January 2012

Chaparral Pointe Newsletter

thechaparral.weebly.com
SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST:

Happy New Year to All of our Residents.

We would like to take this time to welcome 2 new Board members. Pam Pepin comes to us with experience on previous condo boards and Audrey Cameron brings us financial experience. Reminder that day to day operations is the responsibility of Condominium First. Following is a list of contact numbers that should be used for emergencies or any issues arising in the building or your suite. Board members are not to be contacted directly. EMERGENCIES Ambulance Fire Poison Police

Board of Directors Emergency contacts Building updated Bylaw Refresher Parking Lot & Parkade Recycling Social Club

911

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

BUILDING OPERATIONS Condominium First Normal hours After-hours Emergency

403-299-1810 403-264-7789

MOVE-IN / MOVE-OUT / ELEVATOR RESERVATION Condominium First 403-299-1810 When reporting an issue to Condominium First, please keep in mind that we are not their only management condo, expect to receive a call back within 24 hours.
Anyone with information on who stole the expensive lock that was on the old garbage garage door is encouraged to get in touch with the Board.

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Elevator and Move Bookings

All elevator, move-ins, move-outs, and large-item deliveries must be booked a minimum of one week in advance. To arrange for a booking, please call Condominium First during regular weekday business hours at 403299-1810. Your cooperation is appreciated!

Chaparral Pointe Board of Directors

Garbage Garage Lock

To enter the garage: Enter the four-digit code into the keypad; yes, four digits are required on this lock - 0431 Turn the thumb-turn knob toward the hinges to disengage the deadbolt. Turn the door latch below the lock to open the door. When leaving the garage: Close the door with the door latch. Press the Schlage button on the top of the lock. Rotate the thumb-turn knob away from the hinges to engage the deadbolt. Note: If these steps are not all followed, the door will be left unlocked. The combination will be activated on February 5th.

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Building Updates
Christmas decorations
It is always nice to see balconies decorated for the Holiday Season, but the time has come to put away these decorations. As our Bylaws state that we must not have any items hanging over the railing, we are lenient during this season, but all decorations should be removed by January 31st.

Display board
If you havent noticed yet, go down to the front foyer and see our new display board on the right side of the front entrance. A decision was made by the Board to purchase this board so that our notices can be displayed without being vandalized or torn down as we have been experiencing.

Carpets
During the month of December, NuLife carpet cleaning returned to do spot touch-up. We had several spots caused by spills. We would like to ask all residents to be very careful with leaky garbage and bringing your pet in and out of the building; any spills or messes make for dirty carpets that are not pleasant for anyone. Mid-year spot cleaning is free of charge unless they are contaminant stains but any other time that we have them return for a clean-up, we get charged. If we are aware of the resident that caused the stain, they will be charged with the cost of clean-up. Please make note that NuLife will be in the building early February to do our mid-year carpet cleaning. Date will be posted.

Painting
Late January, the third floor hallway will be painted. We thank you in advance for your cooperation and patience during this process. The plan is to have all three floors painted in stages. We hope that our finances will allow us to paint the second floor in the spring and so on. We were not able to change the lower wall color because of all the doors and trim being the same color but we did lighten the upper color as per the request of several residents.

Pigeon update
Once again we find ourselves in need to report about pigeons. The south side of the building was once again infested with pigeons. The dormers were not all sealed and some pigeons did find their way into a few of them and caused a huge mess. Walk Construction were here for several weeks prior to winter and cleaned up and sealed the dormers. You may still see some pigeons on our roof but we are certain that they are not inside the building and we are still working with Walk to come up with a plan that will hopefully keep them away for good.

Wind damage
2 wind storms in the space of less than 2 months. Yes we had damage to our building, some that was and still is quite visible. We do have a claim in to the insurance company as the cost of repairs will be higher than our deductible. You are all aware of the garbage garage door that blew off; we had the door replaced and put a door that opens inward, unfortunately, someone stole the expensive lock that we had on the old door before it could be transferred over to the new door. Unit 333 has severe damage to the roof of their balcony and we also had several pieces of shingle blow off our roof. All of this is now in the hands of the Co-Operators Insurance. If you have damage to the outside of your suite that we are not aware of, please drop us a note in the suggestion box or through email on our website or to Condominium First so that we can include it on the same claim.

Fire inspection results

Thank you for your cooperation during the Fire inspection on December 13th. JAS Electric fixed all that was not in good functioning order to all the suites that they had access to. If your suite was not serviced, we suggest that you get this done at your cost for safety reasons.

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Parkade Door Operation

There have been a few reports lately from residents experiencing some difficulty opening the parkade door with their remote control. Although the door opener has been in operation for over three years, the problem has only recently become prevalent. The door opener has been inspected and function-tested recently on at least two occasions by qualified service technicians. No problems were detected. We have also been assured that our door opener is a top-of-the-line and very sophisticated model. One of the most common causes of a door opener not functioning properly is a weak or dead battery in the remote control. This can occur over time even if the remote control has not been used. The responsibility for checking and replacing these batteries rests with the owner of the remote control. Another cause for a door opener not functioning properly is radio frequency interference (RFI) being emitted from some source in the surrounding environment. This interference could be from a vast array of electrical devices within the building, a neighbouring residence, or a nearby communications tower. We do have a new cell tower just south of our building, but whether or not it could be causing this interference is unknown. Until the cause is determined, please advise us of any abnormal operation of the parkade door by leaving a note in the suggestion box in the mailroom or on the condominium website, www.thechaparral.weebly.com. Include a brief description of the problem, as well as your name and contact information so we can get back to you. When driving in or out of the parkade, you are advised to follow the precautions below:

Fully depress the button on your remote control immediately before entering or leaving the parkade, even if the door is already open. The opener is programmed to keep the door fully open for six seconds, ample time for a vehicle to enter or exit. Never rush the door when you find it already open or when following another vehicle. Your vehicle may collide with the door if it begins to close. Any resulting door damages will be the responsibility of the vehicle owner. After entering or leaving the parkade, pause for a moment to ensure the door fully closes and there is no one attempting to sneak in.
- submitted by Doug van Eden

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By-Law refresher
Parkade Recently we have noticed that several residents are leaving their Windshield Washer fluid containers, shopping carts, etc. in their parking stall. We would like to remind everyone that the parking stall is not a place to store any items. Failure to remove any items from your stall by January 31st may result in a fine.

Pets All residents are reminded that pets and visiting pets are no longer allowed in the building. Only grandfathered pets are allowed and they should be registered with the Board of Directors. If you do not have your pet [dog/cat or other] registered please contact Condo First or leave a note in our suggestion box and we will make sure to provide you with the form.

New By-laws The Board has received a copy of our new by-laws and are now in the process of revising them. The next step is to return them to the lawyer with any corrections needed; once the revisions are done, a copy will be sent to all owners. At this point you will be given a determined amount of time to read them and to approve or reject them. No further changes will be done to the by-laws. 75% of owners need to approve them before they approved by the court.

Mailboxes
In the past couple of months theres been talk about having a mail-out slot in our mailroom. Brenda met with the mail delivery person and got the scoop on the mailboxes. Although we have a large mailbox, there is no key for it this is why you have to pick up your parcels at MACs. To have this changed in any way would be a costly venture and it would involve Canada Post assigning extra staff to service our building and they are not willing to do this at this time. This has now been put to rest, unfortunately you will still have to walk across the street to mail your letters and walk or drive up to MACs to pick up your parcels.

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. We have been researching the possibility of bringing in another bin for all other recyclables such as tins, plastic, etc. At this time we have not been successful but will keep you updated on our progress. You can imagine in a building this size, we go through many light bulbs so we have started putting these aside in order that we can take them to a recycling center. If residents are interested, we could put a box in the garbage garage for this purpose. Drop us a note in the suggestion box if you would like to see this happen. We could also do this with small alkaline batteries.

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Social Club
A New Year has arrived and the Social Club is looking for new ideas that can be implemented for the enjoyment and entertainment of our residents. Please, if you can think of anything to offer, put a note in the suggestion box located in the mail room, with your name attached. We will be happy to look it over and get back to you, as I am sure we will have questions for you. We have been in operation, for approximately three years and in that time, we have been able to organize several activities for some of our residents but not all. As you all know, the recyclable bottles and cans are used as revenue for the Social Club to add to the betterment of our Community, which is why you should all have a say in how we spend it. Some of the things we have either bought outright or shared in the purchase with the Board were, microwave, chairs for the Friendship Room, stainless flatware and dishes for 40, long serving tables, etc. We hosted a Pancake Breakfast in September to which 42 of our residents attended, this was the largest single event so far. Of course, we are always looking for new blood to join the Social Club and will welcome you with open arms! Simply leave a note in the suggestion box. Respectfully submitted, Gae Stevenson

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

Food Bank Thank you to everyone who made a donation during the month of October. Six boxes were dropped off at the 285 Legion for our veterans.
Thank you for your generous contributions.

The garbage garage is only meant for household garbage, recycling and the storage of bicycles, approved by the Board. Summer tires that are now stored in the garbage garage MUST be removed by February 4th or they will disposed of.

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Who Cares, an yway

Do you? A key part of making a community attractive and a place sought out by potential residents is shown by the actions of the majority of current residents who do care. Unfortunately, a few others do not, and that leads to false first impressions by would-be future residents! So, what is it that we are talking about here? Check the few examples below: Cigarette butts discarded in the parkade (a non-smoking area) Beverage containers tossed aside near our front entrance (first impressions that suck) Over-sized debris crushed into parkade garbage bins (theres a garbage garage out there) Stains in hallway carpeting, and nicks and gouges on hallway walls (do you do this in your suites?) Unwarranted, unfair, and excessive garbage accumulations (eg. Unbroken cardboard boxes, furniture, construction debris, etc.) Try recycling, donating, or landfill visits instead of dumping it on the rest of us! This dilemma is not unique to our condo community. Its an unfortunate demographic that is common to most, if not all, residential communities. Alas! Apahty and lack environmental consciousness is alive and well! But, that doesnt mean the rest of us should take it sitting down. Those of us who do care must carry on and set an example for those who do not, but maybe might get it, if shown the right example and encouragement long enough. Carry on, eh! By the way, if you live here, its likely that your Mom does not; so clean up after yourself!

- Submitted by Doug van Eden

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