WALDEN WOODS OF GRANITE BAY

January 2003 Email News Update

News on News

This is a short note due to all the holiday activities.  I hope your holiday turned out as nice as ours.

Board News

Pre-scheduled Board of Directors meetings are on the Walden Woods Calendar and below (always tentative and subject to change-call a board member or look for the signs).   All meetings at 7:30 PM unless otherwise noted.

·        Mar 11, Grenfell home

·        May 13, Kenney home

·        July 15, Sillers home

·        Aug 12, Holden home

·        Sept 28, Annual meeting

CC&R’s:

You should have received your copy of the updated CC&R’s by now.  Distributing these is a time consuming processes as each homeowner must sign for their copy.   If you have not received your copy, please contact Gail Sillers (652-3342) or any other board member. 

Annual Association Fees – Late fee after January 31st

Get those checks for the annual homeowner association fees in.  Last homeowner meeting the membership supported and the board then adopted a special $20 assessment for this year and next relating for front entrance restoration.  This puts the yearly total at $170.

Approximately 1/3 of the homes have still not sent in their annual fee.

The annual membership fees need to be paid and post marked to the Association by January 31st.  The address is:

Walden Woods Homeowners Association
Attn:  Treasurer
P.O. Box 2746,
Granite Bay, CA 95746

If you forget to send this in, you will incur a $10 late fee plus monthly interest (1.5% interest for each partial month starting January 1st.   For example, bills paid in February have to add a $10 late fee and $4.50 in interest (January and February).   Liens will be placed on homes not sending in payments by March 1st.

If you have difficulty making the full payment, please call Gary Grenfell (652-1382) to make arrangements for a payment plan.  Also, you can contact Gary to find out if your payment has been received. 

Common Area:

Wild Flowers: Bill Furnas, Mike Sellers along with all the Crawfords (Gail, Daryn, Spencer & Parker) seeded the common area last month with the kids did the wild flower seeding last month.  They used around 60 pounds of seeds including Yellow Mustard, Baby Snap Dragon, Scarlet Flax, Farwell To Spring, Wall Flower, Indian Paintbrush, Birds Eyes, Sunflowers, Rocky Mountain Penstemon, Lupins, and Poppies.  This wasn’t a simple toss of seeds either.  The preparation work included tilling and mixing in a special top soil organic mix for the seedlings.

Check the photos: crew at work, camera hog, works done, time to play.

Some wildflowers should start blooming as early the end of March with others as late as mid summer.  Most seeds area were planted close to Center Trail, Sunset Hill and the east end of Walden Woods Creek Trail (check your common area map for these locations.)  

Take some time for and afternoon or weekend walk in our private park – the trails are solid and very passable even during wet weather.  It’s a very different walk from the summer months and quite beautiful.  We’ll have a neighborhood wildflower walk in later part of April.  We’ll announce the date as it gets finalized.

Common Area Access: Gail Sellers and Bill Furnas are working with the county to figure out the safest way for exiting the common area on Walden Woods Way.  This will be important as we improve and then open up the easement between lots 54 and 102.

Poison Oak:  Ted Hatch has helped eliminate the poison oak in 3 to 4 acres in the common area.  Thanks Ted!

Join in and help out - the next Common Area Improvement Volunteer days are this Saturday, January 18th and February 1st. Show up at Bill Furnas' house (8345 Walden Woods Way) at 9AM. 

Two Youth Volunteers Sought for Easter Egg Hunt:

Sue Sindelar and Rachel Kenney have provided the leadership in the last couple years for the annual Walden Woods Easter Egg hunt.  Well, as high school seniors this year, they may be off to college next year.  To continue this wonderful tradition Sue and Rachel would like to co-lead this year’s Easter egg hunt with a younger generation, who would then take it over completely next year.  If you have a child 12 years or older, that would enjoy this responsibility please have them contact Rachel at 652-9158. 

 

Mark Your Calendars for a Block Party On Saturday, May 17th:

May will bring the next Walden Woods Spring Family Block Party!

Date:               Saturday, May 17
Time:              5:30PM
Location:        Stonehedge Court
Bring:              Lawn chairs and a smile.

WWHO provides the basics - hamburgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs, soda, beer, wine, chips,  and dessert along with plasticware, cups, plates and napkins.  While you don't need to bring any food or drink, if there is something special you want share with the neighborhood or cook for yourself on the grill, please feel free to do so.

For questions, call Cindy at 652-8549.

Moon Walk on Saturday, June 14th:

Join us on Saturday evening, June 14th for the third Walden Woods Moonlight Walk through the Common Area.  This is a fun activity for the entire family.

Sunset is at 7:31 with the Moonrise at 8:23.  At 8:00 PM we'll start meeting up in Bill Furnas' back yard (8345 Walden Woods Way) and leave at 8:30 for a nice Moon lit walk through the Common Area.  We'll end up at the picnic table on Sunset hill for refreshments.  The walk is short, but pleasant.   Bring flashlights. 

Satellite Internet Connections:

Scott Carl finally got his new satellite system up and running today and reports on the results. He have installed an expensive (~ $700 Installation / $90 per month) two-way satellite internet system. The performance so far has been mixed, with performance ranging from a modest 220kbps to a whopping 1.5 mbps.  The test he’s using is: http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/  The truth is Hughes is using an old architecture, and the typical Cable/DSL simplicity is completely missing. The right way to internet enable your house is to plug the cable/DSL modem to the WAN port on your router (~$40). Each computer is plugged into the same router and away you go.  In this implementation, they plug (via USB) their receive and transmit modems (yes they use two modems) into the USB port on one of your boxes. Then they expect you to figure out how to get the rest of the machines to talk to one another – completely unnecessary and frustrating.

He has not heard back anything else on future plans for DSL access, but is still trying.

Architectural Review Committee

Walden Woods homeowners are on a record pace in improving their properties.  In October through December, the last 3 months of 2002, 15 applications for exterior improvements were submitted and approved.  An additional application for a variance is in process.  During the same time period, October to December 2001, there were 5 applications and approvals.

Homeowner projects during the last quarter have included painting, decks, fencing and gates, major re-landscaping, tree removal, retaining walls, major home and garage addition, window replacement, and a spa.

With the new year having arrived, so too will the new Walden Woods Directory.  In the Directory we would like to draw your special attention to a new one-page version of the Property Improvement Application.  This one-page application is easier to use in submitting your exterior home and property plans to the architectural review committee for approval.  (You will also find it soon on the web page)

Please Plan Ahead Now

This is a good time to anticipate your exterior improvement plans for the next months, compare them with the items which need to be submitted for architectural review, and take advantage of the new 1-page form by filing early for review.  By having an early review and approval your project can go ahead on your schedule and not be delayed. (Work should not commence without a signed approval) While the Architectural Review Committee makes every effort to process applications within one week, by policy it does have up to thirty days to complete a review.  In the event that your project requires a variance, the review process will include an additional thirty days of comment period before a hearing date.

If you have any questions about your planned project, don’t hesitate to contact members of the committee.  These are your neighbors who have volunteered their time, talents, and efforts as members of the Architectural Review Committee:

Jeanne Gewalt          660-1680
Brian Holden              652-0856
Dick Immekus            652-9078
Stephanie Kenney    652-5025 (chair)
Carol Kittridge           652-9715.

Directory Plan for 2003:

The new directories are coming along as planned.

Nov 20th                         Done. Collect changes to names / addresses from last printing.  If you already sent a change to me it should be incorporated, but you’re welcome to send a reminder.

Nov 20th                         Done. Review changes to general info section on the directory.  If you want to review the latest draft, you can go to the web and review it there.  Most names and addresses have been removed on this on-line version for safety.

Nov 20th – Dec 10th     Done.  Final edits, include new Water Board Directors, printing.

Dec 10th – Dec 20th     Done.  Printing.

Dec 20th – Jan 10th      Done.  Folding, covers, inserts, stapling, additional cover pages, etc.

Jan 15th – Jan 31st       Distributions

Directory Updates:

Get out your pen to make these changes / corrections received since the 2002 directory printing (these will be included in the directory to be distributed in January):

·        Joseph & Joanne Leone purchased the Schulze’s house at 8265 Walden Woods Way.  They will rent it out until they can move here from the Bay Area – in 2004.  Their current number is:  408 323-2552.

Other changes / corrections received since the directory was published in November 2001 and included in prior newsletters:

·         David & Debbie Bell’s phone number is: 660-0490

·         Scott & Lori Carl with their two young girls are leasing the Leone house (8265 Walden Woods Way - former Shultz home.)  Their phone number is 652-2159 and would welcome neighbor calls for children activities (under 10).

·         Mark and Sandy Johnson’s phone number has changed to 652-8784

·         Gail and Daryn Crawford are our new neighbors on 8685 Woodrock Way, (660-9356) moving into the Mahar’s former house.  Welcome them to Walden Woods!

·         Stop by and say hello to our new neighbors at the end of Walden Woods Way.  Lisa and Jared Bogert have moved into the home at 8595 Walden Woods Way (lot 97).  Their home phone is 652-4519.

·         Catalina Magdaleno has sold her house at 6490 Vireo Way (lot 4) to Susan and Tom Hall who have moved here from Truckee – no more snow in the winter!  Stop by and welcome them to Walden Woods.  Their number is: 660-0184  That places three Hall families in the neighbor.  No, none related.

·         If you hadn’t heard, we lost a wonderful neighbor – Stan Faustman. Stan and Marion have been Walden Woods neighbors for over 20 years (8305 Parus Way) and have contributed much to our community and we’ll miss him and his wit greatly. 

·         Say hi to our new neighbors, John & Jeanne Gewalt who have moved into the neighborhood, at 8220 Parus Way.  They visited the other Gewalt’s last year and liked the neighborhood.

·         Greg & Sheri Bomhoff phone number is: 660-0531

·         Please welcome Dave & Judy Vitton to the neighborhood.  They have moved into the former Killingsworth residence at 8190 Parus Way.  Their phone is 652-4396

News Updates:

If you have something you would like to include in the WW News Update, drop me a note.

This distribution is going out to people on the Walden Woods email information update list. If you would like to be dropped from this  list, reply back indicating so and Guy Hall will personally remove your name from this list.  If you know someone in Walden Woods who would like to add their email address to this distribution list, forward this message to them and have send their information to directory@waldenwoods.org.