You know, I know it's a crummy answer, but with probably over half of the homes here either rental properties, in foreclosure, or owned by investors and vacant, it may just be something people will have to live with.  If you see a house on your street and you have a gardener maybe see what that person would charge you to pull a few extra in that front yard, or go down and do it yourself (general term).  If people on the street that lived in their homes all rotated a weekend to pull the weeds, spray the weeds, hire someone to do it whatever, on their street it would take care of the problem.  But most investors live out of state, renters don't care it's typically not their job, auctioned homes, well they're owned by the bank and they could definitely care less they'll already lose money on it.  It may just be one of those things that you have to suck up when it comes to the vacant homes or rental homes.  That or like I said, get together with a few people on your (general term) street, each rotate a weekend in the summer and that should keep them at bay most of the time. 

 And I wasn't complaining that you call the real estate offices, if you have the time kudos to you, it was just amusing that you don't have the time to flag down a gardener to ask them to visit a certain common area but you can call real estate offices.  But like I said, if you have the time kudos to you for doing it and glad that it paid off some of the time.

If the HOA steps in and "does something about the weeds", it's gonna cost you some money...EVERYONE who pays their dues will be paing to remove them.  Our gardners charge around 400 per home to clean it up...and we have had them do it....but stopped because of the rediculously high amount they  charge.  So, can you immagine, 400 per house times the number of homes that need to be done???  We don't have that kind of money in the accounts, that means that we would send out a nice little bill to everyone called a special assesment....that means extra money you MUST pay the HOA in addition to your regular fees.....somehow I don't think EVERYONE would agree with you and say "go ahead and do it".  Frankly, as a home owner, I don't want to pay out of my pocket to have weeds removed on a regular basis from vacant properties.  The problem is with the homeowner and the banks who own the others.  If you read the new laws for HOA's, youd be surprised at what little we can do.  Basically, what you are paying for in an HOA nowadays is to keep up your common areas, pay for water in the common areas, and pay for lighting.  If you don't know, the only way that an HOA can place a lein on a home anymore is failure to pay dues.  The HOA can take a homeowner to civil court, but that cost's more money than would likely be recouped.  I assure you, we are not all sitting on our butts brushing the weed problems off.  We know its a problem, and every home that we are aware of, is being delt with on an individual basis. 

I will see you there on the 26th. I am glad we are moving forward! This probably isn't the best solution! But nobody on this site has come up with a better solution to the problem. We all know that most ideas are going to cost a bunch of money. Money the HOA doesn't have, because of the scum who doesn't pay their dues! We need to colletively come up with a solution. One that will cost a minimum amount of money. Anyway, if we can do a community clean up we can meet new people, and have some fun.

So, if you are posting on this blog and want to help, tell your neighbors to come out and make Castlegate a better place! I know one time isn't going to get it done, or keep the weeds away. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure that out!! It is a start. If you have a better solution, by all means put it out there for all of us to talk about. We are accomplishing more on this blog than we have ever done at the HOA weed meetings!

 To the HOA board, I know it is a thankless job, that you aren't paid for! Thank you for what you do!

Hey Castlegate,

Will this be updated in the Meetings portion of the Home Page? Time, location, what we need to bring? Thank you.