Castlegate Community

You and I can go round the table on this one all day long, but I still support my opinions based upon fact and the fact is that they did not follow their own CC&R's by doing away with the weed control. I do attend every meeting possible, but not all homeowners do, and they shouldn't have to go in order to know what is going on in their own community. To answer your question, I really could care less about a dog park or volleyball court. If I wanted all that I would have moved somewhere that had all of the extras. I just want to know that my money is being spent on upkeep that is required to be taken care of. A surplus would be wonderful to build upon and to have extra funds to do stuff with.

I was at the last meeting that we were told the legal fees were no longer since Oasis had a better plan to stop trash collections on those houses that were behind on their dues. Great idea! In fact, I think this is the way things should be handled when we are out of money- to come up with ideas to bring in fees without spending more. But, if you implement a change in the community, you should notify the homeowners. Save $50-$60K on the weed control and not spend a couple hundred on telling people about the trash or that there is no more access to the parks after dark? So, a kid who is just there minding their own business should have the cops called on them when they don't even know there is a new rule? C'mon, whether or not it is required to notify homeowners, it should be.

My biggest problem is the continual lack of communication which could be handled in a monthly newsletter MAILED to all homeowners at a very low cost and then make sure that money spent is taking care of basic problems. That isn't too hard to ask for in a HOA that collects $6700 every month to do so.

To further prove Ashford's point I had NO idea that there was no access to the parks after dark.  What brought this on?  I come home at 10:30pm every night and see people in the park.

Continuous vandalism in the parks.  Graffitti is the biggest issue.  We spend $400 per month for a service to clean our playground equipment twice a month.  There is graffitti on the equipment all month long....and not because it never gets cleaned.  Right after its removed, it is tagged up again....outrageous!  And costly.  We had to remove the slide in the park on Castlegate at the far north side because we didnt have the money to replace it last year (vandals punched a hole about 1 foot by 1 foot in it).  We also just replaced the viewing bubble in the park by the school...another expensive fix.  The Sheriff's Office was not able to legally do anything about kids "haning out" in the parks after dark in the past...now, with the signs posted, they can remove them for trespassing.  "Most", not all, but most people, mainly kids are generally up to no good in the parks after dark, so the board posted the signs, closed from dusk till dawn.  This was also discussed at three meetings before actually voting on it.  Many people voiced their opininon on this at the meetings and most owners in attendance at all those meetings agreed with the board, and so it was done.  We make decisions ALL the time at our meetings that affect everyone...like not spending 10-15 thousand dollars on weed killer, like firing our landscapers in the winter (no service), etc...and all the "important" information is published in our news letter, bi-monthly now on the internet.  As always, I invite EVERYONE in the community, even renters, to attend ALL of our meetings.  If the majority of our homeowners in the community attended our meetings and said "dont close the parks", odds are, we would not have done it.  But the majority at the meetings said it was a good idea, so we did.  It's just like voting...if you don't vote for your local politicians and ballot measures, you really have no room to complain about the way things turn out.  If you would like to attend meetings but can't, send me an email and I'll send you our agenda, then you can email me your opinions.  You can check the meeting minutes on the community website to see what happened at previous meetings. 

I hear alot that communitcation is the largest problem...we used to send out a meeting notice in the mail before every meeting.  We have 1300 homes in the community, that cost's $650 per month just to mail those out...and alot of people (in the past) claimed they never recieved them anyway.  These are bad times in our economy and our association is no exception.  People loose their job and need to decide, pay HOA dues or eat....what do you think they choose?  So, we (the community) are loosing money but we still must maintain the same service....we cannot afford to spend that money every month to send a mailer that many people say they never get anyway.  They state laws say that we must make an effort to notify all homeowners of the meetings so we post them on all the mailboxes...most people check their mail.  We send out a quarterly newsletter in the mail with future dates, and they are ALL posted on the website.  This satisfies the requirement.  The best way for us to communicate with you is at the meetings, so please attend them...as many as you can, and again, email me if you cannot make a meeting and I will fill you in.

Next meeting is May 12th @ 7PM at the school.  Then July 21st at the school.  Future meetings will be announced at the July meeting (we cannot book past July at this point).

And I am always open to suggestions, email me @ "mike@mycastlegatehome.com"