November Site News
Thanksgiving’s come and gone, and that means the holiday shopping season is upon us. Has the current economic climate affected your plans? Thanksgiving fell on our usual recycling pickup day and, for the first time that I can recall, North Brunswick rescheduled the pickup instead of merely omitting it. Pickup was today (as noted in our calendar). I don’t mean to be mean, but I found it amusing to hear a recycling guy pointing out to a homeowner that they weren’t picking up trash, only recycling…
There were a few minutes of instability this morning during the upgrade to the latest version of the software. The upgrade went well. Some weeks back I implemented automated spam control which relieved me from attending to the chore manually. That seems to be working well, too.
This site has an extremely local focus. When someone registers, their email address is required. Naturally, as Administrator I get to see the stream of new user registrations and the variety of domains represented can be interesting. You might expect – and you’d be correct – that public email systems (like gmail.com) are the most represented. But lately there’s been an influx of registrations from yahoo.co.uk and today it’s the largest represented single domain with 31 registrations. The reason for the sudden surge in interest from Yahoo’s UK & Ireland users is beyond me.
When I moved the site from custom PHP code to the current CMS I needed to create a way to manage the attachments – images, documents, and so on – that are sometimes part of these entries. Today, of course, that functionality is built-in. So, over the next month or so I’ll be migrating old attachments to new URLs. When you access relocated attachments from on-site they’ll just work, but if you’ve bookmarked an old attachment you might need to find the new URL and bookmark it instead. The logs tell me that problems like that should be quite minimal so I’ve elected not to take the time to set up automatic redirects from the old URLs. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.
Attention new Riverbend residents! If you wish to post new entries you may upgrade to Resident status. You can learn more about that here.
Riverbend Annual Meeting
November 18, 2008
Riverbend
Annual Meeting
November, 2008
The annual Riverbend Homeowners Association meeting was held on November 6 in the main court room at the North Brunswick Town Center. The meeting was attended by fewer than fifteen homeowners, three Board members and representatives from EPM, our property management company. The annual meeting is held to nominate candidates for open Board positions, review the annual budget, address activities completed during the year and discuss proposed programs.
Election
Three candidates were nominated for the two open Board positions. Their profiles are included. A ballot is included in this mailing and we ask that you vote for two of the candidates. The ballot can be faxed, emailed, or delivered to the EPM office or given to a Board member. If you have already provided an absentee ballot, you cannot vote again. The three candidates are:
- Ken Bierstein – has lived in Riverbend for more than fifteen years. He has served on the Board for the past five years.
- Toni DeAngelo – has spent the last several years on the Board and lived in Riverbend for more than twenty years.
- Rick Pavlicky [sic] – a first time candidate and also a long time resident.
Budget
The monthly association fee will remain $185.00. The entire budget was sent in an earlier mailing. The proposed 2009 budget is $332,715 ($195.26 per unit). The 2008 budget was $328,810 ($192.96 per unit). We have been able to maintain the current monthly fee because the line item costs (grounds maintenance, road/sewer/water line maintenance, utilities, administration and miscellaneous costs) have remained largely the same since last year. However, we have been very fortunate recently with mild winters and have saved a good bit of money because of lower snow removal charges and fewer water/sewer line breaks. These unused funds have offset other increased costs and allow us to maintain the current monthly fee.
An item of concern is our bad debt provision. Riverbend has not been immune from the current economic crisis. Currently, there are two unoccupied homes and others in the process of foreclosure. The Association is owed more than $21,000 in unpaid/delinquent fees from homeowners. We are working closely with EPM and our attorneys in every possible way to recover the money that is due.
There are fixed costs each month that must be paid, and when some association members pay late or not at all, the balance must be covered by the other homeowners.
Landscaping
The Association contacted a landscape architect, Susan E. Wydick, to get professional advice on best handling the challenges we face at Riverbend. She walked the property with Board members and prepared a report which was shared with the attendees at the meeting. We asked her to prioritize her recommendations to address: 1)The entrances to Riverbend, particularly the Hidden Lake Drive entrance with the decaying railroad ties, the overgrown plantings, and the school bus stop. 2) The sidewalks that have become overgrown, dark, and unable to support plants. 3) The parking areas which are grossly overgrown or barren.
The report said that much of the planting had outlived its attractiveness. Although the plants had been trimmed and maintained, after more than twenty five years they were out of balance with the homes and gave Riverbend a “dated/old” appearance. Her recommendation is that we begin a serious effort to remove these plants and replace them with things more proportional to the buildings and suitable to their space. The report also recommended a reconfiguration of the planting at the entrances and a curved set of steps at the bus stop that would allow access to the curb from the sidewalk and eliminate the mess caused by the crushed stones that are kicked into the street. As our budget allows, we will begin implementing these recommendations during the winter and spring and continue over the next several years.
Home Maintenance
The Board works diligently to protect the look of Riverbend. We continuously look for better materials and elements that will make maintenance easier and enhance the property. We are open to any suggestions that homeowners have for new products or vendors/contractors that will add to the community.
The Board asks for your suggestions, but also asks for your compliance with the rules of the community. If you received a letter from the Board asking you to paint, fix gutters/windows, remove a planter/canoe/etc. or do something else, please understand that you are not being persecuted unjustly. You got the letter because you are not complying with the Covenants of Riverbend that you signed when you moved into your home. It is the Board’s responsibility to notify you of that.
If you are changing the exterior of your home, in any way, you MUST notify the Board of your intention. In 99% of the time, you will get your answer in 48 hours. A delay beyond that probably means that there is a legal or procedural issue involved in your request.
The Board rewrote all of these letters after receiving complaints from residents in the past who thought that the correspondence was too harsh. If your feelings are now hurt because of a letter you got, take it up with a Board member, or come to one of bi-monthly meetings. Don’t call EPM to complain. They didn’t write the letter.
Vendors/Contracts
If a homeowner has an issue with any of the vendors working on/for Riverbend, let a Board member know. The Board hired the vendors and continuously reviews their performance.
EPM is our property management company. Janice Barber and her staff have worked closely with us over the years providing information and counsel. They know Riverbend inside and out, and have NEVER been unresponsive to our requests. They have always had our best interests at heart and work hard to protect us from ourselves at times.
EPM does NOT send out any correspondence without Board oversight. They do not act unilaterally. Understand that EPM works for Riverbend and their reputation in the industry is impeccable. We enjoy unprecedented access and cooperation and look to continue and grow that relationship.
The Board has renewed our contract with them.
Scheduled Maintenance
| 20 November 2008 | ||
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This server will be undergoing some scheduled maintenance 20 November 2008 beginning 9PM EST. The expected duration is 45 minutes to an hour. Please pardon our dust while we make some adjustments to serve you better.
Annual Meeting Notes
The Annual Meeting took place last night at the Municipal Complex. (This meeting place, while less convenient than the Hidden Lake Clubhouse, is free.) In attendance were Ron, Ken and Toni of the current Board; Janice and an assistant from EPM; approximately 12 homeowners.
Without quorum, normal meeting formalities were kind of slackened. The usual review and acceptance of the 2007 meeting minutes was suspended, for example.
The 2009 budget was presented and some line items prompted further discussion. What follows is a summary, not chronological.
We learned that there are some vacant residences in the community, including a couple of foreclosures. (Hmm, I smell an investment opportunity – I’d personally welcome any information that anyone can offer, please write to me in confidence.) These vacancies are eating a bit of our budget. Added 13 November: Someone wrote to me to say that one home, in “awful condition” with “at least $50K [of] additional work” needed, was offered in early September as a “bank sale” for a whopping $330K!
We talked about some aspects of landscaping and overall contractor performance. It came out that pruning, by contract, was once per year, usually around July. There were some questions regarding contractor oversight – many homeowners in attendance expressed concern that performance monitoring wasn’t adequate, that were weren’t getting good value. The recent seal coating, one homeowner pointed out, was largely washed away by the rains in one area because of inadequate preparation. The Board indicated that they would take that up.
As in the past, management company performance came under fire. (At that point, Janice and her assistant left the meeting.) The discussion here became heated at times but were lacking in details, obviously more private matters between a homeowner and the board, where the management company had handled things poorly. Logging of calls and letters to the company were identified as general issues, as well as other communications-related topics such as the disrespectful tone of letters, etc. The board seemed sympathetic and they indicated they’d dig deeper, but they didn’t make any commitments.
Regarding snow removal, it came out that we have retained the contractor on a pay-as-you-go basis. Interesting to me was that we spent 20-some-odd-thousand last winter on snow removal. To my recollection, though, we only experienced one snowfall totaling couple of inches. It caused a delayed school opening, but the temperature rose into the 50s and it was largely gone by the afternoon rush. 20 grand? Well, maybe last year’s contract had some minimum built into it.
We learned that a proposal for a comprehensive landscaping overhaul has been made. While our community is beautiful, it’s also overgrown – even planted inappropriately in some areas. The solution is a grand three-phase plan beginning with the entrances, continuing to the walkways and finishing up in the driveway/court areas. The board passed around the thick booklet containing the proposal. If it goes forward it will be undertaken over a period of years – like any of our large projects. (I told Ron that I’d really like a copy of the proposal for publication here. He didn’t offer it up, but I’ll press some more later.) The proposal is available for viewing at the EPM office.
Okay, okay. The budget news you’ve been waiting for, of course, is that the 2009 per-unit monthly fees will remain unchanged at $185. And that’s always good news!
Moving on to the election of two homeowners to Board positions, there isn’t a lot to report. Ken, an incumbent, has already had his resume sent around. Toni, another incumbent, expressed her interest in running again, but “didn’t get around to” submitting her resume on time. Rick, a new candidate, was nominated from the floor. There may have been a 4th candidate but the meeting was a bit out of order with some side conversations and I didn’t catch that part completely - sorry about that. Ken, Toni and Rick each spoke a bit. Without quorum, ballots were collected from those present. The board didn’t say so, but previous experience makes me believe we’ll see another mailing including resumes from all candidates and a new proxy. We’ll see.
By then, homeowners were donning jackets and leaving. The meeting broke up.
Annual Meeting
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North Brunswick Municipal Complex
Recycling
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There is a recycling pickup today.
The pickups of plastic, glass, newspapers, and cardboard usually occur between 8 AM and 10 AM on alternating Thursdays. See the North Brunswick Township site for the full schedule. Riverbend is in Zone 3.
Please note that the recycling pickups near the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays have been adjusted to accommodate the holidays. The reminders here have been updated to reflect the changes.
As of October 2007, North Brunswick’s recycling materials were picked up by Central Jersey Waste and Recycling, Inc. of Trenton, NJ. You can reach them at 609-656-4200.
Learn more about Middlesex County’s Solid Waste Management programs, including the schedule for Household Hazardous Waste Days.
Please be a responsible citizen and recycle!
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