Survey Results

(my comments)
19 surveys were returned. Almost all the buildings are represented and there are some great ideas. Thanks to everyone who returned the survey. 

Gate Phone

One person uses the gate phone out of the 19 who responded. She would be OK with giving visitors the gate code and removing the phone, if that’s acceptable to others. We will assume that if residents haven’t responded, then they don’t care if we remove the phone.

water saving ideas:

Landscaping ideas

  • Many of our sprinklers spray the sidewalk, the road and the lake – they need to be better adjusted (several people mentioned this)
  • Check the drip system (a noted leak was reported to Steve to pass on to the landscapers)
  • The lakeside sprinklers should not spray the patios
  • The daily run off into the driveway from watering the grass indicates we should look at this process.
  • Dog hill is being watered (we asked Steve to ask the landscapers to stop this at the last board meeting – they still need to water a little to maintain the trees, though)
  • Water early or late in the day. Stop watering in the warmest part of the day when there is more evaporation.
  • If we could shut down areas of the irrigation system we could avoid overwatering
  • It seems like we water when it rains – if we have a daily maintenance person, could they stop that?
  • Better reporting and fixing of leaks.
  • Xeriscape the entire premises.
  • Put desert landscaping with rocks in more places.
  • Keep the grass on the lakeside but put true desert landscape elsewhere – cut down on maintenance and landscaping as well as water.

Inside condo ideas:

  • Hot water loops (See instant hot water here)
  • When my present hot water heater needs replacement I will be looking into one that generates hot water quickly (you can use the hot water loop with your existing system)
  • Encourage replacing hot water heaters with “instant hot water” units
  • Be aware of our water use and cut down on unnecessary use.
  • “Mindful” attention to little things like not setting the washer on “Extra large” load for “Extra small” washing.

Other:

  • Cover the pool in winter to prevent evaporation
  • Cover the spa (this should be done shortly – Steve is getting estimates for covers)
  • No washing cars
  • People know how to save water. Maybe an awareness letter could be sent to remind them.
  • Can we see whether our usage is increasing or decreasing? (I asked Steve about this when we did the budget. He said there are 4 zones in Harbour Village, but they are all a mixture of condos and landscaping so it’s hard to tell where most usage is coming from. It is too expensive to put in additional monitoring. But a Water Conservation Committee could research tracking some more)
  • How is the cost of water changing?

Volunteering

The responses were 10 willing to volunteer, 5 not willing, and 4 no response.
The suggestions for volunteer tasks were:

Maintenance type activities

  • Pick up fallen citrus fruit
  • Dead head flowering plants
  • Trim some of the smaller bushes
  • Water plants that get missed by the sprinklers (eg. In the pots)
  • Spray weeds
  • Sweep fallen leaves, especially after big winds
  • Help improve the pots and plantings
  • Pick up trash
  • Remove leaves from the pool
  • Test pool water
  • Spray for spiders on the outside of the building
  • Sweep landings
  • Clean walkways
  • Light bulb changing
  • Simple painting 
  • Clean out pine needles and dead branches behind the garages. I have done this every year for many years because of the fire risk. Now I am less physically able, but if there was a group of volunteers the task would be easier.
  • Review maintenance schedule to be sure the work was done
  • Paint border fences and patio fences
  • Paint curbs, especially in the front entrance area
  • Clean gutters on carports

Non-maintenance volunteer tasks

  • Volunteer coordinator
  • Set up a poop bag system and encourage residents to clean up after their dogs
  • Monitor for illegal parking
  • Research a company to give us a discount on hot water loop installation
  • Research alternative insurance coverage
  • Research replacement light covers for the garages – ours are really faded & old
  • Research reserve study capability – is ours good enough or do we need to redo it?
  • Someone (preferably someone in each building) to inspect roofs and gutters periodically
  • Web site development &/or Newsletter author

Committees that need volunteers

  • Water conservation Committee
  • Welcoming committee members
  • Landscape committee members
  • Architectural review committee members

Other

  • Find out what we can do to get reduced maintenance or landscaping costs.
  • Is the goal to reduce costs or to improve the property? (I’d say both)
  • This has been tried unsuccessfully before – volunteers are not consistent or else they make landscaping decisions.
  • My monthly HOA fee takes care of volunteering
  • I do not favor the idea of volunteers assuming maintenance duties
  • The tasks would depend on what there is to do and who could effectively do it
  • NO VOLUNTEERING! – (this was an annonymous letter – if the person who wrote it wants to contact me with permission I will publish it in its entirity)