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July 2012

Chaparral Pointe Newsletter


thechaparral.weebly.com
SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST:

Annual General Meeting Monday, September 24th, 2012 7 pm


Our AGM will soon be upon us. At this time we will be looking for interested candidates to join the Board of Directors. As you should know from the by-laws, all Board members are required to resign every year. This year we already know that some will not be returning due to personal commitments. We need a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 9 members. If we do not meet our minimum the building will be taken over by the government which in turn will assign a law firm to manage our condo. What does this mean? Well our fees will rise substantially. We will be charged for every phone call, every email, every letter. Please think about this seriously and we encourage anyone that is interested to come and speak with a Board member. It would be great to have several sign up so that we can have a vote and choose the best qualified or most knowledgeable.

AGM Board members needed Building updates By-law refresher Recycling Social committee

In case of emergencies, please contact Condominium First Daytime 403-299-1810 and speak with Carol Lloyd or Jayne After Hours 403-264-7789

Condominium First will be sending out the notice with the current financials and the proxy that will be needed if you will be away the day of the meeting.

Have you returned your Special Resolution form to Condominium First accepting or rejecting the new by-laws, please do so prior to the AGM. If we do not receive 75% (85 of 113 units) we will have to remain with the current generic by-laws which include the builder in several sections. This has already cost us over $4,000 and if we have to restart the process, we will have to spend this all over again. This is your investment, please approve the by-laws.

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Building Updates
Carpets in hallways and stairwells
The carpets in the hallway are continually being damaged by residents that move large items by dragging them through the halls. We have a dolly that you can borrow at any time, please email the website to reserve it and save our carpets. We have several spills in the stairwells, please take responsibility for your actions. If you spill a drink or drop something else that will stain, clean it up or let us know about it so we can get our carpet cleaner to come and deal with the stain as soon as possible.

Loud conversations or music


Being in close proximity to others, personal, confidential, defamatory, or boisterous conversations should stay within the suite away from open windows and doors. If you are having issues with your neighbours, you need to deal with them yourself, this is not a concern for Condominium First or the Board of Directors. Residents of the condo need to abide by the city noise bylaw and if they dont, you have every right to call the police.

Pet concerns & animal feces in building


During the past few months we have had to deal with dog feces being placed in several common areas. We have enough evidence to confirm that this was done by a resident and not an animal. We have had to corral a cat that managed to get out of a suite, needless to say this cat was not registered with us and could have sprayed somewhere that we were not aware of. We also had residents allow guests to bring in visiting dogs. We had dogs urinate in the elevators and we had an owner rent the suite to a tenant that had a cat without getting prior approval from the Board. The grass outside of the front fence is damaged due to dogs urinating in that area. We understand that your dogs may not be able to hold themselves but this is costing us extra to have the grass treated every year. If you have pets in your suite it was your responsibility to register them prior to December 1st, 2010, if they are not registered now and we find out about them, we will serve you with a $500 fine and an eviction notice for this pet. There will be no exceptions. Be a responsible pet owner. If your dog has been in the house all day then we ask that you carry them out of the building so that they do not urinate in the common areas. Due to all of these infractions, we are now at the point where we are considering applying a yearly fee to all residents that have pets, this is still under discussion and will be left to the new Board in September to finalize this decision.

Pigeons
Once again we have spent several thousands of dollar to get rid of the pigeons. We are confident that the majority have gone, we always see a few but hope that they are just visitors. Mesh has been placed everywhere that they could nest and feeders with poison have been strategically placed in most frequently visited areas. The eaves have all been cleaned of any feces. Carol from Condominium First wrote to Chaparral Community Association asking for help to cover the cost but they rejected our request.

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Building Updates
First floor residents
Our bushes are growing and looking really good so we ask that those of you that have them in front of your patio to not walk through them. Any damages done to the bushes will be charged back to the owner.

Grounds work-bee We are looking for a few good volunteers to help trim some trees or pull some weeds on Saturday, July 21st at 10 am. Sign-up sheet is posted on the bulletin board in the foyer.

Friendship room missing chair


We have a chair missing from the Friendship room. If you borrowed it, please return it.

Painting and Carpet cleaning


By this time second floor residents will have seen Vic around early during the day painting the second floor hallway. We are hoping to have the first floor painted in the fall. On July 25th, NuLife Carpet cleaners will be here to do the semi-annual carpet cleaning. This should not inconvenience anyone.

Exercise room
We had the equipment serviced for the first time and because the equipment is lower-end meant for household use not commercial, it takes a beating. The treadmill needs approximately $1,000 of repair work which cannot guarantee that something else would not break after so we are now investigating purchasing one or two commercial treadmills as we know that this is the most used piece of equipment.

Donations
We have cleaned out some of the common areas of items that have been left by residents. If you have any items that you would like to donate, please keep them in your suite until you receive Board approval. We cannot accept any donations of equipment as we would be liable if anything happened.

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Building Updates

Garbage garage Residents have been dropping off household items that they no longer need such as chairs, tables, microwaves. If you dont want them chances are no-one else will either. If they are still of use then drop them off at Value Village or take them to the dump, there is no charge for Chaparral residents, simply show your lake card. Foothills disposal does not pick up such items, they actually will remove them from the dumpsters therefore Board members or volunteers are left to do the clean up.

Parkade
We had a few residents complain about their neighbour parking over the yellow line into their stall. This is an issue that needs to be dealt with between residents but at this time we would like to ask for all residents cooperation in making sure that you park within your own stalls limits and ensure that you are parked in your suites own designated stall. If you need more Visitor Parking Permits, just drop us a note.

Parking lot
A reminder to all residents that the front parking lot is for visitors, not residents. Yes you can leave your car there for a very short time if you need to run in quickly but not for an extended amount of time. The handicap stalls are meant for visitors with a handicap permit, not for residents or visitors unloading their vehicle. If you choose to park in one of these stalls, we will have you ticketed and possibly towed.

Following is a list of City of Calgary parking fines: Unauthorized Parking on Private Property starts at $55 Unauthorized parking in disabled parking space; failure to display placard starts at $215 Parked or Stopped in a Marked Fire Lane starts at $95 We have one stall that is privately owned. This occurred 3 years ago through POV. The stall is clearly marked and although it is not always in use, no-one but that resident has the right to park there. If you need more Visitor Parking Permits, email us on the website or leave us a note in the suggestion box. Visitor Parking Permits cannot be re-used.

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By-Law refresher
Under age resident For the past few months, underage people have been seen coming and going from our building. This makes it clear that they are residing here. Please read the by-law below and if you do have a guest that is underage, please contact Condo First with the length of time this person will be staying with you and you may be asked for proof of ID for this person.

Recycling
Thank you to everyone for the great job you are all doing with the recycling. Our blue bin is intended for paper and cardboard. Please break down your boxes before putting them in the bin, this will help with space. Our volunteers that return the empty bottles to the depot would appreciate it if residents did not throw their recyclable plastic containers or garbage in those bins. It`s not pleasant for them to sort through the garbage every week so please remember that only bottles and drink containers go in the recycling bins on the left side of the garbage garage. Thank you once again to all of you that recycle.

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Social Committee
On June 2nd, some residents joined Lake Chaparrals Parade of garage/yard sale. Although it was cut short due to a storm that rolled in, everyone involved had a great day. We ended the day with a BBQ that was well attended by just over 30 residents. As a result of this BBQ, a proposal was given to the Board for the purchase of a 6 burner BBQ. We are now looking into the possibility to bring out a gas line on the Friendship room patio for this purpose. Once we have an estimate and the cost of the BBQ, the proposal will be revisited.

A second proposal was given to the Board to have the Media room completed with a painted wall screen and a projector. The Board agreed that to have this done, it needs to be done properly and this should include speakers, amps, DVD player, WiFi, the wall would need to be refinished as it is now textured and proper seating would be needed. Other concerns are: how many people would it accommodate comfortably and what about the sound level, is the room sound proof enough not to bother adjoining residents? This will be a huge expense and at this time there are other projects on the list that take precedence, this was tabled and left up to the next Board to discuss once painting of the building and grounds projects are complete. Mark this date, September 15th at 10 am, we will be holding our second Annual Pancake Breakfast. Watch for the sign -up sheet on the bulletin board the first week in September. Keep in mind that this is for residents only. Ongoing Activities Monday night cards and games @ 7 pm Thursday morning coffee @ 10 am Friday night social @ 7:30 pm Saturday night cards and games @ 7:30 pm

If you have any questions regarding any of our articles, go to the website and send us an email. thechaparral.weebly.com

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