News

With the monsoons rains we had mid-August we are seeing a bumper crop of weeds sprouting up in home owner’s yards. It is too bad that they did not take advantage of the pre-emergent spray program we have with our landscape contractor as they will be out killing weeds for a long time or facing a violation letter from our covenants person. It is only $40.00 for an application of spray and eliminates having to kill weeds on your own. I noticed that the hydro seeding along Silverbell Road by the town of Marana is starting to sprout as well and will be adding to the weed issue in CRCA with some of the invasive seeds they sprayed.

Something I addressed a number of times before report is still an ongoing problem for some homeowners. There have been numerous homes flooded by burst water pipes. This is a costly and very disruptive event to happen in your home. A number of these have occurred because of a defective pressure regulating valve that regulates the pressure of the water delivered to your home. Tucson water delivers the water to your home between 76 and 83 psi from its main lines. This pressure is too high for home plumbing (50 to 60 psi is recommended). Two things can happen to the valve- it can fail completely which will result in excessive pressure in the plumbing lines in your home. This can result in extensive water damage to the home as the connections in the lines are not able to handle the added pressure and rupture. The other thing that can happen is low water pressure to your home- shower heads with low pressure, sprinklers not popping up, etc. This can also result in high spikes in pressure when the defective valve is not replaced. Tucson Water recommends that it is a good idea to check those valves as they seem to fail usually after 10 years- sometimes less.

The Community Center pool will be closing after Labor Day weekend with the Windmill Park pool closing the last day of October. The first of November we will be holding our dog day at the pool for the furry members of our families can enjoy a dip in the pool. It was well attended last year and I hope we have an even better turn out this year.

There has been a rash of wildcat dumping at our commercial property owners dumpsters as well as our own. Mattresses, televisions and other bulky items just left outside the dumpsters so the trucks will not pick them up and it results in an added expense of paying someone to load it up and take it to the dump. If you see someone unloading their trash in the dumpsters please get a license number and any identifying information so we can get it to the police and they can issue a citation.

With the record heat we have been having it is no wonder that the swimming pools are seeing large crowds of families with kids. With the large turnouts we seem to be experiencing an increased number of pool rule violations. We do not enjoy penalizing violators but the rules are in place to ensure that everyone can enjoy our nice pools- especially with the hot weather, even if it is a “dry heat”.

If you were wondering what was sprayed along Silverbell Road in the  town right of way I can inform you that the town hydro seeded their property with an array of seeds- much like was planted in the right of way at the town park at Silverbell and Cortaro. While it was an attempt to vegetate the sparse area I have questions as to why they seeded with highly invasive and highly allergenic plants. Bursage (ragweed), Green Spangle top and Indian Wheat. The association has made every effort to not plant trees and plants that do not cause allergic reactions for our residents as well as not allowing invasive varieties to be planted in our community. It is regrettable that the town did not ask for our input before proceeding- especially with the ragweed.

I would like to thanks all our “neighbors” who respect this community and show it by the little things they do. Keeping their yards neatly pruned and weed free, keeping their dogs on leash at Windmill Park so as to not infringe on others enjoyment of the park, picking up after their dogs and  following the pool rules while using the pools and just being a good neighbor. Too often I mention the issues of vandalism and infractions of the rules and would like to thank those of you who are good neighbors.

We are having vandals turning off irrigation valves throughout the community which has resulted in having to replace plants because of no water to them. If you see anyone messing around our irrigation that is not driving a Complete Landscaping truck please take down any info to identify them as this is a needless cost due to their actions.

Have a safe and enjoyable summer

The annual Easter Egg Hunt was held on April 15^th with over 600 children attending and a crowd of probably 1500 taking part in the festivities. A loud thank you goes out to Paula Bellina who was in charge of organizing the event, the boy scout troop who provided a lot of support, the volunteers who donated their time helping man events and a special thank you to the Easter bunny volunteers who put on the Easter bunny suit and suffered with being hot so the children could see the Easter Bunny. The event seems to grow every year and it is nice to see so many children enjoying themselves.

With the first of May comes one of the duties the BOD does not enjoy at all. That duty is sending homeowners in arrears of their assessments to collections. Anyone who has not paid for one year is sent to collections as it is our fiduciary duty to see that all homeowners are current on their dues. We send delinquency notices out but a number of homeowners fail to respond at all. This really leaves us no options but to send it to collections. If you are having financial issues please contact the office and talk to Aimee so some sort of arrangements can be made so that we are not forced to having to send you to collections. She can set up a payment plan to keep you current. Ignoring it will not make it go away and sending it to collections just adds attorney’s fees to the bill. The initial contact by the attorney costs an extra $350.00 and is added to the assessment due. Please contact the office so we do not have to send a past due account to collections.

You might have noticed new plantings being put along Twin Peaks road and Coachline is next. We suffered a loss of numerous plants with our last landscape company because of irrigation issues not addressed by them. We withheld enough money to cover the cost for these replacement plants from their last paycheck so are did not have to use the current monies budgeted to the landscape committee.

We have had a large number of homeowners doing projects without an Architectural Review committee application. Some of these do not meet the guidelines so it is advisable to submit an application before starting your project so that the ARC can work with you so you are in compliance with the design guidelines.

With spring around the corner- I hope- we can look forward to warmer temperatures and longer daylight hours to be enjoyed by all. Windmill pool reopens March 1^st for community use after closing for the winter months. Hopefully residents will enjoy it along with the splash pad as temperatures get warmer.

We suffered a lot of plant loss last year due to our past landscape contractor not performing to the standard we require. Our new contractor seems to be doing a good job with the community common areas looking as good as I remember.  They will be replacing a large number of plants that died due to inattention to irrigation issues with our past contractor. I look forward to seeing new plants that will be taken care of properly.

Just a reminder that the annual Easter Egg hunt will be Saturday April 15^th at Windmill Park. Make sure to mark the date on your calendar and get your wrist bands at the office prior to event day. Hopefully it will be as successful as past hunts have been. We are always in need of volunteers to help with the event so if you enjoy seeing children having a good time contact Paula at the office. I am sure she could use all the help she can get.

Happy New Year to everyone. While 2017 is the start of a New Year let’s not forget 2016 here in CRCA.

The annual Easter Egg hunt was another sounding success with lots of kids enjoying themselves with the egg hunts and all the other activities put together by Paula Bellini from our management team. We added a new event- dog day at the pool after it was closed for the winter. We had over 20 dogs and their families show up for a fun time for all. Great event for our furry companions as well as their owners and we hope to make it an annual event also. The last annual event was pictures with Santa at the community center. We had 52 kids and 1 dog show up to get their picture taken. While some of the younger crowd didn’t know if Santa was someone they wanted anything to do while others enjoyed it as much as Santa did.

The BOD was able to complete a remodel of the Community Center which turned out very well with new tile floors replacing the vinyl flooring, new granite and cabinets in the kitchen as well as new tables and chairs. It is definitely an upgrade for the community.

We were also able to replace the irrigation system at Windmill Park that was over 25 years old, replacement of all the controllers though out the community as well as replacing the poly irrigation lines at all the monument on Silverbell and along Twin Peaks with PVC which has a longer service life.. It has been approved to replace all the irrigation lines on Coachline from Twin Peaks north this upcoming year.

Let us hope 2017 is as successful with improvements as 2016 was.