The Villages at Maxwell Creek HOA Newsletter (1st Quarter 2007)

Dues Collection

Dues checks for 2007 continue to trickle in, and we are at about the same place we are each year at this time; a little over 75% of all homeowners have currently paid. Additionally, 22 homeowners paid their dues but still owe late fees and interest, and will be receiving another notice in the mail next month. The first Late Notice has been mailed out to all delinquent homeowners, and foreclosure is proceeding on the largest overdue account.

We had hoped that the additional option of payment with a credit card would spur more people to pay on time rather than to accrue additional interest and late fees, but sadly that has not been the case; we have only received 8 payments through PayPal thus far. An updated table showing current delinquencies is on the next page of the newsletter.

Annual Meeting

The Annual Meeting for the Association will be on Monday, April 2nd at 8:00PM at the Joe Farmer Rec Center on Bethany (across from Kroger). A mailing announcing this meeting, along with a proxy form will be mailed out later this month. If you will not be attending the meeting, please mail in your proxy form!

Current Board Members Robert Butler and Yesika Fletcher will be running for election again; Howard Fisher has decided not to run again. We are in need of new candidates to throw their hat in the ring! A candidate information form is available online for anyone wishing to run for a position on the board.

There is no new business to be discussed at the meeting other than the election of Board Members. However, we will be holding a question and answer session afterwards, and expect to cover issues such as the ongoing water restrictions, continuing vandalism to the brick wall on Shelley, upcoming construction and other activities occurring in the surrounding area, and other topics of interest.

Neighborhood Garage Sale

The HOA will be sponsoring a neighborhood garage sale on Saturday, March 17th from 7a-12p, and we will be purchasing advertising in area newspapers and posting signs at the neighborhood entrances.

We didn't see as much traffic from customers last year, and we're attributing that to not getting the advertising signs out soon enough. This year the HOA will be putting signs out the week before and also will be hanging two large 10x2' banners from the neighborhood border fences to attract traffic from passers-by.

Spring Block Party

The Spring Block Party will be held this year on Saturday, April 28th from 12-2pm. The menu still hasn't been decided, but in past years we've had everything from hot-dogs to pizza to beef brisket. As always, people are also invited to bring along a dish to share with their neighbors.

We'll have a bounce-house for the kids, and are trying to reserve a cotton-candy machine as well.

Broken Lid?

If you have a broken or missing lid on your trash or recycle container, CWD will replace it free of charge, usually within 1-2 days. Just call customer service at (972) 392-9300 - it takes less than 5 minutes!

Trash Service Problems

An ongoing issue in the neighborhood for several years as been substandard service from the City's trash contractor, CWD. Between missed pickups, broken lids, tire tracks across yards, damaged fences, strewn trashcans that block alleys, and a knocked over gas meter (thankfully without an associated fire), we've seen just about everything. The HOA and several homeowners have made numerous complaints to the City and CWD, usually with a slight uptick in service for a week or two, and then a drop back to the usual issues.

If you have been experiencing problems with your trash service, whether it's a broken lid on the trashcan or damage to your property (including landscaping, fencing, or driveways), we ask you to contact the City at (214) 509-4551 and CWD at (972) 392-9300. If the City and CWD get enough complaints, perhaps we can all finally start to see some improvements in service.

Postal Service Problems

Like the issues with CWD above, the City of Allen has long suffered from sub-par service from our local Post Office. A number of proposals and changes have been made over the years, including consideration of additional (or expanded) post offices, and satellite offerings. Unfortunately, those changes only resolve issues within the building itself; there are still issues with mail delivery that can only be resolved by a change in personnel.

Over the past several years, the HOA has, in addition to a number of homeowners we have spoken with, contacted the local post office and the local postal inspector regarding lost, delayed, and mis-delivered mail. While we don't believe this to be an enormous issue, it occurs often enough to be annoying. Additionally, it does not help that there are two streets in our neighborhood (Woodhaven and Woodstream) with similar names, although there are still issues with receiving mail from the wrong street (receiving Bur Oak on Woodstream, for instance). Additionally, there are often still problems even with delivery inside the post office itself: for instance, in 2006, two dues checks were post-marked in February but not delivered into the HOA's PO Box until August and October, respectively.

The HOA believes this is limited to less than 1% of all mail that we have sent out, and when we can verify it has occurred, we have contacted the relevant homeowners and either reissued mail or issued credits if it was necessary for a second check to be mailed. We are aware of only two problems with dues invoices this year and three in 2006, and all were resolved after contacting the homeowner.

If you are experiencing problems with your mail delivery, we urge you to contact the local post office at (972) 390-7993, and the local postal inspector at (817) 359-2700. Please ask to speak with the postmaster and describe the issue completely and politely. It may take time, but hopefully we will eventually have more reliable service.

Committee Updates

Architecture Committee

Since taking over last fall, our new management company has mailed out 80 violation notices to 51 different homeowners. While some items have cleared up, the two big items that continues are weeds in yards and maintenance in alleyways. In order to best control weeds, it is recommended to spread pre-emergent through the second week of March, and then again 90 days later sometime during the first two weeks of June. Many of the weeds that we see spreading right now can be prevented by spreading pre-emergent during September.

Fertilizer should be spread every two months from April through October, and it is strongly recommended to avoid weed-and-feed offerings simply because the times to control weeds and fertilize are different. When you do go to fertilize, make sure you use a fertilizer high in (or all-) nitrogen, as the black clay soil we have tends to be high in phosphorus.

The chairperson of the Architecture committee is Robert Butler.

Landscape Committee

We're currently requesting quotes to clean, seal, and repaint the lettering on the two stone slabs at the main entrances on Bethany and Shelley, and we're also requesting bids to repair and restain the wood border fence along Bethany and Maxwell Creek Dr. In what has (unfortunately) turned into regular maintenance over the last eight months, the fallen bricks on the border fence along Shelley will be repaired again during April.

Our contract with Chemlawn has just been renewed for 2007, and they are aware of and focusing on all of the weeds that are starting to sprout in the common areas; we are also evaluating new bids for landscape companies.

The trees along Bethany, Malone, and Shelley will be pruned where needed during the end of March, and all of the sprinkler systems will be turned on for the first time since October and will be checked for leaks, programmed for Thursday morning waterings, and all of the batteries will be replaced.

The chairperson of the Landscape committee is Stephanie Butler.

Social Committee

Most of the big events for the year are coming up (the neighborhood garage sale, the annual meeting, and the block party), and planning is underway! If you'd like to get involved, please contact me ASAP! Our next meeting is planned for Tuesday, March 27^th.

The chairperson of the Social committee is Yesika Fletcher.

Letters From Homeowners

Why do our dues have to be paid so early this year? They used to be due at the end of February, then the end of January, now they are due 1/1/07. This playing havoc with my Christmas budget.

Per the Covenants of the Association Article III, Section 8, annual dues have always been due in full on January 1st of each year. See http://www.maxwellcreek.org/community/hoa/documents/covenants/#article_3_section_8.

In the past, we have allowed a lot of leeway which has resulted in less than 20% of people paying by the due date. This ends up costing everyone more money, since the HOA has to pay for additional late notices and postage.

We've been able to add the additional option this year of paying with a credit card through PayPal, which gives people a way to put off the immediate expense. Additionally, if you are unable to pay in full at this time you may request to be put on a payment plan, the form is available online at http://www.maxwellcreek.org/community/hoa/forms/general/paymentplan/.

This past Halloween, my husband and I left a basket with a "Happy Halloween" liner full of candy outside our front door for the young trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood. The basket was taken from our house around eight o'clock.

This past weekend, upon pulling into our garage, we found our basket behind our neighbor's home (#### Bur Oak Drive). The basket had clearly been left outside for some time and has suffered sun and water damage.

The neighbors have failed to answer their front door upon our attempts to confront them on this matter. Please advise on what action can be taken.

As far as the HOA goes, this isn't an issue where we would have any jurisdiction.

We have received reports before of trash and other household items (plants, gas grills) left behind people's houses without their knowledge.

If you are interested in pursuing the matter, we would recommend you contact the Allen police department's non-emergency number (972) 509-4321. From previous conversations with the APD, they highly recommend that you not confront neighbors directly, and instead work through their department.

I just noticed today that some of the shingles on my roof had been blown off from the wind on Saturday. There was also a footage on channel 8 around 12:30 today, reference Allen residents having the same problem.

What do we do, contact the builder, or our insurance company. Please let me know asap.

We've received a half-dozen queries over the last few weeks about shingle damage caused by the strong winds at the end of February. Three questions were from D.R. Horton / Emerald homeowners, two from Diamond, and one from David Weekly.

Depending on the age of your residence, you may still be covered by a warranty from the original builder. We also covered this in the 2nd quarter newsletter last year, however that information only pertains to owners of Diamond homes.

If you have questions about the warranty on your roof, the best people to contact will be the warranty / support department listed in the owner's binder provided by the original builder. If you cannot locate your binder, or are not the original homeowner, customer support contact information is available on the builders' websites.

HOA Contact Information

The Home Owners Association and its agents may be contacted in several ways:

• Through the HOA web site, at http://www.maxwellcreek.org/,
• By emailing the officers of the HOA, at officers@maxwellcreek.org,
• By emailing the HOA management company, at maxwellcreek@hoa-management.com or management@maxwellcreek.org,
• By calling or faxing the HOA at (972) 739-5221.
• Through U.S. postal mail at:
  Villages at Maxwell Creek HOA
  P.O. Box 2265
  Allen, TX 75013

We welcome any questions, comments, or concerns you may have. Please include your name and street address on all correspondence in order to expedite a response. Please allow two business days for your call or message to be returned.

Is there anything that you've wished to know more about or is there something you would like to share with other association members? If you want to suggest a topic, write an article, make a suggestion or even correct a mistake, please contact us at newsletter@maxwellcreek.org!