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I would like to welcome the two new members of your Board of Directors– Bill Dawes and Nick Westphal as well as returning Board members Peggy Bracken and Marilyn Stimpson. The community spoke quite loudly with their votes and your Board of Directors will continue on its path of making CRCA one of the best communities in Arizona in which to live.

Thanksgiving came later than normal this year, and so quickly we will now start preparing for the Christmas holiday season. While the majority of us have a lot to be thankful for some of our neighbors have been less fortunate and could use a helping hand during this holiday season. Santa will be available for free pictures with a canned food donation on December 7^th at the Windmill office with the donations going to the food bank- there are also bins at the office to bring donations for the food bank all month. As in years past, there is also a Giving Tree setup at the office for the two families which the association has “adopted” for Christmas. Help make their “wishes” come true by picking up a gift tag from the tree to help fulfill what they are wishing for this Christmas. Once again there will be holiday caroling starting at Windmill Park on December 21^st and then carrying on throughout the neighborhoods on horse drawn wagons to help spread some holiday cheer through parts of CRCA.

Our special committee is working on getting bids for replacement of the play structure at Windmill Park as required under the reserve study. They have a lot of options and hope to find something everyone will be able to enjoy as much as they have with old one. I’ve heard they are even trying to incorporate some swings. We wish them luck on this project!

The Board of Directors would like to wish you all a safe and wonderful Christmas wherever you celebrate it and a prosperous New Year.

By now, you should have all received your ballots for the Board of Directors election. If you have not voted please take a few minutes to fill it out and mail it in. How this association interacts and treats homeowners depends on homeowners casting their vote.

Fall is here and the dogs are enjoying the lower temperatures for their walks. Hopefully this will also bring out even more people to the monthly Block Party/Food Truck Roundup at Windmill Park each second Monday of every month. There were over 300 people in attendance at last month’s despite the rain. See you there.

Please consider setting aside some time on Saturday October 5^th to volunteer to help us build a brick pathway from the west parking lot at Windmill Park to the field so that some of our residents with mobility challenges can more easily make it from the parking lot to the field and share in the enjoyment of the park. Our community’s landscape contractor, Titan Landscape, has donated the bricks and some labor but we could always use more volunteer help for this community project. Let Jocelyn know in the office if you would like to help.

As always, I look forward to the next several months as we have a number of community and charity opportunities. While it is too late this year to organize a Halloween event, we’re hoping that next year we can have enough volunteers to hold some type of Halloween event like we did in the past; one that a large number of CRCA families can enjoy. 

The annual Thanksgiving food drive to help those facing hard times is still planned for next month, and in December we’ll have the holiday lighting contest and horse-drawn wagon caroling. Once again the ‘Pictures with Santa’ food drive is being organized with free pictures with Santa for a food item donation.  These are all worthy events here in CRCA, and I hope everyone will come together as a community to participate – please help spread the word to your neighbors who might not read this newsletter.

One bright accomplishment that CRCA owners should note, is that after the careful conservative spending by the Board over the past several years, we’re finishing up this fiscal year well under budget and using some of the remaining budget to pay forward the reserve savings contributions so that dues won’t need to be raised.  (Each year the reserve contributes go up to help keep our savings account in check for future repairs.)  In the world of HOAs, associations who have reserve savings accounts which are 70% funded are given a rating of “excellent”.  CRCA is 103% funded, meaning that we are well above an “excellent” rating and are in good shape for our future.