I'll take care of our roads as we'd own the grader and skip loader and back hoe. I don't sleep much at night anyway, why not be constructive. It wouldn't take too long to scrape the paved roads, but round trips to the sand piles would take awhile, about just as long as scraping.

Moday, i sais I'd call Kates before I saw your posting, you'd be a better one to call him. i don't know nothin about telephones.

moday and joelazzard, are you planning to go to sat. 10:am HOA meeting ?

I'm going, I've never before and usually I don't but I do want to hear what they are doing because the way I read their letter to us, they say "to get into strickter compliance with recent changes in the Ca. laws & guidlines (theDavis-Stirling act)" Like that is a new state law.

The Davis-Stirling act has been around since the '70's. So either I'm reading this wrong or they want it to appear like the law is forcing them to make these changes at our monatary expence and our well being expence (is there such a thing ?)

moday, i looked it up & all that was there really was KB homes crap. everything else didn't seem to pertain to our hoa problem. under what subheading do i look and for what subject ? please and thank you.

stop by my house if you want, if you see me outside that is, since i have a fence all the way around with my FAT yellow lab and scary looking sheppard running around - next to the maint' bldg. anyway i'll be there tomorrow with green dodge cummins p.u 4x4.

I went for the first hour only I didn't realize it could an all day ordeal, I had another commitment already for the rest of Sat. I'll plan for a whole day next meeting.    I got disgusted almost immediately, the 1st. thing they said was drop "park" from our name - no problem it attracts visitors, 2 -remove entire section pertaining to Articles of Incorporation - WHY ? the 1st. thing (sec.1 par. A) in the By-Laws says, "the name of the corp. shall be", .........  the articles should stay in the same book as the By-Laws and CC&R's, plus why would we want to go to the expense of removing it, especially if $ is their concern ? Then their Vote crap !

I got up to whisper to someone in the back where no one could see us except for the committee members at the front, and they actually had the nerve to say "we seem to have a seperate meeting going on in the back would you mine coming back and sit down ?". I had leave anyway.

One other thing no one questioned is the fact that this committee to review our current by-laws & cc&r's is made up of last years board members who we all voted out & replaced. Maybe they were good while a board member or maybe not but we voted to replace them & now they're involved in something that everyone is questioning their motives and legallity ?

What is the agenda for the next 2 meetings ? will it be next one a review of discussion of yesterday and proposals ? and then the last meeting the final draft and vote ?

I should have asked at every point - -WHY ? every time because when I was there not one point had anthing to do with bringing us into strickter compliance. Did any of their "wants" have anything to do with compliance ?

Hi,

  I hope it's not to late to post to this discussion but, here goes! I just want to say that I think it's wonderful that property owners are still discussing this issue. For years I have urged board members to have open communications with the property owners and for years board members would point to the few people that show up at monthly meetings and say "Look!" "Five members in the audience. The property owners are apathetic"

   I would then point out that the property owners voted for the board members to represent them. The property owners are content with their life in the community and they're expecting the board to represent them to the best of their (the boards) ability.

  That's why I saw the need to post those notices back in January. I really wanted our community to realize that they (the property owners) have the true power in this association. BUT, they need to be aware of what's happening.

   I was thrilled to hear of this blog. What a great opportunity for our community to voice their opinions and to think it came about through the local paper. Thank you Tehachapi News.

  I know our community is filled with educated, caring people. I know many of you personally and I know that you know how much I care for Alpine Forest.

   Let me tell you, your association is worth the fight!  It's probably one of the best Homeowners Associations around.Can it be better? Of course it can! There's always room for improvement in any area of your life.

  Now remember we have two different kinds of meetings going on this month. The Committee for CC&R Change has had or will have a meeting on three Saturdays this month. Now remember whatever decisions they come too, they must present them to the Associations' Board of Directors and then the Board decides what happens next. Now the seated Board at that time will be greatly influenced by the Property Owners opinions. This is why I say over and over again, "The power for change/ or no change is in your hands."

  Now the second kind of meeting being held is the monthly Board meeting, which is going to be Saturday the16Th. The monthly Board meetings are held the third Saturday of each month @9:00 a.m. @ the chalet. I have requested that these meetings should actually be called "Property Owner Meetings." Cause at these meetings, the property owners should be discussing with the board what things they would like to see happen in our community.

  Hope to see you there!

                        Mary Dufrain   Vice-President Alpine Forest Park Property Owners Association

Mary-Do you know what is going on at the mail boxes? Today I drove by and there were some men measuring and moving stuff at the Arosa site??

moday, I see i have a few comments on this blog, probably Mary, you, and gillfish's question to Mary. I haven't looked yet.

I have been effected by the housing slump because I'm in construction so I just got laided off and took this new job in Bakersfield that is requiring me to work Saturday's, so I did not make the last 2 meetings on Sat.

Mary, or moday, can you update us ?  Mary, I would like to see our association maintain a web site for ALL of our notices and voting. Also it would eliminate the need for mailings as this would be the mode of communication to our homeowners, everyone has a computor now days, well almost, and those that don't can be informed to request it in writing.

Hi,

  I know we're installing  two new sets of mailboxes. So maybe that's what they were doing?

                  mary

Hi Modayint,

    It's me mary. I just went to your vote page. I was hoping for an area of discussion. I have concerns about disbanding the association.Disbanding the association  comes up every few years when talks of raising the dues becomes an issue. Now when I checked into this a couple of months ago, I read somewhere and forgive me for forgetting where ,but I read that if the association was dissolved anyone in the association that had a home mortgage may have that mortgage revisited by their financial holders. You know the bank. Cause when they got their mortgage certain services provided by the association were listed as assets. Like Security, having someone patrol your community on a daily basis, just being aware of our surroundings and making their presence known, is an asset to all of us. I bet Security also helps with any ones homeowners insurance. Just a reminder that there are good things the association does for us.

    I have heard talk that some people believe that if the association is dissolved we will fall into ruin, we will have properties with numerous junk cars lined up out front, trash thrown everywhere and dogs running freely through our streets. I say to people with these thoughts, geez calm down. Our main governing agency here is Kern County. Any of you who have built a home or a garage know that you have to comply with Kern County Building. If you own animals, there are Kern County Animal Control Restrictions.If you drive a car or own one in Alpine you must abide by California Vehicle Codes.

   Our property owners association is suppose to collect the dues. Our board is suppose to pay the employees and maintain our common interests, like our chalet, our barn/maintenance equipment  and our roads. The difficult task is deciding how to do this for the majority good. Let's try to keep this simple.

        & nbsp;       &n bsp;       &nb sp;       &nbs p;         ;      mary

moday, cool web page. I voted, but noticed that only 6 persons so far have voted. How do we get every one involved ? mailers ?

I'll help if we can come up with a realistic plan of action

charleybird,

    It is very difficult to inform all of the property owners because about 2/3rds of them live somewhere else. That's why we really need a web-site so everyone can check in and get updated on happenings. The cost of mailing stuff out is very costly. People showing up at meetings is usually limited to those who live here, especially during the winter months.

   In the meantine, we do have a newsletter that goes out twice a year. The spring addition is going out soon. I'm not sure what the "rules" are about content but maybe there could be mention of the "vote" web page.

   Give the office a call and ask 822-6525.

Mary, hello.

I know that mailings are expensive but with  75 % of the homeowners not living here and the fact that we don't have a web site yet my line of thinking is that we do need to reach all of the property owners as soon as possible to stop anything stupid before it happens. I'm broke but i would kick in $100.00 if we had to come up with our own $ to accomplish our goal. Our goal of, I'm not sure of what.

Recalling the board of directors ?

Stopping their hidden agenda ?

Establishing a web site to save $

Disbanding the HOA ?

All 4 ? - or more ? -(i think all 4)

Hi Charleybird,

    Good questions! Initially my concern was with the Committee for CC&R changes. Like I said ,I saw a worst case scenario evolving. If we lost our quorum in voting for the board of directors, our board would be elected by whomever shows up at the meeting, which could be no one, which means as little as three members of the sitting board could determine the new board. After I brought this to the communities attention the committee for change, backed away from the quorum issue and started saying that the real change was to put more "bite" into the association. They started saying that we needed to get more aggressive with the members of our association that don't pay their dues but we already have things in place for that. We lien property and we are already looking into notices of default. I really didn't like to hear this committee (which is made up of the previous board) continue to state that our members are apathetic. Thank you to everyone who has proven this to be wrong.

   I'm all for a web-site for Alpine, I've been advocating one for years. We need a place on-line that all members can go to to read the minutes of the monthly meetings, they need a place for their comments and opinions, they need a place to go to see what's happening in their community. If an Alpine Web-site is the one thing that gets accomplished while I'm on the board I'll be happy.

   Now for the "voting" page, like modayint says its a fun site. It will be interesting to see what numbers come about. Thank you for going through all that work. I went there last week and voted. So in answer to your questions charleybird I will tell you what and why I did.

    I voted to keep the Association cause like I said in a previous comment I like it. For less than a $1.00 a day, I get trash collection( cause without it I'd have to haul my trash to the dump, 10 miles away)., I get security, which means if there's a strange vehicle on my road I can call and they can checked it out for me and I get road maintenance, which means my dirt road gets bladed in the springtime.

   I remember someone earlier suggested that the water company could take over all these services for us but I know they won't. They will tell you, that they are just a private water company.

   I voted no for a recall. A recall would be very time consuming for whoever initiates it, it will end-up being costly for the entire association and it will just act as a distraction from the real issues. It would be a lot easier to just start campaigning for the new election. I believe at the last board meeting we were calling for nominations for the board. So I think come March, candidates will start to submit their statements. Elections will be held in June. This is much more efficient than a recall.

   I voted against an increase in dues. Cause I'm cheap. I think when times get tough, you tighten your belt.

   O.K. now the last thing you wanted to vote on was stopping the hidden agendas on the board. Of course no one wants "hidden agendas", but we all have them, I myself want better communications between the board and the members of the association. I think we should put all our energy into getting the Alpine web-site up and running.

   It's been great reading all your comments. Thank you.

        & nbsp;       &n bsp;       &nb sp;  mary

Thank you Mary for your responses, I agree, a recall is not the right way to go at this time and I wondered about the comment of having the water district maintaining our roads, but so far I haven't seen our security be too much help, I live next to one of the shacks and my house was broke into during the day while we were at work and I've called them numorous times to report illegal dumping and not once been able to reach them, and.......... why isn't the security at the entrance to our neighborhood instead of by the maintainance bldg. these homes don't deserve security ?  I don't mind paying our resononable cost's for our association either, if we get what we pay for, but I don't want our board of directors doing what they want without regard to what we want. If the board screws up badly enough and brings about a lawsuit we all will be responsible to cover the costs no matter how high a price, my ex represented a major insurance carrier who insured a HOA when they screwed up to the tune of 50 million and the homeowners had to pay that judgement by way of an assesment when my ex lost in court and on ALL of the appeals. We can't afford to have idiots nor selfishness on the board.

Mary please continue to comment and to inform us until we have a web site