Bella Vista

Priority numero uno. I am currently looking for someone who is in the business that can repair our broken berm. Would like to meet with them to discuss. If anyone knows of anyone they could recommend, please let me know so I can make an appointment. My cell is 813-961-5010 and my email is pstreicher@aol.com. Your board has been given one estimate so far. We need to get this done before another year goes by and hopefully before the summer rains occur and raise the water level again. Right now it is at the lowest point I've ever seen it and would be the best time now to get this work done.

We need someone that of course is licensed and bonded and knows how to do this work properly. An underlayment of some sort needs to be put in place in order to hold the dirt and or other type of fill that is best for this type of repair. A rock and dirt combo has been suggested as being the best material. If you will notice at the pond's edge you will see some type of plastic underlayment that was used originally. Might there be something better to use now I wonder? Is there any other way to do this repair? Economically we would use dirt. But, this will be a constant maintenance problem to replace the dirt as it erodes away. I am thinking some type of concrete structure but it would seem to be way to expensive. What would be your choice, something economical now with regular maintenance expense or a permanent concrete berm with little to no regular expense?

hard at it i see paul.......  i think the permanent concrete berm would be the way to go.......who knows where the economy will be in the future years as we continue to contract  the maintenance........who knows how many empty houses there will be at that time.........then the maintenance  $  might be split between fewer homes.....needs some contemplation for sure...well, this is my 2 cents.......appreciate u  getting  the talks going! 

I called a company that was in Friday's mailbox. He came out promptly Saturday morning and we walked the berm and discussed the situation. I was told that dirt was going to do the job just fine, lay some sod or anything that grows on it to keep it in place. Now to get an estimate on this situation and present before the board for consideration along with the first bid estimate. I also called another person who I could not meet with later that day but he was able to go take a look by himself. I will be checking my email for that person's reply to the situation. I'm hoping we'll get all of this resolved before the gulley washers come down on us. More to come....

Update! A third bid estimate was received by me for this berm repair. It looks good. I have submitted it to the President and property manager for consideration for vote and approval to get this work done a.s.a.p. We had a mini-gulley washer rain today. Hopefully it didn't raise the pond level any to effect a repair. I'm going to continue to push to get this project done before another year passes us by. If you have not walked over and taken a look at the ever widening gap in this berm, take five and see for yourself. There are now three to four huge tree stumps showing that weren't there a few months ago. Once this repair is made we will have to keep an eagle eye out for anyone that may be doing any damage to start this erosion again. All it takes is one person with a shovel to start a small gap and it begins to widen on it's own from there on out. Stay tuned and stay alert!