• Playground summary
  • Mulch
    In April, 25 cu yards of mulch was purchased for $674.10. Since the playground was not mulched during 2007, this amount of mulch was not adequate to cover. We will be mulching again in the spring of 2009 and will hopefully get and keep the mulch to an acceptable safety standard.
  • Tubes
    The playground tubes were removed and painted at a cost of $920.00
  • Playground Signs
    A sign for the playground was purchased for $202.62 This expenditure was necessary because we had been having issues at the playground for several years. Teens from other neighborhoods were coming here to play. They often broke our rules, but with nothing in writing we were pretty much helpless to enforce them. The board had said in the past to call the police, but the police couldn’t do anything without something posted. Our park was basically considered a public park without signs to prove otherwise. This sign was vandalized twice.
  • Spring Toy
    The spring toy was broken again and was fixed at no cost to the community by a resident who had access to welding equipment.
    
  • Future Plans
    In the past very little money has been earmarked for the playground. In the future we hope to add trees and continue to stay on top of repairs that need to be done.
• Entrance Landscaping and Improvements (Robin Flemming)
  • Entrance Signs
    Roudebush Woods signs were purchased for both sides of the 191st Street entrance. These signs are PVC and painted with automotive paint. They have a 10 year warranty. The cost for both signs was $5300.
  • Solar Lights and Curb
    Because the entrance could be difficult to see at night, solar lights were placed in the median, for a minimal cost. The city painted the ends of the curb with a reflective paint at no cost to the community.
  • Entrance Landscaping
    We want to thank you for your patience regarding the landscaping at the entrance. It was originally thought that the trees in the median were the responsibility of the City of Noblesville. It was also not known if the trees were actually dead or just struggling due to the drought like conditions last summer. We discovered that the median was actually the responsibility of Roudebush Woods. We received an estimate from US Lawns to redo both sides of the entrance and the median for $5637.49. It was decided that the board members would volunteer to do this project ourselves and save the community a considerable amount of money. The median was completely redone and both sides of the entrance were spruced up for about $1000.00, which was for the cost of plants and mulch.
  • Lights and Sprinklers
    We have had periodic issues with the lights and sprinkler system at the entrance. These have been worked on and repaired by members of the board and community at no cost to the community.
• Woods Maintenance (Jeff Dornick)
  US Lawns has the current contract for mowing the grass in the woods and throughout the development. They were paid an additional $476.56 to kill the poison ivy throughout the woods.
• Pond Maintenance (Bob Hackenberg)
  The three ponds are periodically treated to control algae growth. We paid for additional services to kill primrose which has been spreading across two of the ponds. The pond near the pool has been treated to kill the cattails that started to spread throughout the pond.
• Tree Maintenance (Bob Hackenberg)
  The City of Noblesville Streets department is responsible for maintaining the trees throughout the development that have been planted between the curb and the sidewalk. This includes replacing dead trees and pruning trees that obstruct the sidewalks or the street. The city did a fairly good job of pruning trees this year but they seem to have skipped parts Talisman Dr. Paul Lindeman is now the urban forester for the city. He has been contacted again to take care of the pruning of trees on Standish. He was also asked to look into a previous request to replace two dead trees that the city had cut down at the Roudebush Blvd. entrance.
• Website (Bob Hackenberg)
  The website, http://www.roudebushwoods.org, has been serving as the primary means of communications with the residents. The hosting contract was renewed in August for two years at the cost of $117. The following features have been added to the website:
  • Created a utility for easily posting updates on the home page
  • Created a utility for posting the current day's hours of operation for the pool
  • Automatically post the current temperature from Noblesville Weather Bug (used by DJ Pools to determine whether pool should be closed)
  • Routinely post board meeting minutes within a couple of days of the meeting
  • News releases from the Noblesville mayor's office are posted when we receive them
  • Added a virtual tour of the neighborhood
  • Provided opportunity for posting business listings for residents
  • Posted copies of the documents such as the convenants, architectural change forms, minutes, and schedules for download
• Pool (Donna Zenthoefer)
  It was a crazy year this year with the changing of the guards so unexpectedly. But the new committee stepped up and I believe, pulled it off without much of a hitch. By that I mean swimmers were minimally inconvenienced if at all. The pool opened early this year on May 16th and closed late September 28th. The new committee had lots of obstacles to over come but here is what we accomplished.
  • 9 new umbrellas
  • Siding for screen room, paint and hardware to block view of heater
  • Screens replaced with metal screens
  • All doors at the pool painted
  • All depth markers painted
  • Door closer for men's restroom replaced
  • Baby gate concrete work repaired
  • All concrete breakouts repaired
  • All padlocks replaced
  • All doors rekeyed
  • Secured all door frames
  • Repaired baby gate hinge
  • Installed a smokers station outside of facility
  • Replaced pool capacity sign
  • Installed no smoking/pets/glass signs
  • Installed new key box
  • Cleaning supplies
  • Repaired baby pool fountain
  • Repaired double check backflow assembly in pool house
  • Arranged for test and certification of backflow assembly
  • Reinforced all door frames at pool house
  • Caulked seams in pool
  • Repaired motion lights
  • Repaired and correctly assembled all shower valves
  • Adjusted all toilets and urinals to flush
  • Disassembled and cleaned all pool pump impellers
  • Removed obstruction from 4” skimmer intake valve
  • Replaced rope, moved the rope to mark drop off from 3ft area to the 4ft/ 6ft area
  • Burnt bush replaced and another planted for balance
  • Replaced screen room door and placed metal screen guard on lower half
  • Secured fence gate
  • Thermal governor replaced on heater (no charge, under warranty)

  All of these items were fixed or repaired by homeowners and cost us nothing more than parts. Last count of total savings was between $3000-$5000.

  Pool Heater Report

  The pool heater has been quite a challenge this year but I think anyone who used the pool this summer can say it was well worth its money and headaches.

  A little history: the first heater purchased was electrical and poorly sized for our pool. It eventually burnt itself up trying to keep up with our demands. This heater was removed at the end of last season.

  Our new gas heater was installed at the beginning of the 2008 year as soon as weather permitted. It was decided where to place it and how to enclose it and then installed. During installation, there were some bumps as can be expected with new equipment but the two pool companies handling the installation and maintaining our pool finally got all the kinks worked out.

  There was a little time where regulating the temperature was tested and finally a proper positioning of the knob was determined. This is something that will have to be dealt with each year depending on the nature of the summer months. Hotter summers will obviously be less work on the heater and easier to determine the setting.

  Future maintenance for the pool heater that will need budgeted in: Due to the hardness of Noblesville water and the alkaline level in the pool, the lime build up in the heater makes it necessary to clean once a month. A cleaning kit will cost approximately $300. This maintenance will cut down on the knocking noise from the heater and the calcium deposits or rocks in the pool. This should also help extend the life of the sand in the filters also.

  All and all the pool ran smoothly this summer once a relationship was formed with the vendor as to who was the contact person with our HOA and what we wanted to see happen with the life guards. A manager or assistant manager was alerted as soon as the pool committee became aware of any problems and it was immediately corrected or dealt with.

  Vendor: DJ'S Pool Company

  DJ's pool company was again the chosen vendor to maintain our pool this season. There have been many issues with them in the past and were a few again this year. Once DJ's appointed a manager and got a new assistant manager, things ran much smoother regarding the guards and cleanliness of the pool facilities.

  There are still issues regarding the pool care itself and will be looked into over the winter months and considered when interviewing pool vendor bids next year. Some of these items are but not limited to – the chlorinator, the filter systems, skimmers and normal wear and tear maintenance.

  Vendor: H&R Vending

  H&R vending company was contacted and hired for stocking and maintaining a soft drink machine located in the screen room at the pool. There were no issues with this company. They did their job and kept us stocked up. If we requested a change in selection, they were prompt and more than happy to oblige. We did not make a profit off of the machine and no cost was incurred by us.

• Architectural Committee
  The Architectural Committee was merged into the board. This brought Ron Driessens, Jeff Dornick, and David York onto the board. Architectural change submissions were routinely handled at the beginning of the board meeting.

• David York
• Jeff Dornick
• Steve Everman

The three candidates were asked to stand and give a little bit of their background and qualifications for the position. Ballots and self-submitted background summaries will be mailed out by CASI. The residents will have approximately two weeks to return their votes. The new term for those elected will start in January, 2009, and will be for a three year period.

• It was requested that a note be posted on the website that dog owners should clean up up after their dogs when walking them.
• A question was raised about the spending and budget. There was concern that the the reserve fund has dipped below $15,000. The board answered that we are only slightly below that amount. Some of the major projects this year that caused us to dip into the reserve funds had been approved the the previous year. The two large expenses were the new entrance signs and the purchase of the gas heater for the pool. There was an additional question about whether we would have to increase dues. The board answered that there was no need for an increase.
• Someone asked if the board could collect email of residents so that announcements. In a related question someone asked if we could start up a directory again. In response, it was noted that people are generally resisited to giving information such as that. We will look into starting up a directory. Those attending the meeting seemed to be willing to their information.