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Living in the Neighborhood, p. 2

Agenda Changes to COS Meetings for “Homeowner Comments”

In order to better serve concerned homeowners in our neighborhood, the Council of Stewards has decided to change the agenda for regular COS meetings held every other month. In a special session on May 25, the Council approved the following procedure:

1. The section of the meeting reserved for “Homeowner Comments” will follow the “Approval of the Minutes” on the agenda. This approach would allow owners to speak early without waiting through the entire meeting and other agenda items that may be of little interest.

2. Any homeowner wishing to speak at the regularly scheduled COS meeting would be required to submit in writing (hard copy or e-mail) a summary of the question or comment at least one week in advance of the meeting. This summary may be delivered to any COS member. Any member receiving such comments will forward same to the rest of the Council. [The time period will allow for the Council to gather necessary materials and be prepared at the meeting for a proper response.]

NOTE: The summary may be brief (one or two sentences), but must convey the subject of the comment or concern and must also be detailed enough to allow COS members to understand the issue if a response and actions are expected in a timely manner.

3. The requirement for advance written notice applies to regular COS meetings (every other month) and may be waived for special meetings of the homeowners (i.e.: August and November) or for special meetings called for specific issues or a single purpose.

In taking this action, the Council of Stewards does not wish to discourage homeowner attendance or participation in regular COS meetings, but rather to streamline those meetings and to better address concerns in an appropriate and timely manner. This procedure does not preclude owners and residents from discussing concerns and questions with any council member at any time. A council member may decide to add such issues to the agenda under “New Business” or may choose to refer the concern or question to one of the committees for review and action. All neighborhood committees have at least one representative from the COS as an active member.

The Council of Stewards greatly appreciates your cooperation in following this process.

Relocation of Townhome A/C Units

The Architectural Review Committee has become aware that a number of town home owners want to move their air conditioning units from their patios to the alleyway. Since this will be a global change rather a specific request for a change, the Architectural Review Committee will bring this issue up with the Council of Stewards.

If everyone moves their air conditioning unit to the alley way there are potential noise, heat and aesthetic problems with so many units concentrated in such a small space. There are also problems with encroachment into the common area and onto your neighbor’s property. There are potential problems with voiding the warranty on the units. And there are potentially better solutions, such as changing to a quieter scroll type compressor, rather than moving the unit.

In the mean time, no one should move their air conditioning unit on their own without approval. If the final decision is that it is not in the best interest of the neighborhood to allow moving of air conditioning units, then units that have been moved without approval are subject to being moved back to their original location at the homeowner’s expense. We all certainly want to avoid that.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation in this matter until we get it resolved to our mutual satisfaction.

Architectural Review Committee

New Termite Contract

Residents may have noticed a new “bug” in the neighborhood during the past few weeks. A contract with Termitech South (“Da Bug Man”) began at the end of April. The previous contract was under Killingsworth. The new contract includes periodic inspection of all townhome buildings for evidence of termites and includes liability coverage for any damage found. Of course, if termites are found on an inspection, Termitech will treat to eliminate the problem.

It is important for owners to understand that this contract covers the townhomes only and DOES NOT include funding for general exterior and household pests such as spiders and ants. The Council of Stewards does plan to review a household pest option during the budget planning for 2006. Further details of the new contract will be made available in future newsletters.

Single-family homeowners may set up their own contract through Termitech (Phone: 704.663.1040).

CAUTION – SLOW – STOP

Children at Play!

As we are all aware, construction activities throughout our development are nearing an end. There are a total of 272 lots with only a few that do not have a completed townhome, workplace unit, or single-family home. St. Alban’s Episcopal Church stands as a proud landmark to one of the entrances to our community. We are also fortunate to have a total of twelve parks, squares, or recreational areas scattered throughout the neighborhood. Our sidewalks, nature trails, and children’s play areas in some of the parks provide excellent walking and outdoor activity opportunities.

In order to maintain and access our homes and parks, there must be roads – eleven main streets and nine byways, to be exact. Two of our streets (South Faulkner Way and Clemens Place) are one-way. Along these roads, there are a total of 49 STOP signs, including six 3-way intersections, two 2-way intersections, and 27 other single STOP signs at various locations. These STOP signs were erected for the safety of our neighborhood and to help slow traffic flow for added caution.

However, residents and other drivers often fail to stop at all signs. This is not necessarily intentional, but is often the result of inattention and carelessness. The most frequently violated stops occur at 3-way intersections. Based on resident observations, one of the more frequently violated 3-way stop intersections is at Fairview Lane and North Faulkner Way. What makes this especially troublesome is the fact that there is a play area (a “Tot-Lot” Playground for small children) in Forest Park at that intersection. Small children are particularly prone to running into the street without thinking. Many children also play in and around Ashby Park, diagonally across the street from Forest Park. There have been some potential “near misses” as the result of cars failing to slow down and stop as required.

The Davidson Police have issued warnings and citations to drivers for failure to stop. However, this should not be our primary reason for compliance. For the safety of all, please obey neighborhood STOP signs. On the next drive in or out of the neighborhood, please pay particular attention at the location of these STOP signs.

NEWSLETTER DELIVERY BY MAIL

If you want Association information and the newsletter mailed instead of delivered to your door, please write to Abbott Enterprises, Inc. (5970 Fairview Rd., Suite 710, Charlotte, NC 28210) requesting the change. Association information is automatically mailed to all non-resident owners.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?
NEIGHBORHOOD STREETS AND BYWAYS
[INSTALLMENT 7]

We continue our discussion of the streets and byways of the New Neighborhood this month with a history behind the names given to Twain Avenue and Clemens Place (two names – one author!). With the exception of Fairview and Caldwell Lanes, the primary streets and roads throughout the neighborhood are named after Southern authors and writers. The narrow “byways” are all named for local people who were in the chain of title for property purchased for the New Neighborhood.

TWAIN AVENUE

CLEMENS PLACE

“I was born the 30th of November, 1835, in the almost invisible village of Florida, Monroe County, Missouri . . . . The village contained a hundred people and I increased the population by 1 per cent. It is more than many of the best men in history could have done for a town . . . .”

Chapters from My Autobiography (1906) by Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)

[Excerpted from Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography by Geoffrey C. Ward, Dayton Duncan, & Ken Burns (Alfred A. Knopf, 2001)]

Samuel Langhorne Clemens is considered to be one of the most popular American authors. There is not enough space in one newsletter article to do justice to his biography, for it is filled with contradictions and instability. Clemens was a humorist, but also a truthful social critic, particularly in his later years. His works cover a broad range of type and subject, including humorous sketches and stories, travel books, novels, and journalistic works and essays of satire and criticism.

Samuel Clemens’ family was poor. At age 11, he left school to become a printer after his father died. He lived in Hannibal, Missouri, while setting type for the Journal, his brother Orion’s newspaper. In the early 1850s, Clemens also lived briefly in St. Louis, New York City, and Philadelphia. In 1856, he decided to take a riverboat to New Orleans and, from there, go to South America. However, he became so enthralled with the riverboat and the Mississippi River that he became a cub pilot until 1859 and then received a license to pilot the Mississippi between St. Louis and New Orleans. He left the river in 1861 when the outbreak of the Civil War caused the Mississippi to be closed to commercial traffic.

Samuel and his brother, Orion, headed to Nevada by stagecoach. He tried gold mining, but never struck gold. During this period, Clemens began writing humorous stories for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. He also lived for two years in San Francisco. Clemens began his careers in writing and lecturing while in the West. He first used the pen name Mark Twain in 1863. (It likely comes from a riverboat term meaning two fathoms, a depth of 12 feet.) One of his most beloved stories, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” was written in 1865.

Mark Twain traveled to Europe and the Holy Land on a cruise in 1867 and the result was his first travel book, The Innocents Abroad (1869).Following the cruise, Twain met Olivia Langdon of New York and they were married in February of 1870. They had four children, a son, who died in infancy, and three daughters. Twain and his wife lived in Hartford, Connecticut, for twenty years in a home resembling a Mississippi riverboat.

Twain was predominantly unhappy and prone to misfortune during the last twenty years of his life. Two of his daughters and his wife all died in the early 1900s. He was an inept businessman looking for quick schemes to get rich, all resulting in failure. His novels, mainly written between 1873 and 1896, and a world lecture tour in 1895 and 1896, helped recover much of his debt during that time. His later writings reflected his bitter and pessimistic attitudes. He always hoped for moral and social reform and believed that people’s actions were driven by selfishness. After declining health, Mark Twain died on April 21, 1910.

Mark Twain’s reputation as a writer and humorist has only improved since his death. In his day, he was considered the funniest man alive and was a magnificent lecturer. His stories and novels remain classics among a broad range of ages around the world. His works include: The Gilded Age (his first novel in 1873), Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Life on the Mississippi (1883), Huckleberry Finn (1884), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889), Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894), and What Is Man? (1906). It is interesting to note that Huckleberry Finn, considered by many to be one of the most popular classic pieces of American literature, was initially published in England and was not published in the United States until a year later.

• • • • • • •

Next month, I will cover North and South Faulkner Ways. I have been reading works by each of the authors for whom our streets are named. William Faulkner’s writing is rich in character, vocabulary, and dialog, but his loose stream-of-consciousness style is definitely not a good bedtime read unless you are wide awake! I delayed Faulkner since I heard his writing was “heavy.” However, having finished at least two of his works in May, I am ready to tackle the “rest of the story.”

Two of our neighborhood residents met and knew Faulkner personally or through family members. This will provide an interesting addition to next month’s installment.

NEWSLETTER DELIVERY VOLUNTEERS

Many thanks are due our newsletter delivery volunteers each month. The April newsletter was delivered by Norm Reid and Dave Smith, with Tom Fischer, Sherman Kahn, Steve Lee, & John Williamson also as volunteers.

The May newsletter was delivered by Barbara Doster, Tom Fischer, Sherman Kahn, Norm Reid, Dave Smith, and John and Marcia Williamson.

WE ALWAYS NEED VOLUNTEERS FOR NEWSLETTER DELIVERY. IF INTERESTED, PLEASE CALL DAVE SMITH AT 704.987.1472.

REPORT FROM COUNCIL OF STEWARDS MEETING

MAY 25, 2005 [SPECIAL MEETING]

The Council of Stewards met in a special called meeting on May 25 to discuss and approve agenda changes in future meetings to better handle comments and concerns from homeowners and to also review and award the bid for the painting contract discussed in the April meeting. Other items needing immediate action were discussed.

The council of Stewards (COS) discussed these issues and took the following actions:

  • Agenda changes and procedures to better streamline and respond to homeowner comments during regularly scheduled COS meetings were discussed and approved for future meetings.
    [See newsletter article on page for details.]
  • Tom Fischer announced that effective immediately Helen Patil has submitted her resignation from the Council of Stewards and her position as Treasurer. Helen will continue to serve on the Finance Committee. The COS confirmed Ed Riley (Assistant Treasurer) to fill the position of Treasurer.
    [The Association and Council of Stewards wish to express their appreciation for the hard work and service that Helen Patil has given to our neighborhood.]
  • Dave Smith was appointed to fill Helen Patil’s unexpired term on the COS. This position expires in August, 2006.
  • The procedure for selection of a Nominating Committee will be reviewed and such committee for 2005 will be appointed at the regular COS meeting in June. This committee will present candidates for the two terms that will expire in August, 2005.

In Executive Session, the COS took the following actions:

  • Hank Howell has been named chairperson for the Townhome & Workplace Building Maintenance Committee to replace Bob Ashton who has announced that he has taken a position with Cunnane Group regarding warranty work remaining for this neighborhood and for the new Cunnane project in Cornelius. Bob felt that this move was best to avoid a potential “conflict-of-interest” situation.
    [Best wishes go to Bob in his new job. The neighborhood expresses its appreciation for his service on the committee. The good news is that Bob will remain as a resident.]
  • The COS reviewed and approved the painting contract for Townhome Buildings A, B, C, D, E, T and U (includes all units on St. Alban’s Lane, Caldwell Lane, and Twain Avenue). The contract was awarded to Foreman’s Painting Company, Matthews, NC. Abbott Enterprises will manage and follow the project which is expected to be completed by the end of summer, weather permitting. The work includes preparation (including wood replacement, as needed), a two coat application on all siding and trim, painting of metal railings/gates, and caulking of nail holes in siding on Twain Avenue. At this time, no painting of exterior doors, vinyl shutters, or garage doors is included. Residents will be contacted regarding commencement of the work and required access to patio and courtyard areas.
  • The COS approved $3,960.00 to conduct a full reserve fund study of the Association. The study will be conducted by Association Reserves Colorado, LLC. The work will include a site inspection and development of a component list, life expectancy, and cost estimates, including analysis of all data. The study will also include a photographic inventory. This study was budgeted in 2005 for purposes of being sure that reserve funds are adequate to cover periodic maintenance such as painting and roofing.
  • Ed Riley, Treasurer, met with Abbott Enterprises regarding financial records and the Association collection process and submitted a favorable report to the COS.
  • Upon further review, the COS has approved $2,960.00 for an audit of financial records for 2004. The audit will be performed by a third party CPA firm contracted by Abbott. It is expected that an audit will be budgeted and performed each year.

NOTE: The Council of Stewards meets regularly the fourth Wednesday of every other month in St. Alban’s Church library (lower level) at 7:00 p.m. Special meetings are called as needed throughout the year. Meetings are open to residents. The next regular COS meeting is June 22, 2005.

If any resident wishes to see a complete copy of meeting minutes, please contact Norm Reid, Council of Stewards Secretary, at 704.894.9213.