We just wanted to let you know that there are several hiking/snowshoe/x-country ski trails in the common areas that are open this winter.

The Moose Trail is located at the upper mountain (see map) and has a north and south trail.  There is good parking area and a kiosk with signs.

The Jones Lake Trail is located mid-mountain, just off Lake Pines Drive (see map).  You may have noticed the piles of red rock and some road equipment parked in this lot.  This is also the location of the parking to access this common area. A trail starts at the parking lot and goes up through the trees to the south, and then over the dam and around Jones Lake.

Please enjoy and use the trails. Remember to stay on the trails and respect private property.  The common area boundaries are marked with pink flags. If you are not in the common area, you are on private property that belongs to someone else!

We will resume more trail work in spring.  In the meantime, use and enjoy the new trails in Timber Lakes. If you would like to volunteer to help build trails, let me know.

Also, if you are a Facebook member, there is a Timber Lakes Residents page that you may want to join as a way to stay connected with some of the folks/happenings on the mountain.

I hope you have a wonderful and safe holiday and a very merry new year!

Barb Meierhofer
For the Common Area Committee

Mike Durr
Vice President, TLPOA

The Timber Lakes Common Area Committee and volunteers have started work on several key projects in our common areas across the mountain.

The first is called Jones Lake. It will have a picnic and improved year-round parking area with hiking, snowshoeing trails, and pond exploration around Jones Lake.  This area includes Plats 9A, 10, and 11, and is accessible from Lake Pines Drive across from lot 946. Volunteers are designing the picnic area, which will include a natural play area. The hiking trail meanders through stands of cottonwood, around marshes (for good bird watching), and eventually into a large aspen grove. It will be marked for both winter and summer use. To prevent off-road vehicles from disturbing the common areas, a natural barrier will be included to prevent access where possible.

Chris Bala is volunteer trail boss for this site. Trail-building volunteers to date include: Gil Miller, Craig Jeppson, Matt Anderson, Carrie Bala, Barbara Stone, Tom Metcalf, Monty Botoson, Terrie Schultz, and Carolyn Rose.

The second project underway is improvement of the Moose Trail, on Plat 19, off of Raccoon Drive near the top of the development. This is a fabulous wildlife and wild flower viewing trail that cuts down the canyon through aspen and pine forest, crossing the creek several times. Trail bosses Barb and Jeff Meierhofer have led a team of volunteers to site the northern trail, build natural bridges, and place stepping stones in several creek crossings.  This volunteer team includes Jim and Dixie Carroll, Daryl and Twila Sparti, Judy Eddins, Marie Barton, and Theresa Gubler. A four-car parking area is available on the north side of the street and is marked.

A survey has just been completed for this fall’s third project –a hiking/snowshoeing trail on Plat 13, called West Views. The plan is to create a scenic trail on this parcel, which is accessible from Ridgeline, Oakview, and West View drives. All of the sites are required to have safe, legal parking, so a four-car parking area will be created to access this site as well. Dan Shroyer will be the trail boss of this area.

The Clyde Lake common area, Plat 2, has been surveyed. Watch for announcements as work starts in this area. This area will be wonderful for pond exploration and hiking in the scrub oaks on the northwest side of the subdivision.

If time and weather permit, the committee also hopes to complete surveys on the Bench Lake area (Plat 7), the south side of Raccoon Drive (Plat 19a), and the Harry/Parry Lake area (Plat 20a.)

Jim Barton is building kiosks that will be in place at each common area. The kiosk will contain trail maps, rules and regulations, and information about the local flora and fauna. If you have building materials to donate, please contact any member of the committee.

Thanks go to the Timber Lakes road crew and owner Don Christian for time and equipment required for the large-scale parts of these projects.

These projects are part of a master plan created by a committee of the TLPOA board this spring and are based on a commitment to create clean, safe, attractive, low-impact recreation areas that respect flora, fauna, and adjacent property owners, and are low maintenance and sustainable. To the best of the committee’s knowledge, Timber Lakes currently has 23 common areas.  These areas range from 1 acre to 40 acres in size. They are spread across the mountain. The committee polled property owners, to learn our owners’ priorities; the results leaned heavily toward hiking trails, nature walkways, sledding and snowshoe areas, and docks and picnic areas around the common area lakes.

Engineering surveys will be completed to clearly define the boundary of each individual common area before any projects are initiated. These areas will be posted to keep users from trespassing on adjacent lot owners’ private property.

Common areas are accessible to all TLPOA members and accompanied guests, but not open to the general public. Access to these areas will be controlled/maintained by proper signage. Motorized vehicles will be restricted from common areas in summer. Rules for the use of each common area will be posted on an information kiosk at the entry of each area. Offenders can be reported to Timber Lakes’ security or to the Sheriff’s department.

Please take a moment to review the Common Area Master Plan on the Timber Lakes website. We would love to have additional owners on the volunteer committee. If you have questions or would like to get involved, please contact TLPOAcommonarea@gmail.com.  Watch the newsletter and the Timber Lakes blog for updates on additional projects.

Mike Durr, TLPOA Board

We know this is a last minute invite, but please come join us at the Jones Lake parking area (across from lot #946 on Lake Pines Dr) from 12:00 – 2:00 today (October 29, 2011). Bring your gloves, eyewear,  and a tool:  shovel, rake, hoe, hatchet, pruning shears, or chainsaw.

Barb and Jeff Meierhofer
785-8185

Mike Durr, TLPOA

Please forward this to anyone you think may want to be involved in this exciting time of enhancing our community.

Please call me for more information.

Jeff Meierhofer
435.785.8185

Using heavy gloves, pull or clip off the thistle heads and deposit them in a plastic bag. Then pull the plant up from the roots, if possible. Leave the thistle plant on the ground as it will decompose. You can also move the pulled weed to another area on your property. Deposit the sealed bag of thistle heads in the dumpster, but not the whole plant. Please do put the entire thistle plant in the dumpster because of space concern for garbage, particularly on a holiday weekend. Please do not put them in the wood chipping pile because they will be spread throughout the community. Thanks to those of you that have cleared the thistles from your property and thanks in advance for those still working on it.

Mike Durr
VP of Administration

Mike Durr
Vice President

We will hold another meeting, for owner input in the Salt Lake Valley, on Wednesday, April 13th, at 6 pm in the Whitmore Library, 2197 East Fort Union Blvd, Salt Lake City. At the meeting, we will have a large map posted so you can show us where your property lies as you give us your input. (Please note this meeting is in April, not March as erroneously announced in our previous email.) For more information, please contact the Committee Chair, Tom Metcalf, at 801-599-0218.

We would also appreciate your input using a brief survey. Please take a few minutes to complete this short survey (only 10 questions – about 5 minutes).

Click here to complete the survey.

Mike Durr
Vice President of Administration and State Fire Liaison

The committee invites any interested owner to one of two public meetings, to give your input on how these areas may best be designed and used. We are particularly hopeful that owners whose properties are adjacent to common areas will provide us with feedback. At the meeting, we will have a large map posted so you can show us where your property lies as you give us your input.

The two meetings will be held just prior to the regular Board Meetings in February and March:

• Wednesday, February 9th, 6 pm, Wasatch County Senior Citizens Center, 465 East 1200 South, Heber City

• Wednesday, March 9th, 6 pm, Whitmore Library, 2197 East Fort Union Blvd, Salt Lake City

In addition, we will shortly post a brief survey on our website, regarding common area usage. We request all owners to complete the survey.

For more information, please contact the  Committee Chair, Tom Metcalf, at 801-599-0218.

Mike Durr
Vice President of Administration and State Fire Liaison

Our next new member training will occur in November.

Please contact Barb Meierhofer at 435-785-8185 or barbmeierhofer@yahoo.com for more information.

Please bring gardening tools, chainsaws, trailers, and good cheer. This could actually be fun! We have bulbs and wildflower seeds to start planting in the red rock garden in front of the Post Office. We will have more compost for the red rock beds so we can prepare them for next spring flowers.  We are also continuing to remove dead trees, noxious weeds, and designing new signage.

If you are interested, please meet in front of the Timber Lakes Office at 9:30 am on this Saturday, October 16th. The committee wants to continue the project and is asking for help from owners who can volunteer a little time.  Please contact Jeff with the time and date you are available to assist on the project.

Also, if you are putting hours in to remove timber and brush around your lot, be sure to track your time and complete the form included in the last issue of the Timber Lakes Times to submit for Matching Funds.

You can contact Jeff at 435.785.8185 or call the office and Martha will give you his email address.

Mike Durr

The next work session is Saturday October 16th at 9:30 am. We will finish by 1:00 pm, so you have the remainder of your Saturday to do your own fall preparation!  We will be preparing for spring flower planting, cutting down a few more dead trees, talk about making the signage in the area look better, and using the wood chips from the chip pile to provide better ground cover.

Bring your equipment and participate for the last work session of the year.

Please call Jeff Meiehofer with any questions at 435.785.8185

We sincerely appreciate Jeff’s willingness to spearhead this effort and ask you to please help out a little this Saturday. You’ll be glad you did because we will make you laugh.

Also, if you are putting hours in to remove timber and brush around your lot, be sure to track your time and complete the form included in the last issue of the Timber Lakes Times to submit to the State of Utah for Matching Funds.

You can contact Jeff at 435.785.8185 or call the office and Martha will give you his email address.

Mike Durr
m.durr@TimberLakesUtah.com

With the new building season about to start in a few months, we are changing our review process in order to simplify and bring Timber Lakes up to the new ‘electronic’ age.  Just as Wasatch County has gone to electronic submittals, we are doing the same at Timber Lakes.  We believe this will help to expedite the submittal/approval process.

We are now requiring that all plan submittals be in electronic format.  We no longer accept paper submittals (sets of paper drawings).  We ask that you submit your plans to the office electronically (PDFs) by email or a CD delivered to the office.  You will still be required to fill out the required application form as found on the website and provide both the $20 Filing Fee and the $80 Review Fee prior to your plans being accepted for review.

Once we have reviewed your plans, and you have paid the required fees as determined by our review, we can either email the approved drawings back to you or forward them on to the County.  You would be ultimately responsible though for checking with the County to insure that they have received them.

We hope that this new system will streamline the process and be more convenient for all.

Should you have any questions please feel free to email me at buildingplans@timberlakesutah.com.

Rob Roueche’
Board of Directors-Plan Approvals
Timber Lakes Property Owners Association

Before submitting any plans for review, please visit the Construction Information page on the Timber Lakes website for construction information. The website contains all of the necessary instructions, forms and applications needed for plan submittal. Should you have any questions or concerns feel free to send me an email at buildingplans@timberlakesutah.com. I will respond back promptly.

Rob Roueche’
Director of Plan Approvals