Heritage Oaks Home Owners Blog (Tradition, PSL, FL) (Boca Raton, Christmas: foreclosures, attorney)

[MADEINTHEUSA]

Yay!! Thank you Keeper!! (and thank you FlaLadyB for requesting that we be moved!!) *smile*

[Troy & Mary Ann]

We were informed at our last infraction meeting Friday that Bayshore has a website where you can fill out a "work order request" as mentioned in the meeting tonight. You may also fill out a "complaint form" to inform Bayshore of a violation. Their website is Bayshoreproperties.net.

[FlaLadyB]

Yes, that has always been there. Here is the link to Bayshore Management. Find Heritage Oaks on the far right. Click on that and find the complaint or workorder forms that can be turned in to the local office.

Bayshore Properties

[MADEINTHEUSA]

There was an impressive turn out for Wednesday night's Heritage Oaks HOA meeting (11/19/2008) at Tradition's Town Hall. Most attendees were there to ask questions and become better informed with regard to our financial status and the upcoming changes that will be made (homeowners taking over the HOA, Dolphin Landscaping taking over from Image Landscaping, etc). Yes, there was also quite a bit of venting and complaining, but that is understandable due to the high level of frustration that many people have been dealing with all year long. For the most part, however, the meeting was an organized exchange of questions and answers. Not everyone was 100% happy with all of the answers they received, but I'm hopeful that everyone's issues will finally be addressed satisfactorily once we are running our own HOA.

The most discussed issue was Landscaping. The crowd literally applauded (and I even heard a few cheers) when the owner of Dolphin Landscaping was introduced. I don't envy the position he is in, however. He can't just 'wave a magic wand' and suddenly make all our trees start to grow and thrive. But for starters, if his company at least manages to mow and edge our lawns without mutilating them, it'll be a welcome improvement. If his company is able to professionally and successfully communicate important specific homeowner requests to their workers, that will be a welcome improvement as well. If I no longer have to live in fear of my flowers being killed by an illtrained landscaping worker spraying herbacide into my planting beds, I'll be a much happier camper. And, if I no longer find grease, gasoline stains and chipped bricks from landscaping equipment on my brick-paved driveway and walkway, I'll be ecstatc! Replacing killed plants, cleaning up and repairing landscaper-related damages was costing me a lot of time and money. If conditions improve with Dolphin onboard, I'm sure I'm not the only one who will be pleasantly relieved.

But... We must all remember that much of our landscaping was originally planted poorly, directly into clay and without the addition of any nutrient rich soil, and so there are some things even Dolphin Landscaping won't be able to fix with mere maintenance. For example, our curb trees will continue to topple over no matter WHO does our landscaping because their root balls are simply sitting in clay holes, and although Dolphin's workers will most likely be diligent in standing our toppled trees back up, that will not "fix" the issue. Sadly (and I think we all know this), that particular issue will never be "fixed" unless we re-plant every one of our trees properly. And since THAT would amount to quite an expensive assessment, I'm not so sure it'll be happening any time soon. My advice to everyone: If you can do it yourself, Do it!! Pull out your trees, dig the existing holes larger, add bags of nutrient rich soil from Home Depot or WalMart, re-plant your trees, and use wooden stakes to hold them upright while they -finally- try to take root. If you can't do it yourself, ask our Property Manager (Robert Mullett, via Bayshore Management) to set up an appointment for Dolphin Landscaping to come do it for you, for an affordable fee.

Yes, we should have received better landscaping initially from our builder, but we didn't. And we can't sit around beating a dead horse (yikes, I hate that phrase!). So, if we want our community to look like the one we all pictured in our heads when we signed at our closings, we need to pitch in.

Team up with some neighbors and buy a spreader ($35), and start treating your lawns bi-annually for Fire Ants and Red Ants (Ortho $18/bag). If your mulch is gone ($4/bag), replace it! It isn't terribly expensive and you don't need to be a gardening expert to de-bug and beautify your properties. Get outdoors and get some fresh air. Say hello to your neighbors. Offer to help eachother. If trash blows onto anyone's lawn, be a good samaritan and pick it up. Report people who don't pick up after their dogs, and thank those who do. Remember the saying, "What you see is what you get". (Wasn't that Flip Wilson?) Potential home buyers drive into Heritage Oaks every day, but if they don't like what they see they're not going to buy here. If we want our community to fill up with resident homeowners, we have to make them want to live here!

We bought our houses, we moved in, we live here. So, we may as well be pro-active and start making things happen around here.

That said........ Kudos to all those who attended and participated at Wednesday's HOA meeting. PARTICIPATION IS THE KEY to our future success as a community. A number of folks expressed an interest in running for positions on our soon-to-be new HOA Board. I will be throwing my hat into the ring as well. *smile* I expect this to be a very interesting next few months here in Heritage Oaks.

[JimMe]

I would appreciate it if someone could explain the difference between Tradition and Heritage Oaks and the relationship (if any) between the two.

[FlaLadyB]

Originally Posted by JimMe

I would appreciate it if someone could explain the difference between Tradition and Heritage Oaks and the relationship (if any) between the two.

Tradition is the name of our entire Community which consists of many different neighborhoods. Tradition could also be called it's own "city" since that is actually what was intended, with our own shopping, school, businesses, etc.

Heritage Oaks is one neighborhood within Tradition. There is also Bedford Park, The Promenade, The Lakes, Town Park, The Estates, Seasons, etc.

This particular thread consists of people, like myself, who live in Heritage Oaks - a part of Tradition. If you click on my profile you can go see photos of various places and people from the whole of Tradition.

[JimMe]

Originally Posted by FlaLadyB

Tradition is the name of our entire Community which consists of many different neighborhoods. Tradition could also be called it's own "city" since that is actually what was intended, with our own shopping, school, businesses, etc.

Heritage Oaks is one neighborhood within Tradition. There is also Bedford Park, The Promenade, The Lakes, Town Park, The Estates, Seasons, etc.

This particular thread consists of people, like myself, who live in Heritage Oaks - a part of Tradition. If you click on my profile you can go see photos of various places and people from the whole of Tradition.

Thanks for clarifying that. I take it that Heritage Oaks is a homeowners' association with association fees? Are there also fees associated with being part of the overall Tradition community?

[MADEINTHEUSA]

Hi Jim,

Yes, Heritage Oaks is one of several individual newly built communities within the Town of Tradition, located in Port St. Lucie.

Some of the communities are gated, some are not. I think all have community pools and various ammenities. All of them have HOA's with HOA fees, although some are higher than others. And, all of the communities' HOA fees include a portion which goes to Tradition's Master HOA.

Heritage Oaks is a gated community. Here we pay a total monthly HOA fee of approx. $265 per house.

There are many other gated communities in PSL outside of the ones in Tradition. St. Lucie West has quite a few, and they're new (under 5 yrs old) and very nice too. Likewise, there are many non-gated, non-HOA areas to choose from all throughout PSL as well.

Spend LOTS of time shopping and checking out ALL the options before you decide. If you end up choosing a community here in Tradition, such as Heritage Oaks, we'll look forward to seein' you around.

~~Best Wishes~~

[MADEINTHEUSA]

My family is relatively new to the PSL area (23 months). In the past, we've spent our Thanksgivings volunteering and bringing Thanksgiving meals to the homeless. But this year I don't know where to go to do that here.

I'm hoping to locate a place where my husband, 9 yr old child and I can volunteer tomorrow (Thanksgiving). So far I've only been able to find info on the Mustard Seed Church group's feast in Ft. Pierce, so we're considering showing up there tomorrow morning to volunteer to deliver meals to people who can't get out.

Does anyone know of any other places we could volunteer to deliver meals for? Or any senior citizen's homes where we could help serve food and friendship?

Please, anyone, feel free to reply on this board or private-message me if you can help us with any info!


~~~ Thank you, God Bless, and Happy Thanksgiving To All ~~~

[FlaLadyB]

A reminder...the Annual Meeting of the Tradition Community Association is WEDNESDAY (not TUESDAY) Dec 3rd at 11am.

I WILL be attending...hope all of you will too!