BLOG-DAMMIT
Sharing The Joy Of Living
In A
Community Association
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BLOG-DAMMIT Sharing The Joy Of Living
In A
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Open letter to the residents of Fairway Village Community Association in Fullerton, California. Our property manager is Parkglen/AMMCOR February, 2008 Last month, without telling anyone, and at a time when anyone attempting to sell (or lease) their house needs to put every asset imaginable on display, your board of directors made a decision to stop heating the Brookline swimming pool, rendering it too cold to use. Picture the ad: Association dues: $360.00 per month + special assessment for slopes (total approx $377.00). Amenities: Guarded front gate, secure RV parking area, acres of lighted paths, extensive greenbelts, three lighted tennis courts and jacuzzis, sauna and two pools that are too cold to use because they are unheated. If you plan to include swimming as part of your exercise regimen, then you’d better add the cost of a YMCA membership to those monthly association dues, because you won’t be able to use either of the pools in the Village. THAT ought to put us on a par with an old apartment complex, instead of portraying us as a community offering luxury homes. When the builders of Fairway Village were trying to convince potential buyers of the benefits of a new way of group-living, called community associations, one of the selling points was that the association could provide not one, but TWO HEATED SWIMMING POOLS, so that all a resident of Fairway Village would have to do in order to enjoy a refreshing swim was walk a few blocks, to reach whichever of the two pools was closest to them. Some years later, another set of board members decided that heating both pools cost too much money and ruled to heat only one of them. They used to alternate which of the two pools was being heated, so that it would be both fair and convenient for residents to use a heated pool all year long, no matter where they lived in the Village. Then, somewhere in the years that followed, yet another board stopped heating the Westchester pool altogether. And then, only the Brookline pool was suitable for use in the winter. Here’s the thing: In addition to the usual recreational swimmers, a lot of elderly residents use the Brookline pool (which is now the only heated pool in the Village), all year long, both to stay fit and as a means for therapy after having various surgeries. degrees F is the healthiest water temperature for fitness swimming, 82 degrees F is the healthiest water temperature for recreational swimming and 86 degrees F is the healthiest water temperature for water therapy. Colder water results in a rapid loss of body heat, especially if exposure is prolonged. The temperature of the Brookline pool, taken at noon on the (sunny) day that this letter was written, is 55.8 degrees F - that’s 22.2 degrees below the absolute minimum that the American Red Cross and medical authorities have determined to be safe and healthy for our use. Hypothermia begins when body temperatures drop below 92 degrees F. Symptoms include muscle rigidity, slow breathing, and slow or irregular pulse (the heart can be irregular below 90 degrees F, and below 82 degrees F, heart rate decreases by 50%). This can progress to dilated and fixed pupils, absent reflexes, and cardiac arrest and death below 77 degreesF.If the current board of directors has mismanaged things so badly that, even with 281 homes paying $360 a month per house in association fees, we truly cannot afford the cost of heating a single swimming pool, then they should own up to it and raise the dues accordingly, in order to cover the expense. And before you cast your vote for ANY director this month, you should take a minute to find out how they feel about the board taking actions like this one, disregarding the impact on our property values and the reduction in the quality of lifestyle to the residents of the Village. If you don’t, the next time they need to make up for money that they decided to spend elsewhere, "your" board of directors might decide to get rid of one or both of the pools altogether or decide that we can do without the guard service at our front gate, too. ---------------------------------------------------------------- As one of the aforementioned people who used to use the Brookline pool to exercise every other day, I can attest that the water is now absolutely frigid! I tried to tough it out, but - after a few minutes - was forced to have my husband help me out of the water because it was so cold that I lost the feeling in my feet. Since we're going to have a new board of directors within a short time, I've been waiting to see what happens before attempting to fit a club membership into my already tight budget. Maybe the new board won't be as incompetent as the sitting one and will be able to manage the budget better. Meanwhile, I've been exercising (sort of) in the jacuzzi. It's exactly three of my steps from side to side, so I walk ... three steps forward and three steps back ... for half an hour. But I have no desire to have to repeat my quadruple by-pass surgery and faulty knees prohibit "traditional" exercise so I'm reduced to doing whatever I can. Ridiculous, really - 281 of us, paying nearly $375.00 a month and (supposedly) we can't afford a single heated pool. People who live in homes that aren't saddled with community associations and incompetent boards of directors can manage to heat their pools year round, pools that are at least as large as ours, and in one case of which I'm aware, larger - and they do on a single income, too. I swear, if we live long enough to be able to move away from here, we will never, EVER, have anything to do with a place like this again!
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