2008-Q3-news

The Sheriff's Office will be monitoring our neighborhood a little closer due to chronic complaints of speeding and stop sign violations. PLEASE slow down and obey the stop signs... for everyone's sake. Schools are open again and children are everywhere.

Currently we do not have enough candidates for the 2009 Board of Directors to meet the requirement of five Board Members. Board Members will be elected at the Annual Meeting on November 17. Anyone interested in becoming a Board Member should send in the "Notice of Intent to be a Candidate" included in the Annual Meeting package, or come to the annual meeting and declare your interest.

In an effort to keep our neighborhood attractive, please remember to keep our mailboxes looking decent. There are a few that need to be painted or replaced.

Probably most people do not know this, but Kathy and Steve Wilson pick up roadside trash almost each day during their walks. This is especially noticeable with the lack of trash along Green Springs to Enterprise and also along Marshall St. near our subdivision. It's this type of thing that people do that makes our area attractive. Without their efforts, the roadside trash would just accumulate until the lawn crews maintain these areas which is weekly during the summer and every two weeks during the winter season. Kathy and Steve, we do appreciate it!

Have you noticed that you haven't been receiving a quarterly Newsletter in the mail? As we mentioned in the Newsletter last September, the cost of mailing out the Newsletters to 123 homes has become very costly. In order to save homeowners money, we are now putting it on our website quarterly rather than mailing it. If you would like to know when the Newsletter has been posted, email Pierre at Ameritech at pierre@ameritechmail.com and once a quarter you will be notified that the newsletter is available to read.

The streets within the Huntington Trails neighborhood are privately owned by the members of the neighborhood through the Homeowners Association. That means the City of Safety Harbor does not maintain our streets. We are responsible for street repairs and pay for repairs through our quarterly association dues. The Association maintains a reserve account for these expenses.
Our streets were scheduled to be resurfaced this year. Resurfacing is necessary to protect against much more expensive reconstruction of the entire street base. Our best quote for street repairs and resurfacing was $132,000. Our reserves for street improvements total $90,000. Therefore, we were approximately $45,000 short. If we had proceeded, a one time special assessment of approximately $365 per property owner would have been necessary.
After considerable reflection and review by experts of street conditions, the Board has decided to delay the repair and resurfacing for three years. At our annual Home Owners Association meeting, the Board will be recommending quarterly fees be increased by $20 per quarter in order that our reserve account will have sufficient funds by 2012 to cover the required expense of street repair and resurfacing. We have 123 homes in our neighborhood that will ultimately share evenly in roadway maintenance.