MARCH BOARD MEETING:

Our March 28, 2006 meeting of the Board of Directors was held as scheduled.  In addition to the entire Board of Directors, this meeting was attended by Chairmen from our Budget and Maintenance committees, Elliot Marks, President of Lone Star Termite and Pest Control, Charles Jeffries our association manager from Optimum Property Management and 8 additional homeowners.  The major issue addressed during the homeowner's forum was our upcoming fumigation process.  We were fortunate to have Elliot Marks available to provide expert advice on this issue.  The Chairman of the Budget committee provided a budget report and the Chairman of the Maintenance committee reported to the board on the status of the paint color selection process.  Sample color boards were presented and we were advised that the committee was not quite ready to recommend their final color selections to the Board.  They were asked to provide the Board with their final color recommendations at the April Board Meeting.  General business conducted included approval of 2006 Goals, architectural application reviews, and numerous executive session issues.

EXTERIOR RENEWAL PROJECT:

You have all received your initial "Notice of Fumigation" letter.  Please read this letter very carefully.  It contains information that is very pertinent to each of us.  Lone Star Termite and Pest Control have been very supportive of our request and we need to support them to make this project a success.  Please do your part and be a cooperative community citizen. 

In early April, we asked Mission Landscaping, our landscape maintenance company, to deviate from their scheduled maintenance plan and to start preparing our homes for the fumigation (tenting) and painting process.  Because of this, you will see some severe trimming of some of your landscaping.  In order to tent and paint the buildings we must ensure all vegetation is trimmed away from touching or blowing up against the houses and that we have a 12 inch clearance at the base of the structures.  Please do your part by having the plants on your property,  that you maintain, meet these requirements also.  Plants not cleared to these specifications may be subject to serious damage or destroyed during the fumigation and painting process.

During recent inspections of a number of our homes, Lone Star Termite and Pest Control discovered significant rodent activity.  Interior Pest Control is a homeowner responsibility.  If you have rodents in your home, they will be killed during the fumigation process.  Should they die inside your walls or attic they will emit a foul and overwhelming odor which could be difficult and costly to remedy.  Lone Star has extended to our homeowners, a free rodent inspection to see if your home is infested.  If it is, for the special price of $175, they will set up traps and make two follow up visits.  For more information please call Lone Star at (714) 526-2847.

The board met with PAO and the contractors that bid on the repair and painting portion of our project on April 10^th.  By the date you receive this newsletter, hopefully, we will have successfully chosen a vendor to do this work and entered into a contract with them by the end of April.  I will keep you apprised of the status of this issue in future newsletters.  We will hopefully follow the fumigation process by quickly beginning work on the restoration and painting process.  This work is expected to take 6 to 8 months from the time this work commences.

GOALS:

The following goals for 2006 were adopted by our Board of Directors at our March Board meeting.  These goals are followed by a review of our 2005 goals and accomplishments.  We feel we covered much ground and accomplished our objectives in 2005.  We thank all of you who participated in the process.  This was probably one of our most challenging and yet successful years in terms of accomplishments.  We look forward to an exciting year in 2006 and hope to materialize everything we worked hard to prepare for in 2005.

2006 GOALS

Garden Homes Maintenance Association

The Garden Homes Board of Directors have established to the following goals to focus on in 2006.

• Complete the Building Exterior Renewal Program during this fiscal year.
• Continue with our Landscape Rejuvenation Project once the Building Exterior Renewal Plan is completed.
• Maximize the use of our Standing Committees to efficiently manage our association and better share our volunteer workload.
• Manage operating expenses to the approved budget.
• Manage the reserve accounts consistent with the Strategic Plan.

2005 GOALS / ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Garden Homes Maintenance Association

The Garden Homes Board of Directors established the following goals to focus on in 2005.  Our accomplishments against those goals follow in italics.

• Establish a comprehensive Strategic Plan for Cost Effective Maintenance of our homes.  ACTION:  The board presented four propositions to the homeowners for the long term care and maintenance of our homes in 2005.  Two of these plans were chosen by the homeowners to be voted upon by the community at large.  These plans became known as Scenarios B and D.  The community chose Scenario D, which includes termite fumigation, spot damage repairs, and project wide painting.  Furthermore, the board established the practice of obtaining professional management for the handling of major maintenance issues for our association.  This practice has a qualified professional manager assessing and prioritizing the requirements, preparing bid documents, bidding the work to quality vendors, and inspecting and approving the construction process.  This practice should prove more cost effective and produce better results for our association than the past practice of hiring a single firm to manage and execute a project

• Initiate the Building Exterior Renewal Program, complete phase 1 Homeowner approval, and begin phase 2 Implementation. ACTION: Our homeowners approved our home renovation project, Scenario D, in early December 2005. Phase 2, Implementation began immediately.

• Continue our Landscape Rejuvenation project once the Building Exterior Renewal Plan is established in order to prevent damage to new landscaping. ACTION: Our budget provides for continued accumulation of funds for our Landscape Rejuvenation Project.  This work will continue at the completion of the Exterior Renewal Project.

• Maximize the use of our Standing Committees to efficiently manage our association and better share our volunteer workload. ACTION:  Community participation has continued to improve during 2005.  By year end we had 6 Standing Committees including the Architectural, Budget, Landscape, Parking, Maintenance, and Communications (Includes Welcoming) Committee.  Approximately 30 homeowners are currently participating on these committees.

• Manage operating expenses to the approved budget. ACTION: We completed our operating expenses for fiscal year end, February 28, 2006 within our approved budget.

• Manage the reserve accounts consistent with the Strategic Plan. ACTION:  While we collected revenue for our reserve accounts as planned for the past year, we recognized early in 2005 that we did not have an effective Strategic Plan in place to adequately maintain our aging wooden structures and prevent ongoing deterioration from termites. We therefore adopted Scenario D, a minimal strategic plan, to maintain our structures. This required a special assessment to bring our buildings to a condition that allows us to paint and maintain our structures at this time.  We continue to collect into our reserves the standard amounts recommended by past traditional reserve studies. Only time will advise us if these reserve levels are adequate, or if we will have to maintain our buildings through the use of special assessments in future years. 

Regards,

David Wise

President, GHMA

Please note the NEW Street sweeping dates will be on alternating Tuesday's of each month:

Tuesday, May 9, 2006

   Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Optimum Property Management, Inc. (CMF)

A CERTIFIED MANAGEMENT FIRM

17731 Irvine Boulevard, Suite 212

Tustin , CA   92780

Web site: www.optimumpm.com

Office: (714) 508-9070 / Fax: (714) 508-9071

Office Hours:  8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Mon-Fri

Architectural Applications/Keys:

Sacha Bollinger, Ext. 287

E-mail: sbollinger@optimumpm.com   

Assessment Billing/Collections:

John Munday, Ext. 235

E-mail: jmunday@optimumpm.com

Escrow Department:

Sandra Marshall, Ext. 249 

E-mail: smarshall@optimumpm.com

Maintenance Coordinator:

Sherman Wiggs, Ext. 245        

E-mail: swiggs@optimumpm.com

Community Association Manager:

Charles Jeffries, Ext. 236

E-mail: cjeffries@optimumpm.com 

Senior Certified Community Manager:

Shannon Thornhill-CCAM,  Ext. 228

E-mail: sthornhill@optimumpm.com

INDOOR PLANTS

Plants help clean the air. But if they're not taken care of property, they can do more harm than good. Don't over water plants; sitting water can cause mold that will pollute the air with spores, says Robert Phalen, director of UC Irvine's Air Pollution Health Effects Laboratory. Remove dead vegetation and check for mold growth on containers and on soil regularly. Make sure houseplants are pollen-free if there is an allergy sufferer in the household .