Summer 2013 Newsletter

Download the Summer 2013 Newsletter PDF

Welcome to the Neighborhood!
A belated welcome to our newest neighbors in the homes constructed by Oakmont located at the top of McCarron Way. We are pleased that you have joined of our community and look forward to developing many friendships.

Update from Neighborhood Meeting
Thanks to all the neighbors that we are able to make it out to the Homeowners meeting last month. We appreciate all the input and questions you brought to the table. As always, we welcome any feedback you have about our community. We wanted to take this chance to provide some answers to questions that were raised at the last board meeting.

1. What is the Architectural Review Committee (ARC) and how does it work?
   The ARC is comprised of 3 members of the neighborhood appointed by the Board of Directors. Their responsibility is to approve/deny requests from members of HOA regarding structural or cosmetic changes to the exterior of their property in accordance with our Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions. If you are planning a project, contact Cedar Management to request the ARC forms. Complete the forms and return to Cedar. If the forms are properly completed, they will be forward to the ARC for review. Please allow 30 days for a response.
2. What and where are the Annual dues used for?
   The McCarron HOA financial reports are available to all homeowners by request. To request a copy at any time, please contact Cedar Management – www.cedarmanagementgroup.com or 1-877-252-3327
3. Why is there no decoration in the front entrance during the holiday time like those of other neighborhoods?
   The board has been focused in the past on dealing with complaints and attempting to resolve neighborhood issues. One of the reasons we engaged Cedar Management was to free up time to do community focused value add events and improvements. We will take the feedback about the holiday decorations into consideration for the next Christmas season. We would also like to offer that any and all homeowners are welcome to provide suggestions on what activities they would like to see the board engaged in. We also are always looking for volunteers to assist with community activities. Let us know if we can contact you in the future to help with projects such as this.
4. Has there been any consideration given to changing the front color entrance way to a brighter, attractive color?
   We had a large scale project last year to begin improvement on the front entrance which included a large grant from the city and many donations from outside and neighborhood vendors. This improvement focused on installing sprinkler system, and lights. The next planned step was to focus on redoing the monument. Unfortunately, the city/state needs to tear up the front entrance to fix the drainage issue. The board has decided to suspend any further improvement projects until the drainage is fixed, so that the efforts we make won’t be ruined.
5. What is the purpose of Cedar Management? 
   The Board felt as though we did not have the time to properly manage violations within our community. The board is purely a volunteer effort by the members, and with the amount of time it takes to actively police and manage violations, we just didn’t have the bandwidth to do a proper and fair job. We also felt like having an unbiased 3rd party manage the violations would ensure fair compliance across the community. Our duty is to try to uphold value within the community. We admittedly had not done a good job of ensuring that people were maintaining their homes in a manner that was expected. We felt that Cedar had the processes and procedures in place to handle these items for us.

Crime Watch
A neighbor shared with a board member that at approximately 3:00 a.m. during the week of July 15, he observed three teenage males with pillow cases looking in open garages and inside vehicles. Our vigilant neighbor called the police to investigate. We have no further information at this time.

This incident should put us all on notice to be mindful of our own safety. Please review the safety tips at the end of the newsletter from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department website.

Quarterly Yard Contest 
We picked our winner for the “Best Spring Plantings” for the April contest. Lucy Paul’s yard was selected as the winner. Our summer award for the “Most Patriotic Yard” went to Renee & Tommy Jones. Congratulations to our winners! They each received a $100 Lowes Gift Card.

Doggie Duty
We recognize the need to walk your dogs, but, please be considerate of your neighbors and respectful of our common areas at the entrance. Please take the time to clean up after your pups.

Cedar Management Group
Please remember to do your best to maintain your yard including sidewalks, driveways, street frontage and curbs. Cedar Management Group will continue doing monthly onsite inspections. These inspections will focus on violations of our Covenants, including excessive weeds, overgrown bushes, overdue house maintenance, among other items.

If you have received a violation notice and the violation has been corrected, please contact Cedar to let them know so that no further action will be taken.