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Volume 1, Issue 6 |
December 2000 |
In this Issue:
Neighborhood
Crime Watch Program
From the Manager
Calendar of Events/Noteworthy
Association Officers
Positions
Winter Lawn Care
Community Governance
Newsletter Contact
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By Dick Koch
Birch Creek Road
In
order to get the Neighborhood Crime Watch Program started in Arcadia
Park, we have to determine how many people would be interested in
participating. By participating, I mean coming to meetings/community events
where police officers from our area come to speak. In my last neighborhood they spoke on subjects ranging from
how to recognize gang members to when to call the police when you
see something out of the ordinary.
This program is for kids as well as adults.
I have contacted Officer Mike Roden who is the Crime Watch
Program Rep for Arcadia Park. He
informed me that to start the program in our development we need to
determine how many residents would be interested in participating. Please email me at res0548a@gte.net or call me at
817-482-1162 if you would like to attend a meeting with Officer
Roden. §
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Jennifer Norton, AMS®
I would like to take a moment to
introduce myself and tell you that I’m very excited about the
opportunity to manage Arcadia Park.
My name is Jennifer Norton.
My husband and I have been in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex
for a little over 5 years, living in Las Colinas.
We have two children, Savannah ~ almost 3 years old and
Connor who is a little over 3 months old.
I have been in the Association Manager
business for 5 years. I
am a designation Association Management Specialist (AMS®).
I am currently working towards my final designation, which I
hope to have by the end of 2001.
Some of you may ask what is a
designation manager, or an AMS®.
I will tell you:
As a board member, committee member or
an interested homeowner, you may need to search for qualified
individuals or firms to provide professional services for your
homeowner association. If
you’re like most Americans, buying a home is the largest
investment you will make in your lifetime.
To protect that investment, you should feel confident that
your community association has the expert professional guidance
necessary to operate and manage it assets effectively.
Community
Association Management is a growing profession dedicated to
fostering vibrant, responsive, quality community associations.
A community association manager is responsible for implementing
the decisions of the board of directors in running the day-to-day
operations of the association.
Effective managers must understand the principals of human
resources, contracting, accounting, psychology, insurance, physical
plant maintenance, education, government relations, board
management, construction and law.
Typical duties include:
·
Providing administrative, operational and managerial
advice to association boards and residents.
·
Developing association budgets and financial reports.
·
Directing the enforcement of community association
rules and restrictions.
·
Assisting board members in the selection of
contractors and insurance providers.
·
Overseeing and authorizing payment for community
association services.
·
Directing association personnel, if any.
·
Performing site inspections.
The AMS® Designation program is
sponsored by the Community Associations Institute (CAI). This
designation program was developed to recognize those managers who
have several years’ experience in the field and have completed
additional educational requirements.
Again, I look forward to working with
each of you to create a positive and successful homeowners
association. Please don’t hesitate to call me if you ever have any
questions or comments. §
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Deadline for Board Member Nominations
December 1
Arcadia Park Homeowners Transition Meeting
December 19
Heritage Park Elementary
(Notices for the meeting will be mailed at a later date with the
specific times)
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Noteworthy
The
vote for Spookiest Yard in Arcadia Park goes to 4124 Jenny Lake
Trail.
Great job!
If
anyone is interested in voting for the prettiest Christmas decorated
yard, please provide feedback to the newsletter editor.
Other
ideas and suggestions are also welcome.
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By Jennifer Norton, AMS®
As
we move forward with the transition of Arcadia Park Estates Homeowners
Association, and elect a Board of Directors, we will also need
nominations for a Secretary and Treasurer.
These two positions do not necessarily have to be held by a
Board member. According
to the documents of the association, once the Board of Directors are
elected by the homeowners, the Board will appoint a President, who
must be a Board member, and a Secretary and Treasurer, who need not
be members of the Board. If you wish to be considered for one of these positions,
please call me at 817-481-4344, ext. 26, or email me at:
jnorton@cmamanagement.com
no
later than December 22, 2000. §
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The
last thing you probably want to think about in the coming months of
winter is lawn maintenance. Soon your turfgrass will become dormant,
and when it does it’s still living plant material that requires
care. Here are some tips to remember in managing your lawn this
month and in the seasons ahead.
Watering
If turfgrass becomes too dry in its
dormant stage, it can and will die. In fact, more Texas turf is lost
during winter to desiccation (complete dryness) than to freeze
damage. Be sure to water your lawn at least once every four or five
weeks during winter if there hasn’t been enough rain or snow. A
dry lawn is likely to be damaged more by low temperatures than a
well-watered lawn.
As the lawn starts to break dormancy
and green up in late winter and early spring, it’s critical to
keep it well watered. Turfgrass is composed of plants that generate
new roots, stems and leaves during this transitional time.
Your grass will tell you when it needs
water. It will look dull and droopy and, when you walk across it,
you will leave footprints.
Watering should be done early in the
morning for two reasons: first, because there is less evaporation
and second, because it gives your lawn a chance to dry before
nightfall, which helps prevent diseases. Watering slowly, deeply and
infrequently will encourage deep root growth.
Tall fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, and
ryegrass are all cool-season grasses. That means they grow during
cool weather, so that's also when they should be fed. Fertilize
these grasses in late fall, winter, and again in early spring. A
good feeding timetable would be October 1, December 1, February 1,
and April 1. Most lawns do well with a 3-1-2 ratio of nitrogen,
phosphorous and potassium; look for fertilizer labeled 12-4-8 or
15-5-10, for example. Don't apply fertilizer to wet or moist grass,
but water immediately after.
Weed
Control
An
abundance of winter weeds can delay your turf’s spring transition.
When the weeds finally die, your lawn is likely to be thin and
highly susceptible to the next invasion of undesirable plants such
ascrabgrass. The most effective means of controlling most annual
winter weeds is to apply a preemergent herbicide. However, it must
be applied in early fall in order to be effective, so mark your
calendar for a fall treatment. It’s also too late to apply a
preemergent herbicide for weeds that have already germinated in your
lawn.
Here’s what you can do this time of
year to combat winter weeds:
·
For broadleaf weeds, use a postemergent herbicide
intended for broadleaf weeds. It will only be effective when applied
at temperatures above 55 F.
·
For grassy weeds and broadleaf weeds, use Roundup, but
only if the lawn is totally dormant. Roundup can injure or kill
turfgrass if it’s applied to green tissue.
·
A new product,
Scythe, will control winter annual weeds. The active ingredient is a
fatty acid. If your lawn is not totally dormant, Scythe might cause
some leaf tissue to burn, but it shouldn’t cause serious damage to
the turf.
Fertilization
It’s
not time yet to fertilize warm-season turfgrasses such as
bermudagrass, St. Augustinegrass, buffalograss and zoysia. However,
this month is a good time to apply a balanced fertilizer to lawns
that contain tall fescue, or warm-season lawns that were overseeded
with ryegrass for winter color. Apply approximately 1 pound of
nitrogen per 1,000 square feet in late January to early February.
The best time to fertilize warm-season
turfgrasses is after they’ve broken dormancy and begun to grow.
They do not, however, need an application of fertilizer to help them
break that dormancy. Soil temperature, air temperature and daylength
are all factors in determining spring green-up.
Contributions
The information compiled in this
article was acquired from Internet resources.
The authors contributing the original content were Helen L.
Sanders, Smith County Master Gardner and James A. McAfee, Associate
Professor and Turf Grass Specialist (Dallas).
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Jennifer Norton, AMS®
I
wanted to take a little bit of time to go over some of the
structures regarding Community Associations.
Arcadia Park is a community association.
Planned
communities
were built
as early as 1831, although
they did not become an established form of housing until the turn of
the century. At this
time, America was struggling to control both urban growth and
suburbinization by emphasizing carefully designed development
practices that were supported by municipal laws and private
covenants. Planned
communities were the natural outgrowth of this struggle.
There
are four basic characteristics of a community association:
·
All owners
are automatically members of a community association
·
Governing
documents create mutual obligations
·
Mandatory
fees (assessments) are generally levied against owners and are used
for the operation of the association
·
Owners share
a property interest in the community.
Governing Documents
The
governing documents create the legal foundation for a community
association. These
documents consist of the following:
·
A map,
plat, or plan depending on the type of community and state law:
State and local law will determine whether a document called
a map, plat or plan is required.
The law also is likely to specify the form and content of
this document. Where
this document is required, it generally identifies the separate
interests owned by each individual owner and the common areas, if
any, that are owned by the association.
- A
document describing the common scheme for the community called a
declaration,
master
deed, or Covenants, Conditions &
Restrictions
(CC&R’s).
The
common scheme for the community is created by the declaration.
These documents contain the covenants or restrictions
that regulate the owners’ behavior.
They bind all the owners in interlocking relationships,
establish association responsibilities, and define owner’s
rights and obligations.
Examples of covenants or restrictions include those that
create an obligation for the association to maintain common
areas, restrictions prohibiting certain uses, age and pet
restrictions, and restrictions relating to the transfer of
association interests. The
law provides that the covenants or restrictions in the
declaration “run with the land” or are transferred to
subsequent owners. This
means that lawful restrictions can be enforced again all owners.
·
Articles
of Incorporation
if the Association is incorporated: Community Associations that are
incorporated have Articles of Incorporation.
The Articles of Incorporation are generally much shorter than
the declaration. They
create the corporation and define its basic purpose and powers.
·
Bylaws:
contain
provisions concerning association operations.
Sometime, bylaws are developed at the same time as the
declaration. At other
times, they are adopted as soon as the corporation is established.
Generally, provisions that define property interests are
contained in the declaration. Provisions concerning an
association’s internal operating procedures are found in the
bylaws. The bylaws
address topics such as meetings, procedures for electing board
members and officers, and general duties of the Board.
·
Rules
and regulations
CONCLUSION
The
governing documents and local, state, and federal law control the
operation of the community association.
They form the legal foundation for the community association.
They determine what property interests, rights and
obligations the owners have.
It is therefore, essential for association leaders to be
familiar with both the governing documents and the law.
ROLE OF OWNERS
Although
community associations are run by Board members, governing documents
and the law often reserve powers for owners.
For example, there are often provisions in the documents and
the law stating that the owners must elect the board members.
Also, some governing documents only permit owners to fill
vacant positions on the board.
It
is the owners – not the board members – who generally have the
power to amend the declarations. Along
with these rights come obligations.
The owners are obligated to adhere to the restrictions
imposed in the governing documents.
If they do not, a court can force them to comply.
Owners
are also obligated to share in the financial operation of the
community by paying their assessments on time.
If they do not, the association may file a lien on their home
and they may lose their home through foreclosure.
Although
the owners do not have a legal obligation to actively participate in
the association, the association will not be able to function if no
one participates.
Therefore, it is important for the board to foster a sense of
community spirit to encourage participation.
ROLE OF THE BOARD
The
board manages the community.
The board’s authority to act on behalf of the association
is not, however, unlimited.
The governing documents – and sometimes the law – grant
the board the authority and obligation to act.
They also restrict the board’s ability to act.
Fiduciary Duty
The
board always has a fiduciary duty to the owners.
Fiduciary duty is an umbrella term and includes a duty of
loyalty and a duty of ordinary care.
The board’s duty of loyalty prohibits board members from
using their position to take unfair advantage of the association.
Board members owe a duty of undivided loyalty to the
association.
They may not make decisions for the association that benefit
their own interests at the expense of the association and its
members.
For example, board members breach the duty of loyalty if they
sign a contract with a company in which they have a material
financial interest and the contract price is unfair to the
association.
In
addition to the board members’ obligation to avoid self-dealing
and conflicts of interest, they have a duty to exercise ordinary
care in fulfilling their responsibilities.
In other words, board members must perform their duties in
good faith, in a manner they reasonably believe to be in the best
interests of the corporation, and with such care as an ordinarily
prudent person in a similar position under similar circumstances
would use.
ROLE OF THE OFFICERS
The
governing documents – particularly the bylaws and state law- often
have provisions relating to the officers.
A board generally has at least four officers:
president,
vice-president, secretary, and treasurer.
Arcadia Park’s documents do not call for a vice-president.
President:
is the chief
executive officer of the association and represents the board before
the membership. He or
she generally sets the meeting agendas and presides all meetings of
the board and membership. The
president usually has the power to execute legal documents on behalf
of the association. Finally, the president may have the right to
either select or nominate committee chairs.
Secretary:
has the
responsibility for ensuring that board and membership meeting
agendas are prepared and distributed and that the minutes and
materials referred to in those minutes are prepared.
He or she also maintains, makes sure the manager maintains,
the Book of Resolutions and all official records, including official
correspondence, contracts, and membership roster.
The secretary or association manager can perform the above
tasks. The secretary
also receives, verifies, and maintains all proxies and attests by
signature to the legitimacy of certain documents.
Treasurer:
works
with appropriate staff, contractors, and committees to ensure that
the annual operating budget is developed and submitted for board or
membership approval (whichever is required), and that the records of
all association financial transactions and roster of delinquent
accounts in maintained. The
treasurer recommends action regarding collections, receives and
disburses funds as authorized, ensures the preparation of periodic
financial reports, and authorizes an independent audit.
If the association has a manager, he or she is likely to
prepare the documents, but the treasurer is ultimately responsible
for them. §
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To contact the Newsletter
Editor, please Email:
newsletter@arcadiapark.net
or by US Mail:
Arcadia Park Newsletter
4233 Jenny Lake Trail
Keller, TX. 76248
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