August 9th - Monthly Update
By Jim Hilker, HOA President
Indoor Season
Wow…crazy heat indexes lately! When folks up North enjoy this time of year as their “outdoor season”, here in FL this is our “indoor” or “in the pool” season. This is why there is a pause on social events at CV. The good news though, is that the Social Committee is meeting this coming Monday and they have an exciting number of really fun events they will be planning for the Fall and Winter season. You’ll see a list of those soon in an upcoming “What’s Going On?” update from Karen Smith.
FDOT Drainage Remediation
A few years ago, before the 7-11 was built and before they cleared those wooded areas for that construction, there was a ditch that ran along side of River Rd that collected storm water runoff and drained it North toward I-75, then turned East through a culvert under River Rd and emptied into the Turtle Creek Preserve. During heavy storms and high-water periods, it also collected the outflow from our large lake and pond adjacent to Goombay Court and took it out into the same drainage ditch and culvert. The lot clearing, grading, and construction of the 7-11, as well and the River Rd widening project completely eliminated that vital drainage system, and to make things worse, it turned our lake/pond outflow into an inflow where all runoff was now diverted into our pond and lake, bringing excessive sediment into our pond. I pointed this out to the storm water drainage engineer for FDOT a little over a year ago, and from that, they engineered a remediation drainage system and made it part of the River Rd widening project. Over the past few weeks, the FDOT construction team has installed Phase 1 of that drainage system. They will do Phase 2 once they finish adding the third Southbound lane and able to divert current traffic onto that.
In essence, the new drainage system will collect all storm water runoff that currently flows into our pond, and take it to the East side of River Rd into Turtle Creek Preserve.
Gate Fobs
At the last HOA Board meeting held on August 4th, the Board passed a motion that the clicker remotes (Fobs) currently in use will remain that way, but there will be no new Fobs issued, no fixes provided when they stop working, and no service to the receivers should those stop working. Basically, the Fob access system is being phased out because Tap-2-Open is a flawless and inexpensive system for gate access. If your current Fobs stop working when you push the button, then you simply need use the Tap-2-Open mobile app to open the gates, or you can log into your Tap-2-Open dashboard app and create pin codes to use at the key pads. Here is a link to the simple instructions on how to do this. You should also create and use pin codes to give temporary access to your service vendors and visitors.
Landscaping Service-level Reminder
It has become apparent that a reminder is needed regarding the CV Landscaping Services. The most important thing to keep in mind is that all 4 of the landscaping companies CV has contracted with since it’s inception are production-level mowing, edging, trimming. They are not gardeners. They come in to get as much done as quickly and inexpensively as possible and move on to the next community. They do not hire gardeners, or even landscapers; they hire people to operate mowing, edging, trimming machines, and weed sprayers. Please align your expectations accordingly. We are not going to receive meticulous or beautiful trimming of shrubs, hedges, trees, etc. through production-level service vendors.
Last year I put out a poll to all CV residents to get a pulse of what the majority of homeowner responses felt about paying more money to secure a quality, “gardener” type landscaping service company instead of a production quality level provider. The overwhelming response was not to increase costs and to just keep it the same. This is why we sometimes receive less-than-ideal shrub trimming and mowing - we are getting what we residents agreed to pay for. Everyone has the option to hire their own gardener or do their own trimming, but that will not entitle any individual’s reduction in HOA dues.
Private Parties at the Clubhouse and Pool Suspended
Another recent decision of the HOA Board was to suspend all private parties at the Clubhouse and pool amenity center. The reason for this is that these seem to require much unwanted and unexpected cleanup work, which always falls on us Board members. We hope to be able to reinstate this opportunity later, but we need time to think and discuss alternative reasonable policy changes and rental/cleanup fees.
Regular CV committee meetings and events open to all CV resident are permitted as normal.
No private parties are permitted, or large family & friends gatherings within the amenity center boundaries.
The posted pool rules instruct everyone to take your trash home with you. The garbage cans on premises are primarily there for use during officially sanctioned CV meetings and events.