Quail Estates Newsletter

Transcription

1 August 2017 Inside this issue: Social Committee 1 Notice 1 Quail Estates Newsletter Social Committee: We will meet in September to start planning for National Night out, if you would like to be part of the planning or just help out at the event please qecdirector@yahoo.com. Moving Forward 2 Irrigation Repairs 3 Events: 3 October- National Night Out We will be hosting the Mayor, Police Chief and Officer McGruff! 9 December- Toys For Tots Landscape Committee 4 Landscape Committee 5 Thank you to everyone who came out and helped with the July Potluck! We hope to see you all at National Night Out. ACC Committee 6 FAQ 7 New Neighbors and Businesses 8 Notice: Beginning January 2018, delinquent assessment fees will be as follows: $25 per month from the due date and 6% annum Annual HOA Assessments are due January 1 st for all homeowners. If you are currently late on your assessments fees, we encourage you to contact Real Manage to make payment arrangements.

2 Page 2 Quail Estates Newsletter Moving Forward Together We d like to focus on the strides we've made as a board & community over the last several months. 1. Some of us participated in training events provided by Real Manage to better educate ourselves on being productive board members for our community. 2. We lowered the landscaping budget by changing companies and having the areas mowed every other week instead of weekly. As well as volunteering to do a lot of the work ourselves for now, such as working the flowerbeds. 3. We worked together to create a deer netting policy that would benefit members who are being bothered by the deer. This policy is now in effect. IF you plan to participate, then you will need to fill out an ACC form & submit it. 4. We hosted the annual block party for only $15! The cost of a Special Events Permit. We thank all our neighbors who came out in support of this event. It was nice meeting new neighbors and great catching up to some neighbors we hadn t seen in a while. Not to mention all the food! Delicious to say the least. 5. We contracted Texas Reserves to do a reserve study for our community. They will: Evaluate our financial and maintenance records Do an onsite inspection of our community Provide a detailed Reserve analysis study with a 30-year projection Make recommendations for our community in regards to long term planning and budgeting for our Reserve Account. 6. We ve welcomed a new board member at the Special Meeting held this past March, Shannon McRae. We appreciate the way Shannon jumped right in and began pulling committees together and putting out a newsletter that will help assist us in keeping our community informed. 7. We ve welcomed a new board member at our Annual Meeting in August. Thank you to Ray Nauta. We appreciate his common-sense approach to our ongoing projects and the business we are entrusted to take care of. He has already proven to be a great asset to this communities HOA board. 8. Outgoing Volunteer Directors- MJ Jackson and Tim Bingham, we would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for your hard work and your willingness to volunteer your time to be directors on the Quail Estates HOA board for the past several years. We want you to know your efforts have not gone unnoticed and your community appreciates you. Again, thank you for giving of so much of your time to be a volunteer. 9. Quail Estates is privileged to have Julie Wright working with our community. She was just honored with the Portfolio Manager of the Year award for the Property Management Industry. This individual excels at providing their communities with the knowledge and expertise crucial to the successful operations of each association. Julie began working with the Quail Estates community this past January. We have found her to be dedicated and proactive. She continuously brings to the volunteer boards attention items that need to be discussed or acted on, and she is continuously training us to be the board members, you, our community deserves.

3 Quail Estates Newsletter Page 3 Irrigation Repairs: Broken Arrow: Heart of Texas Landscaping was called to make the following repairs ($202.98): Backflow unit was leaking (no charge warranty work) Zone 4 under the tree Missing sprinkler head creating a geyser - replaced spray head Zone 4 along fence line Water line busted by roots from a tree. Severe Leak beneath the ground. repaired Other: water pipe. Zone 8 Drip sprinkler heads at the base of each tree. Turned off. These trees are established and zone 8 is not necessary at this time. Two of the sprinkler heads have a severe leak. Zones 1 5 are set to water for 3 minutes (beneath the tree lines) TUES, THURS, SAT, SUN, 4:30 a.m. Zones 6-7 are set for 5 minutes (field next to backflow & water meter) TUES, THURS, SAT, SUN, 4:30 a.m. Fuller Lane: Various zones 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 Driplines were repaired in various flowerbeds & five sprinkler heads were missing or not spraying. All have been repaired. Some sprinklers were not able to pop up due to the grass growing over them. Extensions were added. * Repairs, parts and time were donated by Ron Burdette, homeowner. All zones are set to water for 3 minutes, TUES, THURS, SAT, SUN, 4:30 a.m. Unfortunately, along with the needed repairs came some large water bills for the HOA. Please neighbors, if you notice an overly saturated area on the road or a geyser at our entrance, please, please let us know. Chances are we have a water leak or a broken spray head. All that water running down the street is money down the drain.

4 Landscape Committee: Hello neighbors of Quail Estates. The Landscape Committee is working hard to introduce numerous ideas in reaching the community s goals, and with approval, implement those ideas to help enhance, beautify, and increase property value of our Quail Estates Neighborhood homes and its common areas. Our goal is to update our neighborhood starting with the much-needed work on the flowerbeds, trees, shrubs, and continued maintenance of the main entrance fence i.e., pressure wash and staining improvements of the main entrance to the community. Improvements of the two remaining side entrances are also ideas to help improve the aesthetics by adding drought resistant trees such as Crape Myrtles and Italian Spruce. We are aware that the two side entrances are not equipped with irrigation systems, but if we plant the trees around the fall season, the cooler temperatures and hopefully Fall and Spring rains will assist the trees roots and growth in time for the harsh summer months. Most of these ideas require HOA funding, but this year we are currently strapped until the New Year. In the meantime, the Landscape Committee is in desperate need of community volunteers to assist in weeding and trimming. We would like to name the first Saturday of each month, Community Volunteer Day, where volunteers provide a helping hand with the Landscape Committee in sprucing up our front and side entrances or other needed areas, until we can get to where we are proud to call it our neighborhood. October 2017 sounds like a great month to start so mark your calendars! We are also going to start working on cleaning up the plants around the Quail Estate monument sign, below the pergola. We desperately need donations of a bag or two of mulch or soil to the Landscape Committee (we calculate at least 40 bags to start) and we will take care of the rest in applying it where needed around the main entrance. Sandy B. and her family has graciously volunteered part of their time and donated plants and flowers to the main entrance as well as mulch. But it is a huge project for any one person to do, so the committee would like to ask our community to volunteer some of their precious time at least half hour during the weekend to assist in areas that need help in maintenance such as burying exposed drip lines along the flowerbeds, pruning or removing dead plants, and hand cultivating in and around the flowerbeds. Another area that the Landscape Committee would like to highlight to help and provide information in your landscaping needs are types of plants and shrubs that are resistant to our local wildlife, mainly deer. The provided links are a list of Deer Resistant plants found/grown in Central Texas and can be purchased at your local garden center. Regardless of the word deer resistant, it still all depends on the drought, population, and habitat of the deer and if survivability is it, your landscape will be a buffet. So be adaptable. Thanks for your community support, and please direct all of your great landscaping ideas or questions to the Landscape Committee and a follow-up response will be provided. Next Landscape Committee meeting is: 17 September, time is TBD.

5 References for Central Texas: Texas A&M Aggie Horticulture Hill Country Water Gardens Pictures of Deer Resistant Plants in Texas q=deer+resistant+plants+texas&biw=1324&bih=1352&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=x&ved= 0ahUKEwib0Ybhi5bSAhVEOyYKHY8rBdwQsAQIeA Left photo: Front entrance beautification project. The flower beds are really coming along. Someone left these beautiful painted rocks in the flower beds, thank you to the person who made them. It really brought a smile to our face!!

6 ACC Committee: The Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (the Deed Restrictions ) for the Quail Estates Homeowners Association Inc. specifies that all improvements to the exterior of the property as defined in the Deed Restrictions must be approved in writing by the Architectural Control Committee before the improvement begins. The ACC has up to 30 days to process your request after all the information has been submitted. The application details to be submitted will not be considered complete and cannot be voted on without all of the following items: A plot plan or survey showing the location and dimensions (including elevation) of all existing and proposed Improvements. All proposed improvements must be shown on the survey or the Committee will not consider this request. (Plats are part of closing documents when home is purchased.) The structural design, exterior elevations, exterior materials, colors, textures and shapes of all improvements shall be described, along with any diagrams or representations necessary to show all proposed Improvements. Proposed start date of requested project. And estimated date for completion of project,. You must complete project within 180 days of approval. Submit your request to: Quail Estates Homeowners Association, Inc. c/o RealManage 9601 Amberglen Blvd, Ste 150 Austin, TX FAX: QUAILEST@ciranet.com TIPs to help get your request through quickly: Include pictures of the colors or structure you are wanting to add. If you are requesting to build a shed or put up a pool (for example), you will need to include your survey showing the septic spray radius. f it is paint or stain you are wanting to change, take a photo of your home so the committee can see your brick or rock color along with the color you are requesting. If you have approved permits from the city, submit those with the form. ** Be sure to keep a copy of all ACC approvals. If we ever change management companies, you may have to show this was an approved project. ACC forms can be downloaded for our website or the RealManage Resident Portal:

7 Does Quail Estates have an elected Board of Directors comprised of Homeowners now? Yes. The Quail Estates Board of Directors is comprised of five Quail Estates homeowners. The HOA board is responsible for the management of all aspects of the association. The directors are VOLUN- TEERS, elected at the Annual Meeting, by the community. They do not receive any type of compensation. Directors are association members and are required to pay their fees like all homeowners. Do I have to pay my Assessments Annually? Yes, Currently, the Quail Estates Annual Assessments are due January 1st of each year. (fiscal year: January - December). Late fees apply. The fees are set, based on the annual projected expenses of the community. The projected expense is based off of the two previous years budgets. The assessments go to pay the utilities for the common areas, landscape upkeep, improvements, repairs, community events as well as professional management fees and attorney's fees. Board members do not profit from HOA fees. They do not receive any type of compensation. How often is our community previewed for DRV (deed restriction violations)? Site visits are done once a month from October through March and bi-monthly from April through September by the professional management company that Quail Estates HOA has contracted. Current management company: RealManage. Inspectors remain in their vehicle & are not allowed to exit their vehicle to approach anyone on site. Reports are entered electronically and include a photo of the violation. Inspectors do not know homeowner's names resulting in an unbiased inspection. There are no scheduled inspections. To maintain fairness in the community, the management company manages the violations, not the board or directors. The most common violation are landscaping issues. If you are in violation, the third Notice (Pre-fine Notice- required by law) arrives via Certified Mail, which is a $25 charge to your community to pay for your Certified Mail Violation Notice.

8 Welcome to the Neighborhood: The Early s The Harry s The Barnes Businesses in our Neighborhood CJ Wilks CJ s Mowing Service Billy Bob Bridges GIA Real Estate Property Solutions Natalie Kinzey Rodan + Fields Skincare Consultant Betty Kelp & Davenia Kelpe Sweet Bite Anthony Hill Big Hill s Auto Detailing LLC. Kerry Frazier Kzfrazier Drama Theater Company India Hill Homemade Cakes, Pies and More If you would like your business listed in our newsletter and on our Community Web-Site, please Your Name, Name of Business, Facebook page/web-site to: qecdirector@yahoo.com