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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | MAY 2017 19 The Landscape Committee is very proud of the work we do for our community, but there seems to be some confusion on what we really do. Our purpose is to provide advice and assistance to the Board on all matters concerning the Association Maintained Landscape and the Frond Yard Cost Center Landscape areas. We also monitor the performance of the association's landscape maintenance contractors. We are a nine-member team with support from FirstService Management and our Board liaison. FirstService brings us concerns expressed by members of the community, as does the Board, in addition to assigning us special landscape projects. We are not the HOA police! We do not write up anyone and turn them in to management. Members of our team walk the common areas with the Landscape Contractors on a weekly basis looking for problem areas. We watch for dying plants or trees, irrigation problems, or problems with infestations, such as gophers, skunks etc. and to be sure trees are kept trimmed away from the roofs. This last year we met with some challenges, one being fruit- bearing trees. Doesn't it seems strange that after 10 years a fruitless tree starts bearing fruit? This has caused some very messy sidewalks and driveways. The second challenge is the many rosemary bushes planted throughout the community, mainly in the Springdale and Front Yard Cost Center areas. After 10 years or so they get very sparse in the middle and are not pretty to look at. So our challenge will be replacing all that rosemary. This is not an easy task and will take quite a while to complete. Our landscape budget is not large enough to do it all at once, and of course the work needs to be approved by the Finance Committee and the Board. We want to choose plants that survive in our environment so the plants don't have to be replaced frequently. So if there is an area that needs some TLC, please have patience with us, as it takes time to analyze soil and determine what would be the best solution for the area. Our goal is to help maintain the appearance of this beautiful place in which we live. The Landscape Committee meets the second Monday of the month at 8 am in the RCN Building. ~ Joyce Tautrim Landscape Committee MAXIMIZING HOA INVESTMENTS: The good news for Four Season's homeowners is that the HOA has an adequate capital reserve to meet our anticipated future needs. However, an important consideration for the Board of Directors is to insure a maximum investment return on this capital until it is required. Since an HOA has limited investment options — no risk and insured (FDIC), CDs, money markets and savings accounts are the choices. Of these CDs typically provide the greatest return depending on a CD's length of maturity. While rates are expected to gradually increase over the next 24 months with two to three quarter point increases anticipated this year, it is important to understand that these anticipated rate increases are already built into the yield curve. As you will note in the rate chart inset, the CD rates remained essentially the same after the recent rate increase. The most reasonable approach to achieve maximum return for CD investments is called "laddering." This technique spreads maturities over a two- to three-year period which provides better rates with longer term CDs, while having CDs maturing every few months to take advantage of rates as they begin to rise. The following example illustrates this point. One-year CD versus two- year CD If an investor chooses a one year CD (1 percent) versus a two-year CD (1.50 percent), the investor would need to roll over the CD a year from now into another 1 year CD with a yield of 2.00 percent just to make what would have equated to a two- year CD. This would require one year CD rates to double in a year's time. While we probably all agree rates are on the rise, most analysts believe this will occur rather slowly and not double in a year's time. ~ Barry Ginnetti Finance Committee

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