Cactus Village Community

Cactus Village—Who Are We? . . . by Bill Burch

Jul 30, 2003

By the sound of the phone calls and e-mails received, we notice that many residents, new and others are not familiar with the Cactus Village Community (CVC); and what it represents and what it does for the community. So let me try to explain who we are and who we are not.

Cactus Village Community is not a sanctioned or certified homeowner association. We do not have laws and bylaws or homeowner restrictions that we enforce.

What we are is a group of neighbors made up of residents who hold monthly meetings to hear the voices of the community. We are a recognized association by the City of Phoenix. We listen to gripes, complaints, suggestions, and various ideas to help better the community. Each month many residents come to our meetings and discuss what is on their mind. Some have valid complaints, some have gripes, and some have great ideas to improve the neighborhood. Some residents come just to be aware of what is going on in the neighborhood. We discuss these situations and try to give guidance as to where or whom they can turn to resolve their situations. We do not do policing of the area. Everyone who comes to the meetings, calls, or e-mails us has one thing in common. That is: to help improve the neighborhood, keep crime to a minimum and to retain our property values.

We also discuss having collective community garage sales, ideas for finding ways to keep juveniles and school children active in our community, helpful hints for protecting your property (our community action officer is usually at every meeting). We invite speakers from various agencies to our meetings that give helpful presentations. We ask for ideas and suggestions from all who attend. If there are problems we discuss ways to resolve them. We can speed up some procedures by giving phone numbers of the people, or agencies, to contact in assisting in getting their problems resolved. If there is a universal problem that involves many residents, someone is either appointed or will volunteer to look into the matter, then report their findings at the next meeting. We try to find volunteers to help with the aged or the infirm that can?’t take care of doing things for themselves. We work with other community associations for ideas and suggestions that have worked for them in improving their community. We have a graffiti team, and we have block watch volunteers. We also realize that we do not live in a perfect world, that we cannot appease everyone, nor solve all problems.

Our association is not funded. All expenses are out of our personal pockets. The community newsletter that you are reading now is published and printed by Bill Burch, CVC Chairman. Some costs are bore by our advertisers. Volunteers deliver this newsletter to every residence each month. All of the officers/committee members are volunteers and residents of this community.
There are many other things that our members do beside those mentioned here. Generally you will read about them in the newsletter. One thing we are short of is volunteers. Feel good about yourself, your community, be an active volunteer. We only have one life to live, let?’s make the best of it.

Will we hear from you, or see you, at the next meeting? Let?’s work together...☺