More Weed Control

Landscaping / By

07/11/2024

Paused watering Friday due to more weed control operations. The mid-summer surge in weeds is upon us. As always, take precautions around herbicides.

Grubs Prevention

Landscaping / By

06/30/2024

Scheduled for first week in July. Although minimal risk, be careful with pets.As always, take precautions around landscaping operations.

Fall Cleanup

Landscaping / By

12/07/2023 Due to the snow last week, the Landscaper’s Fall Cleanup was delayed and rescheduled for either today or tomorrow. 

If you have placed Holiday decorations/cords/whatever in the HOA Common Areas, they are potentially in harm’s way. I advise to move them until the Landscapers work is complete. While they will be careful, as they always are, there is no guarantee they will see everything. 

Please be advised, the HOA and Landscapers are NOT responsible for any damage to resident items placed in the HOA Common Areas.  

Street Agreement

Announcements / By

09/22/2023 A quick update on the process of the ”Street Agreement”. 

  • The Village drafted the “Street Agreement”
  • Village Trustees voted to approve
  • BV HOA received the “Street Agreement” documents 
  • BV HOA sent the documents to an attorney for review
  • BV HOA asked for an in-person meeting to discuss various points/issues in the “Street Agreement”
  • BV HOA and Village officials (Lucas Rickelman and Matt Eastman) met in-person and discussed all points/issues
    • Main discussion points included “double #17” (in agreement), street cleaning, agreement duration, Coral Gables Court coverage
  • BV HOA has signed the agreement and has delivered the signed copy to Village Hall for Village final processing and redistribution to all. 
  • The final copy of the document is posted on the Bella Vista Website.

Main Discussion Points:

  • Double #17 – clerical error, simply initialed 
  • Street Cleaning – BV added to the Village’s regular schedule 
  • Agreement duration – standard timeframes for Village agreements
  • Coral Gables Court – (long discussion), never in scope (from the Village’s standpoint) as Coral Gables Court was NOT constructed/inspected/approved as a “village street”. It doesn’t matter what was “agreed to” in our Quarterly HOA Meeting with the Mayor, as the Mayor didn’t understand “what she was dealing with”. Their stance is… “it is a big driveway”. They could not be convinced to “add it” to the “Street Agreement”. 

I believe we got what we thought we would get, plus street cleaning. The maintenance of the streets is now in the hands of the Village of Bolingbrook. 

If you have any questions, let me know. 

If you want further discussion with the Village, give them a call.

Election

Uncategorized / By

10/03/2023 To All Owners,

Please be advised that this year’s HOA Board of Directors election is scheduled for Tuesday October 24th. between 6:00 and 8:00 PM at the Clubhouse.

The current term of board member Patrick Lee expires at the end of October. He has agreed to be a candidate for another two (2) year term as a board member.

Any Owner interested in being a candidate for election to a two (2) year term must complete the attached application and forward it , no later than October 2nd, to both Charles Breier (CBbreier@comcast.net) and Ken Madeja (Kenmadeja@aol.com) who are members of the Nomination Committee.

Also, please send copies of your application to the undersigned

Specific details pertaining to the voting process will be forwarded early next month.

Finally, if you have any questions at this time please contact either of the undersigned.

Submitted by;

Don Wittmer (dgw100@aol.com) 

and 

Lela Laha (elizabethlaha@gmail.com)

Snow Removal Contract

Announcements, General / By

07/03/2023

The HOA Board has voted to partner with Green Earth to provide Snow Removal services for all of Bella Vista. This is a 3 year contract, with a “1 month cancellation” clause. 

Here’s was the process:

  • Contacted 4-5 companies. 
  • Held review meetings to discuss proposals
  • Discussed multiple “Snow and Landscaping” service bundles (as some like/require that model)
  • Analyzed the “apples-and-oranges” of proposals contents, potential additional services’ costs, and company profiles
  • Analyzed annual budget projections versus projected aggregate cost of services for companies
  • Discussed Green Earth’s (current vendor) historic performance, year-to-year service improvement, approachability and resident feedback 

Over the last 3 years, the HOA has received both positive and negative feedback from residents regarding Green Earth. Honestly, I believe that would be true with any vendor the HOA Board selected/hired based upon the last 2+ years on the Bella Vista HOA Board. We are a community of 77 townhouses (maybe ~130 residents), some residents voice their opinions (either way) and others simply pay their assessments and are thrilled they don’t need to shovel driveways, sidewalks and/or porches. 

As with any vendor, the HOA Board continually monitors services, discusses performance, analyzes costs and makes adjustments to best serve Bella Vista.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please let us know. Thanks.

Quarterly Meeting

Announcements / By

June 28, 2023

Please join us for the quarterly meeting Wednesday July 26 7:00PM at the Clubhouse. 

As always, if you have any questions/concerns for the meeting, please send them to us by July 24 so we can research and discuss an appropriate response ahead of the meeting. Any “live questions/concerns” may be deferred until the Board has a chance to research and discuss. 

Thanks and we hope to see you there.

Sealcoating Friday

Announcements, Reminder / By

06/13/2023

Here is the sealcoating schedule for this week:

FRIDAY June 16th for Coral Gables, Borego, Balboa and the Clubhouse INCLUDING guest parking spaces and the Clubhouse.

Cars can be parked on the street overnight. The HOA has coordinated with the Village of Bolingbrook for overnight parking. This means… please get the car OUT Thursday evening or VERY EARLY Friday morning. 

Best practices are… to bring it back in (at the earliest) Saturday EVENING or Sunday morning. Please comply with this request for the good of the driveways. 

Please inform your neighbors, as not everybody reads emails or looks at the website.

Please note, driveways with cars on them MAY NOT be sealcoated this year. 

If you have any questions, please let us know. 

The HOA Board

Landscaping Watering Schedule

Landscaping / By

05/25/2023

WE ARE IN A DROUGHT, watering is being adjusted weekly.

Solara, Balboa – M-W-Sa – Zones=1-9, Sun, Tues, Fri – Zones=10-19, , Start=4:00am

Coral Gables, Borego, Bella Vista – M-W-Sa – Zones=1-15, Su-Tu-F – Zones=16-31, Start=4:00am 

Mandalay M-W-Sa – Zones= 1-11, Su-Tu-F- Zones=12-20, Start=4:00am 

Start times for Zones will vary based on the “seasonal adjustment percentages” of watering times. We water less in the spring and fall, and more in a drought (which we are in as of May).

Sealcoating Schedule 2023

Announcements / By

Here is the sealcoating schedule for 2023:

Friday June 9th for Mandalay, Bella Vista and Solara. 

Friday June 16th for Clubhouse, Coral Gables, Balboa and Borego. 

Friday June 23rd for rain date.

Cars can be parked on the street or in guest parking overnight. The HOA will coordinate with the Village of Bolingbrook for parking. This means please get the car out Thursday evening or VERY EARLY Friday morning on your designated date. Please tell your neighbors as not everybody reads emails or the website. 

So why on Friday? 

Monday – garbage goes out  

Tuesday – garbage gets picked up

Wednesday – the day before mowing day, still drying

Thursday – mowing daySaturday – not as good as Friday

Sunday – vendor doesn’t work 

If you have any questions, please let us know. 

Private Streets

General / By

04-20-2023

As previously communicated, the HOA Directors met with the Village of Bolingbrook officials on January 9, 2023 to discuss our private street situation. I gave a presentation detailing the history, current state and our requests for resolution. During that meeting, the Village officials listened, discussed some points, then asked for more information. One item asked for was the financial reserve balances relating to future costs of the streets. The HOA Board scheduled and attended a followup meeting on April 17, 2023, which resulted in a “preliminary agreement” between the Village of Bolingbrook and the Bella Vista HOA. This “preliminary agreement” needs to be formalized and approved by the Village of Bolingbrook, which may not happen until June or July 2023.

In summary…

What we asked for:

  • All streets transition from Private (owned by Bella Vista) to Public (owned by the Village of Bolingbrook).
  • Village takes responsibility for all asphalt streets, curbs and storm sewers.

What we got:

  • The Village will assume responsibility and expense for all asphalt maintenance for all roads in Bella Vista. This includes all aspects of project management, scheduling and repaving activities. Estimated by the Village at about $250,000 in present day dollars (which probably is closer to $400,000 in future dollars).
  • The ability/offer to use Village of Bolingbrook vendors for future curb, storm sewer and street light maintenance at “village-wide cost levels”, which would be lower than Bella Vista contracting for these services on our own. The Village also offered to manage these projects as part of their “village-wide” contracts.
  • We keep our reserve fund balances designated for the asphalt maintenance (about $25,000 in present day dollars by 12/31/2023), which were offered to the Village by us as an incentive to help with the situation. 

What does this mean:

  • Bella Vista streets will continue to be Private (owned by Bella Vista).
  • All parties avoid the legal ramifications and expenses of having the Village actually “own the streets”. Plat of surveys, setbacks, easements, whatever…
  • The village takes over the all street asphalt maintenance. 
  • We are responsible for curbs and storm sewers. 
  • We are responsible for snowplowing. 
  • We are responsible for street lights. 
  • It is unknown where “street cleaning” responsibilities fall at this time.

We will discuss this topic during the 3rd Quarter Residents HOA Meeting. Please hold all your questions until the meeting.

The Mayor has been invited to this meeting and expressed interest in attending. To date, there has been no confirmation of her attendance. If I get attendance confirmation, I will let you know.  

We have posted the minutes of the meeting on the website.