April 2015 | Blackstone HOA | 678.710.6214 Volume 9, Issue 1 April Newsletter Blackstone HOA conducts first town hall of 2015. On Sunday, March 15, Blackstone HOA held a phenomenal Town Hall Meeting which Contents focused on homeowners’ associations and related issues. The turnout for the meeting was excellent and the participants were there to learn and share their stories in a Special Interest Articles collaborative manner. Board introduced current directors of the board and shared Town hall in pictures 2 Taste of Blackstone 2 Volunteering opportunity 2 Message from the board 3 Zoning update 5 Cops Connect (JCPD) 6 financials standing. Neighborhood zoning, amenities and other issues were discussed in this meeting Board thanks 35 families who attended the meeting to share their stories. Board also congratulates following three lucky winners Lalitha Venkataramani, Bhagya Prabhakar and Rohit Chauhan who won door prizes of $25/- each sponsored by Kim Fulay. Board and members noted the members interest in starting youth activities, pool party, starting a book club, conducting clean up Blackstone day campaign, encouraging Toastmaster club, revisit tennis amenities rules, supporting ALTA, and Health and Wellness club. Go-Green and Large Dumpster Board is working with Advanced Disposal Services (ADS) group for switching covered recycle bin. All homeowners will get a covered recycle bin replacing open container soon and ADS delivering recycling carts Monday, April 6, and it expects to be delivered by Wednesday, April 8. Spring cleaning large dumpster will be in the amenities area between 3/30/15 to 4/6/15. Board advises members taking advantage of this spring cleaning drive. Board also requests not leaving any items outside the dumpster. If this container gets full, maintenance committee will consider asking for another one soon. Highlights Awards and achievements 4 2015 Budget 4 Littering 5 Board of Directors 5 2 Town hall in pictures Taste of Blackstone in May Email has been sent out to sign up for a dish and choose your preferred date. Soliciting event sponsorship from local Entrepreneurs This HOA is looking for sponsors for HOA’s next event. In return for sponsorship, sponsors get to display their business information, hand-out business cards and talk to the neighbors about what they do and how this can help the residents at the event. Please contact board at [email protected] for more details if you are interested or have any questions. Based on majority, a date will be confirmed HOA is planning to do two newsletters per year. If you own a business, is a teacher, provider of any at the end of April. Please sign-up and services, part of a nonprofit organization, won any awards, share a recipe, your child has won any come and meet your neighbors and share awards, recognition or wants to write an essays or poems, please feel free to reach out to us at your culture for a good cause. All proceeds [email protected] to have it published in this newsletter. from the event will be donated to the JCPD (John’s Creek Police Dept). Volunteer Opportunity If you have a middle or high school child, please encourage them to volunteer. They will get Beta hours for their service and it is a good way to give back to the community. Blackstone Health and Wellness Committee A few residents came together last year to start the Blackstone Health and Wellness Committee. The goal of the committee is to increase awareness of and initiate activities that encourage healthy living among residents. Committee members are currently leading walking groups each week on Saturdays at 4.30 p.m. and Sundays at 7.30 a.m. The walks usually last about an hour and average about 10,000 steps (the recommended daily volume of steps to maintain a healthy lifestyle). We start at Blackstone Club House and walk locally in the Shakerag/Bell Road area. Based on interest among A lot of students did sign up during the residents the Committee plans to hold other healthy lifestyle activities. If you would like to join the Town hall Meeting. We will be emailing walks or have questions please email one of the committee members listed below. them to help us with the next event soon. Nazeera Dawood [email protected] Out of the volunteers who signed up, 6 will Bina Philip [email protected] be chosen for each event to be the Sundari Meyyappan [email protected] “Blackstone Messenger”. They will be Nirmala [email protected] coming around the neighborhood with Charulatha Krishnasamy [email protected] fliers or notices about an event or a Bindu Damidi [email protected] message from the HOA. Please be friendly when they knock on your door to relay the message. Message from the Board We advise residents who have not received their access key fobs to amenities to contact board (Email: [email protected]). Please note that the Dear homeowners and neighbors, It is our pleasure to inform you the state of our association and our plans for rest of this year. We are convinced that we have a great year ahead. We want to share our thoughts with you in this newsletter. As the members of Board, we believe in expressing our values and conducting our operation transparently, in the best interest of whole association. And it is very important to us to maintain the confidence and trust of the association members. We like to spread some light on following issues that are utmost important to the association and our homeowners. Entrance monument and beautification amenities access tags will be issued to homeowners only. Tenants need to contact their landlords for the key fobs. If the landlords have not received their fobs then tenants may ask their landlords to contact board. Please help ensure the safety and security of our amenities by ensuring all gates locked after you enter into and exit from the amenities areas. The entire amenities area is monitored round-the-clock basis using surveillance cameras. The corner of Blackstone Way and Cavendish place is also monitored along with entrance and exits. Signs are posted accordingly to keep unauthorized elements out of our community. We are continuously striving to keep our amenities in the best possible condition so that they are at members’ service when they need them and are Our entrance monument including fountains have been built to ensure safe to use them. Tennis courts were resurfaced in the past year at a cost over that our neighborhood is one of best and well-kept neighborhoods. Onus $33,000 and they are in the best condition. Please help reduce the now is on us to keep that monument is maintained well. Board is taking maintenance costs of the amenities by discouraging the use of our amenities utmost care in maintaining our amenities and entrance monuments while by non-residents. keeping our cost under control. Board has authorized repair, replacing motors in the past year and has also installed timers to limit the hours these pumps run. With this we were able reduce utility cost considerably We hope you all appreciate this spectacular monument and recognize the volunteers and board members’ (both current and previous) efforts. Architectural Guidelines and Restrictions Structural and ornamental modifications to an individual home and property affect all members of the community. Design review affords the members of the community an opportunity to ensure that the standards of quality to which the community was built are properly maintained. Quality of life for all residents is improved when a tranquil, civil, and fair design review process is implemented. Additionally, a conservative approach to architectural modification within the community will ultimately preserve a positive reputation of the neighborhood within the real estate marketplace; which in turn directly affects our ability to sell our homes at the highest possible price. With this, as members of the board we request you to follow the rules and regulations, mentioned in our covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs). This CC&Rs cover the exterior appearance of each residence with the goal to create a uniform environment. We request you to submit your architecture modification request to architecture committee for its review prior to start of the work. We also encourage you joining these committees and helping in improving and maintaining higher standards of this community. Additionally, board requests you paying close attention in keeping your property clean and well maintained. Furthermore, board has been working with Advanced Driving and Speed limits in the neighborhood We are continuing to observe that some residents are speeding through the neighborhood. We, as member of the board, request residents to be extra mindful of safety and to observe and to follow the posted speed limits since children could be in the area. We also request you to be extra cautious and turn on your car headlights if you are driving in the morning school bus times. We, as parents need to advise or remind our kids to play in safe places, not in the streets. Additionally, with increased police patrolling in the neighborhood, police presence can be observed and hence we remind you that there is an increased chance of speeding citations and penalty levied by the city of Johns Creek for traffic violations Volunteering in the community As you know, this HOA board is comprised of five of us as directors and we need your help in arranging and conducting a number of activities in the days ahead, in addition to serving in various advisory committees. We hope you will make time to volunteer for making this a better community. Please contact the board and let us know your availability. HOA Assessments Please be note that all HOA dues are due by January month and any assessments not paid in full by February 15th is deemed delinquent. There may be penalties levied to those accounts that are not paid in full by the deadline. Please check your account and contact our community management representative should you need any clarification in this regard. Disposal Services to providing a bigger and closed recycle bins without any As we just started enjoying pleasant temperatures of the southern spring, we incremental cost. In so doing, we believe homeowners can prevent any hope you all will enjoy and utilize amenities. We also hope that safety and trash spilling over to the street. security situation will also improve due to our continued effort. We hope to Amenities Access Access to our common amenities has been secured with digital keys aka Key FOBs. This restricted access implementation was necessary to prevent unauthorized access and use by non-residents and limit the access to the residents of good standing. This also helps our amenities management managing the clubhouse reservations better. The clubhouse still needs to be reserved in advance and is being rented on a fee basis, the fee collected in this covers cleaning costs and other regular maintenance costs. have a better and safer neighborhood. With is, we think together we can ensure that this is a neighborhood that is clean, safe, friendly, and a place where all of us want to live. Thank you very much Board of Directors, Blackstone HOA 4 2015 Budget snapshot: Expense allocation Awards Some of our Blackstone students participated in the Toshiba/NSTA Exploravision Program at Northview High School. Two out of the three students that were part of the Regional winning team are sophomores from Blackstone. Jasmine Gao and Sally Pan, their topic was “External Microbial Cleansing Device”. Two other freshman students from Blackstone got honorable mention. They are Suma Yarabarla for “Internal Beta Cell Swim Lessons: 678-907-3101 6 years of competitive swimming, 4 years of swim instruction State Championships Semi-Finalist & Finalist GPRA State Championships Finalist, 8th in the State Regulator and Meena Chetty for Obesity Enzyme Patch. Congratulations to our future scientists!!! Littering: 5 Blackstone HOA 1100 Northmeadow Pkwy., Suite 114 Roswell, GA 30076 678.710.6214 [email protected] Find us on the Web: http://www.blackstonehoa.com Help us reduce printing costs and improve communications. Register on www.blackstonehoa.com Blackstone HOA The code of ordinances for Fulton County provides that animal excrement must be properly disposed because it constitutes a nuisance. Additionally, Sec. 34-365 provides that any person who violates any provisions of the nuisance code section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. O.C.G.A. 17- 10-3 provides that every crime declared to be a misdemeanor shall be punished either by a fine not exceeding $1,000.00 or by confinement in the county or other jail not to exceed 60 days or both. The Board has received several complaints of pet excrements being left behind by pet owners around the community and in the amenities area. Violators will be reported with video evidence hence forth. Keep your community clean. trashcans placed outside tennis courts and hence help keeping our amenities clean Zoning update: Action needed Providence Group is building new neighborhood in the east side of Blackstone, combining two pieces of land between Blackstone and Jaden Woods neighborhoods. The Builder is planning on building around 33 homes a 9 acre land. Blackstone board has expressed concerns specifically related to density in both face-to-face meetings with builder and in the hearing meeting held on 03/05/2015. Board believes that these high density neighborhood will add to the traffic that is already heavy and our schools will grow overcrowded and the buildings may clash with existing neighborhoods. Zoning committee will create an online petition soon so that all homeowners can participate in the process. Board urges all concerned homeowners to let the city planners and the builder know your concerns. Directors of the Board Inside Story Headline Venkat Kuppusamy, President Kim Fulay, Vice President Aluri Rao, Vice President Ravi Kayarthodi, Treasurer Sundari Chetty, Secretary Critical dates related to this zoning: Providence group likely to post signs on 04/14/2015 City planning commission likely to meet that will review this request: 05/05/2015 Providence group is planning to meet with Mayor and council: 05/11/2015 Reserving Tennis Courts Please use online reservation system for guaranteed tennis court availability. Resister and update your contact information on our website http://blackstoneHOA.com News Item Copyright: Blackstone Home Owners Association Communication from Johns Creek Police Department (JCPD) With Fulton County Schools Spring Break scheduled for April 6-10, be sure to think about home protection while you plan your family getaway. With no one at home for extended periods of time, bad guys can help themselves to things you worked hard for. So take a few minutes to foil the burglars and thieves, and make sure they can't take advantage of your absence. Here are some tips to make sure you have nothing but good memories about your vacation trip. The simplest way to help keep your home safe is to ask a friend or neighbor to keep an eye on your house while you're away. Give them your contact information and a copy of your itinerary. And if you tell two people you're going on vacation, make sure they know about each other. Wait until you get home to tell the world what a great time you had traveling. Bad guys use social media, too, and you may know some. And if you don't, your friends might. Also, tailor your voice mail to just say you can't come to the phone right now. To make it look like you're home, buy a light switch timer that turns your lights on and off according to a schedule. Nothing says "Not home!" like a week's worth of mail and newspapers. Notify the post office and the newspaper subscription staff to hold your mail and newspapers while you're gone. Or you can ask your nice friend to pick them up for you. Let Johns Creek Police know you will be out of town. We will schedule extra patrols to come by your house and do a physical inspection to make sure nothing is out of the ordinary.. It's free and we're glad to do it. You can sign up for Vacation Watch online or by downloading our new app JCPD4ME available on iPhone and Android app stores. Stay safe and have a great Spring Break! Officer M.D. Meberg; [email protected] 678-474-1587 Blackstone Resident [Street address] [Address 2] Suwanee, GA 30024
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