We are asking for volunteers to come help us plant 31 trees at the site of the new vehicle storage building. We will meet at the site at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 11. We need 15-20 people. Please bring your gloves and a shovel. We will have a backhoe and operator on site. If you have a wheelbarrow, it might come in handy. We will be planting the trees along the back (east side) of the building. If you can help, please email Ole Smith so we know how many people to count on. Thanks.

Fellow owners:

We need your approval forms for the Timber Lakes Fire Station proposal. We have approximately half of what is required to approve this project. Please return your form. If you know other owners, please remind them. The returned approvals are critical.

Thank you for your support.

Summer was way too short for the many projects we identified to do and winter is just around the corner. As those of you with property on the upper part of the mountain may have noticed, we have removed the brush and some trees at the corner of Blue Spruce and Cut Off Road (or Club House as some may know it). Many of you have called me and asked about the “big drop off.” Our road crew is in the process of widening Cut Off Road, along with reducing the steepness of the slope at this intersection. This intersection is probably the worst one on the mountain. This part of the road has always had very steep sides and has always been dangerous but no one ever knew just how much it dropped off there until we removed the brush. Most of the fill dirt for this project is being moved from the new building site where we are making room for the driveway and parking area.

Some of you may have noticed that there are big cement boxes along some of the roads – these cement boxes are going to be put in the ground and connected to the culvert that runs under the road. These boxes will help keep dirt from filling up the pipe and will prevent trucks from crushing the end of the culvert. This will improve the drainage water flowing down the bar ditches.

Some have asked about our paving plans. We are not paving anything this year and perhaps not next year. Asphalt has jumped in price just like the gas for your car because it is an oil-based product. One of the reasons we will hold off for at least one year is that it costs so much to mobilize a paving crew. If you have, only so much money you end up spending it on the mobilization of the equipment and then have very little left to pay for actual pavement. This is why we have elected to hold off and try to have money saved from one year to the next so we can pay one mobilization fee and have more funds available to pave a longer stretch of road.

Questions have been asked about street signs and why have so many disappeared. Good question. Why someone would want to take our street signs? We have identified all that are currently missing and will be ordering them in the next few days. Additional speed limit signs are also being ordered and placed on each road. Just as a reminder, the speed limit is 25 mph on the paved roads, 20mph on the non-paved roads, and 15 mph on all corners. Please remember these limits apply to every vehicle, including ATVs. Your help in enforcing the limits is always appreciated.

As I have previously noted on the Board Blog (timberlakesutah.com) the snow route will consist of the main roads being plowed first and then the secondary roads next. Many have asked, “What about my road?” As time and money allows, we will get to most of the roads in reasonable time. We will always plow the Dugway first, then Blue Spruce and Ridgeline. After that, we will work the other roads as we can. Mother nature will dictate what part of the mountain is plowed first. We have two full-time road employees and they are on overtime after 40 hours – so we try to use their time wisely.

For any question you have about the roads and road projects please email me at roadguy@timberlakesutah.com

A point of clarification – I attend the Water Board meetings on behalf of the TLPOA Board, I am not the Water Company!

I look forward to your comments and questions.

Gary Hume
The Road Guy

Please be informed that this Friday and/or Saturday (September 19-20) there will be a controlled burn on our neighbor’s property, the LDS Church Heber Valley Camp. This fire has been approved and authorized by the County and the County Fire Marshall will personally be there to oversee things. The area of the burn has been cleared and is devoid of combustible material to ensure safety.

The Camp has recommended to the County and to the Board that the burn occur now, rather than in another month or two for one significant reason. Right now, the work can be attended to and watched over by a literal army of missionaries, however, the missionaries will terminate their service in the next 2 weeks and then the burn would have to occur with only a handful of people. The County and the Board think it is a wise decision to do it now and agree with the request.

Why the burn? Interestingly enough, it is for us, Timber Lakes. As you may know all our water in Timber Lakes comes from springs on the property owned by the Church camp. There is an agreement that allows our water company to enter their property in order to develop the springs. The Water Company has been working on that project this summer and has now tapped into the springs. Next year new water tanks will be constructed in the areas cleared out around the springs and we will have sufficient water again for our community. However, a quantity of trees and brush had to be removed in order to develop the springs and clear the surrounding areas needed for the tanks. It is that material that will be burned. Or, in other words, the burn is due to our water development project.

So, if you look over and see smoke this Friday and/or Saturday, please know it is safe, approved and being watched over.

Ole Smith, Administrative VP-TLPOA – Liaison Heber Valley Camp

On August 25, 2008, I met with two representatives from the State Dept of Public Utilities and six employees of Rocky Mountain Power. We were also joined by a Timber Lakes owner, Ron Hazard. The meeting came as a result of complaints filed by myself, Ron Hazard and LaMar Hadley regarding the quality of electrical power coming into Timber Lakes.

I learned some interesting things in the meeting:

1. Our electricity is generated by Heber Lighting & Power.
2. Rocky Mountain Power is simply a customer of HP&P, purchasing the power and reselling it to Timber Lakes.
3. HL&P does not want to sell directly to us as they would have to service the mountain as well.
4. The State Department of Utilities has no control or influence over HL&P; they are only involved with publicly owned utility companies. HL&P is owned by Heber City.
5. If you have a power outage in Timber Lakes, Rocky Mountain Power has no way of knowing unless you call them.
6. They want you to call on every outage, even if it is a temprorary 3-5 second outage. This allows them to track the frequency of the problems and gives them data about which they can go to HL&P and request repairs and improved engineering.
7. Do not call HL&P; we are not their customers and they have made perfectly clear they do not care about Timber Lakes, except to collect cash from us through Rocky Mountain Power.
8. Rocky Mountain Power is attempting to work with HL&P on our behalf. In my opinion, they are doing a good job in this area.

If you have a power outage, please call Rocky Mountain Power at 877.548.3768 to report it.

John Blickenstaff