Manager's Report

Today we have 637 spaces full, 47 renters and 590 owners.  We are still ahead of last year at this time with 49 renters and 561 owners for a total of 610 spaces full.

It is hard to believe that we are almost to the end of 2007 and this is the last board meeting of the year.  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here with all the beautiful lights and Christmas decorations on all the streets and here in the ballroom and the rest of the common areas.  Thanks to the volunteers who worked so hard to make it so pretty for all of us to enjoy.

As per request from the Activities Office, the Baseline Gate is open from 7:00 am until 8:30 pm to accommodate all the people coming in to participate in our activities.   Park Patrol mans the gate during the day and between 9:00 pm and 1:00 pm most nights they rove around the park.  We do have a paid security guard from 11:00 pm until 5:00 am every night.  Anyone noticing anything suspicious should call 9-911 Apache Junction Police.  Please do not confront any strangers in the park.  During the day notify the office if you have doubts about anyone or if anyone is soliciting.  We have had at least two roofers soliciting in the park.  Call the office immediately so Larry Martin, Dave Hopps,  Marty Jacobs or Larry Erickson can issue them an invitation to leave.

At our last meeting, Hugh Vernon mentioned the possibility of generating our own electricity by using solar collectors.  I did follow up on this suggestion with SRP and it is possible to do just that.  It involves a meeting with a private contractor to determine the potential then submit the proposal to SRP.  If it ids approved the installation may proceed.  After 30 days of operation SRP will analyze the system and see if we can sell power back to SRP.  For this size area, the main complex and Library building we would need a 110 Kilowatt system which could possibly generate 160,000 kwh per year.  Our estimated cost would be $700,000.  Companies who do this receive federal tax incentives of 30% and 10% on state taxes up to $25,000.  SPR suggested using solar to heat our water or to heat the pools.

I do have a bid from Sun Systems for solar heat on the two pools.  It would cost $31,000.  They also have a lease program for two to five years where we would pay so much a month from $1570 per month for two years to $720 per month for five years.  At the end of the lease period they would sell us the system for $1.00.  This seems doable, but I am concerned about repair, replacement of solar panels and the chance of freezing in the winter.  Before we do anything, we must do more research.

We’ve had trouble with our sewer from the men’s room in the Billiards Hall to the street.  Coopers was here two days in a row to work on unplugging the sewer. It seems to be working properly now.  Unfortunately, there was a Billiards tournament going on at the time.  I apologize to the Billiards players for any inconvenience.

The WiFi system is now working.  I know that some people are impatient with the system.  Every time we have an outage even a catastrophic one like last Wednesday, we learn more about how to repair, restore configurations, re-program, etc.  We are still learning.  We had an expert in last Thursday to check our programming.  Yesterday, Larry figured out the problem, rebooted the Nomadix and we are really moving now.

We have several important things on the burner for the rest of the month.  Wade Gardener from Dish Network will be here this afternoon to discuss possibilities for using them to replace our current cable TV company.  They offer around 45 channels.  We’ll see what comes from our meeting. As you know, Valley Vision will be going out of business at the end of 2008 because of the government mandate to have everything digital by February 2009.  They recommend changing over during the summer when fewer people would be inconvenienced. 

John Kerk, an engineer for Reserve Advisors, will be here on Dec. 13^th to begin the field portion of the reserve study.  He will be here for at least two days, so if you see us out looking around, that’s what we’ll be doing.

Saturday, the 8^th of December is the first patio sale of the season.   If you wish to participate, sign up in the Activities office soon.  Christian women are collecting items to sale.  Contact the Activities Office for a time to bring them in.  We will be storing them in the package room.  Don’t forget the Angel Tree.   December 12^th is the first Country Store for this season.  I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to shop.  There is a wide selection of vendors, some new and some from last year.   See you there!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all Happy and Safe Holidays.

Dell