The Villages at Maxwell Creek HOA Newsletter (4th Quarter 2006)

2007 HOA Dues

Annual dues for 2007 will remain the same as 2006, at $230. Invoices should be received during the first week of December.

It's been mentioned in HOA Board meeting minutes several times, and available on the web site since late last year, but most people probably aren't aware of the HOA Timeline & Historical Dues Rates document. This document is a rough timeline and list of historical changes the HOA has gone through during its seven year history. Additionally, HOA dues rates have fluctuated numerous times, and this document is an attempt to correlate related events.

We received a few inquiries about the list of delinquent homes that was posted in the 3rd quarter newsletter. That list has been updated and is included in this edition, along with new notations about which streets involve homes in bankruptcy or foreclosure. Unfortunately, the list is still longer than we would prefer, as our previous management company, NMI, neglected to apply interest fees, file liens, or follow through on a $3600 foreclosure. Thankfully the new management company is aggressively working on remedying these problems, so there should be significant improvement over the next several months.

Brick Wall Vandalism

For the last few months, we have had reports of damage to the brick neighborhood border fence along Shelley. Considering the volume of damage created, and that the sheer weight of some of the sections, we can only assume that someone is deliberately vandalizing the fence. The damage appears to be happening in spurts, each lasting several days when they occur: 4 days in a row in September, 2 days in October, and 2 days in November.

Please be on the lookout for any suspicious activity, including people (our groups of people) walking down the alley or the sidewalk along Shelley. Please contact the Allen Police Non-Emergency number at (214) 509-4321, and the HOA directly at (972) 739-5221 if you notice anything out of the ordinary. We do not have a specific time frame when the damage is occuring each day. If you speak to the police, our previous case number is 06-056084.

We just recently completed a third round of repairs to the fence in August, and it will cost another several hundred dollars to repair this most recent damage.

Water Restrictions

The warnings and citations will stay in place as long as the Drought Plan is initiated. We anticipate that we will be under some sort of restrictions under the Drought Plan until the first quarter of 2008, when new water sources are added to our water supplies.

The current water restrictions have not been kind to the HOA. We have lost several trees, some small bushes, all of the seasonal flowers around the neighborhood entrance signs, and very little of the damaged caused by construction along Malone has been able to regrow. Additionally, we received a few warnings and citations in September for watering on the wrong day, and for water run-off. Many pertinent details are in the meeting minutes for the Board of Directors, but the short of it is that we have had all but one citation dismissed, and it will be argued for dismissal in court on November 16th.

After numerous discussions with representatives from the City, it was revealed that the current ordinances focus primarily on residential property and do not take many aspects of commercial property, like the HOA, into consideration. For instance, requiring an individual rather than a corporation to sign warning and citation notices, not recognizing that in most instances a 3rd party landscape company is responsible for handling sprinkler systems, and little accommodation for problems that arise on a property as spread out as the HOA's. The City has been dealing with numerous complaints from owners and managers of commercial property throughout the city, and there will likely be a number of amendments to the ordinances over the next several months.

For example, one of the citations that the HOA received was for a sprinkler zone on Shelley and Forest Stream where the battery in the valve had died and the clock reset to the default value. A second citation was for run-off from the soaker hose in the median on Maxwell Creek Drive where a small section of the hose was to close to the curb and water was dripping onto the street.

By themselves, neither of these problems are large, easily resolved, and on a small property (such as a residence) it is relatively easy to notice and repair problems when they occur. However, the HOA has difficulty proactively finding problems when they occur across the 70+ zones in almost ¼ mile² area. Even though the HOA has regularly scheduled inspections of the sprinkler systems, we rely heavily on notice from homeowners when they notice a problem. There's simply no cost-effective method to observe the entire property 24x7 and fix problems as they occur.

Even with all of these issues, we still have to water during the summer months. We can (and likely will) do without seasonal flowers through the first quarter of 2008. Even assuming we wanted to let the grass go dormant, the HOA has over 90 trees that need regular watering. The trees in the center median on Maxwell Creek Drive are just starting to recover from the illness that required extensive treatment in 2004, and the other new landscaping in the median cost $8k last fall. We'll investigate getting green watering bags around the tree trunks as an alternative to watering the entire property, but it may not be cost effective.

Currently, all watering in the HOA is turned off and will likely remain so until next spring. Our concern is that the watering restriction ordinance as written gives us no leeway to resolve future problems; we are instantly fined. As we go forward, we'll be working with the City to find a more cooperative and mutually beneficial way to locate, resolve, and conserve water.

Construction Along Shelley

As you may have noticed, construction of a new development has begun south of us along Shelley and Malone, with homes from First Texas and Grand. Both of these builders have built homes nearby in the Arbor Lakes neighborhood directly east of us.

As with any new construction and build out, the next year will have large amounts of noise, debris blown towards our neighborhood, and numerous construction vehicles driving up and down Malone and Shelley. The HOA management company has already contacted both builders about picking up trash that has blown along Shelley.

The common area along Malone has already been dug up twice so far this year (by Comcast and Verizon). Between the construction and the water restrictions, the HOA's focus is going to be preserving the area rather than any new landscape additions in the cul-de-sacs this year.

Bimonthly Open Forum Meetings

The next open forum meeting will be held on Monday, December 4^th at the Allen Public Library at 300 N. Allen Drive in downtown Allen (near the post office) starting at 7pm. We will be discussing:

• The change in management companies,
• Annual dues for 2007 including accepting credit card payments,
• The stage 3 watering restrictions,
• Hiring off-duty police to curb vandalism,
• Whether to continue events such as the neighborhood garage sales, Spring Blockparty & Halloween parties,
• An urgent need for volunteers and what can be done to increase participation,
• Spending additional money to mail advance notices of meetings and events, so more people are aware of what's going on.

Committee Updates

Architecture Committee

Now that some of our homes have been here for seven years (the first homeowner moved in on December 28^th, 1999!) the original builder's paint is starting to be a little bare, peeling, and some areas of wood-rot are likely around windows and doors. Starting in 2007, the HOA will begin sending notices for homes that require repainting, in accordance with the Covenants of the Association which require Repair of exterior damages to buildings and improvements and repainting of buildings and improvements when necessary. Where applicable, we'll also begin sending notices for Tree and shrub pruning., as several residences have bushes that look like trees and trees that look like bushes.

The chairperson of the Architecture committee is Robert Butler.

Landscape Committee

Last done in 2004, the wood neighborhood border fence along Bethany and Maxwell Creek Drive will be repaired and re-stained. We're also seeking quotes for the cleaning and repainting of the stone slabs (with the neighborhood name) at the entrances on Bethany and Shelley.

We have received two new quotes for repairing the brick fence along Shelley, and are seeking one more. We expect to have the work completed sometime in December.

The chairperson of the Landscape committee is Stephanie Butler.

Social Committee

The Halloween Kickoff party was held on Saturday, October 28^th this year, with a pretty good turnout. We had about 70 children and their parents attend, with goody bags, freshly popped popcorn, and a haystack with pumpkins set up for pictures. We'd like to especially thank Bill Butt and Andrea Westmoreland for their help!

Previously, the fall garage sale was held on Saturday, October 7th, and a brief drive through the neighborhood showed several participants on every street.

For all of the events, we are looking at purchasing specialized signs and banners that can be placed at the neighborhood entrances earlier in the week before the event. Currently, the signs we have require quite a bit of manual preparation, and we don't always get them out much before the event itself takes place.

We need help putting up Christmas decorations at the two main neighborhood entrances on Bethany and Shelley on the weekend after Thanksgiving. Currently, we're planning on lights and wreaths, but would like to do more if we can get enough helpers! Please contact us if you'd like to help!

The chairperson of the Social committee is Yesika Fletcher.

Kid's Corner

Can you find your way through the maze?

The History of Thanksgiving and its Celebrations

According to reports by Captain John Smith, the first eggnog made in the United States was consumed in his 1607 Jamestown settlement. Nog comes from the word grog, which refers to any drink made with rum.

Throughout history mankind has celebrated the bountiful harvest with thanksgiving ceremonies.

Before the establishment of formal religions many ancient farmers believed that their crops contained spirits which caused the crops to grow and die. Many believed that these spirits would be released when the crops were harvested and they had to be destroyed or they would take revenge on the farmers who harvested them. Some of the harvest festivals celebrated the defeat of these spirits.

Harvest festivals and thanksgiving celebrations were held by the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Hebrews, the Chinese, and the Egyptians.

In 1621, the Pilgrims set apart a day to celebrate at Plymouth immediately after their first harvest. At the time, this was not regarded as a Thanksgiving observance; harvest festivals were existing parts of English and Wampanoag tradition alike. There was corn, fruits, vegetables, along with fish which was packed in salt, and meat that was smoke cured over fires. They found they had enough food to put away for the winter.

The Pilgrims had beaten the odds. They built homes in the wilderness, they raised enough crops to keep them alive during the long coming winter, and they were at peace with their Indian neighbors. Their Governor, William Bradford, proclaimed a day of thanksgiving that was to be shared by all the colonists and the neighboring Native American Indians.

The custom of an annually celebrated thanksgiving, held after the harvest, continued through the years with additional irregular Thanksgivings being held after favorable events and days of fasting after unfavorable ones. During the American Revolution (late 1770's) a day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress.

In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom. By the middle of the 19th century many other states also celebrated a Thanksgiving Day. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of thanksgiving. Since then each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually designating the fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday.

Letters From Homeowners

We've decided to start a new section in the newsletter, and include selected letters that the HOA has received, both good and bad. We invite everyone to write in with any questions, comments, or concerns you may have, and we'll do our best to respond as soon as possible.

Hello, I recently moved to #### Oak Brook Lane.

I have been having trouble with an individual who likes to dump in my back yard or lawn. Today, this individual has dumped a barbeque grill in the back alley of my lawn.

What should I do? I am looking to notify the law enforcement just to keep a track record. I know this sounds lame but it is a nuisance I can live without.

At the very least, we'd recommend that you call and file a report with the police by calling their non-emergency number, (214) 509-4321. If you happen to discover which of your neighbors is doing this, please let us know as their behavior certainly falls under the 'annoyance' and 'nuisance' clauses in the HOA Covenants.

My next door neighbors and I are having a problem with another neighbor's children loitering in our yards and being very loud all hours of the night. The children are probably around 13 and they are clearly unsupervised as the parents also leave them outside during the week after school until they return from work (the address is #### Oak Brook). Even at midnight on Friday evening, I heard a lot of commotion outside, looked out my window, and there were 3 kids in my front lawn and one of them was sitting on my mailbox. What can we do???

Unfortunately, we're not sure that this is a problem where the HOA can be of much assistance. We'd recommend you speak with the parents of the children, and you can also call the non-emergency number for the Allen police.

There is a curfew in Allen where persons age sixteen (16) and younger are prohibited from public places without adult supervision between the hours of 11:00 P.M. and 6:00 A.M. on Sunday through Thursday and between the hours of 12:01A.M and 6:00 A.M. on Friday and Saturday.

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!

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