Recent Repaving Damaged By Cold Weather
Brrr… This winter’s been pretty darned cold. But besides the discomfort, now it’s taking a toll on our community infrastructure as well.
Repaving Heaved
A new bump greeted me as I pulled in the other night. As you can see in the first image the recently repaved surface has heaved up above the level of Riverbend Drive, stretching and breaking the seam seal along with it. My guess is that the seam seal lost its integrity (maybe from the recent plowing?) and allowed water from the last snow/rain event to get between the paving and the ground underneath. When the temperatures plummeted the water froze.
Magnitude of Heave
The second image shows the degree of lift – a little more than an inch – in more detail. Because of the angle, it’s easy to misinterpret the image and think that it’s more. So I’ve added a couple of reference lines. That’s a six-inch ruler, and the wood block only serves to keep it from falling over.
I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the quality of the repaving work done in my driveway/court in the first place. Ruts have appeared under the wheels of some cars where they routinely park. I’m no paving engineer, but I would think that the surface should be sufficient to support parked autos without rutting. Or, if this is a characteristic of the thickness or material type we bought, then I’d expect to see ruts all over the place. Neither is the case.
Anyway, I’d expect that come spring the edges will crumble and we’ll have potholes where the repaving meets the street. The same thing is happening on the other side of Riverbend Drive, too, by the way. How are yours?
January Site News
Cold enough for you?
Okay, okay, you can stop throwing things! I don’t like this stuff any more than you do.
Back in the November site news I wrote that I was confused by the number of non-local registrations:
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.
I looked into it a little and it appears that several of these registrations were machine generated – bots and stuff – that some use to boost the page rank of their own sites. So over the past couple of months I’ve put some countermeasures in place that seem to have curtailed the practice. So if you’re tried to register and have been stonewalled, that might be why. Drop me a line for help. There’s no harm in having the dummy registrations around, but I may clean them up at some point just to keep things tidy.
I also mentioned that I’d be moving the attachments – documents, images and the like – to standard locations instead of the scheme I dreamed up before the software had built-in support. That work’s been done for a while and I haven’t heard any complaints. It must have been successful.
Don’t forget, if you visit infrequently yet still want to know when new material appears you can still subscribe via RSS! There are separate streams for postings and comments, so you won’t miss a thing.
I know it’s hard to believe it with the temperature hovering around ten degrees, but the warm weather isn’t all that far away anymore. Here are a couple of pictures (click to enlarge, click again for full-size). In the meantime, throw another log on the fire.
Election Results – Winter Activities – Parking
Happy New Year
ELECTION RESULTS
At the Annual Meeting in November, three candidates ran for the two open Board positions. We were short of the minimum number of votes to validate the election. The Covenants require that we receive votes from at least one third of the homeowners. A follow up letter generated additional responses. The minimum was met and on December 31, as per rule, the voting was closed.
In a close vote, Ken Bierstein and Toni DeAngelo received the most votes. Rick Plavnicky was close behind. They will begin their three year term at the first meeting later this month. The involvement of any homeowner with the Board is appreciated and hopefully Rick will become an even more active participant in Riverbend. He currently monitors an unofficial Riverbend web site.
WINTER ACTIVITES
So far this winter, we have been fortunate to avoid many of most of the big storms that have been forecast. Let’s hope that our luck continues.
The Board stays in close contact with our Snow Removal contractor during the storms. Cleaning the driveways and sidewalks is paramount, either by plow, snow blower or shovel.
In spite of our best efforts, we have had incidents where residents have slipped while entering their cars in the parking spaces. That is truly unfortunate.
But as we know, getting in to clean these spaces is a challenge for our contractor. People do not move their cars from the spaces during the snowfalls, and it becomes impossible for the plows to maneuver and safely clear the spaces. We have asked the vendor to give us an estimate on cleaning snow from the parking areas and around the cars.
It is anticipated that such a removal, in a typical year, could amount to several hundred dollars per household. The contractor is reluctant to use snow blowers in such tight quarters, for fear of damaging vehicles. Everything would have to be hand shoveled. That would only be practical after the cars themselves had been cleared of the snow.
The best action would be for residents to keep a shovel and some salt/snow melt on hand in their garage and use it if they need to get to their cars before the contractor has a chance to clean the area.
PARKING
In order to best clear the driveways, move your vehicle when you see the guys removing the snow. They appreciate your cooperation and it makes it so much easier to keep the driveways/parking areas clear.
USE YOUR GARAGE. Each resident is entitled to ONE parking space plus their garage. If you have more than two cars, or you use your garage as a storage area, you need to use the street to park your second/third vehicle. It is unfair and inconsiderate to your neighbors to abuse this guideline.
The Board has the option of towing the vehicles when guidelines are violated.
Recycling
| 8 January 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 22 January 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 5 February 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 19 February 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 5 March 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 19 March 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 2 April 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 16 April 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 30 April 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 14 May 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 28 May 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 11 June 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 25 June 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 9 July 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 23 July 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 6 August 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 20 August 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 3 September 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 17 September 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 1 October 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 15 October 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 29 October 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 12 November 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 27 November 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 10 December 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
| 24 December 2009 | ||
| 8:00 am | to | 10:00 am |
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 holiday hasbeen adjusted to accommodate the holiday. The reminder here has been updated to reflect the change.
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!
Hosting donated by…
Event Calendar
« Dec 
Feb » January 2009 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
