Jeff Meierhofer, Chairman of our volunteer Entrance Beautification Committee, reported that 11 people helped on Saturday to remove dead timber and weeds from Lake Creek Road to the Timber Lakes entrance gate.  Thanks to those who showed up to help out. They made progress, and although there is more work to be done, it was a good beginning to the Entrance Beautifcation Project.  The group has a total of 30 hours work that will be turned into the State for matching funds (fire) to determine if the State will help us with additional funding for common area brush removal.

We will continue to collect down and dead wood, remove noxious weeds, and prepare the red rock gardens for planting of wild flower andnative plants. Jeff’s group 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.

One of our owners, Jeff Meierhofer, is forming a committee to clean up and maintain the entrance to Timber Lakes. The area of concern is from Center Street/Lake Creek into our development up to the parking lot and wood collection area. Jeff is asking those interested in helping him to bring any tools (chainsaws, shovels, rakes, trailers to haul wood to the wood pile) they can think will be helpful to the Timber Lakes office at 9:30 am this Saturday, July 17. They will work until 12:30 pm and make assignments of future efforts. His ideas for cleanup include removing dead fall, pulling noxious weeds, planting the red rock garden in front of the mail house, etc. (Not all of this needs to be completed this Saturday.) Please call Jeff with any questions.  He will be confirming with the land owner of the entrance area that this cleanup will be OK. The Board sincerely appreciates Jeff and other owners who are willing to get involved in helping to make Timber Lakes a great place to own property. Jeff Meierhofer, Lot 547, (435)-785-8185

At our recent regular meeting of the board, we determined to hold a special meeting of the board for the purpose of discussing the current building fee structure for Timber Lakes. This meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. in the Wasatch County Sr. Citizens Center adjacent to the Library at 465 East 1200 South in Heber City, Utah. Owners are welcome to attend and participate.

Mike Durr, President

Now that the Holiday Season is past, I would like to plead with the certain group of our owners who leave stuff behind for the rest of us to pick up: Please clean up your own trash.

The garbage dumpsters by the mail house are for household garbage only. Every holiday, a few owners get ambitious and do some remodeling or repair work; they then bring their construction project trash to the dumpsters. They read all the dumpster signs that say “Household garbage only” and solve their problem by throwing all their non-complying trash on the ground. Some of them stack it neatly, hoping this will make everybody happy. It doesn’t work.

This year, a thoughtful owner threw an old water heater out there on the ground. Another owner left several boxes and buckets of old metal machine parts. In the past, we have had engine blocks, washing machines, furniture and lots of construction trash left on the ground next to the dumpsters. It appears that some owners believe that a magical trash-eating gnome pops out at night and devours all this stuff.

Do you know how the illegal trash is removed? Your fellow property owners pick it up and take it the Wasatch County Waste Disposal District, where they have to pay to get rid of it for you. This is not fair and we plead with the minority of you that are causing the problem to be considerate of the environment and your neighbors.

You can take large items to the County Waste Transfer Station at 1891 West 3000 South in Heber City. This includes things like washers, dryers, water heaters, couches, refrigerators, tree limbs, construction trash, etc. Generally, the only things they will not take are dirt, rocks, concrete or tree trunks.

Last week, every owner received an invoice that looks like a postcard from the Wasatch County Solid Waste Disposal District. This is the annual bill from the County for taking care of the dumpsters. On this card, in the lower left-hand corner, there are three cleanup punches. If you have this card with you, you can take three (3) loads of trash to the County Transfer Station free of charge, between April 1 and June 30. This is a good bargain and a great way to dispose of items that don’t go in the dumpsters.

Also, as you are well aware, during holiday weekends, we generate more household garbage than can fit in the dumpsters. We try to address this by making sure the dumpsters are empty at the beginning of the weekend, but the fact remains, they fill up before the County can get back here to empty them. When they are full, please DO NOT pile your garbage on the ground. The County does not pay any attention to stuff on the ground. Your fellow property owners have to pick it up and throw it in the dumpsters after you leave. If the dumpsters are full, please take your garbage with you. I know this may seem unfair to the entitled among us, but please be considerate. Your weekend retreat should not require your neighbors to cleanup your garbage because you are too important to bother with it.

Timber Lakes is a great place. Let’s work together to keep it that way.

Because I can’t sleep some nights, I have been playing with my smartphone. I know there are more urgent needs for our owners but I can’t work on those in the middle of the night because they require interaction with other people, who are asleep at the time. If you have a smartphone, I have something for you;  I have added support for smartphones at TimberLakesUtah.com.

If you use one of the following devices, you should be able to view the website in a mobile-optimized format:

1. iPhone
2. iPod Touch
3. Android
4. Storm
5. Pre
6. Certain Blackberry models
7. Q

I have tested this on the iPhone, iPod Touch, Android,  Pre, some Blackberry models, and the Q. If you are using one of the other smartphones, I would appreciate you letting me know if our website is optimized on your device.

There is a pull down menu in the upper right corner allowing you to select website pages. From the pull down you can also select categories if you are looking for a particular post on the board blog.

For you techno geeks the following list identifies the user-agents supported by our website. If your smartphone uses one of these agents, the Timber Lakes website should be optimized for your device:

1. android
2. aspen
3. blackberry9500
4. blackberry9530
5. cupcake
6. dream
7. incognito
8. iphone
9. ipod
10. opera mini
11. webmate
12. webos

Have a great holiday!

John Blickenstaff

Our website (and email system) has been down since last Wednesday evening. We apologize to anyone who has tried to contact us during the past four days. We are back up and running on a new server and hope that our technical troubles are behind us. Thanks for your patience.

We are holding our last meeting of the Timber Lakes Board of Directors for 2009 on Wednesday, November 4, at 7:oo pm in the Wasatch County Senior Citizens’ Center, located at 465 East 1200 South, in Heber City, Utah. We invite our owners to attend. Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 13, 2010. Beginning in January 2010, our meetings are moving to the 2nd Wednesday of each month.

The gigantic pile of dead wood in our office parking lot is now CLOSED, effective immediately. We have scheduled the chipping crew to come in and chip this pile. There is no longer any place inside Timber Lakes where you can dump dead trees and branches. If you are cleaning up your lot, you need to take the wood to the Wasatch County Landfill. Please do not dump wood anywhere in Timber Lakes.

Thank you.

Mike Durr

Last weekend we had a serious accident on the mountain involving an ATV. The driver was taken by emergency helicopter to the hospital. The speed limit on all non-paved roads is 25 mph and you need to be wearing a helmet if you are on an ATV. The water construction project has several intersections on Blue Spruce torn up. Please be careful and courteous to the crews when you drive past them. Slow down and do not cover them with dust. You are driving at your own risk on the mountain, but speeding puts other people at risk too.

Our October Board Meeting will be held at a different location in Salt Lake City. The East Millcreek Library where we have held our previous meetings this year has been closed for a one-year renovation. Our October meeting will be held at the Whitmore Library, located at 2197 East Fort Union Boulevard, Salt Lake City, UT 84121 (approximately 7200 South in Cottonwood Heights). You can click here to see a map of the Salt Lake County Libraries, and then click on the Whitmore Library pin to get directions. Whitmore is located off I-215 in Cottonwood Heights. The meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 7, 2009. We hope you will be able to attend.