Day: October 1, 2014

President’s Message October 2014

You should have all received your ballots for the BOD election by now. If you have not voted please take a few minutes to fill it out and mail it in. How this association moves forward and interacts with homeowners depends on homeowners casting their vote on how this will be done. There are four qualified candidates for three positions so please vote.

 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Connie DeLarge for serving on the BOD for the past six years. She has chosen not to run this time and the community owes her a big thank you for the time and effort she has put forth being a BOD member for six years. Thank you Connie.

 

Fall is here and the dogs and homeowners are enjoying the lower temperatures for their walks. Hopefully this will also bring out more people to the monthly Block Party/Food Truck Roundup at Windmill Park. There has been a consistently good turnout of people in attendance and the climbing wall at last month’s was a great success. Hopefully we will see you there in October.

 

 

The Thanksgiving and Christmas food drives to help those less fortunate are still planned, as is the holiday lighting contest and caroling at Windmill Park . A Santa food drive is being organized with free pictures with Santa for a food donation with times announced next month.

 

Enjoy the cooler weather and consider attending a committee or BOD meeting. This community is only as good as those willing to donate their time to make it better that way.

President’s Message August 2014

Another school year starts on August 5th so watch out for the children going to and from school. They’ve been on summer vacation and may not be as attentive to traffic around them. Speaking of school, the Marana High School marching band will be holding a rummage sale fundraiser at the Community Center on August 9th to help purchase accessories like hat boxes, suit bags, gloves, etc. for their NEW uniforms.The band participates in the Rodeo Days Parade, the Marana Founders’ Day Parade, as well as dedicating every Friday night during football season to play at the games. This is a great opportunity to pick up used treasures and school clothes as well as support the local high school band. Last year they were able to acquire a director’s observation tower with proceeds from their sale.

The Windmill pool deck repairs should be complete as well as the repainting of the office building, ramadas, and pool fencing as required by the Reserve study. Keeping our assets up to a high standard is the goal of the BOD and through careful budgeting and contributions to the Reserve funding we have been able to do this while not having to increase assessments. With the required increases to the Reserve contributions each year there will be some choices to be made in the next few years.

The survey sent out to the homeowners concerning keeping Windmill pool open in the winter months has been tallied. There were 620 homeowner surveys returned. 442 homeowners (71%)  wanted the pool closed in the winter and 178 homeowners (29%) wanted it open. The BOD will follow the majority opinion in this matter.

Hopefully the monsoons will kick in this month as we can surely use the rain.

 

 

President’s Message March 2014

I thought it was time to call the attention of homeowners and businesses in CRCA to a portion of your property taxes for which you receive no benefit- what I would call a “taxation without representation” sort of thing. I am referring to the part of your tax bill that reads “CMID”. This CMID tax is assessed by the Cortaro Marana Irrigation District for which you are levied $69 per acre (or percentage of an acre) on your property taxes each year.

CMID (aka Cortaro Water Users Association) has been in existence since 1919 and services approximately 70 irrigation customers. Before Continental Ranch was first developed in the mid-80’s, the area was farmland owned by lettuce grower Bud Antle. I am sure that Mr. Antle used the services of CMID to water his fields. I find it quite disturbing that over 90% of CRCA- as well as the businesses at the Arizona Pavilions- are included in the CMID water district for tax purposes and we receive nothing in return other than the privilege of offsetting some costs to the 70 customers who use CMID water for irrigation. Doing a rough calculation CMID receives in excess of $70,000 a year from properties in CRCA and give nothing back to us in return.

I have included a map in this newsletter showing the boundaries of CMID for taxation purposes. Is there anything we can do to stop paying for something we receive no benefit from? We can petition the Pima County Board of Supervisors to be excluded from this taxing district. If you are interested in lowering your tax bill please contact the office for a petition. This will not happen without a lot of homeowners voicing their opinion. 

President’s Message May 2014

The Association hosted the annual Easter Egg hunt at Windmill park on the Saturday before Easter. Judging from the large turnout (over 500 children) accompanied by parents, older siblings, and a few grandparents I would have to say it was a great success. Thanks to Jocelyn and all the volunteers as well as the rest of the management staff for putting so much work into making this such a great event. A special thanks to Stephen and Ryan for dressing up in the Easter bunny suit- they deserve it as you have no idea how hot that suit is. It was really nice to see the families coming together and enjoying our beautiful park and their families. There were lots of smiling children running around and enjoying the petting zoo, face painters, balloon artists and jumping castles as well as the egg hunts.

The BOD, Finance committee and management will be working on the budget for next year starting in May. We have not seen a dues increase since I have been on the BOD (6 years) but we have seen increases in the of cost services, utilities and required contributions to the reserve fund continually rise. In 2010 our reserve contribution was $90,000.00. The current contribution requirement is $170,000.00 with it rising to $216,968.00 by 2018. We have held management and other contractors to no increases for over two years and will be facing increases this coming year. Looking at a number of expenditures the cost of keeping Windmill pool open November to February has stood out as one of question. In 2006 the then BOD decided to keep Windmill open year round on a trial basis. With the associated costs and usage by a very small number or residents the BOD decided to send a survey out in May for input from all homeowners on the justification of this expenditure. Please return the survey so we can make plans while budgeting for next year and hopefully not have to raise dues.

President’s Message April 2014

I have asked myself for the last six years being President of the association- why do I put up with the attacks on the BOD for our actions, dealing with collections of delinquent accounts, overseeing the financials and how homeowners monies are spent, making sure that the reserve study is followed, selecting and overseeing contractors for the myriad of projects- both planned and unplanned- that are undertaken and a host of other issues and challenges faced as a BOD member. Making sure that ALL homeowners are treated equally with no one group receiving preferential treatment over another and making sure that we meet all of the conditions of the CC&R’s while not intruding on a homeowners right to live an enjoyable life here in CRCA. I take this task very seriously and have put a lot of time and effort into this association. WHY?

I guess the answer would be I really enjoy seeing the transformation that has taken place in CRCA. The Windmill office is welcoming to homeowners and it is nice to see visitors looking for their house on the wall map in the lobby. Seeing the interaction between homeowners and the staff of management is most always a good experience for both. Seeing the baseball diamond being used at night by the little league team is especially enjoyable to me- I think I enjoy it as much as the players are. Seeing the families using the picnic area under the armadas at Windmill Park and the kids playing ball and flying kites on the weekends makes all the work put into making the park what it is today all worthwhile. It is a definite asset to CRCA and is being used as it should be by homeowners. Seeing the large turnout for the food truck round up as well as the pool being used by families with the kids enjoying the facilities.

With that said I would like to remind you of the upcoming Easter Egg hunt at Windmill park on April 19th. This event has grown each year with the children having a great time and taking home their share of the eggs. If you have the time it would be great to have you volunteer to help with the Easter Egg hunt- it is a little bit of work but the rewards cannot be measured when you see the joy in the children.

One last thing- starting on April 3rd there will be a Farmers Market at the west end parking lot of Windmill Park from 9AM to 1PM. This will be every Thursday so we hope to see you there so it can continue and grow.

Have a safe and happy Easter and enjoy what CRCA has to offer each homeowner.