Greetings Homeowners,

I can’t believe that there are already signs of fall in the air here in Minnesota. Sumac leaves have started turning red and, of course, preseason football has begun.   It won’t be long until the seasonal owners start returning to the Village. 

1.       Community Financials:

·         Our community continues to operate under budget which is good for all of us.  Additionally, our reserve fund continues to grow and is now $473,275 which is up 25% from this time last year.  As a reminder, the reserve fund is for large anticipated expenses like building painting and road resurfacing.

2.       Buildings and Maintenance:

·         We are continuing our work to restore the common elements of the B building that were damaged in the June fire.  We hope to have the exterior restored by this time next month.

·         The work to install fiber-optic lines around the Village (GigaPower) is still apparently waiting on building permits from the City of Mesa.  

·         Platinum Pools will now be power-washing our pool decks the first Monday of each month.

·         A motor in the north spa heater was replaced this month at a cost of $1000.

·         We’ve simplified our architectural approval process. Homeowners previously had to wait for monthly board meetings to get replacement doors approved. We recognized this caused unnecessary delays. Going forward, our Director of Buildings (Jeff Coughlin) can approve replacement doors and windows on the spot without involving the rest of the board.  So, please forward any requests for door or window replacements to the office (vawhoa@gmail.com) or submit a PayHOA general request and it will get reviewed immediately.

·         We had our annual Mesa City Fire Department and contracted fire-extinguisher inspections this month.  Our overall inspection passed and our extinguisher inspection revealed (as expected) that a few of the 58 fire extinguishers around the Village needed to be serviced.  The cost of the inspection and service was $1210.  

3.       Landscaping: 

·         We’ve added a day to the irrigation schedule as the temperatures continue to be brutal in Arizona.  The emitters will now run on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights.   

·         You may be surprised to learn that we have more than 100 Palm trees in the Village.  The 21 Pineapple and Date Palms were pruned in May and the other 85 tall Palms were trimmed this month for a total cost of $6890.  We also have a plan to eventually skin most, if not all, of the tall Palm trees. Skinning a tree involves removing  dead fronds and other debris from the trunk.

·         Irrigation issues were resolved in the flag pole and club house planter areas as well as two problems along Lindstrom at a cost of $885. 

·         Over-seeding of the green-space has been a major topic of discussion over the last few years.  For those not familiar with over-seeding, it involves planting a crop of annual rye grass over the top of the existing sod so that the grass stays green and lush throughout the winter. The city of Mesa along with Maricopa County discourage us each year from spending the time, money, and water on this practice.  A motion to over-seed the green-space was made at the August board meeting but it failed due to a lack of a second.

4.       The search for a new Community Association Manager (CAM) is proceeding on schedule. The selection committee interviewed candidates and narrowed down the applicant field to the final 4. Formal Board of Director interviews with the remaining candidates will be the second week of September.  We hope to make the selection quickly thereafter so that the new CAM can work alongside Cheri for 2-4 weeks.

5.       A quick reminder for those of you renting out your unit that you need to let your insurance company know that you are changing the use of your residence.  Typically homeowners have an HO6 policy but those usually specifically exclude coverage if you have rent-paying tenants in the unit.  It is also a requirement with most mortgage lenders that you have landlord insurance if your unit is being used as an investment property. Landlord insurance usually covers appliances and fixtures as well as providing liability coverage for the unit owner.

6.       If you have an hour and seven minutes to spare, you can watch our August Board of Directors meeting by clicking here.  You may notice that a few slides have information redacted as we cannot legally discuss individual homeowner financial or legal issues in an open board meeting.

Public service tidbit for August – The average homeowner wastes an estimated $165 per year on electricity due to “phantom loads”.    This is electricity trickling into anything that is plugged in that isn’t being used.  Examples include TVs, appliances, sound systems, computers and power-strips.  Even that phone charger block that is plugged behind your couch that you never use can add up to a 25₵ to your annual utility bill.

Enjoy the remainder of your summer and we look forward to seeing you all again soon!

Your Village at Apache Wells Board of Directors
Steve Patton, Jeff Coughlin, Sheryl Brown, Jean Mills, & Gail Smith