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Annual Meeting Recap

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HIDDEN OAKS HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION

ANNUAL MEETING APRIL 11, 2016

The meeting opened with representatives from the city speaking on behalf of Laurie Feldman, our Councilwoman from Ward 3 . Eleanor Schmerler and Dan Rothermich updated us on the various projects going on in the city.

The Fifth Street Construction Project is on target and scheduled to be completed by the end of the second quarter (June 30, 2016)

  • The Streets of St. Charles is moving along with the construction of a P.F. Changs restaurant, an Orangetheory Fitness and Gym, a new nail salon, a shoe store and a Drury Inn with a parking garage to be built across from the AMC theater.
  • A new Diverging Diamond Interchange at the intersection of 5th street and Interstate 70 similar to the one at Mid- Rivers Mall drive and Interstate 70 is currently in the initial construction phase. There are multiple phases to this project to include a new one-way outer road between Fifth Street and Fairgrounds Road along with many more improvements. You find out all about this construction at the project website. http://www.modot.org.stlouis/major_projects/705thStImprovements.htm.
  • On 4/25 Veterans Memorial Parkway between Fairgrounds Rd and Fifth St will change to one-way (EB) traffic only. This is a permanent change.

Next on the agenda board member Rich Siemons spoke about the 2015 financial report for the subdivision. A detailed spreadsheet was given to all in attendance. It was noted that there was some extra expenses for common ground maintenance due to the removal of dead trees and some damage to the monument area at the entrance to the subdivision and there was some legal expenses incurred to modify and update our covenants. But we were still able to be in the black and saved $306 for the year. A question was raised regarding security in the subdivision and the possibility of installing some CCTV cameras. It was noted that the monitoring and installation of this might be cost prohibitive but the board was open for discussion on this. A member brought up the fact that we should all keep an eye out for our neighbors and don’t be afraid to call the police if you see something suspicious.

Next was the ballot results of the 2 proposed changes to our covenants. The first which changes the number and term for the Board of Directors to allow for continuity on the board at all times. The second allows for fences to be constructed of materials other than wood provided that the fence is approved by the Board and meets the other qualifications in the Covenants. Both amendments passed with the required 70% majority of homeowners, 143 homeowners voted in favor of the term of service  for  Board Members and 141 voted in favor of the new fence provision. These changes will now be put into our covenants once they are certified by the County.

Election of Board members was next on the agenda. Current Board member Mark Verzino is not seeking another term so former Board member Kirsten Harrison agreed to serve again with current board members Vince Ratchford and Rich Siemons. All three members were nominated and ballots were passed out. The votes were tallied and all three members won. With the new covenant provisions, Vince and Kirsten will be serving 2-year terms and Rich will serve one year.

After the voting was completed, Board member Vince Ratchford spoke about Ordinance and Covenant reminders. He reminded everyone of their responsibility to maintain the landscaping around their homes now that spring and summer are here. This includes keeping trees trimmed and pruned back and not blocking sidewalks in the front. He also stressed that you must keep your pet on a leash and pick up the litter when walking.

Recreational vehicles/boats have a 24 hour load and unload time period, please respect this city ordinance. If there are flooding events and the Mayor lifts this ordinance for a time period these vehicles are allowed to be parked at one’s home, or elsewhere allowed by the temporary repeal of the ordinance.

There is an app called “SEE CLICK FIX” that you can download on your smartphone that you can use  to report  a violation to the city anonymously. The city monitors this daily and will send an inspector out to view the situation.  A question was raised about barking dogs and how to handle this. It was suggested to call the police non-emergency telephone  number at 696-949-3300 and report it.

The last thing on the agenda was talking about social events in the subdivision and general discussion. One resident brought up the topic of replacing smoke detectors in your home. He suggested that if you haven’t  replaced your smoke detectors in the last 5 years or so, that it would be wise to change them out. He said you should replace all of them at the same time because they are all linked together, so if one goes off they all do.   It was decided to participate in the National Night Out again this year versus having picnic at Vogt park. Everyone seem to enjoy National Night Out last year here in our subdivision. We are looking for volunteers to help with the subdivision garage sale. If you are interested call one of the board members. You can get their numbers at our website or email us.

Hiddenoaks63303.gmail.com

Email the above address with questions or to be added to the Facebook group.

St. Charles Night Out

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Hidden Oaks will participate in St. Charles Night out this year instead of holding our annual picnic at Vogt Brothers Park.   National Night Out will be held on Monday, September 14th. Neighborhoods throughout St. Charles are being invited to participate in this crime and drug prevention event. Beginning at 5:30PM, residents are encouraged to turn on outside lights and spend the evening outside with neighbors. This event provides neigh-
bors the opportunity to meet or reconnect with one another. Registered block parties will receive visits from the Police Department, Fire Department and City Officials. Night Out 2015 is being supported, in part, by Target and volunteers from the St. Charles Target will be visiting registered parties to give out gifts.

St. Charles Night Out is designed to:

 -Increase crime and drug prevention awareness throughout the community

 -Generate support and participation in local anti-crime efforts

 -Strengthen neighborhood unity

 -Enhance police-community partnerships

 -Send a message to criminals letting them know neighborhoods are organized and fighting back

 -Promote the importance of the Neighborhood Watch program

Neighborhood News

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We have a few updates to share on the neighborhood:

1. One of the residents has asked us to remind everyone that they should
pick up their pet waste when walking the neighborhood with pets.

2. The Annual Picnic is September 27th at Vogt Brothers Park, with the
washer tournament starting at 3pm. We will have Giardina Gourmet
Dogs on hand for the main dish. Please bring a side to share and a
dessert if you want to enter the bake-off. There will be prizes for
washers & the bake-off. You will receive your invitation with all
the details later this week.

3. Rose Properties Update – here is a note from the developer:

During our earlier construction efforts, we uncovered a few things that made us pause:

1. We encountered some loosely consolidated sand in an area that impacted our retaining wall design

2. We encountered some bedrock close to the surface that also impacted our retaining wall design, as well as water main and other utility construction

3. We encountered some unmarked buried fiber optic cables along River Road that impacted our storm sewer installation
You always have to be resilient in the construction business, but in this case it was almost a perfect storm of challenges we encountered. For one thing, we learned that you can never have enough soil borings.

Solutions have been found for all these issues, but not without investigation and testing, evaluation of viable options, and analysis of cost implications. All of those tasks took a fair amount of time, more time than we desired, but necessary nonetheless.

I don’t have confirmation, but we expected to obtain permits for the retaining walls yesterday. That was key to starting construction again in earnest. You’ll see extensive activity on site in the coming weeks.

We intend to be in a position to dig footings in mid-November and then be framing over the winter, so we’ll be applying for building permits in the coming weeks. It is still our plan to have occupancy of the first buildings early in the 2nd quarter of 2015.

Neighborhood Picnic – Save the Date

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Our Neighborhood Picnic is scheduled for September 21 at Vogt Brothers Park.  Please mark your calendars.  We are in the planning stages now.  We have discussed a bounce house, BBQ, a food truck, snow cones & many other activities, including a washer tournament for the grown ups.  Email the directors if you have any ideas. hiddenoaks63303@gmail.com

Spring Garage Sale

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We will hold our annual neighborhood-wide garage sale on Wednesday, May 8th (7am – 1pm); Friday, May 10th (5pm – 8pm) & Saturday May 11th (7am – 1pm).  We usually get pretty good participation, and maps will be available near the entrance to the subdivision so even the homes back in the corners can get some traffic.  Let us know if you want to be included on the map.

Decide now if you want to be a buyer or a seller!!!!  Tell your friends & family to come out and root through your neighbors stuff.  You could learn a lot.

Water Conservation Suggestion Lifted

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The City Public Works Director lifted the voluntary water conservation order on August 16.  The rain and cooler temperatures have reduced demand on the system.  Public Works is teaming up with Parks & Recreation to recycle water from the swimming pools and use it in street sweeprs, vac trucks and portable landscape watering tanks.  If this sytem works well, they will continue the practice in the future, with or without drought conditions.

Fall Picnic and Water Usage

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First of all, mark your calendars for September 15th from 3-7pm.  Our annual picnic will be held at Vogt Brothers Park.  More details will be available soon.

Secondly – Steve posted this to our facebook group about water conservation:

Follow up water conservation memo from…

Debra K. Aylsworth, P.E.
Director of Public Works

The biggest water conservation impact resulted from the media push on July 5th where we did see positive results from the request for voluntary water conservation. Since that date water consumption has continued to rise. I believe another external push to request continued voluntary water conservation would be beneficial. If we do not see a significant reduction with this follow up, I will be requesting voluntary conservation be made mandatory.

St. Charles is fortunate to have water system redundancy (Elm Point Water Treatment Plant and Heritage Pump Station) that allows the City to provide a consistent supply of water by either increasing production at Elm Point or increasing pumping from Heritage. However, even that redundancy can be tested during periods of high temperatures and abnormally dry conditions.

If the water system were to incur a failure from being ‘overworked’ (i.e. mechanical pump failure or power outage at Heritage Pump Station or any of the City’s wells; excessive drawdown of groundwater levels impacting well production) the potential exists for large areas of the City to be impacted to the extent there would be little to no water. NO ONE wants that and it would be very hard and take a long period of time for the system to recover from such.

The facts are with this heat and no rain, more people are watering and they are watering more than normal. The lack of rain also increases the time required for groundwater levels to recharge or recover to normal depths after extended periods of pumping form the City’s wells. For those irrigating — individuals and homeowner’s associations — if they reduced the time and amount they irrigate by at least 30%, we estimate the water system would experience something much closer to the City’s normal peak usage of 12 – 13MGD vs. the peak 14.5 – 15 MGD we are presently seeing. A reduction in irrigation or watering to 50% would provide added protection to the City’s water system by:

· Reducing stress on pumps and mechanical components in the water system.
· Allow more time for groundwater level to recharge to normal depths.
· Increase available time to pump and fill the City’s elevated and ground storage tanks.

Water Division staff are closely monitoring the City’s well operations vs. groundwater levels. As the situation dictates he has been adjusting pumping rates to minimize groundwater drawdown effects on well performance.

Additional data that is compelling – in June 2012 we averaged 11.5 MGD. In June 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 we averaged 8.8, 9.2, 8.7, 8.6 MGD, respectively. So we pumped an average of 2.7 MGD more in June of 2012 than the previous 4 years……that is massive. July 2012 to date has averaged 13.4 MGD with 214.4 million gallons pumped in the first 16 days. The average for July 2011 was 10.5 MGD.

I’ll certainly keep you posted moving forward, as Wednesday and Thursday are looking like scorching hot days.

Fireworks & Heat Wave

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St. Charles Gears Up for the July 4th Holiday by Reviewing Related Safety Measures

Staff monitoring plans for fireworks, water conservation and area cooling centers.

WHO:   Mayor Faith and the St. Charles leadership team are reviewing plans to ensure the safety and security of residents before, during and after the July 4th holiday.  Currently on tap are issues related to fireworks, water conservation and cooling centers.

WHAT:   The city’s current position on all three areas of emphasis are as follows:

  • FIREWORKS – the city intends to retain its fireworks schedule for Riverfest (Wed., July 4 @ 9:20p) given the professional show is initiated from a barge on the Missouri River.  Fire Chief Ernie Rhodes will continue to monitor the weather forecast going into next week, to determine whether any type of fireworks ban needs to be implemented in neighborhoods citywide.  Given we are in an “abnormally dry” condition and not under a Red Flag warning, at this time city residents may shoot off fireworks on Tuesday, July 3 and Wednesday July 4.  Updates will be provided if there’s any change to this plan.

    NOTE:  According to City Ordinance (Section 215.1090) the city of St. Charles currently allows fireworks to be discharged within the municipal limits only on July 3 and 4 and only from 12:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

  • WATER CONSERVATION – Public Works staff continue to monitor and anticipate water usage issues that can arise from excessive heat and abnormally dry conditions.  The City’s water system is functioning properly and water storage tanks levels are acceptable at this time.

    There are situations that could occur which alters the ability to provide adequate water supply for fire protection.  A major water main break, significant fire, or power outage, or a combination of the prior in addition to higher than normal consumption could potentially result in the need to issue a request for voluntary water conservation.  If positive results would not be achieved from voluntary conservation, a mandatory conservation request would be issued.

    Steps the City has taken, include:
    1)      restricting usage from contractors working for the City on improvement projects
    2)      restricting issuance of fire hydrant permits for new construction
    3)      restricting fire hydrant flow testing
    4)      restricting use of water hauling unit at 3 p.m. this afternoon
    5)      requesting city-operated facilities to limit water usage

    In the case of a power outage, the City’s water facilities, with exception of one, have emergency generators in place.  The fuel reservoirs for the generators are being topped off today and the vendor is on standby for fueling if necessary.  We have arrangements in place for a temporary emergency generator, if the need arises for the one facility.

  • COOLING CENTERS – there are currently two cooling sites available for area residents in St. Charles, including:

    Mid East Area Agency on Aging – St. Charles Senior Center, 1455 Fairgrounds (63301) – 636-949-0658

    Salvation Army – St. Charles Emergency Social Services, 2140 North 4th St. (63301) – 636-946-7966

    Here’s a link to a more complete listing of cooling sites in the area for your easy reference.

WHERE & WHEN:     St. Charles, MO – staff will monitor heat-related needs and conditions on an ongoing basis. Tracking will continue thru the weekend and the July 4th holiday as necessary.

ALSO:   For more information, contact Michael Spurgeon at 314-808-0917, Ernie Rhodes at 636-949-3250 or Carol Felzien at 636-578-6933.