Manager’s Report

March 18, 2008

 

 

Today we have 941 spaces full, 745 owners and 159 renters.  Last year at this time we had 749 owners and 164 renters for a total of 913 spaces full.  Several residents have left early this year to be home before Easter this coming weekend. 

 

Just a reminder: When you check out this year, please confirm your summer telephone number and summer address with the office by filling out a new green sheet.  It is important for us to know how to reach you in case of an emergency and you will want to receive your summer newsletter. 

 

 Having a caretaker for your place is extremely important for a couple of reasons.  A caretaker is your first line of defense after a bad monsoon storm.  They will inform you immediately if there is a problem, meet your insurance adjuster and do whatever needs to be done in your absence.  Caretakers will also spray weeds so that you do not have to worry about the mess or being fined for weeds.  This also protects your neighbor by halting the spread of seeds.  Summer is the season for weeds.  Seeds lay beneath the rock just waiting for a drink of water to turn into monster weeds.  It is very beneficial for everyone to have the weeds sprayed.  Even if you spray before you leave, the weeds can still jump up and surprise you.  With a wet winter like we’ve had, the weeds are already growing all over the valley.  We have a list of caretakers in the office or ask a neighbor who is here in the summer or a relative who lives in the area.

 

Since this is the last meeting of the season, I wanted to give you a comparison on our utility costs this fiscal year vs. 2007.  Our electricity bill increased from 2007 in January from $4776.21 to $4987.26.  This was partially due to the rate increase of 6% over the winter months.  The rate increase goes to 3.7% for the summer months.

 

The sewer increased from $11,785 per month to $15,047 for the same time period.  As you all know, our sewer bill is based on our water consumption

 

Water usage from January 2007 was 2,858,700 gallons from 12-22-06 to 1-18-07, a total of 105,877 gallons per day for 27 days in that billing cycle at a cost of $14,592.15. Water usage this current year from 12-19-07 to 1-23-08 was 2,911,000 gallons per month a total of 83,171 gallons per day for the billing cycle of 35 days at a cost of $14,864.41.   For the February billing cycle of 36 days February 07 we used 4,292,800 for a total usage of 119,244.44 gallons per day. In the February 08 33 day billing cycle we used 3,191,800 gallons for a total usage of 96,721.21 gallons per day.  We have actually cut our consumption by 22,523 gallons last month and 22,706 gallons in January.  That is a total of 45,229 gallons.  Good work by residents and staff alike! 

 

At 4:00 this morning a valve let loose west of the complex.  Quick thinking by Dave Hopps, Landscaping, who shut off the valves feeding the leak, saved us many thousands of gallons.  Today we have no water in the complex.  That means we cannot use the restrooms, the showers, the water machine by the laundry and the main laundry itself.  Please shower at home before coming to the pool.  There are laundry facilities and water machines at the satellites.  So far no homes are without water.  The valve should be repaired by tomorrow afternoon.  Thank you for your patience.

 

We still need to cut our consumption by a couple of million gallons to make a positive impact on the sewer bill. We have taken out a large chunk of grass on the west side of the Library building and replaced it with a very beautiful rocked area with low water plants.  We cut the amount of flowers we planted this year by over 600 plants.  We have taken the grass out of the west side of the Retention Area and in front of the woodshop, removed grass from around the Horseshoe pits.  I really don’t want to take out any more grass.  One way to save over 2,000,000 gallons of water just over the summer is to not water the grass.  I ask the Board to consider not watering the grass during the summer so we can continue to have green grass when the majority of the residents are here in the winter.  We would, of course, continue to water the plants and trees throughout the park.

 

Propane usage has stayed static with only the price changing drastically.  For January and February 2007 we used 16,557.9 gallons of propane for $29,980.62, an average of $1.81 per gallon.  In the same time period 2008 we used 15,558.5 gallons of propane for $44,578.32, an average of $2.87 per gallon.  So we used 1000 gallons less and spent $14,598 more.

 

The WiFi tune up is nearly complete.  Larry and Ken Kennedy have been working hard to reprogram everyone’s antenna.  Our thanks to Ken for all of his volunteer work on the WiFi.  They had most of them completed on Friday and will finish up this week.  As most of you interested in the WiFi know, the designing engineer was here over the weekend of March 1 and made several adjustments to make the system work more efficiently.  Reprogramming the antennas is one adjustment.  The main towers’ radio channels were also changed.  We didn’t know that the Motorola system at Dolce Vita was interfering with our signals.  Now that we know we can work with it.   I hope we can have the system working smoothly when you all come back next season!

 

I want to wish you all a safe journey home this spring.  Have a Happy Summer!  I’m sure I will see you all before you leave, but not at a Board meting.