Third time's a charm or three strikes, we're out? You decideBy Tony GreeneBoard President Florida law and our by-laws require an annual meeting. We tried to hold this meeting in March and again in May. By law, we must have at least 10% of the members represented at the meeting, either in person or by proxy. With 442 homes in Silver Ridge, that means we need 44 people to show up or send in their proxy. This hasn't happened in two attempts. Our failure to hold a legally valid annual meeting costs the association several hundred dollars in printing, postage and snack foods. So, we are trying again! Our Annual Homeowners meeting will be held June 26 at 7 p.m. All of our meetings are held at the Orange County Public Library branch in the Publix shopping center at the corner of Hiawassee and Silver Star. Please attend! If you cannot attend, please fill out the proxy you received in the mail from Penn First and mail it back. If you have a neighbor who is going to attend, you can send the proxy to the meeting with him or her. Pursuant to our association by-laws, the purpose of the annual meetings is: · Allow the Board of Directors to inform the HOA of our state of affairs. · Elect new directors to the Board. The Board of Directors controls the budget - almost $50,000.00 of your money a year - and policies of the Association. The Board answers to the members of the HOA, homeowners in Silver Ridge, via the election process. It is important that the members carefully elect responsible Directors. The Board consists of five Directors, whose terms of office last one, two or three years. The terms of office are staggered, so not all expire in the same year. The Association will be electing two Directors to fill the terms that expire this year. They are a three-year term held by Fay Lewis and a one-year term held by Matt Steinhoff. Yard of the QuarterThis quarter, we had some great nominees and tough competition. So many of you have been working hard on your yards and your neighbors appreciate it.Yard of the Quarter goes to the residents at 2651 Silver Ridge Drive. They have done an amazing job fixing up their yard, including placing new railroad ties along the slope of the yard and landscaping that area with flowers. A wonderful transformation has taken place in that yard over the past few weeks. Congratulations! Second place goes to 2810 St. Clair Court and third place to 7525 Stidham Drive. The effort you have put into your yards has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated. The Architectural Control Committee votes on the Yard of the Quarter. The resident who wins receives a $50 Home Depot gift certificate and is announced in the next newsletter. Nominations are welcome from anyone, including the property manager, the Board of Directors and you, the residents! We'd love to hear your vote for Yard of the Quarter. E-mail your suggestion to acc@silverridgehoa.org. You may also leave voicemail at 407-293-4117. All nominations received will be forwarded to the Architectural Control Committee. Nominations for the next quarter must be received by August 15, 2003. Survey says crime and grime go hand-in-handShe came at night. She walked through your neighborhood and looked at your house. She made notes about what she saw and she took pictures as evidence. Did anyone notice? Did anyone see this stranger surveying our neighborhood? No. No one saw when she arrived and no one noticed when she left.Good thing she was here to help us! That stranger was Dorinda Howe, our Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) practitioner. Dorinda performed surveys of Silver Ridge by day and by night. She looked at the neighborhoods our streets connect to and at the apartment complex that backs up to us. Dorinda also reviewed a year's worth of crime statistics, the resident questionnaire and interviewed Cpl. John Luckett from the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Her goal was to provide a crime analysis of Silver Ridge, make recommendations based on that analysis and assist us in forming a plan to address our crime problems. Dorinda presented the analysis results during our first attempt at an annual meeting in March. She found the following: · A lack of control of the access points into Silver Ridge encourages cut through traffic and speeding. · Crime is clustered in two main areas - near the Silver Star and Bon Air entrances between Eldorado and Telford and near the back access point at Pell Mell, spreading onto Silver Ridge, Bordwine, Hickory Creek and Salter. · Neighborhood identification is not strong, meaning that many residents cannot say specifically where Silver Ridge ends and another subdivision begins. · There is a general lack of crime prevention information, resulting in outside lights not being used and suspicious activity not being reported. Dorinda made the following recommendations to improve crime prevention in Silver Ridge: · All four entrances into Silver Ridge, at Silver Star, Chico, Pell Mell and Eldorado, should have signs, better lighting, and paving stones to identify the road as a change from public to the semi-public space of the neighborhood. This will control access and define our territory. · Silver Ridge Drive from Telford to Bordwine should be narrowed using traffic calming devices to slow down speeders. Medians placed at multiple points along Silver Ridge Drive with curbing and shrubs and paving stones or bricks on each side would narrow the road to slow cars down and beautify the neighborhood. This, along with paving stones at entrances, would reduce cut through traffic. · Silver Ridge and the Silver Cove Apartments need to communicate with each other regarding the fence line along Bordwine and work together to resolve problems with fence climbing and trespassing. · Silver Ridge should start a Neighborhood Watch. Cpl. Luckett should be invited to attend meetings to explain how Neighborhood Watch works and talk about home and personal safety. Residents can request a personal home security survey from Cpl. Luckett. · Residents need good outside lighting and they need to use it. Streetlights only illuminate the street. · Neighbors need to watch out for their neighbors and report suspicious activity to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. · Proper maintenance of the houses and landscaping needs to continue. Crime and grime go hand-in-hand. Bushes and trees need to be trimmed so residents can see out of their windows and into their neighborhood. If you can't see out of your windows, you can't see suspicious activity. Overgrown trees and bushes provide hiding places for would-be criminals. · We should consider closing Eldorado at Bon Air Drive. The crime rate on Bon Air alone is 40% of the crime throughout Silver Ridge. That's one street with almost half the crime of 17 streets. Installing a physical separation between Silver Ridge and Bon Air will help reduce crossover crime. As a result of this analysis, Silver Ridge has applied for a ReNew grant from Orange County. This grant would help pay for improvements to our entrances. If you are willing to help reduce crime in Silver Ridge and increase crime prevention, please contact the Board of Directors. A PDF version of the complete CPTED report is available online at http://silverridgehoa.org. Crime Stats from CPTEDDuring her survey of Silver Ridge, Dorinda Howe requested crime statistics from the Orange County Sheriff's Office to help her evaluate our neighborhood. She received statistics for 1-1/2 miles surrounding and including Silver Ridge. Below is the crime count for 8/1/2001 through 11/19/2002.
A Message from HOA President Tony GreeneWith summer here, many of our neighbors have been working on their homes and in their yards. If you are one of those people, thank you! If you live next to one of those homes, make sure to thank your neighbor. If you don't know your neighbor well (or at all), use this opportunity to introduce yourself. What a great way to get a converstation started!That's the good news. On a sad note, our property manager Colman McKenna resigned from Penn First Management. Colman was committed to making a difference and had a positive attitude regarding all the issues that impacted Silver Ridge. He will be missed. David Smith will be our new property manager. We hope that he will be able to show some progress on some of our outstanding issues. Despite the manager change, existing violations of Silver Ridge's covenants and deed restrictions will not go unnoticed or unaddressed. Community appearance is the HOA's top priority. The Board has discussed various ways to address the level of compliance within our community. Unfortunately, it appears that the only effective way we have to motivate residents is through litigation. In closing, I would like to reiterate that the association is committed to using the full extent of our property management company and the law to ensure compliance with our covenants and deed restrictions. With the assistance of our new property manager, we will move forward and pursue any and all violations that detract from the appearance of our community. And, again, thank you for your support and cooperation in enhancing our community's appearance! Block parties, garage sales - together we can do itBy Tony GreeneBoard President We have big dreams for Silver Ridge. The board would like to have a Summer Block Party on July 4th and a Community Garage Sale before the end of summer. We need your help to make these events possible! If you are interested in helping with the block party or the garage sale, please contact the Board at our community voice mailbox at 407-293-4117 or e-mail hoa@silverridgehoa.org. In every issue, I have encouraged you to get involved in your neighborhood. Why? Because we have 442 homes in Silver Ridge and only a dozen or so homeowners who actively participate in our association. Most of the time, the Board hears from members of the HOA only when they are upset about something going on in the neighborhood. If you find yourself unhappy about something you see in Silver Ridge, you are the person who can fix it. If you catch yourself wondering when somebody is going to do something about it, you are the one who can do something. Twelve people alone cannot make 442 homeowners happy. We need your help! The Board wants to establish two new committees. The first committee is the Neighborhood Improvement Committee (NIC). The NIC would seek group discounts for roof cleaning, lawn care, exterior painting and fence repair and would create a "neighborhood directory" that lists the contact information of any resident who has a service they wish to advertise. We used to have a Neighborhood Watch committee but that ended due to a lack of participation. Reviving this committee would help strengthen our community, help you get to know your neighbors and make Silver Ridge a safer place to live. Volunteering, or even offering to chair these committees, will not take a lot of time. The more people who step forward to help, the less work it will be for all of us. Your home is a major investment and your neighborhood significantly impacts the value of that investment. Be smart. Improve the value of your home. Volunteer! Watering tips for your lawn from Tru Green Chem LawnCourtesy of Len MinottiTru Green Chem Lawn Area Representative Proper watering is the most important thing you can do to keep your St. Augustine lawn beautiful and stress-free through the heat of summer. The general rule of thumb is to water twice a week for 45 minutes per zone when temperatures are over 85 degrees. Start at 6:00 a.m. and plan to be finished by 10:00 a.m. 45 minutes per zone will put down one inch of water, which will soak down past your root system and force the roots to grow to the moisture on the days you do not water. Rapid evaporation starts at 10:00 a.m. when temperatures reach 85 and higher so you want to be done by then to avoid this loss of water to the atmosphere. A good way to tell if your lawn is getting enough water is to simply look at the blades of grass. If they are folded closed, they are trying to conserve moisture and need water. Also, a bluish cast is evidence of a dry lawn. For Bahia grass lawns, water as little as possible! Overwatering Bahia encourages weed seed to germinate and makes it easier for mole crickets to tunnel and lay eggs. It also encourages a shallow root system. This lawn type needs to be reseeded every fall or spring as it doesn't reproduce and will gradually get thinner through the years. Tru Green Chem Lawn is now offering all Silver Ridge residents a special group price on all residential lawns. Our service program includes fertilizer, weed control and insect control. There are no contracts to sign and all work is guaranteed. For a free lawn analysis and estimate, please call your area representative Len Minotti at 321-695-3553. We will not be undersold! Upcoming Holidays and Meetings
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