Villa Marbella Homeowners Association

It's Over! Yea!

The fumigation is done!! It was very difficult for many of us. But, from what I've heard up to this minute, it was done with relatively little damage and few unfortunate incidents.
I learned last Thursday (July 13th) that Terminex had just issued the ''exact'' times, 8am Monday July 17th till 5pm Wednesday July 19th. People had been bagging perishables and getting ready for days, but once the final notices went up Friday, several people came by for more fumigation bags, and some were even leaving early.
Several people had helped me a week or two earlier handing out bags and instructions: Ralph Sanchez, Jessica Robertson, and Milan Patel.
By 8am Monday morning just a few people & cars were rushing to leave. Several people had put their plants into their parking spaces. By 8am Terminex people were crawling all over the building putting on the tents. Security guards were on premises already. The gas (Vikane) was pumped in around noon. When I came by about 5pm, the place was eerily quiet & peaceful. Two guards didn't have much to do except turn away an occasional car.
The guard shift change took place about 7:30 or 8pm. I popped in about 3 times that night, 9, 1, and 5:30am, as we (and several other families) were staying in nearby motels. The guard service was somewhere between one and zero (if you really need to know about that, ask me). The lights behind PetsMart were on all night as they'd been paid to leave them on, so the back of the A-Bldg was well lit. I was most afraid of a fire, but luckily the night went without incident.
About 9am Tuesday July 18th, Terminex workers swarmed the building again and began removing the tarps. By about noon they were off. I was busy trying to arrange more security for that night. The two security companies (Wackenhut and Liberty) that had told me they could provide security with a couple hours' notice couldn't provide it with 10 hours notice, but luckily Ron Stachiowitz, our handyman, found one of his workers, Toby, who agreed to stay up all night on security detail.
I brought in all the HOA's recently purchased security cameras and monitors and began setting up for the all night ''pool party''.

Well, my word limit is 600 for one posting, so let me continue this on the next.

And Then The Pool Party

Read my previous posting for what led up to this ''pool party'', which more or less began at 8pm, Tuesday, July 18, about 10 hours after the tent was removed. It took me longer to set up the cameras than I expected. But luckily all the security people and more showed up. Lisa, one of the day guards was asked to stay all night, so she continued into what became 26 hours on duty at Villa Marbella. Mike Jones (security guard), me, and Toby (one of our handymen) were all there by 8:30pm.
Dan Little, property manager, had lent me 3 Motorola walkie-talkies (the small push-to-talk ones). I'd just rented 2 cell phones for the night (and for those who had argued that the battery of one would last all night, it didn't!! The battery of one gave out about 2or 3 am). By 9pm I had the cameras posted to look down the fence lines behind the A & B Bldgs. Thanks to several people (Scott, Teresa, Peter, and Dan) there was lighting along the fences. I turned on the lights at 9pm, and oo-ee the view in the monitors was fabulous. We watched the moths and bugs flying along the fences all night. When we tested them, you could see our hands placed on the fence way down at the far ends (the magnification was way up).
Warren Riley, former HOA Vice President, and now head of the janitorial service, showed up about 9pm, and the two of us stayed in the pool area pretty much all night. So, Warren was the main owner volunteer supplement to the paid security. THANKS, WARREN!! Mike and Toby got some chairs and kept an eye on the back ends of the buildings (down near A-107 and B-107). And Lisa watched the main entry area (of course the gate was closed all night).
As for the party, we had 3 deliveries of pizza and soft drinks, continuing as it became the wee hours of Wednesday the 19th. It was the most unusual sense of quiet peacefulness most of the night. No one even tried to get in. By 5am we were all pretty sleepy, but as the night gave way to day, we began to wake up.
By 7:30am Wednesday the 19th, the party was over, and the all night security team was going home. When some Terminex guys, Ron Stachiowitz, handyman, and Dan Little, property manager, showed up, only me, Toby, and Lisa stayed. About 8am, Terminex began measuring gas levels in the buildings, and by 9am or so, they told us the buildings were safe. Dan Little and Ron began locking all the doors. Me & Lisa kept up security, turning away various vehicles and watching for prowlers. I began disassembling the surveillance system. Around 10am, Terminex left, Dan had all the condo doors locked, and we all began trying to clean up stuff we saw had been left in the common areas or moved around. By 11am we opened the gate for reentry, and people started drifting back in.
By Wednesday night, most people had come back.
So far, Thursday night (July 20th), I haven't seen any termites, no ants either, and nobody has reported any ill effects from the fumigation gas. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Other problems: Too many to cite. Primarily the problems involved access into condos and a last minute decision about where the tent would go behind the B-Bldg caused many problems with condos from B-108 thru B-114. All-in-all it was too much work, and too risky, and if I could turn back the hands of time, I wouldn't do it (I hear someone saying, ''I told you so'').