Grounds

[Jeana Ruland]

Hi,

Is anyone else concerned that there has been no fall clean up of the grounds by our management company, that there are leaves and pine needles, weeds and thistles that should be cleared before the winter weather hits? 

Jeana 515-5

[WTCA Board Email]

Jeana: You have mentioned this to the board via email over the last couple of weeks.

The board and JK Rock replied to you at the time you wrote, telling you that areangements had been made to do groundswork in November. You expressed continued concern.

You wrote again today around noon to state your concerns again. In an effort to respond to your concerns, the board asked JK Rock for an update. Josh at JK Rock sent us this: 

"Attention all:

I have been in regular contact with the landscapers through out this project and I assure you that they are doing as best they can given the weather conditions.  I spoke with them again today and was out there.  By the end of the day today, they will have finished cleaning out all gutters, trimming all trees, and cleaning up all branches.  The only thing left is the leaf/fall clean up.  They are going to try to do this tomorrow, Friday, but otherwise, expect to be able to finish it this coming week after the snow melts, as it is expected to do.  In this wind, there is no point to even try to rake leaves...

Hope this helps!

Josh" (Josh Gierach, of management company JK Rock) 

The board is confident that the work will be done before winter arrives in earnest.

[Jeana Ruland]

Thank you, Josh. I did contact JK Rock myself without a satisfactory response. And the leaves are wet enough that they could be raked and bagged easily. Winter has arrived. And there is no excuse for me having to walk around a pile of branches blocking my access to my car for 10 days! 

Please don't buy into the excuses. $1600/mo is a lot of money. I would like a copy of the agreement you/we signed with JKRock so I know what to expect and what not to expect. And if I can help the Board in any way at any time, please ask. I appreciate the time and effort being on the Board entails.

Jeana

On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 10:25 PM, WTCA Board Email <wtca50...@gmail.com> wrote:

Jeana: You have mentioned this to the board via email over the last couple of weeks.

The board and JK Rock replied to you at the time you wrote, telling you that areangements had been made to do groundswork in November. You expressed continued concern.

You wrote again today around noon to state your concerns again. In an effort to respond to your concerns, the board asked JK Rock for an update. Josh at JK Rock sent us this:
Attention all:

"I have been in regular contact with the landscapers through out this project and I assure you that they are doing as best they can given the weather conditions.  I spoke with them again today and was out there.  By the end of the day today, they will have finished cleaning out all gutters, trimming all trees, and cleaning up all branches.  The only thing left is the leaf/fall clean up.  They are going to try to do this tomorrow, Friday, but otherwise, expect to be able to finish it this coming week after the snow melts, as it is expected to do.  In this wind, there is no point to even try to rake leaves...

Hope this helps!

Josh

The board is confident that the work will be done before winter arrives in earnest.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "west-towne-condos" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to west-towne-con...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/west-towne-condos/8e6664d0-81ee-4a94-bb8a-def95e7e7774%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[JENNIFER KRAMER]

I agree with Jeanna!  Our yard looks like ghetto ville.   Just saying....

Sent from my iPhone

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/west-towne-condos/CAME%3DdPwCnjuGCedXB9nKj3sJBASJb4PNS0ma4tUh4C1TtHtG8Q%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jeana Ruland]

And Josh, no matter if they get it done eventually or not, we have been living with the mess for several months now since they were hired. They lose a lot of their authority and respect when they don't live up to their part of the bargain. They have time to collect our money and take DNA from our dog poop and cut the locks on our bikes, but they do not have time to clean up the yard or check our smoke alarms. 

It is a bad way to establish a relationship.

Jeana 515-5

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/west-towne-condos/8E50101F-35F6-474C-86ED-E3697FC3A859%40icloud.com.

[Jeana Ruland]

This is the response I got from JKRock on Nov 4 to my concern that the grounds were not being maintained. Do we just pay them for one pass a year? I want to know what it is reasonable to expect of them. Please tell us our arrangement with them, WTCA Board. And as long as you only have Board meetings on Sunday, there will be those of us who work on Sunday who will always be excluded.

I contacted JKR again this week with no response, except that the branches were finally removed yesterday.   Jeana 515-5

"Jeana,

Yesterday, we had sent an update on the tree trimming and the same is true for the fall clean up.  You are correct that we have been fortunate with good weather, though there have been plenty of rain days as of late as well.  Please keep in mind that it is NOT jkROCK who does the landscaping, but rather another company who is contracted out.  Additionally, there are still many leaves on the trees, and I don't  endorse cleaning up leaves until the leaves are completely off of the trees.  If it is your opinion that the leaves should be cleaned up once earlier and then again later so that the property is always spotless we can certainly have that done.  That would be something you should bring up at the annual meeting this Sunday and the board can decide if that is the best way to use everyone's resources."

Excuses, excuses, excuses.....I don't like to pay people to make excuses.....

[Shahin Sabet]

Jeana's words are biased and not acceptable for me and are not fair.

I believe since JKRock started (with the help of the board and John D) we have more security, transparency and application of rules and regulations. I believe they have great plans and know what they are doing. I have witnessed that Josh from JKRock is present and check the implementation of the on going projects.

As you might know, in annual meeting of 2014 I opposed hiring a company that we did not know for many reasons, I also opposed the way the board members were selected, but now after checking and examining them, I absolutely support them. 

The new management company could not have done this great job of landscaping and all other previous projects without the support of the board and help of John D.

Josh at JKRock, 

I appreciate all you have done for our complex and your dedication to high level and fundamental work. Please keep up with the great job that you have started. 

Shahin Sabet

545-2

Sent from my iPad

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/west-towne-condos/CAME%3DdPy20hWfKLbNrc596GtB16xFuDiYN%3DswrpDDkpK48fceHA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jeana Rutland]

Thank you Shahin for your unbiased opinion. Like mine, it represents one voice among many. I am glad that I am not trying to sell my unit right now with the grounds in this state of neglect. If all we are contracted for is one big clean up a year, I will stop complaining and do some weeding and sweeping myself on Sunday, weather permitting.

Sent from my iPhone

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/west-towne-condos/BLU406-EAS273BE0AE3D525DBE7D747D4DE1A0%40phx.gbl.

[Shahin Sabet]

Dear Jeana,

I have always admired you for your participation in discussions (not necessarily the content of all of your discussions though). I only have learned gradually  and by aging to see the positive sides of everything and talk positive. I know you were affected by pile of tree cuts, around your building, yes I also had difficulty to walk around that area when I was walking outside the complex one day. If I was at my younger or middle age, I would have gotten as mad as you are, but now I am changed, I look at everything with positive attitude and rationally. When it was hard to pass through the side walk around outside your building, I looked up and saw how those trees were trimmed scientifically ( in a way that the tree itself has a good balance now and is happy and how they have reduced the chance of getting us or our buildings hit by those extras). Then I became patient and waited for the crew to clean the area, which they did yesterday.

If stil your sidewalks are covered by the remaining of the branches, of course you have the right to ask the manager to send them back to finish their job and we support you. But please keep in mind that removing the leaves from the area and weeding is a separate issue and if I am not making mistake there is another company in charge of that.

Jeana, I have been always a supporter of women empowerment. I see you as someone who could get us (female residents of the complex) together for discussing the projects and also role of us in monitoring the ways the projects are carrying out and writing our professional reports to the board. We could also put our effort on arranging some exercises together or start a useful activity together, towards the improvement of our complex and our health. By getting together regularly, we could discuss regularly and face to face, and brain storming might result in great suggestions for new and useful projects. I know John Reinmann and the rest are spending lots of time, thinking hard and putting effort on projects that might add value to our properties. He brought up the topic of "efficient use of the gatehouse in a way that adds to our capital investment or adds to the value of our property" during the 2015 annual meeting. Could we all think and work hard towards this issue? May I ask you again to put your effort towards some regular and continues face to face meetings with the interested people about this important issue.

Shahin Sabet

545-2

Sent from my iPad

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/west-towne-condos/03612F59-20F3-471F-8F8C-884B0F09526A%40gmail.com.

[Jeana Ruland]

I am not angry or hostile, I just want to know what is a reasonable expectation of the JKRock based on the agreement the Board made with them. I don't want to be bothering them to do things that are not in their contract. But I don't think anyone would think that leaving big piles of branches on a property they manage, by a management company or their contract labor, for 10 days is OK. You can be philosophical if that is your style. I want to understand what is going on with our property. 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/west-towne-condos/BLU406-EAS12413165F05DDF059F64621DE1A0%40phx.gbl.

[Joshua Gardner]

I am writing first as an owner and someone who lives here and has since 2005. There is room for improvement for the asthetics of WTC, but I am not concerned with state of things as they are. The arrival of the snow before fall clean up is unfortunate, but not to a great extent.

I am writing secondly as a board member. Not on behalf of the board, but on the behalf of JKRock. I prepared this earlier and felt that it should be shared with all residents.

I respect those who have concerns on the affairs of our association. It would be good if more people cared enough to participate in the community. I have walked the grounds several times in the last week to see the progress and also to know when the tree trimming would be by my parking stall so that I could have my car moved. I was satisfied with how this large operation progressed and is progressing. We knew the trimming would take a while and we agreed that in order to save money, all the branches would left in piles till the end, then cleaned up. We also decided that after that would be the best time to do the big clean up. These are all things that we, the board, decided on and ask JK to have done. We, the board, took a little more time than we should have, figuring out which company we wanted to go with to do the tree trimming and JK was the one who urged us to try and get our ducks in a row quickly. This is our first winter prep with JK and there is a large learning curve for the board, JK, and all the vendors we hire to work together and move forward. There will be some hiccups as we transition along. When mistakes or missteps are made by any of us, it is good that they are brought to our attention so that in the future we can work to not make them again. A modicum of patience and understanding is also required to work out the kinks. I respect your concerns, as do we all, and we will continue to move forward on working together as a more cohesive and functional team.

Respectfully
Joshua Gardner
I