July 2004 Pinery HOA Newsletter

	Homeowner
Published by The Pinery Homeowners’ Association, Inc. Volume 28; Issue 4

Come one, come all to Lakeshore Park for the 2004 Pinery Picnic and Kids’ Fishing Derby. Once again there will be a carnival and great food!

Kids’ Fishing Derby - Come out and experience the joy of fishing even if it is your first time. Resident fishing experts will be on hand to provide assistance. It all begins at 8 a.m. You may sign up at the Bingham Lake shelter upon arrival or on the registration form found in the insert of this newsletter.

Food - provided by Paul’s Catering—what a delicious way to celebrate! The menu will feature the usual picnic fare of hotdogs and 1/3 lb char burgers, along with grilled, boneless chicken breast and grilled balsamic Portobello mushroom sandwiches. A summer outing is not official unless you have corn on the cob. So we will have corn on the cob with drawn butter along with additional sides and an assortment of gourmet cookies and brownies. We will also provide canned beverages, bottled water, refreshing lemonade, and fresh brewed iced tea. Prices, which also include snacks, games and rides, are as follows:

Adult member $ 6.00
Child member $ 3.50
Adult non-member $11.00
Child non-member $ 8.50

We hope to have a fun and festive event and there should be something for everyone. So come out and join the fun!!!

Note: If you are interested in sponsoring any of these activities, just give us a call at the PHA office, 303-841-8572. Sponsors will be given a free business card ad in the September issue of the Pinery newsletter.

Barbeque Picnic
11:30 a.m.—1:30 p.m.
Reserve your lunch by completing in the order form in the July Newsletter. Reduced price for Pinery Homeowners Association members. Chicken, Burgers, Portobello Mushroom, Hot dogs, sides and drinks.

Kid’s Fishing Derby (for ages 4-17)
8 a.m. - 10 a.m. at the Lake.
Sign in at the shelter at the Lake.
Award presentations at 10 a.m.

Carnival
Games & fun for kids 3 - 17 years at Lakeshore Park.
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The annual Pinery Garage Sale was held on June 11 and 12. With over 165 participants, it was the largest sale yet. Your Pinery Homeowners’ Association provided signs, maps and advertising at a cost of approximately $700. Thanks to Carolyn Williamson for distributing signs prior to the event and for passing out maps at the front entryway on both days. We also want to thank Pam Hildebrand and Marc Hardesty for assembling the garage sale signs.

Recycle!
Recycling is a valuable addition to any community. Not only does it help preserve the life of landfills, but it also helps our forests and other natural resources by creating materials for new products. However, recycle only works if consumers purchase products made from recycled material.

Did You Know?
It is estimated that BFI picks up 550 tons of recycling each month. That’s 6,600 tons in one year!
Each of our 11 recycling drivers picks up an estimated average of 430 stops per day. The average customer we service puts out an estimated 40 pounds of material for recycling each time they set out their recycle bins.

Newspapers: Newspapers and the inserts that come in the paper are fine. No magazines or phone books please.

Aluminum beverage cans: Soft drink and beer cans. Aluminum pet food and other cans are also okay, but please rinse them out first.

Steel food cans: Also known as tin cans, these include cans from vegetables and fruit, soup and coffee. Leave the labels on but please rinse them out.

Glass bottles and jars: Food jars as well as beer, soft drink and wine bottles are fine. You may leave the labels on, but please remove the lids, and rinse food containers. Please do not include any window glass, drinking glasses, ceramics, pyrex, light bulbs or any glass that is not a bottle or jar.

Plastic bottles #1 & #2: Most plastic soft drink, milk, juice, detergent and shampoo bottles can be recycled. Look for the recycling symbol with the #1 PETE or #2 HDPE on the bottom of the bottle. You may leave on any labels, but please remove the lids. Please no oil, pesticide or hazardous material bottles. At this time we cannot take yogurt cups, butter dishes or any plastic that is not a bottle.

If you would like to participate in BFI’s recycle program in your homeowners’ association, you may pick up a recycle bin at the Pinery office located at 8170 Hillcrest Way, 8—3 weekdays.

The small BFI recycle calendars are available in the PHA office. Or, you can find the recycle dates on the calendars found in the back of the newsletter

Solicitors
   From time to time, we all have encountered solicitors who come onto our property to ask for our business. Sometimes we deal with solicitors face-to-face when they knock on our doors. Often, we know that solicitors have come by because they have left fliers or hangtags on our doors. Solicitors can present security problems, especially when they come by and we aren’t home.
   Pinery residents should know that Douglas County has an ordinance that governs commercial door-to-door solicitors. Before a business can send people door-to-door to sell things or leave advertising, it is supposed to get a permit. The permit identifies the business to the Sheriff’s Office and the times and places that the soliciting will occur. If a business does not get a permit, a Sheriff’s deputy can request that the solicitors leave the neighborhood.
   The ordinance is limited to business solicitors. People who go door- to-door to raise money for schools and other non-profit organizations do not need a permit. The same is true for people who go door-to-door for religious, political or other civic purposes.
   If you see people going door- to-door in your neighborhood, feel free to call the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office to have them checked out. The Sheriff’s Office dispatch number is (303) 660-7500.

Garage Doors – Keep ‘em Closed!
An open garage door is an invitation to a theft! The Douglas County Sheriff’s office tells us that open / unattended garages are a leading cause of property loss. In addition, there is also the potential that unwanted entry to your home could occur. Stay safe and secure, keep the garage door closed when you’re not entering or leaving your home.

Bird Sanctuary Gets New Addition/Volunteers
   The summer season is off to a great start at the sanctuary, thanks to new volunteers Linda Westerdale, and LuAnn and Steven Unks; and the completion of an Eagle Scout project by Travis Pixler of Troop 88. Travis installed two benches and three fruit trees, which will benefit both our human and feathered visitors. Linda and LuAnn join our other faithful volunteers, Barb Westerdale, Cristel Kozar and Carol Kahn. Many thanks to everyone who helps at our site!!
   We would be happy to have a couple more volunteers to adopt 10-13 bushes at the site. We also need a wildflower person. We have many spots at the site where we've spread wildflower seed, which comes up in its own time if left alone. We can speed the process with a little help. By the way, if you were one of the Girl Scouts who helped plant seed several years ago, it’s coming up! This spring we've seen red gaillardias, blue flax and purple penstemons. Patience is the watchword in Colorado gardening!
   We also took delivery of more knapweed-eating bugs, and have evidence in dead plants that they were the culprit! Research shows that these bugs will eventually significantly reduce the knapweed population. If you have a noxious weed problem on your property, contact me and I can put you in touch with a source at the Department of Agriculture, which provides the bugs for free.
   Keep your eyes on our site--we have two more Eagle projects scheduled this year--a path and a new sign.

Correction – Pinery Front Boundaries
To clarify and correct information published in May, a resident has pointed out that in many cases, road surfaces in the Pinery are not centered within the 60’ right-of-way. Therefore, a front property boundary might not be 30’ from the center of the road surface. The only sure way to determine your front boundary is to find a survey marker or monument, either through visually locating the marker or through use of a detector.
If you continue to be unsure of your boundaries and a plot plan or survey is not available to you, you may want to consider having your property surveyed by a professional.

Motorized Vehicle Operation / Licensing
We recently received an inquiry regarding children riding go-carts or other motorized vehicles on the street. Although not addressed in covenants, operation of any motorized vehicle on public streets requires that the vehicle be licensed by the Department of Motor Vehicles. Typically, go-carts, four-wheelers, motorized scooters, etc., are not licensed, nor is the operator, and therefore operation of these vehicles on roads within the Pinery is not legal. The Douglas County Sheriff’s department, 303-660-7505 should be contacted for action regarding this type of activity.

Anonymous ?
The inquiry described above came to the Architectural Control Committee anonymously. Had the complainant identified himself/herself, we would have been able to provide the above information immediately. The ACC makes every effort to be discreet regarding complaints and does not identify complainants.

This service is provided to reduce, reuse and
recycle slash/mulch materials to lessen the fire hazards within the County.

Dates & Hours of Operations:
Every Saturday from June 5 through August 28, 2004
From 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Location:
Plum Creek Wastewater Authority
1400 Caprice Drive
Castle Rock, CO 80104

Acceptable
Tree branches and shrubbery
Maximum Length = 6 feet
Maximum Diameter = 12 inches
Loads must be covered and tied

Unacceptable
No stumps or roots
No lumber
No ties, grass or dirt
No household trash or appliances
No weeds

Many of you may have noticed that our Chairman, Mr. Robert Chapman, has been producing these articles for the last year. That was due to my being returned to active duty as an Army Engineer Officer in May 2003, to support the global war on terrorism. I spent 8 ½ months in beautiful Kabul, Afghanistan, as the Task Force Engineer for Coalition Joint Task Force Phoenix, the operation to assist in the training of the Afghanistan National Army. It was a great experience. We helped to construct major facilities and base camps not only for our coalition personnel (Romanian, Bulgarian, French, Canadian, British, Nepal, Mongolian, German, and U.S. Personnel), but also for the Afghanistan National Army Central Corps. The climate is much like Colorado, so many of the issues that we face here in Colorado (drought, water quality, water supply and a growing population) are also the issues that we faced there. It was exhilarating to be able to have a positive impact on the mission that we were there to accomplish and just like there, we are having a positive impact here in the District with many of our planned long-range projects, which are now under construction. I could not have done this without the support of the Chairman, my fellow Directors, the Water District Staff, and you, our customers. Thank you.
Now, back to the business of the District.

Water Treatment Facility upgrade. As many of you may have noted from previous articles or the sign at the west side of the North Pinery Parkway and Highway 83 intersection, our long planned upgrade and improvements to the District Water Treatment Facility are well underway. While it may not be much more than several large holes in the ground, currently, work is progressing well and will allow the District to better serve existing customers and to meet increasingly stringent discharge standards for the Cherry Creek Basin. While we are able to meet required discharge standards most of the time with our current process, future changes to these standards and higher fines for not consistently meeting these standards have required us to put in place improvements that will allow us to meet these standards and avoid possible fines and penalties for non-compliance. The contractor is Weaver General Construction, the original builder of our current Waste Water Treatment Plant. We have a great team of contractors, engineers and District staff who are continuing to be on the leading edge of environmental responsibility. This investment in our future is already paying dividends with the regulatory and water quality organizations that we work with every day.

Bingham Lake. As noted in the recent “Pinery Pipeline” newsletter, we have entered into discussions with Douglas County to take over the lease of Bingham Lake, which the PHA is no longer able to maintain due to insurance carrier issues. It is hoped that nothing will change in the way the lake and area is managed for the benefit of the community. The lake will still be classified as a “private” lake in accordance with State of Colorado Division of Wildlife regulatory guidelines, which will mean that the current fishery and use permits can still be used to manage the area. It is hoped that the County will pick up more security and patrolling of the area, but we will not know this for certain until the draft lease is finalized. While the area will most likely be open to the general public, the County is currently not planning to publicize this, so nothing should change for most residents of the District. Water quality will still be of concern to the Water District and we will work to ensure that this is incorporated into the agreement. All involved are working to maintain this valuable asset to the community as a whole. With your input and support, we hope to have this completed in the next month or so.

You are cordially invited to attend our monthly meetings, which are currently scheduled for the second Wednesday of each month, at the District Offices at 6 p.m. Please feel free to contact our office at 303-841-2797 if you have any questions about District operations and/or the information presented here.

If you are experiencing problems with a neighborhood animal, the Humane Society recommends the following steps:

1. If comfortable, approach the owner with your concerns. The owner may not be aware of the problem and may appreciate you showing a sincere interest in solving the problem together.

2. Call Douglas County Animal Services for assistance. Our animal Welfare Officers will explain the laws and how they can assist with the situation. In some cases, you may need to write and sign a formal complaint. This will require you to keep accurate records regarding the violation, including dates, times and addresses.

Call Douglas Country Animal Services
4556 Castleton Ct.
303-660-7529
with the following concerns: