Image Up Advertising & Design

| THE COLONY NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2021 | 7 By Jane Payne, 909-455-2253 The discussion at our recent LAC meeting suggested the subject of this article be about our landscape contractor, Environmental Concepts (EC), and The Colony landscape maintenance schedule. I hope you find the information useful. EC ORGANIZATION: Monday through Friday, EC has over 20 personnel onsite daily, with each doing a specific function. To give you a simplified overview, EC personnel are supervised by an Account Manager and an Onsite Supervisor. You may have seen or heard one of the Irrigators using their remote controls to turn on the sprinklers to check for coverage and/ or any irrigation problems. EC also has a Spray Technician who is certified to safely administer chemicals. As needed, EC has an Arborist who is here to inspect tree concerns and conduct, among others, an annual front yard and planter tree inspection. There are two different crews, each led by a foreman. You will see the mowing crew most frequently. They mow and edge the turf and blow to clean up every front yard weekly from April to October. In five days, they take care of 1,586 front yards, which means they are hustling to finish over 300 front yards a day! The other crew is the maintenance crew. They maintain the greenbelts, wildbelts, front yard planters, and do many other functions, such as weed removal, etc. They have a wider variety of work and service areas. The Colony is divided into five areas, named area 1 through 5. EC follows a five-week work schedule, which starts in area 1 during week 1, area 2 during week 2, and so forth. The Maintenance Rotation schedule and map reflecting the areas is available at the front desk in the Clubhouse. MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE: EC performs work based on a very detailed schedule. Some of the maintenance activities that may be of interest to residents include: Front yard mowing: Every week from April-October, every two weeks November-March. Front yard shrub trimming: Every five weeks March- October, every seven weeks November-February. Greenbelts: Mowing is the same as front yards Maintenance four times per year, March-November Weeding every four weeks, March-November Wildbelts: Maintenance four times per year between March- November Tree trimming: Palm trees are trimmed once a year. Front yard trees are trimmed every two years (half of The Colony each year). Greenbelt trees are trimmed every three years (third of The Colony each year). Wildbelt trees are trimmed every five years (fifth of The Colony each year). HOMEOWNER REQUESTS: EC takes their direction from one person, our Landscape Superintendent, Anthony Reynoso. Even though we have repeatedly communicated how to request landscape service, EC still gets two to three homeowner requests a month. Asking EC to do something does not guarantee it will be communicated back to the office for your request to be scheduled. I know it is tempting since they are already in your front yard, but the only way you can be assured your request is submitted is to process a Landscape Service Request form. These forms are on TownSq and can be electronically submitted. They are also available on The Colony website or at the Reception in the Clubhouse. LAC OPENINGS: On a different topic, I am sad to report that we are losing a long-term committee member, Wes DeHoll, who has resigned. Wes had been a member since 2017 and was an active one, rarely missing a meeting, and he also participated on our Tree Committee. He was a pleasure to work with, and we will miss him. This leaves three openings on the LAC. If anyone is interested in learning about becoming a member, please give me a call. LANDSCAPE ADVISORY

• Cover