By Steve Thompson, Treasurer
Remember when you were a kid and you imagined you were on a tight rope in a circus. If you leaned over too far to the right or left, you’d fall flat on your face! Well snow plowing for the Blendon Woods Civic Association is kind of the same thing.
We try to collect $20.00 in membership dues from every household in our civic association (there are currently around 316 occupied homes.) The sad fact is that we receive dues from around 60% from these homes. Remember, $10.00 goes toward the running of the civic association (i.e. printing newsletters, printing telephone directory, spring garage sale, July 4th Parade, Pumpkin Drop, etc.) The other $10.00 is specifically earmarked toward snow plowing. So, if you do the math, we receive right around $1,900.00 each year for snow plowing. Every time we snow plow our streets it costs $518.00. So with the dues money collected, we can get right around 3-1/2 snow plowings each winter season. Now, depending on the snowfall, we may not plow 3 times a season. However, some seasons, we plow more than 3 times. For example, this year we had to plow the streets 12 times!
So, back to the balancing act – if we collect too much money for snow plowing and we don’t have a lot of snowfall in the season; we end up with a surplus of money. If we have too much snow and use up the surplus, then we run out of money, the streets don’t get plowed and then our members are upset. To complete the analogy, this year we have fallen flat on our faces with no chance of getting back up.
If we want to get the snow plowed as quickly as possible, we have to enter into a contract with a reputable snow plow company. The contract states that he plows when the snow reaches 3 inches. At the beginning of the season, that’s no problem; we have plenty of money in the snow plowing fund. When the season gets further along, we start running low on funds and don’t have the contractor plow as often. Maybe he only comes out after every 4-5 inches. When this happens, our members start to complain.
We have 14 cul de sacs or courts in our civic association. It takes a lot of time and effort to plow out the courts. If the snow doesn’t melt and it falls repeatedly, there is nowhere to efficiently push the snow. It ends up in people’s yards, sidewalks, parking spaces, etc. There are costly ways to remove the snow, i.e. dump trucks, etc. However, we don’t have the funding for this type of snow removal!
The solution? You tell me! Should we figure out a way to collect more dues from the 40% of households that don’t pay? Probably, but you can’t force folks to pay membership dues. Collect more dues, i.e. $30.00 each year - $10.00 to the civic association - $20.00 for snow plowing? Sounds like a good idea, but will folks pay extra for snow plowing? ~ sthomp7890@aol.com
If YOU haven’t paid your membership dues for 2009-2010 – then please mail them to Steve Thompson, BWCA Treasurer at 5384 Woodville Court, Gahanna, OH 43230.
We need to hear from you! Please e-mail me with your thoughts. Should we continue to provide snow plowing for our residents? Should we discontinue snow plowing because it is a waste of money and resources? Please send your e-mails to sthomp7890@aol.com.
Our annual Community Garage Sale will be held in Spring this year. Get your items ready to sell for Friday, May 28th or Saturday, May 29th. The times for the sale will be from 9 AM to 3 PM on both days. Residents may choose to sell on both days or only one day. The dates, times, & location, will be listed in the local paper and the Columbus Dispatch.
Our volunteer contact is SteveThompson. You may send an email to: sthomp7890@aol.com or call 614-478-8469. Please be sure to leave your name, phone number, address, which days, and any special items to list in the advertisement. Any large items, such as; furniture, cars, etc., would be a good draw to the sale. The deadline date to call for listing items in the paper is May 14th. We will also be providing a community map of all residents participating, so if you want to get listed on the Garage Sale map, please contact Steve by May 21st. This map will be copied and passed out to all participants.
There will be balloons for the mailboxes, and extra signs at street corners, along with our normal Community Garage Sale signs at major intersections to direct traffic. All of this is provided by BWCA and the membership dues that we collect every year. By having a volunteer to coordinate the event, it makes it easy for residents to participate. You don’t have to put up signs, take down signs or advertise. All of this is done by the BWCA volunteers! Please show your community spirit and participate in our annual community event.
Menards Inc. plans to begin construction this month on its long-awaited home improvement store at Morse Road Northland Mall on the site that was formally Sears Auto Center.
The advance comes more than two years after the Eau Claire, Wis.-based retailer bought the 16-acre site for $2 million from Northland Village Developers LLC, an affiliate of Gahanna-based developer Stonehenge Co.
The store may be finished by Oct. 29, but company spokesman Jeff Abbott said it may not open until spring 2011.
Abbott declined to reveal the size of the Northland Village store, but in an e-mail to Columbus Business First said it will be one of the chain’s “largest format” stores with a full-service lumber yard and garden center. It also will sell appliances, pet supplies and groceries typically sold in convenience stores. A business profile at the docstoc.com online document archive said Menards stores that merchandise groceries typically run about 240,000 square feet in size.
(from Columbus Business First by Brian Ball)