Castlegate Community

Hello,

At the meeting last night the sand in the play areas were brought up. The board had only gotten one bid and it was (please correct me if I am wrong) $6000.00 for 120 tons of sand. This would have removed the old sand and added fresh sand. Before you all blow up, the county sends inspectors out and they gauge the play areas for safety and all of that. The play areas are for the community to keep up. So we are responsible for that. Well the last inspector said we are right at the boarder with the sand and we could be fined for not having enough sand.

Here are my questions on this issue.

1.) Can we get the regulation on how much sand is needed in the play areas?

2.) Can we find out if we can just add the sand to the existing sand?

      a.) If volunteers go out and unpack the sand will that help keep costs lower on new

      sand or do we need to replace all the sand? If we have to replace where is that writen?

3.) Can we find out if we can do one area at a time and volunteers go help dig up and install the sand? I think we could get enough people to help out, especially since we're BROKE!

4.) How much for 120 tons of sand?

     a.) Who would be interseted in playing in the sand like when we were kids to help keep

     costs down? I would.

The board takes a lot of heat! Some of it is deserved. I will agree and have done some complaining myself. But, they are volunteers, they do not get any money for their work or time they spend. We need to step up and help as well. It is not perfect nor will it ever be. Our community is in a fix and we all need to try to save money and keep our community looking good. That is not just the boards job, it is everyones.

Thank you!

Roughneck

6K seems like an awful big amount for just the sand. Is this some special kind of sand only for play areas? Prices are really low right now in the construction industry so it seems not only prudent but responsible to get a few more bids.

I think if we can get volunteers to actually commit and show up it would definitely save the money. I also believe that if we expect to get people to volunteer that this project needs to be coordinated and organized in a better manner than the clean up project last year. Not only that but scheduled when its not 115 degrees.

As a former board member here and for 4 years before moving to Castlegate, I will agree that board members take a lot of heat. I have experienced it first hand. However, its all in how the leadership handles it and the perception your community has of you. We don't have leaders on this board.. Not unlike working in any another job, if you are not performing to the expectation set forth, then your boss is going to want answers. In this case you have a few more bosses to answer to (the community). The bosses are fed up and deserve honest, clear answers. Not excuses!

Roughneck,

 I used to agree. I still would be willing to volunteer my time because I am a firm believer in community service as well as this is my community too. Free is always better and would set a great example to others. There are many benefits to volunteering one's time. What I have issue with is when my dues are spent towards a company who is supposed to be cleaning up the graffiti in the play areas every month and the work is not performed, then why should I spend my time to clean it up too? Why is the board referring me to the management company and the management company refuses to even give me the info for the company "doing the work"? To top that off, why is the management company refusing to at least acknowledge that a homeowner is saying the work is not getting done- so we have a problem? This was twice I was tld it would be "looked into" when in fact, it appears that Brett is just simply afraid of looking bad if some third party is not getting work done. Who cares what he looks like.... our money is being spent to fix an issue that is not getting fixed. By ignoring the problem, doesn't that make him look even worse? This is only one issue that I am using as an example. The other reply in this states that our board does not have leadership. I agree. Just a bunch of bogus PR work that I personally am sick of. Again, I would be more than happy to volunteer my time- even money- if there wasn'tsuch a blatant disregard for misuse of OUR funds.

Oasis is another story all together. Theye get PAID to do their job, unlike the board. If they are not doing their job, then the new board will have to either force Oasis to do their job or get rid of them. I agree, Brett looked bad last night. He should have just stated, I am not sure what area you are talking about and moved on from there. He pissed off the lady bringing up the issue. That was wrong. I hope that after September our new board will work these issues out. We need to remember this will take time to fix. Money is our biggest problem. We don't have any!! I am willing to pay the 60 bucks to save our community $70,000 a year! The management company and the board need to keep a good record of who pays and who didn't. Obviously, empty houses don't count, remember the 60 bucks is based on only half paying! If all the homes pay, where will the remainder of the money go? If I have to cover 30 bucks for another home that doesn't pay, will I get a break the next time a special fee is assessed? Just asking.

We need better community involvement with these meetings. More people need to come and the meetings need to be a bit longer. Most of last night was the trash, finacials and going over the last meeting minutes. I know that the trash comany needed to talk to us about heir services. But if we are going to have special guests or briefings, the meetings need to go a bit longer.

I don't disagree with all of the issues we have with our community, Oasis or the board. We all need to take ownership and work together to get it fixed. Talk to your neighbors and try to get them involved. If we can get a small project like the replacing the sand going, who knows what we can accomplish as a community.

Thank you.

Roughneck