The year 2016 for the Quail Hollow community began with our Board President, Warren Jackson, having submitted a resignation because of a brain tumor. The Board chose to hold that resignation in abeyance in the hope that he would recover sufficiently to resume his duties. However in the spring they sold their house and moved to Florida to be near family.
As was noted last year, we have had numerous people step up and volunteer to do needed tasks for the benefit of the whole neighborhood – from patching potholes in our roads, to pulling unsightly weeds from the entrance flower garden, to trimming off bushes around the clubhouse entrance, to rowing a small rowboat out to retrieve and work on our pond pump, to a myriad of cleaning and litter removal jobs. To all those unsung heroes we offer our sincere thanks, and even if no one else knows who did what, we hope the benefit to our community was satisfying to you, as it helped us all.
As for what the Board dealt with in the last year, here is a sampling:
- When a tree fell in the storms last summer and damaged the pool fence, we appreciated volunteers getting us started on clearing the mess, and then contracted with someone to take down the rest of the tree and carry it off. After that it became evident the remaining trees have been a messy nuisance in keeping the pool clean, so we had them removed too. Now we are in the process of trying to get some bushes to landscape the area.
- The rest room floors at the pool have deteriorated from about 30 years of wet use, so we contracted with Chris Hollifield to replace them and redecorate the rooms too.
- As many have noticed, our pond fountain/aerator is an on-again/off-again issue. We purchased the original pump in 2010, and It has been repaired under warranty until recently. During the times it was sent back to the factory for repair, we purchased a back-up pump; however right now both are broken. The original will cost almost $1000 to repair; or a new one will cost just under $2000. Our back-up unit has a bent propeller, so Chris Hollifield thinks it will not be so expensive to repair. We use these not just for aesthetics, but to keep the algae under better control. The fact that our pond is man-made and part of a flowing stream means that we will always have debris coming through.
- Snow removal last year cost us as much as $1200 once and over $1000 every time they scraped and salted our roads. We do not have sufficient funds to keep spending at that rate. So this year we checked with the company that does our common area mowing, and they bid much lower costs. At the same time, we decided to salt only the hilly areas, and plow when it is really a hindrance to access or departure. By indicating we want to say how much to do, we are not at the top of the company’s urgency list. That means we must make decisions that we hope are in every one’s best interest.
- We contracted to clean out our silt trap to keep some of the debris out of the pond.
- Our volunteer Treasurer, Sheila Gough, has put in countless hours at a time when she is exceptionally busy and burdened with other needs. When people do not pay their dues in a timely fashion, she is left to try to contact them and remind them – which is not part of what she agreed to do.
- Because some people did not pay all year and ignored any efforts to contact them or remind them, we periodically have to file liens against property to assure that the dues are paid even when the house is sold. This takes time, legal activity that is out of the realm of experience and skill of our volunteer Board, and extra costs that have to be added to the dues. Having someone staying on top of this need is part of the reason the
Board has considered engaging a Property Manager.
Prepared by R. David Roberts, Acting President
Quail Hollow Property Owners Association 