Recap of HOA Annual Meeting on 5/18/2010

Compared to previous HOA meetings, I thought this one was much more civilized. Only near the end did things start to fall apart. Here's the highlights:

Javier of Friendswood Development announced that Keith Schoonover would be taking over as President of the HOA and go-to-guy for all Developer related issues. He will be assisted by Shamar O'Bryant and Nat Heston.

One week ago our old management company, ACMI, was fired. A new contract has been given to AMI to take over management and will officially be in effect on June 1st. Dave King of AMI will be the manager for Brunswick Meadows. AMI services over 260 neighborhoods and has been in business for 30 years. Let's face it...they couldn't possibly be worse than ACMI :--) and hopefully will live up to all they promised tonight. AMI office is located at 12230 Shadowcreek Parkway, behind the Sherwin Williams. Twin Villas residents should start sending their monthly dues to AMI starting in 30 days.

You can send your problems to Dave via e-mail at dking@amitx.com and he will respond within 24 hours. AMI also has a Resource Center that handles 14,000-15,000 calls per month and 80% of those calls were addressed within 2 minutes. Call 713-332-4675 to reach the Resource Center - but you'll have to wait until the middle of June for it to be up and running. For immediate needs, e-mail Dave. Dave says he has already been cruising the neighborhood and sees many violations of the deed restrictions. He wants a few weeks to read over all the rules and will be visiting violators 3 days a week. He also said a monthly newsletter will be created with assistance of a committee of residents and a website will be provided with all the bells and whistles. Until we see evidence of that, I will continue to post on this blog and the yahoo group will continue.

The sidewalk to nowhere along Sandstone Bend was adorned with bushes along the fences of each side of the street. 'Nowhere' is actually the last part of the development that will be starting in December. This sidewalk was part of the master plan. No other sidewalks - the ones we've been wanting along Brunswick Meadows and the detention ponds - were ever planned. Javier said that it was possible to build the sidewalks - there is no problem with the right of way - but there was no budget available to build them.

Streets needing completion to outlet on Furman is a responsibility of the Developer, but no timeframe was mentioned as to when they would be done. Once the roads are built, they are turned over to Harris County for maintenance. So if there are problems with the roads in the future, you should address Commissioner Pct. 1 El Franco Lee. Someone mentioned the need for speed bumps and asked who had jurisdiction over that. It was unclear who was responsible for them. Supposedly it is Harris County, but El Franco Lee said that it was not within their power. The city of Houston does build speed bumps, but as you know, we are not within the city of Houston limits so that leaves us back in the 'black hole' of no one taking responsibility.

For the continuing debate on bus stops, it is necessary that you take it up with the appropriate school administration. Some have had more success than others in addressing this issue.

There was a new twist on the 'water vs no water' in the detention ponds debate. Seems that while the water was sitting in the ponds, unscrupulous sales reps for the home builders attached a premium to lots that abutted the 'lakefront' property. The developer said that it was never the intention to have water in those detention ponds. They are to remain dry in order to deal with flooding when it rains. The reason the water was in the ponds for so long was because the developer felt that WCID89 should be responsible for paying for the pump after it was installed. But WCID89 refused to do so. The developer paid and the ponds were drained and will remain in their dry state forever.

Those are the main points. Please feel free to comment on others that I may have missed.

Tuesday May 18th Annual HOA Meeting

7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Jones Memorial Methodist Church which is at 2504 Almeda Genoa Road (very near 288) and here's a few of the concerns that residents intend to address at this meeting:
Sidewalks along Brunswick Meadows Dr (Public Safety Issue)
Retention Ponds (Water or Not?)
Security Contract Issues
Water Quality
Improvement to Furman Rd
Completion of the thoroughfare near Sutton Glen Lane and Furman (relieve some of the through traffic in other sections)
Recycling options
Level of occupancy for the community
Trucks parking overnight
Constant advertisement left on doors - might be a way for thieves to see if anyone is at home
Community amenities (playgrounds, picnic area, etc.)
Street signs (children at play, no outlet, etc) throughout the entire neighborhood
More street lights
Scott Street landscaping & signage (should be more attractive & inviting)

Come and join the discussion on these and other matters affecting our neighborhood!