Happy New Year!

I hope you had a great Christmas and will enjoy a grand new year. I know those tents selling fireworks are more ubiquitous than CVS and Walgreen's right now, but before you decide to try a homemade fireworks show, I hope you'll consider your neighbors.

We have 268 units in close proximity and exploding fireworks anywhere will affect all of us who live here, whether they want to share in the revelry or not.

Pets, including my own, get terrified by the noise, and there is no way to calm or explain it to them. July 4 is the date that animal shelters see the most stray dogs because panicked animals take off.

New Year's Eve must run a close second.

I won't bother to talk about how setting off fireworks actually breaks the law, unless you run a farm or own a fish hatchery, which at last check no one here does.

I will, however, note that we just paid more than $40,000 to have our roads resurfaced, and if someone damages it, they'll get to pay for another coat of coverage. And this ain't the cheap stuff you buy at Lowes.

If you cannot ring in the new year without ringing your ears with explosions, I hope you will find an empty parking lot nearby or maybe the empty field at the front of the community near US-301. That would put at least a little space between the cacaphony and people who don't want a front row seat.

Please be safe.

Road Stripes Return Dec. 21-22

The road resurfacing project should finish today, with all barriers removed by tomorrow at 7 p.m. Yay!

Workers will return December 21 and 22 to lay down the road markings that the resurfacing covered over. You won't have to move your car like you had to for the resurfacing. Here's how it will work: workers will do as much of the striping of the roads and parking spaces as possible on the 21st. They'll return the 22nd to do any that they could not complete the first day.

If you don't have a driveway, please try to park in a space that workers have already re-striped when you come home on the 21st. Also please try to park WITHIN the lines, especially where stripes still need to go down. This will help make sure workers can get all the other spaces done.

Road Project Dates and Schedule

The road resurfacing project begins next week and you can see the schedule below. This could change if weather causes problems. You will get a notice posted on your door 48 hours before work will begin in your area.

If your have more questions, or you can't figure out where your home is on the less than perfect map below, our community manager, Excelsior Community Management will host a workshop next Monday, November 30, between 6:30 and 8 p.m. at the community pool. You can also call Excelsior at 813-349-6552. The previous post on this blog describes the work in more detail, including the golf cart shuttle service available free to residents during the time they can't park close to their homes. 

Red: Closes at 7am on Wednesday, December 2nd and will not reopen until Thursday, December 3rd by 7pm.

Purple: Closes at 7am on Friday, December 4th and will not reopen until Saturday, December 5th by 7pm.

Yellow: Closes at 7am on Monday, December 7th and will not reopen until Tuesday, December 8th by 7pm.

Blue: Closes at 7am on Wednesday, December 9th and will not reopen until Thursday, December 10th by 7pm.

Pink: Closes at 7am on Friday, December 11th and will not reopen until Saturday, December 12th by 7pm.

US-301 is the road at the bottom of the map to give you a point of reference. 

Red areas include most of Kensington Park Ave., the north half of Johanna Ave, Dartmouth Hill Rd south of Johanna and all of Great Carlisle Ct. 

Purple areas include the south half of Lake St. Charles Blvd., the west hald of Hawthorne Trace Lane between Johanna and Lake St. Charles, and the west half of Marble Fawn Pl. between Johanna and Hawthorne Trace. 

Yellow areas include parts of Kensington Park, the north half of Johanna from the pool to the community entrance, Hawthorne Trace from Lake St. Charles to Marble Fawn, and continuing south on Marble Fawn and including all of Spencer Ridge Ct. 

Blue areas include the east side of Marble Fawn between Johanna Ave and Hawthorne Trace Ln., the west half of Hawthorne Trace between Johanna and Lake St. Charles, the north half of Lake St. Charles,  the west half of Dartmouth Hill Rd between Kensington Park and Johanna, and parts of Kensington Park. 

Pink areas include the south half of Johanna Avenue. 

Road Resurfacing Begins December 2

The HOA board of directors asks for your help and patience for an important project coming up next month. Starting December 2, our roads and parking areas will be resurfaced to extend their life. The roads in St. Charles Place are private, and the HOA has the responsibility to maintain them.

The road resurfacing project will happen in five phases spread out over eleven days, so that we don't all have to park at the Winn-Dixie across the street on US-301! But it will mean that all residents will have about two days where they cannot park near their units while their section gets its new coat of blacktop.

(The stuff is actually called Pavement Dressing Conditioner or PDC, so it promises to last much longer than a coat of that tar stuff, and with luck it will be another 9 or 10 years before we have to do this again.)

Residents will get a notice posted on their front doors 48 hours before their their road will close. If you're not in the first phase, your road won't close December 2. The HOA has contracted with a security company that will shuttle you to and from your home on a golf cart, so you won't have to walk a long distance during the two days you can't park near your home. The company will work 24/7 during the length of the project. The notice posted on doors will include the phone number for the shuttle service.

Besides giving people rides, the security company will patrol the closed areas to make sure no one tries to drive on them. Homeowners whose residents or guests damage the work, the surrounding concrete or landscaping by driving into the closed areas will have to pay to repair it.  Closed areas will have barricades up to make it obvious.

The HOA will not enforce normal rules prohibiting parking on the street during the project. Vehicles still must face the flow of traffic, they can't block fire hydrants or driveways, and they can't park side-by-side in a way that makes the street impassible.

If you won't need to drive it when your street is closed, you can keep your car in your driveway or garage, if you have one. But once the barricades go up, your vehicle must stay in place for the two days the road is closed.

Weather could delay or change the schedule of the project. The coat can't go on the road when it rains. We did plan this project for a time we typically get little rain. If the schedule changes, you'll get notice posted on your door of the new time table. 

You might have more questions. Our property manager, Excelsior Community Management will hold a workshop Monday, November 30 (right after Thanksgiving weekend) at the community pool from 6:30-8 p.m. You can get a copy of the project dates for all five sections of the project.

You can also call Excelsior's office at (813) 349-6552 or email StCharlesPlaceHOAManagement@TampaBay.rr.com with any questions you have.

I know this will cause inconvenience for a couple of days. But when it's finished, you'll see how much better and newer our community looks. And treating the road surface now means that we won't have to tear it all out and replace it, which would really disrupt our lives on a completely different level, not to mention cost a whole lot more money.

Quorum Reached, Budget Passed, New Board Elected

We held our annual HOA membership meeting last night, reaching a quorum without your humble blog author having to camp at the mailboxes to collect proxy forms. Yay!

The HOA board passed the budget for 2016. It includes a slight increase in monthly HOA dues - up to $240 a month - after several years of no increase. Homeowners will get their coupon books in the mail within a few weeks.

The HOA board will keep four of its five directors from last year. We had only five people seek the  positions on the board so we did not have a competitive election.

Thank you for returning proxy forms and/or attending the meeting. It is important that we can elect our own board of directors because if we don't, it can ultimately cause us to have to pay someone a lot of money to do what your fellow owners currently do for free.

The board will not meet in December. The next scheduled meeting is Wednesday, January 27 at 7 p.m. After that the board will meet every third Wednesday of the month. All owners are welcome to attend board meetings. If you have any questions or concerns to relate, you can always email the board at board@stcharlesplace.us. You can also report any issues or problems you notice to our property manager, Excelsior Community Management, at StCharlesPlaceHOAmanagement@TampaBay.rr.com.

Annual HOA Meeting TONIGHT!

7 p.m. at the office of Excelsior Property Management, 6554 Krycul Avenue in the Krycul Business Center. It's where we have our usual monthly meetings. It is almost right across the street from the church where we had our last annual meeting.

This is the one meeting a year that your HOA needs you to attend OR return the a proxy form. Deadline for that is 5 p.m. Scan and email the signed form to board@stcharlesplace.us. This meeting does not last a long time. The board of directors approves the budget for next year then the members elect next year's board.

Members will also vote on whether to proceed with legal action against KB Home to compel the builder of our community to fix serious and potentially dangerous defects in our homes.

Hope to see you tonight.

Annual Meeting in TWO DAYS

Good Monday morning to you. Just a reminder that the HOA annual membership meeting happens Wednesday, November 18. If you have not mailed back your proxy form, you will probably want to scan your signed form and email it to board@stcharlesplace.us (or to the email address on the form, which I think is StCharlesPlaceHOAmanagement@tampabay.rr.com).

People from Excelsior Community Management may go knocking on doors to collect proxy forms if we don't have enough yet. This is why you have not seen your humble blog author sitting at the mailbox collecting mosquito bites this year. 

Better yet, plan to attend the meeting in person. It does not last that long.

Annual Meeting in One Week

The annual HOA membership meeting happens one week from tonight. November 18 at 7 p.m. Your notice letter should have reached your mailbox. Even if you plan to attend, it's smart to return your proxy form anyway just in case something comes up last minute.

More details about the meeting in the previous post.

Check Your Mail

Your humble blog author got his notice for the annual HOA meeting  to come November 18.  You should get yours soon, if you have not already. If you do not find a thick letter-sized envelope from Excelsior Community Management among your postal deliveries by early next week, please contact them to let them know.

It is important to return the proxy form so we know we can reach a quorum to make the meeting official. Do it even if you plan to attend just in case something comes up. Turning in a proxy does not forfeit your right to vote at the meeting. You can scan your signed form and email it to StCharlesPlaceHOAManagement@TampaBay.rr.com.

The annual meeting happens 7 p.m. at Excelsior's office on Krycul Ave. It doesn't take long. The current HOA board of directors passes next year's budget then homeowners elect next year's board.

You notice only three announced candidates for five board positions. If you'd like to serve on the board, you can let our property manager, Jennifer Robertson at Excelsior know, and she can add you to the ballot.

Important Notice Plus an Unimportant One

Notice for our annual budget and election meeting goes out Monday. Check your mailboxes a few days after that.

This is important. It's the one time of the year you need to take action for your HOA. If you can attend the meeting November 18, fantastic. If not, please return the proxy form that essentially says that you give permission for the meeting to happen without you.

We need 30% of our owners either to attend the meeting or return a proxy form for us to reach a quorum that will make the meeting official.

If we can't reach quorum to have the meeting, we can't elect a board of directors for next year. If we can't do that, our HOA could go into what's called receivership, in which we'd pay lawyers boatloads of money to do what our fellow homeowners currently do for free.

You can scan and email your signed proxy form. So it costs you nothing and could save you a lot of money.

It's a good idea to return a proxy form even if you plan to attend the meeting just in case something comes up last minute and you can't come. Turning in a proxy for does not forfeit your right to attend and vote at the meeting. If you show up, they throw out the proxy.

Please don't put this off.

Now the unimportant news. One of your fellow homeowners, who happens to be your humble blog author, is a musician who will play and sing some of his songs live on WMNF-FM in Tampa tonight. The Musicians Wanted program begins at 11 p.m. and you can listen at 88.5 FM or online anywhere you can get a decent internet signal at WMNF.org.

You can listen to home studio recordings of "Mr John" at MrJohnMusic.com.

2016 HOA Fees Decided Tonight

The HOA board of directors holds its monthly meeting tonight. All homeowners are invited to attend, and if you have thoughts about how the HOA spends your money, you should try to make this one. Next month the board approves the budget for 2016. But it's THIS month – as in tonight – that the board actually hashes out the budget and decides what the HOA fees for next year will be.

Location is the office of Excelsior Property Managment, 6554 Krycul Avenue in the Krycul Business Center. Start time is 7 p.m.

Water Off For Emergency Repair

UPDATE: Alvarez Plumbing is here. They could not find broken valve and will have to shut water off to the entire community for about 90 minutes. NOTICE: Emergency water repair on lake St Charles Blvd. this afternoon. The main valve in ground is not functioning. Waiting on an ETA from Alvarez Plumbing. Once they get there, they will have to shut water off to the entire street for about 90 minutes.

HOA Fees Meeting - Important

Our next HOA meeting is Wednesday, October 21. This is the meeting at which the board discusses and makes the budget for next year. It's not the annual meeting, which we'll have in November. At that one the board basically rubber stamps the budget that it puts together the month before. This is the month before, so if you have thoughts or questions about how the HOA spends your money, this is the one to attend.

Time is 7:00 p.m. Location: 6554 Krycul Avenue, Riverview, FL 33578-4330.

HOA Meeting Tomorrow Night

HOA meeting tomorrow night.

Normal location at the office of Excelsior Property Managment, 6554 Krycul Avenue in the Krycul Business Center. Usual start time at 7 p.m.

Hope to see you there!

HURRICANE

(Click on the image to see a larger and clearer version)

OK, so maybe not a hurricane, as the 5 a.m. forecast track from the National Hurricane Center shows. This is good news, because a tropical storm might not pack winds that can literally blow our buildings down like a hurricane can. But if you look, you'll see that on its current path, Erika greets Florida Monday morning, squats down and dumps on it for a good two days before leaving the state.

If the current forecast holds, that storm will pound us for a long time. Notice that the cone of probability could still take Erika's center into the Gulf of Mexico, where warm water could fuel the storm into something stronger. Prepare.

Collect hurricane supplies like batteries, flashlights, water, non perishable food and a can opener. That's not a complete list. If you don't have one, this list from the U.S. Coast Guard will give you an idea of what you need. In St. Charles Place, we have a pump station for our waste water. It does not have its own generator so if we lose electricity for an extended time, eventually we will not be able to flush toilets.

Trash day is tomorrow. If you can remember to take any trash you have to the dumpsters today, that will help keep them from overflowing if Waste Management can't make its next scheduled pickup on Monday. (Please make sure trash gets into the actual dumpster. The trash truck drivers do not put the trash in the dumpster. They simply drive up, open the dumpster enclosure doors, empty the dumpster and drive off.)

Bring patio furniture or anything else that could become a hazard in high winds inside. Even if not a hurricane, a tropical storm has sustained winds of at least 39 mph. That's sustained winds. Gusts can blow much harder.

If your unit suffers damage, or you see damage, please report it by shooting an email to the board and to the community manager. Their emails are in the right-hand column of this page. If it's a weekend or after hours, also call the community manager's office at (813) 349-6552 and leave a message. They'll get it sooner than an email. Tip: press "1" when you hear the voicemail greeting start and you won't have to listen to all of it. You'll hear the beep and you can leave your message.

Stay safe.

The Trash Problem

We pay more than $800 a month to clean the areas around our trash dumpsters because people can't bother to put their garbage in them. That's nearly $10,000 a year!

Our property manager, Jennifer Robertson, has sought bids to get this done cheaper, but it's still money our HOA could spend on better things. If you don't know, the garbage truck driver does no cleanup. He (or she) simply drives up, empties the dumpster, and sets it back in place. Any extra garbage lying around gets left or, even worse, trapped under the dumpster. Yay! (not really yay)

At last night's HOA meeting, Jennifer told us that if we see a "trash disaster" around the dumpsters, even on weekends, we should call Excelsior's office number (813-349-6552) and they will get someone out there to take care of it, usually within a few hours.

"We treat trash as an emergency," she said.

What they also do? With gloved hands, they go through the garbage and try to find out from which unit it came so they can send a violation notice to the unit owner. Yes, that sounded extreme to me, too, when I first heard it, but if it will help cut down on the roughly 10 grand we have to spend cleaning up after people who trash our community, I say Yay! (yes, really yay)

HOA Meeting Wednesday and Some News

The St. Charles Place HOA has its monthly meeting Wednesday. It's at the offices of Excelsior Community Management in the Krycul Business Center at 6554 Krycul Avenue in Riverview. 7 p.m.

Check your mailboxes. The HOA's property manager sent a newsletter to all unit owners. Yes, an actual snail mail paper newsletter. Quaint, I know, but this is something the property manager does for its other properties and at least some of the board members like the idea. Your humble blog author remains a skeptic, but will keep an open mind.

But it did have some important news:

1. Beginning July1, the board must approve new tenants. Owners must fill out an application and submit a copy of the proposed lease to the property manager. Besides the safety of the community, this actually benefits unit owners who rent out their properties because it helps the HOA know who should live there, and can protect units from squatters invading, which has happened in a couple of cases we've heard about.

2. A new keyless entry system for the pool goes into effect August 3rd. Unit owners will get a fob, similar to the key cards you might use to get into your building at work. The property manager will set up times for owners to pick up their key fob at the pool. If you rent your unit, you can designate your renter to pick it up by giving the property manager written permission. Each unit can get only one key fob, and if you or your tenant loses it, you'll have to pay for a replacement.

Only owners in good standing with their HOA dues will get a key fob. Our community rules let the HOA deny use of amenities for units more than 90 days behind on their HOA dues. The board hopes that this will help spur some delinquent owners to get current.

The newsletter has other items that might interest you, including a tip on how to stop a leaky toilet without having to call a plumber, so look for that.

HOA Meeting Tomorrow Night

Yeah, I know. It seems that all I post are meeting notices. I'll try to do better. But we do have an HOA meeting tomorrow night. It's at the offices of Excelsior Community Management in the Krycul Business Center at 6554 Krycul Avenue in Riverview. 7 p.m.

I hope you can make it.

Reminder: HOA Meeting Tomorrow

Our monthly HOA meeting happens tomorrow night (Wednesday) at 7 p.m.

Location: 6554 Krycul Avenue, Riverview, FL 33578-4330. That's the office of Excelsior Community Management, our new property management company.

If you have not already, you can come meet our recently hired property manager, Jennifer Robertson. Or come to ask questions and express concerns about anything in the community. 

HOA Meeting Wednesday

Meet our new property manager at the next HOA meeting Wednesday. That's right - new property manager, new day of the week for meetings. The plan is to meet every third Wednesday of the month.

Also new? The location: 6554 Krycul Avenue, Riverview, FL 33578-4330. That's the office of Excelsior Community Management, our new property management company. Jennifer Robertson will manage the community for us.

The start time remains 7 p.m.

New Property Manager Has Taken Over

We have officially changed property managers. Excelsior Community Management now manages St. Charles Place. If you have questions about any common areas or services in the community, contact Jennifer Robertson at Excelsior.

The phone number is (813) 349-6552. Her email address is StCharlesPlaceHOAManagement@tampabay.rr.com

One more thing changes: the site of monthly HOA meetings moves to Excelsior's office at 6554 Krycul Avenue. That is almost literally across the street from the River of Life Christian Church, which has graciously hosted us for the past five years.

HOA meetings happen the third Wednesday of the month. The next one comes February 18 at 7 p.m.

The transition between management companies should appear seamless to you. The HOA has not changed the bank it uses to take dues payments so you mail them too the same address, or use the same online banking payee, as you have always done.

As always, you can send any questions of feedback to your HOA Board of Directors at board@stcharlesplace.us.

Possible Cable TV Interruption Next Week

An tree service comes out to the community next Wednesday to grind and remove some tree stumps. Some of these have cable TV lines entangled in them because the trees grew around the stumps. The tree service says that it will work cautiously, but that it can't completely avoid cutting some of the cable lines.

If you lose your cable TV service that day, this is probably why. You will need to call your cable company to have the cable line repaired.

New Property Manager Same Payment Address

We get a new property manager February 1. However, we will not have to change the bank we use for HOA payments. This means that the mailing address, or electronic bill pay, if you bank online, does NOT change.

The HOA board will work with the new property management company to make as much of the transition invisible to you as possible.

Except the part where we get more visits to the property, and more hands-on service from the property manager.

HOA Meetings Move - Next One February 18

HOA meetings will move from the River of Life Christian Center to a conference room of our new management company, which happens to be right across the street. Here is the address:

Excelsior Community Management Office
6554 Krycul Avenue
Riverview, FL 33578-4330

It's in a small office park complex that looks almost like a storage building.

The meeting day also moves from Tuesdays to the third Wednesday of the month. This makes our next meeting February 18, if I read the calendar correctly. Time remains the same: 7 p.m.

I'll post a reminder as we get closer to the date. You'll also get details on new contact information for our property manager, Jennifer Robertson, who takes over officially February 1.

Meeting Tomorrow Night

So the HOA board, including your humble blog author, had the idea to move the monthly HOA meeting to the third Thursday of the month. And it sneaked up on us rather quickly!

I did post notice at the mailbox kiosk last night, and to the HOA Facebook page, but I will try to give more advance notice. Also, I learned yesterday that our normal meeting venue is not available, so we will meet at the Target store on Bloomingdale Avenue in the dining area at 7 p.m.

For most of our meetings, this gives us plenty of space, but we hope to hear that we will have our normal meeting room for the rest of the year, at least through the annual meeting in October.

The agenda is pretty light. We will discuss the change in management companies. It is official. We move to Excelsior Community Management February 1. The company is based here in Riverview and they promise a more frequent and more engaged presence in our community. We believe this will help us tackle smaller issues faster, and give us more room to take on any big challenges we face.

One of the meeting's agenda items will be to compile a task list of things we need to address. It could be ongoing things that we have dropped the ball one, or new issues people raise. So bring your ideas, your questions, and even your proposed solutions.