Presidents Letter

CRCA Committee Members Needed!!!

Architectural Review Committee

The Architectural Review Committee is responsible for reviewing all changes to the exterior of homes, developing and maintaining the Design Guidelines. This committee works with all homeowners, developers and commercial members of the community. Meetings are held at the Windmill Park Office on the first and third Thursday of each month at 7pm.

Covenants Committee

The CRCA Covenants Committee and the CRCA Management staff, acting at the direction of the Board, strives to enforce the CC&Rs so that Continental Ranch keeps its high standards for the future ahead. Sometimes residents need a reminder from time to time to do the normal maintenance that every home requires. The Covenants Committee supports the Board of Directors and the Association in the enforcement of the governing documents for Continental Ranch Community Association.

Landscape Committee

Continental Ranch’s landscape is one of the most important aspects of the community. The CRCA Landscape Committee takes great pride in their work.  The volunteer committee, working at the direction of the Board, continually monitors the quality of maintenance work performed by the landscape contractor, and also works within the budget developed by the Board to maintain and enhance landscape throughout CRCA as needed.

If you have time to donate for the greater good of the Community, CRCA is always looking for new members. Call 297-7600 for information.

With Windmill pool and splash pad opening the 1st of March everyone should be able to see and enjoy the new Pebble Tec surfacing. The pool plaster did not have the life expectancy of the Pebble Tec so hopefully it will result in a savings over the years. The Easter Egg hunt will be held on March 31st and looks to be even more fun filled than last year. Anyone wishing to help out should contact the office as we could use more volunteers. It is very rewarding to see all the happy kids.

While it was nice to see the rains come in past month they have an adverse side effect as well.  WEEDS!  Looking around our common areas we took the landscape crew to task for the large number of weeds growing around our community and they went on a weed control mission to eliminate them.  While we use pre-emergent on all of our common areas, the rains allowed the seeds to germinate that had blown in from other areas anyway.  There are a large number of covenants letters going out to homeowners who have not taken care of the weeds on their property.  Please take control of the weeds if you receive a letter so CRCA can appear well maintained.

I have written about this issue before but I am still continually surprised by the large number of children using the play structure at the Windmill Park playground area.  I am also surprised at how many children and families enjoy the turf area that is really looking nice.  It is too bad that there are a few individuals who believe there is a Poop Fairy who will wave their magic wand and the piles left by their dogs will magically disappear.  There is no Poop Fairy and the piles left are being picked up on kid’s shoes.  Not only that, but there are very real health issues with dog feces as well as it being against the law to not scoop your poop. It is not limited to just Windmill Park but throughout CRCA. Please be considerate of your neighbors and don’t wait for the Poop Fairy to appear – scoop your dog’s poop.

I thought it was time to call the attention of homeowners and businesses in CRCA to a portion of your property taxes for which you receive no benefit- what I would call a “taxation without representation” sort of thing. I am referring to the part of your tax bill that reads “CMID”. This CMID tax is assessed by the Cortaro Marana Irrigation District for which you are levied $69 per acre (or percentage of an acre) on your property taxes each year. CMID (aka Cortaro Water Users Association) has been in existence since 1919 and services approximately 70 irrigation customers. Before Continental Ranch was first developed in the mid-80’s, the area was farmland owned by lettuce grower Bud Antle. I am sure that Mr. Antle used the services of CMID to water his fields. I find it quite disturbing that over 90% of CRCA- as well as the businesses at the Arizona Pavilions- are included in the CMID water district for tax purposes and we receive nothing in return other than the privilege of offsetting some costs to the 70 customers who use CMID water for irrigation. Doing a rough calculation CMID receives in excess of $70,000 a year from properties in CRCA and give nothing back to us in return. I have included a map on page 3 of this newsletter showing the boundaries of CMID for taxation purposes. Is there anything we can do to stop paying for something we receive no benefit from? We can petition the Pima County Board of Supervisors to be excluded from this taxing district. If you are interested in lowering your tax bill please contact the office for a petition. This will not happen without a lot of homeowners voicing their opinion.

2017 Annual Meeting Results

Thank you all who attended this year’s CRCA Annual Meeting held at Twin Peaks Elementary on Tuesday, October 24th.The past year’s Board of Directors and the Committee Chairpersons gave their reports for the year and thanked everyone in the community who donates their time to contribute to the success of the community.

The results in order of vote count are as follows:
Bill Cicala 454 votes
Marilyn Stimpson 422 votes
Bill Dawes 420 votes

Congratulations to the 2017-2018 CRCA Board of Directors.
Doug Childress | Bill Cicala | Bill Dawes | Al DiazJohn Lambert | Marilyn Stimpson | Bob Vollbrecht

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.