08/25/2023
Hello, all!
THANK YOU to everyone who took time to complete the survey. There weren’t any real surprises, but here are the main points.
Streets, sidewalks, and signage:
-The POA has absolutely no authority over paving of streets, replacing sidewalks, or adding signage to the neighborhood. The City of Crown Point does a very good job (in our opinions) maintaining the roadways overall but, as you can imagine, it’s a never-ending, costly, and time-consuming process. The Street Department has its priorities and works through them as quickly and effectively as they can. Our best suggestion is to contact the Street Department.
-As for sidewalks, the City also has a 50/50 program to share costs of replacing problematic sidewalks. Please contact the City as well if your sidewalks need repair or replacing.
-We completely agree that we could always use a few more ‘Slow’ or ‘Children Playing’ signs around. The City did a speed survey at the corner of Chessington Drive and Edith Way a couple years ago, and apparently the results did not warrant any signage in their opinion. Once again, the more of us that call, the better.
Neighborhood Enhancement:
The most common requests we received in terms of enhancing the common areas were:
1. Permanent seating in the large, grassy area behind the main entrance. We love this idea as well. There were a couple suggestions for more plantings in this area as well, but that may be a conversation for the general, annual meeting as some folks really enjoy the wide open space.
2. Some sort of hedge or tree line along 113th Avenue.
3. The biggest one was standard home and yard maintenance. There are quite a few homes in need of exterior cleanup, unsightly yards, visible garbage cans, etc. The Board has been making notes of violations we’ve found and is beginning the process of notifying homeowners as needed. Making sure each lot has the requisite number of trees in the front and side easements is also going to be a priority.
Sheds
As you all know, this is a rather hot topic not only in Penn Oak, but any subdivision with a POA. Real Estate professionals agree that sheds tend to devalue property, which is why outbuildings were prohibited in the Covenants initially. That said, it has always been made very clear that if there was enough interest in changing that Covenant, we certainly can with enough support. But, we only received 65 responses in favor of sheds.
Committees
We are hoping to set up the following committees in the coming months/year:
1. Decorations. This can range anywhere from general beautification of common areas to holiday-specific decorating of the main entrance.
2. Neighborhood cleanup. We thought it would be a nice idea to have a collective ‘Neighborhood Cleanup Day’ at least once a year, hopefully twice. In addition to the common areas, curbs, and easements, we hope neighbors could help neighbors who may be in need.
3. Summer Party. Our beautiful, large common area is the perfect place to have a subdivision-wide party.
Board Membership
Of the 90 survey responses, only SEVEN members expressed any interest in being on the POA board. With as vocal as many of you are on the official POA page as well as the ‘Penn Oak Subdivision Group’ page, we were certainly hoping for more. We will be holding an election at the 2024 General Annual Meeting.
The biggest issue we are facing is lack of funds. We are still WELL under collections, with some homeowners owing MULTIPLE years’ dues. Maintenance of the common areas and the ponds is costly, using most - if not all - of the dues we HAVE collected. Other improvements are all relegated in favor of the standard, necessary maintenance we have to keep up with. At this point, with such a large percentage of unpaid dues, we’ve decided it is in the best interest of the neighborhood to contact an attorney to start the notification process. After that, if dues still remain unpaid, we may be forced to consider the collections process.
Apologies if we’ve missed any key points, but please feel free to message us here or at [email protected] with any questions or concerns. THANK YOU!
