The Lamppost Vol. 2006/9-10 October 2006
The Official Newsletter of the Walden Pond Homeowners' Association
On the Internet at http://waldenponddurhamnc.org
Regularly Scheduled HOA Board Meeting
Wednesday, October 18, 2006, 7:30pm
McMannen United Methodist Church
4102 Neal Road , Durham
All Walden Pond owners and residents welcome
HOA Membership Meeting Slated for Wednesday, Dec. 6
Nominating Committee Needed to Fill 3 Seats on HOA Board
All members of the Walden Pond HOA should plan to attend the annual membership meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 6, to choose the 2007 board of directors. Under HOA bylaws, a nominating committee of members must present a slate of candidates at the annual meeting. Laura Atkinson, 7 Prestwick, current vice president of the HOA board, is organizing the nominating committee and is seeking other HOA members to serve on it.
To serve on the nominating committee, E-mail Laura at: latkinson@waldenponddurhamnc.org .
HOA members interested in running for a seat on the 2007 board also should contact Laura as soon as possible.
Under the current bylaws, the three members of the HOA board of directors are elected annually. Incumbent directors may run for re-election. In addition to the candidates presented by the nominating committee, other candidates may be nominated from the floor on the night of the meeting. The Dec. 6 meeting will start at 7pm at McMannen United Methodist Church and should last until about 9pm. Please put this date on your calendar and plan to attend!
IMPORTANT! Monthly Membership Fees
If you have NOT paid your regular $68.00 monthly fee to the Walden Pond HOA, or if you need to pay past monthly fees that are delinquent, all payments should go to:
Walden Pond HOA
Morgan's Property Mgt. LLC
PO Box 71294
Durham NC 27722-1294
Contact: Frankie Johnson
Ph. 919.479.5762
Email: MorganPropMgr@aol.com
BE SURE to make your check to:
Walden Pond HOA
Save your time and postage!!!
Contact Morgan's Property Management to set up a monthly bank draft for your payment. Payments are drafted directly from your bank account on the 10 th of each month or the next business day.
Upcoming HOA Meetings
Wednesday, October 18, 7:30pm: Wednesday, Dec. 6, 6pm
Monthly Board Meeting Monthly Board Meeting
Saturday, November 11, 10am: Wednesday, Dec. 6, 7pm
Monthly Board Meeting 2006 Annual Membership Meeting
All meetings are in the social hall of McMannen United Methodist Church , 4102 Neal Road .
The Mail Will Go Through … If You Can Find Your Mailbox Key
Recently, a new resident in Walden Pond contacted the HOA about obtaining a mailbox key. She hadn't received it from the real estate agent when she moved in, she said. Unfortunately, there wasn't much the HOA could do to help her. The Walden Pond mailboxes are located on commonly owned HOA property, and the boxes are technically the property of the HOA. Mailbox keys, however, have long been the responsibility of the individual Walden Pond homeowners.
Mark Wilson, customer service manager for the U.S. Postal Service's West Durham Station on Kangaroo Drive , says that his records indicate that Walden Pond's mailboxes were purchased by the developer who built Walden Pond , not by the postal service. However, the USPS does replace locks on individual boxes.
Each individual box (a design known as a “Neighborhood Delivery and Collection Box Unit,” or NDBCU) comes with three keys, and all three were issued to an original townhouse owner, Wilson said. If the unit is sold to a new owner, the seller is responsible for transferring the mailbox keys along with other keys to the townhouse . An owner who is renting out a unit is responsible for ensuring that the tenant is provided with a mailbox key.
If all three keys are lost, Wilson said, the USPS will replace the individual box lock for a $35 charge. Homeowners should contact the USPS Delivery Supervisor at the West Durham Station (321-8259) about replacement. Three new keys will be issued with a new lock. Mailbox keys can be duplicated by a locksmith, since they are not USPS property, Wilson said.
Remember:
• If you are a Walden Pond homeowner -- resident or not -- keep at least one spare mailbox key available in a safe place. Two spare keys won't hurt.
• If you sell your townhouse, be sure to pass along all your mailbox keys to the new owner. If you are renting out your townhouse, be sure to provide your tenants with one or more mailbox keys.
• If you are a tenant of a Walden Pond unit, be sure to return your mailbox key(s) to the owner if you move out.
Newsletter Contributions
The editor is always looking for items of interest to ALL Walden Pond HOA members. Please leave submissions at 10 Prestwick Place , or Email it to address below. All submissions are subject to editing for length, content and style.
Newsletter Delivery
We always need help in distributing the newsletter door -to-door, which saves approximately $80 a month of your money in postage costs, compared to mailing it to every townhome. It takes 15-20 minutes to cover one court. Please contact the editor if you can help.
If you don't live in Walden Pond , you can save the HOA $4.68 a year in postage (it adds up!) by having this newsletter E-mailed to you. Please send your E-mail address to Frankie Johnson at: MorganPropMgr@aol.com
This newsletter is edited by Edison McIntyre, 10 Prestwick . Contents are reviewed by the HOA board before distribution. Please direct comments, submissions, or address information to Editor, 10 Prestwick Pl. , Durham 27705 , or directors@lists.waldenponddurhamnc.org
Parking Peeves
Everybody talks about Walden Pond parking, but nobody seems to do anything about it. (Mark Twain said something like that, supposedly.) A few minutes of windshield surveying and some calculator time yielded the following statistics about parking in Walden Pond :
We have 358 marked, off-street parking spaces for 206 townhomes, an average of 1.74 spaces per unit -- so if you're parking two vehicles at Walden Pond , you immediately will have to depreciate one of them by 26 percent. Or else remove one tire. (That's a joke. Or tried to be.)
One-and-three-quarter parking places per unit ought to be plenty, since many of us park only one vehicle. Each townhome should have at least one numbered space that is exclusively for use by its resident(s). (If yours isn't numbered, tell the board.)
Problem is, when it comes to parking places, some parts of Walden Pond are more equal than others.
Georgetown Court (43 units, 71 spaces in the Upper lot off Wildberry and 16 spaces in the Lower lot off Prestwick ) has a whopping 2.02 spaces per unit. The four homes on Wildberry have eight spaces, a perfect 2.0. Astor Court (24 units, 36 spaces) and Providence Court (22 units, 34 spaces) are a little tighter – just 1.5 spaces and 1.55 spaces, respectively.
Parking is even tighter along the west side of Finley Street . Including the northernmost lot that is entered from Grove Park , the four small Finley lots provide just 33 spaces for 22 units – a 1.5 per-unit average. Residents in the 16 Grove Park units can access 30 spaces directly in front of their homes, a relatively generous 1.88 average.
Durbin has two lots – 18 spaces off of Finley and 20 more accessed from Wildberry – a total of 38 spaces for 24 units, an average of 1.58 spaces per unit. Prestwick (32 units, 58 spaces) and Quintin (16 units, 29 spaces) both average 1.81 spaces per unit. The three units on Neal Road (the model units for the original Walden Pond development, don't you know), seem to have five spaces available but not marked (1.66 per unit).
The major parking problem facing Walden Pond residents is the misuse of spaces for what amounts to either long-term vehicle storage or simple vehicle abandonment.
To be parked at Walden Pond overnight, your vehicle must be in “street-legal” operating condition and have a CURRENT license plate. Vehicles that are inoperable and/or lack up-to-date certification are not permitted. No trailers or other storage units are permitted in parking spaces unless you're moving in or moving out (and then for just four days).
Using two parking spaces for one vehicle is just downright rude. If you have guests, they should park on the streets and NOT in marked parking spaces. The HOA will ticket and tow vehicles that are improperly parked.
There's no way the Walden Pond community can readily increase the number of available parking spaces. Everyone who lives here must depend on the other guy's and the other gal's sense of neighborliness and what's right.
It's been suggested that the HOA adopt a system of residential vehicle registration – e.g., windshield stickers on all vehicles, paid labor to keep track of vehicles, more bureaucracy, more money out of your pocket. You can help avoid that resort by observing the existing parking regulations and looking out for your neighbor's interests. They are your interests too.
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