Message from Marc
October 10, 2011 Leave a Comment
Another year is flying by. Summer is over, school is back in session and we’ll soon be transitioning from mowing grass to shoveling snow. Given all the rain we’ve had this summer it’s been hard to keep up with the mowing and when the weather did permit mowing, the grass was often long and thick. For the most part, everyone managed to keep up and kept their yards looking great! A reminder when you do mow, please be considerate of your neighbors and take a little extra time to clear the sidewalks of mowed grass and edging debris. Not only does this keep people from dragging grass and dirt into their houses, it helps to keep the community neat and tidy and looking good for prospective home buyers.
On the subject of community upkeep, we’ve tried this year to make an extra effort to notify homeowners and residents of violations of HOA covenants and guidelines. In the spring, the Board did a community walkthrough and identified about 20 properties in need of attention. For those that complied with our request to correct the issues, thank you. For those that didn’t, please keep in mind the Board’s sole purpose is to administer the Articles of Incorporation and enforce the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions. We are an all-volunteer board, made up entirely of homeowners in the community, and we try very hard to make sure the community is a safe and attractive place for all of us to live.
In case you are wondering, the two complaints we receive most often are that of commercial vehicles parked in the neighborhood and houses with excessive numbers of occupants. When we receive notice of these issues we notify the homeowners of the complaints and request their compliance with HOA Covenants and County Ordinances. In cases where we have chronic offenders we have contacted the police and Loudoun County Zoning department and, in some cases, we have imposed fines and liens in accordance with the Virginia Property Owners Act. The following link provides a good summary of how you as a citizen can help the Board stay on top of County zoning violations: www.joineugene.com/library/zoningguide.pdf
In closing, I’d like to refer to my opening paragraph with regard to the inevitable coming of winter and snow, and provide a reminder that the HOA is not responsible for keeping our streets plowed. The community streets are state streets and are maintained and plowed by VDOT. If you are unhappy with the quality of the plowing this winter, call VDOT at 703-383-VDOT, not your friendly neighborhood board member. If you do, you’ll likely get a sympathetic ear, but we won’t be able to get the streets plowed any sooner.
That’s it for now. Hope to see you all at the Annual meeting on November 10th.
Marc Cronan
President, Glen Heather HOA
