Category Archives: announcement

Landscaping work at the main entrance

Over the weekend of May 15-16 you might have noticed a bunch of people working hard at the Ann Arbor/Woodland entrance to the sub. The volunteer crew included Susan Miklovich, Kirsten Eye, Patty Palombit, Mary Rentschler and Scott Rentschler. They did a lot of work, including moving some plantings, removing others, putting in new plantings (they looked at drought- and deer-resistant plants), and other things. They are also going to add mulch to the area over the new few weeks, but are timing that to help minimize the risk of losing new plantings. If you see them out and about, please thank them for their great ideas and hard work.

We are also going to look at what we can do about the deteriorating condition of the wooden sign at that entrance. We might be able to get away with some light touch-ups (paint) to it and put off replacing it until 2022, but we will begin looking around at options.

Arbor Day Event at Colony Park – Update!

Update: The Arbor Day event and tree planting that was to take place on April 30th will be postponed to Fall 2021due to the Cicadas event that will take place this year in May and June. These Brood X cicadas can be very damaging to young trees so with that in mind the event will move to the Fall.

Mark the date – April 30th at 1pm. The City of Saline will be having their annual Arbor Day event at our neighborhood Colony Park. There will be a tree planting ceremony with more details to come.

Mailbox clusters replacement

On Thursday, October 22 we are going to replace the four mailbox clusters closest to the following addresses: 1152 Colony; 716 Foxboro Ct; 947 Wiltshire; and 1061 Heritage. (We have contracted with Pop-A-Lock, who is scheduled to meet with a Post Office rep that day to install the new clusters and get them labeled.) We are replacing the clusters as needed, and are spreading them out over the years to spread out the associated costs.

Board member Sarah Brooks, who has been working hard to make all of this happen, is going to deliver new mailbox keys to those affected homeowners on Wednesday after 7:00 pm. If you are not going to be home then, or would like to make alternate arrangements to get your keys, please either call Sarah directly at (734) 905-9291 or you can email us at bod@salinenorthview.org.

2016 State of the Northview Snow Services HOA Address

Fellow homeowners,

I wanted to provide some comment and characterization on what is involved with snow captain duties. I want to share with HOA members what the board does because so much is done for the betterment of of our association but not always recognized. Each day I try to post snow removal status on the website during high snow events periods as soon as the contractors are deployed.

Managing the snow removal is very challenging. When to plow driveways must take into account the time city trucks run, additional snow fall, time of day, future temperatures, storm duration, and cost. Do it too early and pay for it twice; if it snows more or city blocks people in. Wait too long and folks can’t get in/out driveways or take action and shovel it themselves.

Same with sidewalks. We can’t have snow crews working continuously. So work must be timed with down periods. Ant- ce agents are costly and don’t work well inder too much snow cover. Clean sidewalks too soon and they ice up if not treated. Particular attention is directed to the front entrance because of its close proximity to the road for safety of pedestrians. Even with all of this coordination, tracking of storms, and deliberating on snow removal strategy it is not exact, and many  an expectation go unmet.

This season the board has chosen to use three separate contractors, one for each predefined zone, to achieve better results in the two prioriy areas expressed as most important by most homeowners: Timeliness and Accessibility. Get snow removal done quickly and with minimal duration after requested start time. And second make sure people can access their driveways with reasonable effort.

We also have made changes to the snow contract to define standards that can be understood and performed efficiently by contractors to build good working relationships. But note that using three contractors is for the benefit of the homeowners and actually increases the logistics and time commitment on the snow captains part. Although we are a volunteer board we believe the extra effort to communicate with the membership matters. In that endeavor a sample copy of our snow services contract is posted on the website under the documents tab. It includes the work standards and description of the three zones.

The Northview board has actually put a lot of time and effort on obtaining contractors who care about doing a good job. Producing a contract that was enforceable but yet cost conscious required a lot of time and consideration to achieve the two for mentioned homeowner priorities.

I hope this provides better awareness of what the snow services involve and how surprisingly complex it is.

Mike
Northview President