News

Hopefully everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday. The photos with Santa were a hit again with Santa enjoying the time as much as the children did. The holiday lighting contest had very nice entries and the judges enjoyed seeing all the work people had done in putting up their display. The community came forward again by giving to CRCA’s adopt a family program and I’m sure the family had a great Christmas thanks to the generosity of all those who shared their good fortune with them. We can only hope 2016 is a good year for all of us.

We are looking forward to the annual Easter egg hunt which will be Saturday March 26th this year. Planning is already going on to make this a better event than each previous year. If you’d like to help out and volunteer you will be rewarded by all the happy children that attend. Following the Easter egg hunt the Windmill park field and baseball diamond will be fenced of as we will be replacing the irrigation system for the grass. The current system is over 25 years old with some of the valves buried six feet deep. We have been lucky that we haven’t had any major issues with the age of the system.

The BOD is looking at possibly upgrading the community center with new lighting, flooring, paint and fixtures. The current linoleum was installed without leveling the slab underneath and is not in good shape. Repairing the wooden blinds would cost as much as replacing them with new ones and the ceiling tiles are continually falling down.

The Windmill pool bathroom remodel is on schedule and will make a big difference when reopened March 1st.

November brings us cooler temperatures along with a number of changes here in CRCA. The election was held with Bill Dawes, Marilyn Stimpson and Nick Westphal returning for another two years and Bill Cicala serving his first term. It also means that Peggy Bracken chose not to run after serving for six years. We will all miss Peggy’s presence and want to thank her for putting in as much time and effort as she did for those six years. CRCA is a better place because of your involvement Peggy- thank you.

November also means homeowner assessments are due, which supports the operation of the HOA. As I have noted numerous times it is really disturbing to see people ignore paying their HOA dues. While we understand that some people have financial difficulties we try to make every one aware we will accept a payment plan to help those people stay current. If a homeowner’s assessments go unpaid for a full year, it is turned over for collections and is out of our hands. Once it is turned over to collections, it costs $350.00 just for the attorney to start the collections process which the delinquent owner is responsible for. Please, if you are having financial difficulties, contact the office to make arrangements so we do not have to send it to collections.

Santa will be back once again this year, this time at the Windmill Park office on Dec 5^th. We hope you will bring a canned food donation or cash which will go to the food bank in Marana and have pictures taken with Santa. It is usually well attended and the kids seem to really enjoy it- Santa does too!

The splash pad was a great success this past year and was a good investment for the community. Windmill pool has seen a lot more families using the entire facility with the addition of the splash pad. With the pool closing on November 1^st the contractor will start on the remodeling of the Windmill pool restrooms. You should see a lot of improvements when it reopens March 1^st. The condition of those restrooms was deplorable and the Reserve Study only gave us enough money to cover about 1/3rd of the total costs. The BOD was able to plan financially to cover the extra costs with no increase in dues.

Have a great Thanksgiving and a merry Christmas.

With summer winding down we should start seeing cooler temperatures which will be a relief to our power bills as well as being outside. With summer coming to an end it also means that there will be an election for four BOD members. Ballots will be going out near the middle to end of September; so look for yours and make sure to return it. There are only four people running for four positions but we need to have a quorum vote to make it official. If not the BOD would appoint people to fill the vacancies. They are all qualified candidates with the intention of making CRCA better. Please return your ballots.

The BOD approved the budget for next year and has not had to raise dues again. We have some of the lowest dues of any HOA here in Tucson with more amenities than other HOA’s. The BOD has been very diligent in how and where monies are spent and has been successful in not having to raise dues and still maintain our amenities to a high standard. While some homeowners have not agreed with some of the cost saving items the BOD has undertaken, it has allowed us to not have to raise dues. With Reserve contributions increasing $10,000 to $15,000 a year, utility costs increasing 6% to 10% a year and vendors requesting increases, there will come a point when dues will have to be raised to cover these increases. The BOD is investigating a few options to possibly increase our revenue stream without increasing dues. We will keep you posted.

Have a safe fall season and we hope to see you at the annual meeting.