Uncategorised

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 in 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. 

Continental Ranch is a beautiful community with many active residents and families.  There are currently no members on the Activities Committee, however in past years different groups of volunteers have donated their time and effort to help organize community events.  Although the Committee is currently inactive, the Board and Management (with the help of other volunteer residents) continue to coordinate community events.   

Some past events have included:

Fall Festival

Halloween Haunted House

Easter Egg Hunt 2010

Easter Egg Hunt 2011

Easter Egg Hunt 2012

Easter Egg Hunt 2013

Easter Egg Hunt 2014

Spring Festival

Halloween Festival

Santa’s Food Drive 2010

Santa’s Food Drive 2013

Horse Drawn Carriage Holiday Caroling 2012

Horse Drawn Carriage Holiday Caroling 2013

Holiday Decorating Contest 2010

Holiday Decorating Contest 2011

Holiday Decorating Contest 2012

Holiday Decorating Contest 2013

Adopt a Family

The coordinated events change from year to year, so be involved with the Activities Committee if you would like to help shape the upcoming seasonal fun!  The Activities Committee is also active in charity support, such as food drives to support local the food bank and adopting local families to brighten their holidays during unfortunate times.

Currently, there are not enough volunteers to form a Committee, and the Board of Directors works with management to coordinate events.  If you would be interested in forming a new Activities Committee please call the CRCA office at 297-7600 and let them know.

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 6:30pm. If you have questions regarding this committee please contact the CRCA office at (520) 297-7600.

Ideas that are clearly expressed will have a better chance of being understood and embraced by the community.  The below suggestions are examples of well written ideas.

Suggestion Title: Dog Park
Suggestion Description: Add a dog park or running are for the community.
Suggestion Reasoning: We all love our animals and I think they deserve to have a place to run and play.

Suggestion Title: Pancake Breakfast
Suggestion Description: Put together an annual pancake breakfast
Suggestion Reasoning: The community I grew up in had an annual pancake breakfast, complete with wagon rides, fire departmet displays and music.  It would be a fun way to get the community together and raise money for the food bank.

Assessment Dues – Payment Options

Thank you for visiting the Continental Ranch Community Association Website.

The Association depends on your prompt payment to ensure the financial health of the organization. Please remember that your responsibility in paying is not dependent on whether you receive a statement or not. The CRCA semi-annual assessment is due each May 1st and November 1st.

To view your personal CRCA account, visit the Management secure website log-in page by clicking this link.

For assistance with your account number and/or password, call the management office at 520-297-7600.

There are six ways to pay your dues:

1) ACH: Our system can pull your pre-authorized payment from your bank account into our bank account. The ACH authorization form is online in your VMS account page when accessed as explained above.

2) Mail: Mail your check marked with your account number and the CRCA ID #3472 direct to our bank. Please include the bottom portion of your statement. Mailing address is:

3) Bill Pay: Set your bank account up to pay your semi-annual bill on May 1st and November 1st of each year. The check must include your personal 5-digit account number as shown on your statement and CRCA Association ID#3472. The mailing address is the same as shown above.

4) In Person: Bring your check or money order to the CRCA office at 9150 N. Coachline Blvd. The check must include your account number. Please include the bottom portion of your statement.

5) Pay online by credit card (using Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express): Log into your personal CRCA account by visiting the Management secure website log-in page by clicking this link.  Then follow the e-payment link to pay by credit card. Please be advised there is a bank fee charged when paying by credit card.

6) Pay online by E-check: Log into your personal CRCA account by visiting the Management secure website log-in page by clicking this link.  Then follow the e-payment link to pay by e-check.  There is no extra fee to pay by e-check.

Thank you for helping Continental Ranch be a strong and vibrant community!

Please keep in mind that the Suggestion box is a place for CRCA Members to share and rate ideas that will improve our community. Suggest Ideas for Improvement i.e. (Lets paint the walls green -or- Install a diving board).  Ideas that are off-topic, better suited as e-mail, or one-line zingers (member harassment) are not allowed.  The suggestion box is not a place to cricize the decisions of the CRCA, any of it’s members, management or home owners.

HARASSMENT: We welcome individuals of all different backgrounds, orientations, and views, so this is our most important rule: Healthy debate and the exchange of ideas are encouraged; threats, abuse, hate-speech, personal attacks, and harassment will not be tolerated.

VULGARITY AND MASKED VULGARITY: Many members find certain words make them uncomfortable. We ask you to refrain from using vulgar language in your ideas. Masked Vulgarity is using cuss words and trying to “mask” them with other symbols or letters, so the word isn’t spelled out. Ideas of this nature will not be published.

UNACCEPTABLE DISCUSSION: We don’t allow the promotion of illegal activities on our boards. All ideas that we believe involve non-consensual activities or would likely result in serious harm to an individual will not be published.

CLASSIFIED, COMMERCIAL, OR SOLICITING IDEAS: Ideas soliciting or advertising events, items or businesses which include phone numbers, commercial web sites, buy/sell items, SPAM, etc., are not permitted.

All ideas with signature lines which include links to other websites, forums & message boards that are not associated with CRCATucson.com will not be allowed.

SINGLE IDEAS ONLY: In order to avoid duplicate ideas, please do not post the same idea more than once and make sure it’s relevant to the category you post it in. If you post the same message in more than one category, the idea manager will leave one copy in the most appropriate section and delete the other. If you have a need for additional category’s please click here to suggest one.

POSTING PERSONAL INFORMATION: Addresses, phone numbers (fax, pager, etc.), and other private information doesn’t belong in the ideas.  All posts containing phone numbers may be removed without notice.

Keep things positive. Any comments about not liking an idea will be removed.

We will do our best to judge posts on their own merits and in context; however, we do reserve the right to remove any post for any reason. If you have any questions concerning your use of the boards, please refer to these Posting Guidelines, which you agreed upon during your registration.

WHAT THE GUIDELINES ARE: The guidelines are just that “Guidelines”. They are not official rules adopted by or the opinion of the CRCA.  They are simply a basic set of standard posting guidelines adopted by many web forums. Please let us know if you feel any of the guidelines need modification.

Here are some local news feeds.  The information is updated daily by the indicated news source.  Clicking on a news item will open a new window.

Thank you for submitting a notification. We will review the information for compliance. We will contact you if we have further questions, otherwise you will receive no further updates regarding this submission.

Emergency Services
To report emergency or crimes (even animal related) 911