Greetings Homeowners,

The end of summer is still a few days away but the leaves up here in Northern Minnesota are already starting to show their fall colors. Hopefully it’s also signaling a drop in temps around the Village.

• Community Association Manager:
  • As mentioned last month, our CAM search committee selected four candidates for interviews from the 20+ individuals who applied for the position. The board then conducted Zoom interviews with those candidates and selected Anna Earls for the Community Association Manager (CAM) position.She was offered the position this week and has accepted our offer.She is extremely well qualified and should be a real asset to the community.We anticipate Anna starting in October so Cheri has graciously agreed to hang around a bit longer to help orient Anna to the position.The board would like to thank Sue VanLeuven, Terry Campbell, Jim Nielsen, and Donna Patton who were instrumental in this selection process.
  • Cheri has become part of the VAW family and we are planning on having a retirement party for her sometime in November or December when more homeowners are back in residence.
• Community Financials:
  • The Village expenses are still running about 2% under budget but we’ve already gotten notices from vendors indicating that their services will be costing more next year.For example, the monthly landscaping service cost will be increasing from $5520 to $5690. If you are starting to plan your 2026 finances, you can assume that the HOA dues will probably increase again.
• Buildings and Maintenance:

• We are trying to restore the damaged common elements of the B building but have been slowed up by the insurance company. Our claim has been “in process” for three months but in the last few days they have agreed to pay our claim.We expect this to be finally resolved in the next 30 days.
• When we agreed to let GigaPower install fiber optic lines around the Village it was with two conditions. First, in order to avoid damaging too much of our landscape, they had to utilize horizontal boring for most of the work. Secondly, they had to be finished by the end of September.Well, it’s mid-September and the work hasn’t yet started.Additionally, we were just informed that they would be using micro-trenching instead of horizontal boring. Micro-trenching involves cutting a narrow trench in the roads and laying the optical cable in those trenches.You can view an example of this here.  Due to these issues, we, as a board, have asked them to suspend the project until we can review and approve their new design.  
• Our swimming pools and spas are inspected annually by Maricopa County. This year they noted concerns with some of our gates not closing automatically.As such, all of the gates have been inspected and adjusted and one closing mechanism is being replaced.Also, one of our “shepherds hook” poles is missing. Baring someone finding the 12 foot life saving device hiding in a closet, we will be replacing it.
• The clubhouse carpets were professionally cleaned this month.

• One tree in phase 1 keeps falling over.It’s being re-staked as necessary.Guess it didn’t like the monsoons.
• “Skinning” of 14 palms near the green space began this week. This process involves removing old, dead frond bases and fibers from a palm tree's trunk to create a clean, smooth appearance. This painstaking process is done entirely by hand with box-cutters. You can see a photo of the work being done here.
• Another insurance reminder.If you have multiple unrelated people living in a unit, all parties need to be listed as “named insureds” on your condo-owner’s insurance.
• This month’s Board of Directors meeting was fairly short.You can view it by clicking here.  As I mentioned last month, we’ve had to hold a brief executive session after each open board meeting to discuss the CAM hiring and an on-going legal matter.

I hope you all enjoy the last couple days of summer and I look forward to seeing you again soon!