Alley Paving, Funding, New Website
We held a meeting of your HOA Board and have planned on some areas we need to move on to keep The Laurels the premier neighborhood that it has become. I wanted to share these with you and seek any input you might have.
We are looking at paving the alleys in The Laurels. They have been patched many times, once professionally and many times by some of your fellow neighbors. They have not been totally done since the neighborhood was completed, almost 20 years ago, and they are showing signs of degradation, pot holes and cracks. This is not an inexpensive program, but needs to be done. We realize a little less than half of you do not live on an alley (about 44%) and may be upset at the expense for this, but we do feel it is important to keep all of our property values high.
In order to meet the payment for this job, it will take almost all of our Maintenance Reserve Fund. We hope to try and do half the alleys this year and the other half next year, 2025. The need for this getting done has been voiced for the last several years.
We are going to have the street and stop sign poles repainted. These have not been done in 20 years either. This painter does mailboxes also and he can do some of these while he is in the neighborhood. You will have to let us know if you wish to have your mailbox repainted and renumbered and we will get the painter to schedule it to get done. The cost will be $ 50 if you are interested (includes painting mailbox and flag plus new numbers). You can send me your interest, and your $50, and I will compile a list for him. Or you can contact him directly, Brock Shaffer, 238-7974.
Mark Howell, our new Webmaster, has been looking at upgrading our website,thelaurelshoa.com. We hope to be able to add more neighborhood details as to activities and schedules and make it easier to use. He has already made some changes, if you have not been on the site in a while.
The Board is considering having to raise our HOA dues starting next year. We need to replenish our Maintenance Reserve funds and the costs of many of our commitments are going up. After the fence replacement and the alley repaving, it will have used up almost all of the Reserve we have building for the past 16 years or so. We will remind you as we get closer to the end of the year about this.
The Laurels Care Committee asked us to send a memorial to the Trinity Cemetery in Brownsville, Tn, in accordance with the wishes of Patsy Powell’s family. We sent $75 to the cemetery in her name in lieu of flowers.
Everyone should have received the new directories by now. Please be aware that these are strictly for use by the residents of The Laurels and not to be used for commercial use at all. Please do not share your directory with anyone outside of the neighborhood!
If anyone has a friend looking to move into The Laurels, the Carsons, at 9830 W. Laurel Hollow and the Byrams, at 1903 E. Laurel Hollow, are moving and have not listed with a realtor yet. Bring some more great people into The Laurels.
Jim Stettler
