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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | SEPTEMBER 2022 5 Message From The Board By Kathy Craven, Board Vice President Well, we are in September and autumn is quickly approaching. We should start seeing the leaves falling from the trees and the beautiful shades of fall. As summer passes and we are well into a drought, we can begin to hope for a lot of rain later this year. I'm sure you have noticed the brown spots in our turf which can be attributed to the heat and the drought the Southwest is experiencing. Earlier in the year, we were asked by Governor Newsom to lower our water usage on a volunteer basis, which we did. Because the heat had not yet peaked, the turf saw no distress. As the days became even hotter, we did increase the water to keep our turf from burning and going beyond distress to a point we could not repair. As June approached, Beaumont Cherry Valley Water District (BCVWD) set a plan for mandatory water restrictions. The water restrictions imposed, however, were a one size fits all and not necessarily something that would work for Four Seasons. This plan was to water only eight minutes per station per day and only three days a week, which, for Four Seasons with the low-flow valves we currently have, would have been an 80 percent cut in water. With the heat this would have most certainly killed all of our turf and most of the plants and shrubs. The Board of Directors (BOD) worked closely with our partner, Park West, to come up with a watering scenario everyone believed would work for us. With our plan in hand, your BOD President Jerry Monahan, Vice President Kathy Craven, FirstService Residential General Manager Eric Zarr, and Assistant General Manager Lynne Cesario, attended several BCVWD Board meetings to attempt to get them so see the one size fits all would not work. With our sprinklers, we would need to water 24 minutes in order to have the same output of water as high-volume sprinklers. In addition, our rotary sprinklers take over a minute to make one full turn and would drop very little water in the same eight minutes. After working with BCVWD Board of Directors, they passed a resolution July 28 allowing us to reduce our water intake by 25 percent to 30 percent, which will allow us to water more than three days a week and keep our turf looking healthy. Park West has put together a schedule that will water the turf more and the plants and shrubs less as they can handle less water. Although we have placed a Band-Aid on the problem, we continue to work with Park West to research other options for some of the turf we currently have. For example, Park West is working on renderings for two of our pocket parks which will provide for native California plantings that are drought resistant. The BOD is working with San Gorgonio Pass Water District to assist with grants which will help us pay for the changes. Did you know California has the most native plants in all 50 states, some of which are beautiful and flowering? What this means is we are not looking to make our beautiful community look like a desert with only cactus. It does mean we need to look at all options and strive to be good stewards for conservation while keeping our community beautiful. The BOD meets the second Thursday of the month at 1 pm in the Ballroom. During the Board meetings, we are unable to engage in dialogue with homeowners; however, if you wish to have a dialogue with the Board, then Meet the Board is for you. Meet the Board is a meeting with three Board members (not a quorum) where we can have an open dialogue with residents. Meet the Board is the third Wednesday at 1 pm in the RCN. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me at (714) 722-1301 or email me at kcravenbod@yahoo.com. Remember, please be kind to one another.

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