Issue link: https://imageup.uberflip.com/i/1526912
| OHCC LIVING | OCTOBER 2024 | 3 President's Message By Greg Kusiak, HOA President (2023-2024) Continued on following page The "dog days of summer" are behind us now and our inland brethren can afford to venture out during daylight. But coastal San Diego's perpetual summer-like weather continues to warm our landscaping and demand water. Those who have invested in solar generation equipment have become a bit more sensitive to the vagaries of the sun. Fortunately, this year's power generation has exceeded last year's for March through August, putting a little extra coin in our pockets. In my native Midwest we would be looking forward to the coming of our first frost (and killing off most of the f lies and mosquitos) but here we just continue to luxuriate in outdoor comfort. What we can't avoid is the tilt of the earth on its axis, and that means that as of the autumnal equinox on Sept. 22, the nights are longer than the days. That will cast a small, imaginary cloud over me until Dec. 21 when light resumes winning the battle against darkness—and my solar array begins to improve its performance. Younger generations are entertained by "retro" styles, i.e. things that were once stylish to us but we left behind. I had occasion to watch one of the Nixon-Kennedy debates again and was struck by the content and tone of the exchange. Policy differences were highlighted and discussed, but there were no references to personal characteristics bestowed at birth. The topics were actually addressed rather than serving as a launching pad for prepared talking points, the candidates were cordial to one another and there was no backlash about moderator favoritism. People had candidate bumper stickers on their cars and wore buttons on their blouses and lapels, but they didn't align at the lunch tables or Little League games according to those buttons. Friends before the election were friends after the election. That is a "retro" I would certainly welcome! Here in OHCC we continue to have controversy over the display of signs and banners and other expressions of political and other opinions. Some residents don't understand that the U.S. Constitution protects those expressions. Others acknowledge the law but don't share its spirit, complaining that their neighbors' exercise of their rights is harmful. Whatever the individual opinions, the Association must follow the law and remain strictly neutral in these matters. Part of that law is California Civil Code Section 4515, which provides that HOA common area facilities must be made available to Members for such purposes. Is it possible that some of our residents who initially disagree with each other would find some common ground through talking? We'll see… We have agreed in principle to a change in the fees paid to Securitas for community patrol services. That includes rebating significant overcharges discovered under the previous contract. We thank the Directors and staff who studied this agreement and the invoices and discovered this problem. We have also reached a settlement with Iron Mountain under which we will cease paying for any off-site storage of documents. We previously concluded our relationship with Corodata for off-site storage and all remaining storage is on premises or digital. Significant progress has been made toward satisfying the City's concerns about managing stormwater. The issue arises because roughly three acres of turf will be disturbed by the project, two acres at the lake site and one acre at the back gate fill area. If we were building a strip mall or paving a parking lot, there would be rainwater runoff that previously soaked into the ground. However, in the case of the fill area we are not changing the area which can absorb rainwater, and in the case of the lake itself we are decreasing the amount of runoff by catching it in the lake. (Information is as of Sept. 10, 2024.) We also continue working with Well Tec to arrive at a mutually beneficial general contractor agreement for completion of the project. We have completed our electrical supply project with Berg Electric; all that remains is to connect the power grid to the equipment after installation. We now have submitted two applications for turf removal rebates to the City of Oceanside. One turf panel is the lake fill area near the Shadowridge entrance and the other is on the south side of Leisure Village Way between Barcelona Way and Cordoba Way. We are working toward compliance with new requirements regarding "non-functional turf " as well as reducing our maintenance costs and water usage. It takes months to confirm approval for the projects, complete them and be reimbursed. The Board held its Regular Monthly Meeting on Aug. 14 and took the following actions: • Approved the Minutes of the Regular Monthly Meeting on July 18