work on the driveways and sidewalks might not begin until the storm subsides. In the event the contractor is unable to to completely clean all of the specified areas in one day, the contract stipulates that follow-up service shall be performed the following morning no later than 12:00 Noon.

As an alternative to using snowblowers and/or snowshovels, our contract states that driveways shall be back-plowed so as to push snow out towards the street and that the snow closest to the garage doors shall be cleared manually so as to avoid plow damage to the doors.

Residents are expected to do their part to help the snow removal process by following the Association's  bylaws, rules and regulations.

Article VII, Section 1, paragraph (j) of our condominium bylaws addresses the parking and storage of vehicles and it states that residents shall park their vehicles in the garages that have been provided for that purpose.

Our parking rules and regulations state that  

Overnight parking is prohibited on all streets from November 1st through March 30th inclusive, unless a co-owner has received written approval from the Board of Directors.  The purpose of this regulation is to facilitate snow removal operations.  “Overnight” shall mean the period from Midnight until 6:00 AM. 

No written approvals have been requested or granted for overnight, on-street parking during the winter of 2013-2014. 

If a resident has more than two vehicles, they should be parked overnight in their driveway so that the street may be eventually cleared across its full width.  It's recommended that a third vehicle should be parked all the way to one side of the driveway to allow the contractor the option of back-plowing the other half of the driveway.  Otherwise, the contractor will manually clear the driveway areas surrounding the parked vehicle(s).  As soon as the street has been plowed across its full width, the vehicles may be moved from the driveway and parked on the street.

Your Board of Directors suggests that whenever you see or hear that local communities have issued a snow emergency, the neighborly thing to do is to park all of your vehicles in your garage and driveway until our streets have been cleared, regardless of the time of day.

2014 Budget

All co-owners should have received a letter in the mail from Kramer-Triad informing them that their monthly Association fee will be the same in 2014 as in 2013.

That mailing included this one-page financial report containing information that the Board of Directors is obligated to provide to each co-owner on an annual basis.

At the top of that page is a Balance Sheet showing our financial status as of Nov. 30, 2013, the latest date for which that information is available.  The lower half of that page contains a summary of the 2014 Budget that was adopted by the Board of Directors at their Nov. 22, 2013 meeting. Click here to view the detailed 2014 Budget.

Dec 18th Lombardo presentation

Here is a summary of last night's meeting, which includes a link to a PDF file containing Greg Windingland's presentation slides describing Lombardo's proposed "Lancaster at Central Park" subdivision:

http://centralparkassociations.blogspot.com/2013/12/dec-18th-lombardo-meeting.html

Upcoming Meetings

1. There will be a meeting for all Central Park residents on Wed. Dec. 18, 2013, at 7:00 PM in the Shelby Twp. Municipal Building Board Room. Greg Windingland (VP – Lombardo Homes, Inc.), will make a presentation and answer your questions about their plans to develop two vacant parcels that are located south of North Central Park and east of East Central Park.  More information and a map showing the locations of the vacant parcels can be found by clicking here. 
2. The 2014 Annual Membership Meeting of the Manors at Central Park Condominium Association will be held on Wed. Jan. 15, 2014, at 7:00 PM in the Shelby Twp. Municipal Building Board Room.  Sign-in will begin at 6:30 PM.  Please mark your calenders.  More information will arrive in the mail shortly, including a General Proxy form (also available on-line by clicking here).

Minutes of Nov 22nd BoD Meeting

MANORS AT CENTRAL PARK
CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION
Minutes of the 22 November 2013
Meeting of the Board of Directors of the
Manors at Central Park Condominium Association
(APPROVED)

1.       Meeting was held at the offices of Kramer-Triad Management Group, L.L.C., 320 East Big Beaver Road, Ste 190, Troy, MI 48083.

2.       Meeting began at 9:40 AM ET; Quorum was established with all three Board Members being present.  Board Members present: President Mike Grobbel, Treasurer Larry Cybulski, and Secretary Bhartan Amin (by teleconference).  Also present: Ryan Dorner (Kramer-Triad property management).

3.       The Board approved the agenda for this meeting.

4.       The Board approved the meeting minutes of the Meeting of 27 September 2013.

5.       New Business:

a.       Management Report – Ryan Dorner

                                                   i.      The Board reviewed the Renters Report.

                                                 ii.      The Board reviewed the Violation Report.

                                                iii.      The Board reviewed the Work Order Report for the month of October 2013.

                                                iv.      For special pick-up of large items such as furniture and appliances:  Residents may set out large bulky items on the regular scheduled service day for collection. They may also call the Rizzo Customer Care Center at (866) 772-8900 if they wish to schedule a pickup. Please place large bulky items out separate from other products for collection and have them out by 7:00 A.M. Large items may include: washers, dryers, freezers, refrigerators, air conditioners, hot water tanks, stoves, microwaves, couches, chairs, tables, dressers, etc.

b.       Discussion of 2014 budget as presented by President Grobbel.  Based on past budgets from 2008 – 2012 and actuals of 2013, estimates for 2014 were generated.

                                                   i.      Contributions to Replacement Reserves of $29,598, 10% of 2013 budgeted income.

                                                 ii.      For updating the governing documents, CC&R and By-laws, $15,000 were allocated.

                                                iii.      Monthly assessments for 2014 will remain unchanged.

Trenching Equipment arrives

UPDATE - Here is video of the fully-assembled one-pass trencher that I took on Saturday afternoon.

Here it is sitting idle, shortly after it has started the trenching process:

Permeable Reactive Barrier construction progress

(click to enlarge)

Construction of the Permeable Reactive Barrier (PRB) has begun and is proceeding according to the work plan schedule.  On Thursday afternoon (Nov. 7th), work crews were excavating to expose an abandoned sanitary sewer so that it can be cut out from the vicinity of the PRB and capped.   The panorama photo above shows the unearthing of the south end of the sewer line.  The staked square outlined with yellow caution tape to the right of the pick-up truck marks the north end of the sewer segment to be removed.   The PRB will run the entire width of this photo and its location is marked by a series of three parallel stakes with red tape on their tops. Check back here for photos of the trenching activity that will occur during the week of Nov. 11th.

Permeable Reactive Barrier Work Plan

Ford Motor Company has announced the following work plan for the construction of the Permeable Reactive Barrier (PRB) that will be installed on the former Visteon plant property near the northwest corner of the Manors at Central Park Condominiums:

• Week of Oct 28th - locate underground utility lines and clear away brush.
• Week of Nov 4th - begin delivery of equipment and materials; excavate and remove abandoned underground utility lines in the vicinity of the PRB
• Week of Nov 11th – DeWind (Ford's subcontractor) will begin the trenching and installation of the PRB. They anticipate having the work completed by Thanksgiving and during this portion of the work plan DeWind will be working 7 days per week.  Actual construction work will be limited to the daylight hours.

(click to enlarge)

The approximate location of the PRB is indicated by the red line in the aerial view above. The PRB will be located on the other side of the landscaped berm behind the units at 50087 through 50167 Lexington West. All of this construction work will take place on the former Visteon plant property, not on the Manors' side of the fence.  Manors residents might be able to hear the equipment when work is underway but they will not be able to see any of this work unless they are standing on top of the berm.