HMPOA Newsletter
5.02.08
Newsletters are emailed to all those for whom we have an email address. Some notices are only sent via email due to cost, speed and ease. If you’d like to get all HMPOA newsletters, notices and updates, please send your email address to kai@hardwickmountain.org
Fire Safety
Ed Furlow (VA Dept. of Forestry) and three members of Barboursville Fire Dept. joined the Board of Directors and Charley Dulaney, Allen Miller and Dom Montagna Monday evening at the Barboursville shelter to discuss fire risk and safety. Ed and his cohorts described what causes most fires in this part of the country (and how that differs from the blazes out west), the unique risks we face on Hardwick Mountain (primarily due to the difficulty of getting trucks and water up here in sufficient quantity), and some things we can do as a community and as individual home-owners to reduce our risk.
Instead of describing all we heard, we think it would be best if you heard it directly from the experts, and had a chance to ask them questions and hear their responses. So we have invited them to attend our annual meeting (see below) and we’ll make this the primary topic there. Here’s a teaser...did you know that pine trees are “accelerants”, and as such should not be next to your house?
Work Crew -- Turkey Ridge Road and Chestnut Lane
Road experts (including C&G Paving, who blacktopped the above roads, and VDOT engineers) have advised us to build up the shoulders of blacktopped roads so there isn’t a drop-off from the edge of the pavement. Doing this will extend the life of the roads by preventing edges from being damaged as vehicles drive off the blacktop.
To save money, we plan to do this work ourselves. We’ll have a truckload of crusher run delivered to the bottom of Chestnut Lane and Turkey Ridge next week. Then on Saturday anyone willing to help can join us. Several of us have tractors, and we’ll dump the gravel along the roadsides. Those with shovels and rakes can help spread it out. Depending on how much we get done, we may repeat the process another day in May (best to do it before the roads get summer hot).
Date, time: Saturday, 10 May, 9am - noon
Annual Meeting / Picnic
Date, Time: Sunday, 22 June, 1-3pm (business meeting from 1-2pm, picnic following
Location: Barboursville shelter
Topics: Fire risk and safety, roads and assessments, road maintenance, light at mailbox area
BBQ chicken and beef, and drinks will be provided. Please bring a side dish or dessert, and join us for the picnic.
Assessments
As you noticed in the last assessment you received in December ’07, the board unanimously agreed to raise the assessment 10% for the current year. Even with that we may be losing ground, as the price of the main ingredient of asphalt is escalating even faster. The increase will be reflected in your next assessment, due 30 June. Assessment notices will go out the first week of June. If you want an updated copy of the Roads and Assessment document we created last year to explain our road conditions, plans and estimated costs, contact any board member.
If you have questions or input for the board about any topic, including the annual meeting, please let us know.
Larry Clark
Kai Dozier
Steve Harper
Steve Hovanic 832.3449
Denise Yetzer
Site Navigation