Neighbor’s Meeting Held at City Hall

A large number of Victor Gardens resident homeowners filled the room at a “Neighbor’s Meeting” last night at Hugo’s City Hall.  Many of our Community Association’s budget items were discussed.  The meeting ended with neighbors better understanding our current association’s budget challenges.  With that knowledge, many more questions arose and a smaller group of representatives was formed.  This group will work to address these topics with our Community Association’s management company, Community Development Inc., and Victor Garden’s Developer, CPDC.  

Thank you to all who asked questions at the meeting.  For those who were not able to attend, but would like to be involved in the smaller group, please email mark@victorgardensnews.org 

The small group of volunteers will be meeting soon to work towards solutions to our common challenges.

Townhomes, Gables & Villas Email Database List

Communication is important is an large association with so many residents.  A comprehensive email list is the quickest, most cost-effective way to communicate with homeowners. 

A complete email list of Single Family Village homeowners is already established.  Moving forward, we need to begin collecting email addresses for our Townhomes, Gables, and Villas association homeowners.

Townhomes residents are encouraged to send an email to a special account, which was set up to improve neighborhood communication.  Please send an email from the account that you wish to add to: emaillist@victorgardensnews.org   We’ll include your email address on future neighborhood communications from Charles Kirk and myself.

Single Family Village homeowners do not need to send an email to the above address.  If S.F. homeowners need to update email information, please send the changes to mark@victorgardensnews.org

UPDATE: August 1, 2007

The previously announced method of collecting Townhomes and Gables homeowners email addresses has been discontinued.  The address:emaillist@victorgardensnews.org  is no longer monitored.  Townhomes and Gables Associations are planning new email databases for residents.  An announcement will be made when updates are available.

New Classifieds Section Added

Due to a number of requests, a new “Classifieds” section has been added to our site.  Advertise baby-sitting services, recommend a great hobby, announce a garage sale, and give away your unwanted stuff - it’s all free. 

While it’s no comparison to our local Hugo paper, The Citizen, our classified ads are for Victor Gardens neighbors.  Please feel free to post items via the “Add a Comment” button at the bottom of the appropriate category.  If another category is needed, please email me: mark@victorgardensnews.org

Inappropriate postings will be removed.  So please... be nice.

Poet’s Green Fountain Working Again - More Equipment Found

Geoff Primeau, a member of the Grounds Committee, has located something in Poet’s Green that no one, including our landscape contractors, was apparently aware of.   They found a water supply valve connected to the small fountain in Poet’s Green.  The fountain’s working again, and neighbors are happy not to be carrying buckets of water any longer.

Doug Klamerus and I also found a line of sprinklers which should have been watering the grass on the South side of the tennis court in Val Jean Park.  The grass in that location had been in bad condition for a very long time. These sprinkler heads were buried and grown over, possibly since the beginning.  We’ll inform the City of this newly-found line.  It hopefully it can be connected to the irrigation system and timers.

Tennis Court - Good News & Bad News

Grounds Committee members have been working hard to keep up with the wind we’ve been having lately.  They’ve been reattaching the windscreen on the tennis court fence.  

Unfortunately, I have some bad news... Committee members have reported a problem that is beyond their ability to fix.  The posts that suspend the tennis court net (not the fence) have begun to move. They may have buckled under pressure applied by the net tensioning winch. It’s possible that unsuspecting tennis players over-tightened the net's tension, possibly in combination with heat-softened asphalt, causing the damage.  

John Roerich is a tennis player and a neighbor who's been helping out a lot on the windscreen. He told me today that sometimes players think that the net should be very tight and perfectly level.  Actually, it shouldn't.  Apparently, tennis regulations say that the net should be higher at the anchoring posts and slightly lower in the middle. A regulation height is also specified for these distances, similar to a regulation height of a basketball net.  

Since the tennis court is in a City-owned park, we’ve notified Chris Petree, Hugo’s Director of Public Works about the problem.  

New Maps & Site Plans Added

Dave Hempel of CPDC has forwarded new maps (site plans) of Victor Gardens.  They show much more detail than we’ve seen before including the new and proposed retail and residential construction projects.  Trail and sidewalk plans, irrigation layouts have also been added.  Please visit our Maps page for links.

Financial Information Available Online

To be better informed about Victor Garden’s current financial situation, some financial documents are now available on this website.  To view documents for Victor Gardens Community Association and Victor Gardens Single Family Village please visit the Financials page.

Neighbor’s Meeting Confirmed for Wednesday, July 18

A Neighbor's Meeting for all homeowners in Victor Gardens has been confirmed for Wednesday, July 18 7:00PM at Hugo City Hall. 

We'll discuss our Community Association's financial challenges, including budget reductions for our Social Committee's events, outstanding debts to contractors, and reduced financial support from V.G.'s developers.  It's important that homeowners provide input on the way the Association spends and saves money in the future. A few other items, including the Pool, Parks, Common Areas, and the Intranet site will be also discussed.  

Read the latest post, "Neighborhood Meeting - How to Spend & Save Wisely".  You're encouraged to post comments about some of the topics we'll be discussing at the meeting.

Progress on Tennis Court Windscreen Repair

Work has begun to reattach the windscreen on the Tennis Courts.  John Roerich completed reattaching the South side of the screen.  Other members of the Grounds Committee’s tennis court group will be continue the work in the days ahead.  Thanks!

Common Area & Parks Sprinklers

The following is a status report from Early Bird, our Association’s sprinkler contractor regarding the sprinklers in V.G.’s Common Areas.  It was told to Gina Higgins today June 27.  She forwarded the info to me:

1. •Jardin Fountain sprinklers:  On & working - also turned up the times to run more frequently

2. •Poet's Green sprinklers: On & working - also turned up the times to run more frequently

3. •Cossette Way mail kiosk sprinklers:  Not working properly - Contractor will check into a timer problem

4. •Clearwater Creek bridge & Victor Hugo Blvd. sprinklers:  no report (I think these are working)

5. •Neighborhood Activity Center sprinklers:  Partially working - there are issues from the land office being moved.

6. •Victor Square sprinklers:  On & working 

The City of Hugo has assumed responsibility of maintaining and repairing the sprinkler systems in Arbre and Val Jean Parks.  City Staff has been working with another irrigation contractor, Northway Irrigation, to repair a few broken main lines and replace damaged sprinkler heads.  For the most part, City-run systems are working properly now.

Volunteers on the Grounds Committee will be assisting in monitoring both the City and our Common Area sprinkler systems.  They will map the sprinkler zones, report problems, and in some cases do minor repairs when necessary. 

New “Grounds Committee” Needs Volunteers

In the last few seasons, homeowners have noticed a decline in the condition of some of Victor Gardens parks and Common Areas. To begin correcting problems, homeowners suggested forming a neighborhood "Grounds Committee".   

The theory behind forming this committee was for residents to do a better job of monitoring and preserving Victor Gardens parks and common spaces.  Essentially - Neighbors wanted to take more responsibility for their surroundings.  

One of the problems we've seen is the time it takes to fix simple problems.  For example, a homeowner notices that a sprinkler head is not working, she waits for a few weeks to see if the mowing crew will fix it.  After waiting, she sends Mark an email, then it’s forwarded to Gina Higgins, then Gina writes a work order and speaks to the contractor, the contractor puts the sprinkler on his to do list, and schedules the repair for the next time he is in VG, etc, etc, .... You can see that this process is unnecessarily long - and it hasn't been working for us.

Some have asked if it’s a measure to save the VG Community Association money.  In part that’s correct - but not the overall goal.  The Committee will hopefully be able to save money by correctly diagnosing small problems when they arise, and work to quickly fix the issues before major damage occurs (like large patches of dead turf or burned-out fountain pumps).  The goal is to help preserve the beauty of the neighborhood.  Saving money is just another positive outcome.

I have asked for volunteers and have received a good response so far.  Some of the members responsibilities will be: mapping out the irrigation systems & reporting specific problems (such as a broken sprinkler heads in Zone 4), following up on repairs, and taking an more active role in minor maintenance jobs (like fountain clean-up, tennis court windscreen repairs, etc.).  The Committee will be broken up into small groups, with each having it's own area of interest.  For example, one group will fix the tennis court windscreen when needed, another will do routine clean-up in the Jardin Fountain, others small groups will monitor sprinkler systems in Val Jean Park, Arbre Park, and Poet's Green.  These are not the only interests of the Grounds Committee, but a great beginning nevertheless.

Of course, the Grounds Committee does not intend to take over the ultimate responsibility of these systems. Members will mainly supplement and monitor the work that the contractors and the City of Hugo already perform.  It will be made up of individuals who have some technical experience, mechanical ability, and those who can monitor sprinklers because they live adjacent to the Parks and Common Areas.

I'm happy that homeowners are taking the initiative and working towards a better Victor Gardens. I hope we all will support the goals of the Grounds Committee.  When the Committee groups are formed and working, I'm sure we'll all see positive progress.

As of today we have some volunteers for:

Poet’s Green

The Jardin Fountain Area

The Val Jean Tennis Courts

Val Jean Park

We still need volunteers for:

Victor Square

Main Entrance Areas

Neighborhood Activity Center & Pool

Arbre Park

Planning Fall & Spring neighborhood cleanup events.

Please email mark@victorgardensnews.org to volunteer for the Grounds Committee.

Garden Matter Still Unresolved

As many of you know, the Garden area near where the Land Office used to sit is the source of some controversy.  Some of the issues relate to the responsibility of irrigation, plantings, and budget.  Charles Kirk, who represents Victor Gardens Townhomes residents, CPDC, the developers, and I need to work together to solve these problems.

Despite the great efforts of Victor Gardens Garden Committee, the current state of the Garden is a disappointment to many of us.  Whether we live in the townhomes or the single-family homes, we must work together to settle the issues.  Until that time, unfortunately, major improvements to the Garden will be delayed.

Mark