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
