THE PELICAN BRIEF
June, 2010
Serving the Community of Pelican Pointe
Board of Directors
Manager
Linda Corry, President
Steve Susman
Mary Mulholland, Vice President
8300 Fairmount Dr., #J-101
Liaison --
Social Committee
Denver, CO 80247-6528
Glen Olmstead --
Newsletter Editor
Phone: (303) 394-0942
Marcia Helfant
Cell phone: (303) 668-2747
Liaison --
Design Review Committee
Frank Parker, Treasurer
Garage sale!
Our Rules prohibit garage sales within Pelican Pointe, unless the Association sanctions or
sponsors one. However, some residents reported that they'd like to participate this year.
Contact
place on Saturday, June 26.
T.G.I.F. On Friday, June 18, at our Pelican Pointe picnic area, our Social Committee
will be sponsoring this Happy Hour --
from 5:00 -7:00 (weather permitting). Stop on
your way home for a glass of wine or beer and slice of pizza. You don't have to bring
anything, except maybe a lawn chair. No charge. No RSVP required.
Put this on your
calendar now!
Painting. Last summer-fall, our painting contractors painted 23 of our 46 buildings, after
some carpentry repairs and replacements on the exteriors. They did an excellent job --
thorough, careful, neat. The other half of our complex will receive the same treatment:
Buildings R and Y-TT. In addition, we will have our guardhouse and mail kiosks
cleaned and painted. This process began in late May; it will take several weeks. Also,
we intend to paint every front door (the same color
it presently has).
We need your full cooperation if you reside in one of these buildings:
--
You'll see a colorful Painting Notice posted near your garage door, giving you notice
of the approximate dates when your building will be power-washed and painted and your
front door will be painted.
--
All your windows and doors must remain closed during these processes.
--
Your patio gate must remain unlocked during business hours.
--
All small and large items must be moved out or away from your patio walls, porch
railing, and patio railing.
--
In front, your security-storm door must remain unlocked during business hours until
your front door has been painted.
If our painters confront a locked patio gate, they cannot and will not paint your patio
walls, gutters, downspouts, or hobby-room doors!
Sonny and his crew are not to assist you in moving your patio items; it's not their role. If
you can't move your big or heavy items yourself, please arrange for assistance to do that.
No resident
wants
to have
a patio wall that has been
only
partly painted
because small or
large items were "in the way."
Yes, each of us in the designated buildings will suffer some short-time inconvenience --
and, hopefully, no lower-back strain. But that is the inevitable price of maintaining the
appearance and value of your property.
Garage frame repairs. Again, attention all residents in Bldgs. R and Y-TT: Before the
painters power-wash the exterior of your unit, and before they paint it, a different set of
subcontractors will be repairing and priming
your garage door frame. In many instances,
this three-sided frame has borne the brunt of collisions or scrapes from your car. Those
damages will be repaired; exposed surfaces of the wood will be primed with oil-base
paint. The painters will finish the task of painting that frame. Beware,
though: After
your garage frame has been beautified in that manner, the Association will charge you for
the cost of subsequent
repairs to that same frame. Consider taking a driving-training
course, to perfect your ability to drive your car in-and-out of your garage.
Lunch Bunch. Join this group of spirited Pelican Pointers for lunch
on Tuesday, June 8,
at The Tavern at Lowry, 7401 E. 1st Ave. (just SW of Albertson's)
at 11:30.
All genders
and ages welcome.
Good conversation guaranteed. Broaden your
horizons. (Broaden
your waistline, too.
Food's good there!)
RSVP to Sue Million at (303) 316-7190.
Pelican Pointe Book Club will meet on Friday, June 11, at the home of Sue Penn,
Townhome #FF-104,
at 6:30. We'll be discussing Just Like Us, by Helen Thorpe. This
documentary offers a powerful account of four young Mexican women coming of age in
Denver, and the challenges they face in attempting to pursue the American dream. You
don't want to miss the lively discussion of this controversial and relevant subject.
RSVP
to Sue at (303) 399-1022.
SUSMAN UNLEASHED
by Steve Susman
One man's trash barrel must be another man's treasure chest. Occasionally, one of our
residents tries to retrieve his/her
trash barrel, after trash pick-up, and cannot
find it!
There can't be many possible explanations: Either the trash-men absconded with it. Or it
rolled down Speer Boulevard into the So. Platte River. Or, it was intentionally "taken"
by a fellow Pelican Pointer. We like to believe that nobody in our community would
intentionally appropriate another person's trash barrel. But [as they may say at Nike] "if
the shoe fits, wear it." Please be careful that the barrels you retrieve are yours. The same
reasoning is applicable to the retrieval of your purple recycling barrel: Consider making
a
prominent weather-proof mark on your barrels. Arriving at
the Baggage Claim area at
DIA: Does your luggage look like 73 other pieces of luggage on the rotating belt? OK,
you get the analogy.
The news we've all been waiting for, with a high
degree of anxiety and anticipation: Our
new (additional) dog-waste receptacle has arrived! Sonny will soon determine its most
efficacious location, whereupon it will be installed
in concrete. There, it will proudly
serve as a beacon to all dog-owners and their canine wards, offering solace and respite
from the burden of carrying that bulging plastic bag over (what seems to be) a
great
distance. Like a lost soul in the desert, who sees what is, in reality, a mirage --
but in our
case, it is salvation.
"The landscaping at my unit doesn't look like I want it to look." Most of our residents are
realists, or they understand the realities of
residing in
what the statutes call "common-
interest communities." Here is the reality: At Pelican Pointe, we have a few thousand
bushes and trees! That number is no exaggeration. About eleven years ago, the
developer of Pelican Pointe engaged a landscape contractor as part of the development
process. A master plan was prepared, designating the location of every bush and tree,
along with directions for our miles of underground sprinkling pipes, soakers, and valves.
Over time, of course, there have been and will be
many changes to the landscaping --
due
to weather, the vagaries of life-and-death in the bush-and-tree world, and other factors.
In the spring and late fall, our crew tries to identify which bushes should be pruned; how
to prune them; which should be removed because rigor mortis is evident; where
replacements should be planted; and how our irrigation system can be altered to
accommodate these changes. This task is a work-in-process. It is ongoing during most
of the year, except during the winter.
To
augment these analyses by our landscaping crew, I
take my own independent survey
each spring, taking note of what I observe in the landscaping and maintenance arenas.
Our directors contribute their observations, too. Sonny and his crew appreciate your
suggestions and comments. We try to respond to them within an informal scheme of
priorities.
The frustration of a resident, of course, occurs when he/she believes that (a) "his" or "her"
shrubs aren't being well-maintained; or (b) they've been poorly pruned (by a butcher-
school drop-out) or not pruned at all; or (c) "there are too many or too few bushes or trees
at my unit." We'd like to be able to employ a full-time psychiatrist, who also majored in
landscaping architecture or arbor design or shrub biology. We can't. Our Landscape
Committee provides some general recommendations for landscaping matters, and
suggests some specific solutions at specific sites. Sonny adds his own two cents' worth
of opinion, as do I. Sometimes, the directors chime in. And, fourthly, you residents offer
your own opinions. The net results:
a. The Association can't please all
the residents
all the time.
That is the Primary
Operating Verity in the management of common-ownership communities.
b. We try to please most of the residents most of the time --
taking into account
budgetary constraints, and legitimate differences of opinion of how and what should be
planted, removed, or maintained "differently."
Our tree program is managed, primarily, by a professional tree firm. They are
responsible for spraying and pruning the many trees here, of
many types and sizes. Our
own HOA, though, assumes responsibility for designating sites for new trees, and
selecting and planting them. Bottom line: We encourage your comments, suggestions,
and criticisms. We respect your opinions
[especially if sent to me by e-mail, with as
much specificity as you can muster], and will be attentive to each of them. They may or
may not jibe with ours.
Do prisons have pretty flowers by their gates?
I don't know, but take a look
at the
beautiful flowers that have been planted
by our knee-padded Landscape Committee
volunteers --
at, yes, the north end of our guardhouse. (While we usually don't house any
prisoners or guards there, we pretend that we do.)
These flowers nicely supplement the
elaborate flower beds that will grace out main-entrance beds and directional-map bed --
planted and maintained throughout the summer by our professional flower service. What
a cheery sight for persons entering or leaving Pelican Pointe!
June
trash pick-up:
June 2 -
9 (& recycling)
-
16 -
23 (& recycling) -
30.
Pelican Pointe townhomes For Sale:
#AA-103, #V-104, and #R-104.
Weird behavior: If you jumped off the bridge in Paris, you'd be in Seine. The short
fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large. Two
silk worms
had a race; they ended up in a tie. In a democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism
it's your count that votes. OK, so what's the speed of dark? A conscience is what hurts
when all your other parts feel so good. If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence
that you tried. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
June
Board Meeting: Combined with our May meeting, it will be held on Monday
evening, June 21, at 7:00 p.m. at The Lighthouse clubhouse.
All homeowners and
residents are welcome!
