In the meantime, the lost chihuahua is safely back at home. Thanks to Tiffany for the rescue.

Also, as a reminder, we are holding our annual trash pickup activity this Saturday morning, from 9-11. Please bring your own gloves and meet at the office. We will cleanup around the office, dumpsters, gate and entrance road. We will serve lunch when we are through. Come, bring your family, clean up the trash and then clean up your plate.

May 18, 2009

Dear Timber Lakes Association:

It is out of complete frustration that we write this letter to you. In all the years that we have lived in Timber Lakes, the roads have  never been in such poor condition. Unlike the letter that circulates once a month claiming that the roads are always taken care of, we have not seen a pot hole (some very deep), rut, deep crevices etc. filled or taken care of in three years.

The roads we are talking about are Greenleaf, Acorn and Deer Creek roads. They haven’t seen a grater or ANY fill dirt in the last three years. The roads are in horrible need of some fill dirt and grating. When it used to be done (years ago) it would take a day or so to smooth out the roads so they were drivable….that is doing all three in our area. We know there are a lot more, obviously.

We realize your response to this will be that there are so MANY roads and they do the best they can. Our response to you would be that we have all driven around and we would suggest less time on the pricy landscaping of the Maintenance building and grooming around the ponds, and spend some time grating the roads. We pay just as money a year to have some attention paid to our roads as the “larger” homes pay.

Simply drive the roads of the huge homes and see for yourselves the difference…then come and drive Greenleaf, try to drive Acorn without getting stuck in the huge, long, deep crevices and then go up Deer Creek. You wouldn’t like living on these negelcted raods any more than all of the residents on all three roads do.

Thank you for listening. We felt it should be said even though we are confident there will be reasons why it doesn’t happen again this year.

How about that truck that was bought for $80,000 that did no good at all and you can’t recoup any of the Association money that was spent…I wonder how many roads we could have fixed for $80,000????? I’m sure that everyone who pays their dues would love to know!

We usually do not respond to letters, emails or faxes that are not signed by lot owners but we made an exception in this case as we wish to clarify some points raised in the letter.

Just last week a had a lady that lives on a road just north of the ones listed in the letter called to let me know of some big holes in her road and asked that we do something about them as soon as possible. Because she took the time to call me and leave a message, I checked into the issue and instructed our road crew to fix it. Within two days, the holes were filled and the road was graded. I then returned her call to let her know the road crew had fixed the road and hoped that she was satisfied. This is just one example of how we respond to our fellow owners.

If the person that wrote the anonymous letter had taken the time to give us specifics, including their name, I would know who to call to discuss the road issues.

As for the “pricy [sic] landscaping” around the new vehicle storage building – we planted those trees, for which we negotiated a huge discount, for two reasons – 1. To make the view of the building to the surrounding neighbors a little less obtrusive, and 2. Wasatch County required us to landscape around the building as part of our building permit. We do not do any grooming around ponds. The Jones Lake dam was repaired this last year by the folks down in the valley who own the water. We cleaned up most of our stuff at Duck Lake and moved it to the new building, as we promised the neighbors we would do.

Regarding “larger” and “huge” homes getting special road treatment, I point out the following – There are larger and huge homes in every plat in Timber Lakes. There are larger and huge home on Acorn and Deer Creek. By definition, there are homes on Greenleaf that are larger than some homes on some other road. We don’t have a road that is reserved for larger or huge homes. Likewise, we don’t have a road that is restricted to smaller homes. This Board has never made a single road decision based on the size of home. We do not maintain any road based on the presence or absence of a larger or huge home.

I invite Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous to drive up past my cabin on Buck Way. I was stuck twice in the past three weeks. The President of the Association almost lost his vehicle in a water-filled pothole on the upper mountain a few days ago. We are aware that many roads have serious problems and assure you that no special consideration is given to anyone based on the square footage of their cabin, its location or any relationship they may have to the Association.

I now want to once again, explain why the roads in Timber Lakes are going to be a mess this summer. This is repeat information for anyone who attends our regular Board meetings. The Water Company (no relation to Timber Lakes Property Owners Association, except that you and I fund both entities) has hired a contractor (Sunroc) to install new water pipe along approximately 2/3 of the roads in Timber Lakes. The Water Company has instructed Sunroc to install the pipe in the center of the road. This means that almost every road in our subdivision will be completely torn up. While we do understand that people need to be able to drive to their cabins, it does not make any economic sense to spend a lot of money maintaining a road that soon will be torn up. We can address major problems, but not every problem we would normally fix. The roads above Blue Spruce are already in this condition, having been torn up and left by Sunroc last fall.

What makes matters worse, is that there is not enough money in the Water Company construction contract for the roads to be put back as good as they are now. We are going to be addressing this major concern for the next several years. We will do the very best we can to protect our interests in the roads, but they are going to get worse before they get better. We have discussed these issues with the Water Company and will continue to try to work with them. It’s their pipe, our roads and all of it is paid for by the same people, the owners.

Finally, your Board of Directors completely agrees with the comment made by Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous about the truck. The Anonymous Family would already know this if they came to our monthly meetings. The previous Board purchased that truck without proper research as to what type of truck could be useful on the mountain. We have been trying to sell or trade the truck for several months, but have been hampered by the economy, which is affecting all of us.

Like every Board that preceded us, and every Board that follows us, we have to live with the past decisions. Many of those decisions are, in our opinion, good and a few are are questionable. We are doing the best we can with what we have.

When you as a property owner have a concern, please talk to us about it. There are several ways to do this. You can use email, the telephone, send us a comment from the website, write a letter, send us a fax or best of all, come to a meeting in person and share your two cents worth. The Timber Lakes Property Owners Association is made up of the owners of 1530 lots. The members of the Board of Directors are just fellow owners. Some of us live here, some of us are weekenders and all of us care as much as you about the mountain, the roads and how the money is spent. We don’t retaliate against a fellow owner who has a problem or disagrees with something. Please don’t be afraid to identify yourself. We have met some great people who come to tell us how to do a better job. We cannot respond to an anonymous letter. Contact me and tell me your name and lot number so we can respond directly to you and your concerns! We welcome your input.

By the way, I do not know anything about a letter that is circulated every month about the roads. When you are grating about the grading, contact me. I will listen.

Gary Hume
Road Guy

Accordingly, we now have an opening on our Board. Inasmuch as we are getting close to our annual meeting, we would like to give the property owners the opportunity to elect someone to complete Rob’s term on the Board. We encourage you to consider filing an application to become a candidate. We have four positions open and welcome your participation in the process. We need owners to get involved on the Board and help us continue our efforts to improve life on the mountain.

Please complete the Board Candidate Application Form and send to the office by Friday, May 15, 2009.