HIGH LONESOME RANCH NEWS
A PUBLICATION OF THE
HIGH LONESOME RANCH PROPERTY OWNERS ASSOCIATION
Volume VII, No. 1 Jul/Aug 2011
Volume VII, No.1 Page 2
Jul/Aug 2011
Message from the President
To the High Lonesome Ranch Family: Greetings!
First, I’d like to say thank you to Patrick Greene and Bob Gent. In early August Patrick chose to relinquish his position on the board to concentrate on health, family and work. Patrick has done a terrific job serving as our POA President and we owe him much appreciation for his calm level headiness during these past three years. I would also like to thank Bob Gent for his work on the board. His hard work to get bids for road work gave us all an appreciation for our current contractor. Bob also served as our Treasurer – thanks again for all your hard work.
Second, I’d like to say hello to Bob Hritz and Greg Briner, who both volunteered to serve on the HLR POA Board of Directors (BOD). Now that all our vacancies are filled, we will focus on the issues associated to HLR to include maintenance of our property values, good fiscal policies, timely review of architectural review request and other duties as specified in our Governing documents.
Third, one of our accomplishments in 2010 was the drafting and adopting of our HLR CCR Enforcement Policy. I appreciated those property owners who participated in our community wide meetings or emailed the board with constructive improvements to the policy. This policy lets everyone know how a possible violation will be handled. It is my hope that this policy and the procedures outlined within will not be used. I think the most important paragraph is the first paragraph of the policy. It states: Expectations to Abide: The HLR BOD and fellow property owners (PO) have an expectation that all POs will follow the HLR Association By Laws, Conditions, Covenants, Restrictions and Easements (CCR) with Amendments, and Association Rules since they bought into a neighborhood/area with an Association and signed a contract agreeing to abide by the rules stated therein. To support a harmonious environment, the HLR Board of Directors is not, as a rule, actively inspecting for violations of the By Laws, CCR, and/or Rules. If POs see a violation they are encouraged to file a complaint/report the violation. Violations should be reported using HLR Complaint form in Tab A. If a violation is reported to the BOD then the BOD will take action in accordance with this Enforcement Policy.
In keeping with the spirit of the above, I am recommending that over the next year you look at your property as your neighbor might see it, identify any potential violations and create a plan of action to fix them. Let’s keep HLR Estates a great community.
Before closing, if you are coming out to spend some time at High Lonesome and would like to meet with some of the other property owners who live at the ranch, send an email to us at and we’ll link you up with someone. Those of us blessed enough to spend more time out at the Ranch would enjoy sharing our insights with you.
Thanks in advance for your cooperation and support.
Jo Green
Annual POA Meeting
Our 2011 Annual Property Owners meeting was held in Feb 2011. The day started with two tours on the ranch. Thanks to the Crouch’s for the solar tour and to the Barfield/Ahearn’s for the water catchment tour. Both tours were informative and interesting. We then met at the Elfrida Community Center for our annual potluck and meeting. Guest briefers at our annual meeting continued on the solar and water catchment themes with two local businessmen presenting information and incentives for going green.
Our 2012 Annual POA meeting will be 3 March 2012. We’re hoping for warmer weather and a higher participation by you our Property Owners. Make plans to join us. Send us your ideas on what topics and ideas you are interested in hearing about to .
New HLR Board Members
The 2011 HLR Board of Directors:
- Jo Green - President
- Harry Huffman - Vice President
- Eileen Ahearn – Secretary & Treasurer
- Bob Hritz* and Greg Briner* - Members at large
Congratulations to Jo Green and Harry Huffman who were both elected in 2011 to fill the position for the next three years.
Welcome on board to Bob Hritz and Greg Briner who were appointed by the other board members to fill two new board vacancies. Thanks for volunteering to serve until the next election.
Many thanks to Patrick Greene and Bob Gent for serving on the HLR BOD for these past few years.
Board vacancies come up annually and there will be two vacancies (*) up for election in 2012, if you are interested in serving on the board, send us an email with your letter of intent no later December 2011. The positions are for three years terms. Duties and responsibilities are listed in Articles VII and VIII of our ByLaws and in our adopted Code of Conduct. Both documents are posted on our website under the Governing Documents’ Tab at http://www.hlrpoa.com/Governing_Docs.html . For more information, contact us at .
HLR Property for Sale
While we hate to see good neighbors leave us, if you do have your property up for sale and you would like us to post it on the HLR webpage, Neighbors’ Corner Tab, email us the information / link about your property.
In addition, according to our HLR ByLaws, ARTICLE XIII: SALE OF LOT BY OWNER/MEMBER: states that each Member is required to notify the Association in writing, not less than 10 business days prior to the closing of any sale of such Member’s Lot, of the name and address of the purchaser, as well as the scheduled closing date for the sale. So to help us keep in touch with the new owners, be sure to contact us with this important information. We’ll work with Title Company and Cadden to ensure the new property owners are given copies of all relevant HLR documents, and ensure new owners to the neighborhood are given a warm welcome.
Extreme Weather: How we can protect ourselves
During the past twelve months HLR has experienced some extreme weather. In February it got down to 4 degrees and stayed below freezing for over 48 hours. Many property owners experienced challenges to their water pipes and wells. This past June the extreme drought conditions made the entire area concerned about fire the danger. With the Coronado fire burning 40+ miles to the east and the Monument fire burning 40+ miles to the west, property owners here on HLR were helping those already evicted from elsewhere and worrying about how we would deal with our own fire closer to home/here.
And now that monsoons have started some property owners reported getting over 2 inches of rain in less than an hour. With the lack of grasses/vegetation due to the drought conditions, those rains have caused some serious flooding on our roads and PO structures.
The question is: Are you prepared for these extreme weather conditions and is your home, barn, property adequately safeguarded? For ideas on how to ensure you and your property are as safe as possible, check out the following websites:
Weather:
- http://www.ready.gov/america/beinformed/winter.html
- http://www.ready.gov/america/beinformed/floods.html
- http://www.ehow.com/how_2093881_drive-sand.html http://www.ehow.com/how_8723035_car-stuck-sand.html
- http://www.ehow.com/how_6376071_car-out-mud.html
Fires:
- http://www.azfireinfo.az.gov/prevention_news.asp
- http://www.azsf.az.gov/
- http://www.ready.gov/america/beinformed/wildfires.html
- http://www.firewise.org/~/media/Firewise/Files/Pdfs/safer_from_the_start.pdf
- http://www.firewise.org/~/media/Firewise/Files/Pdfs/landscaping.pdf
- http://www.ag.arizona.edu/pubs/natresources/az1289.pdf
General Preparedness:
- http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/emergency_preparedness/are_you_ready.pdf
Our Property Management Contract
On behalf of the HLR POA, the Board of Directors has signed a contract with Cadden Property Management to handle limited activities, mostly financial management and collection, on our behalf. This limited contract with Cadden, while updated regularly, has been in place since the Association was formed. To help keep the overall cost to the Association as low as possible, some cost of services are passed to the individual property owners when they request or compel a specific service. The cost of those services may increase/decrease (ha! ha!) each year, for 2011 some examples of those costs are:
- Resale Disclosure Fee : $295
- Rush Request from Title Co: $60
- 3d Delinquency letters: $50
- Lien Filing and Release: $150
- Assembly of records for turnover for action/lien: $50
- Not Sufficient Funds (NSF): $35
- Foreclosure Processing: $90
CCR Enforcement Policy
The final version of the HLR CCR Enforcement Policy is posted on our HLR official website (http://www.hlrpoa.com) The goal of the policy is to help us all have a common understanding on the options available to all property owners and procedures used by the Association to enforce our CCR.
HLR Architectural Review Request and Cochise County Planning and Zoning
In the past few years, Cochise County has adopted standard building codes that are applicable to everyone in the county. This includes High Lonesome Ranch. So when you look at your HLR CCR and start grumbling about why you need to submit an Architectural Review Request (ARR), just remember that you may also need a Cochise County permit too. To check out what does and does not need a permit, or just to get more information, check out the Cochise County PZ website at: http://cochise.az.gov/cochise_planning_zoning.aspx?id=302 . So if you are planning on scraping out a driveway to get to your dream home building site, get a CC permit and submit your ARR. Next time you want to build a wall or clear off some of your lot, check out the CCR and website for the rules. Always better to be safe than sorry.
HLR Roads
So far in 2011 we have done two short gradings, fixed a dangerous washout area on Saddlebag Trail just south of Stagecoach Pass, rebuilt some turnouts on Legend Trail to reduce further wash outs, widened some of the washes on High Lonesome Road (HLR) to reduce heavy rain damage and done one emergency repair on Foothills and HLR. After the monsoons, which will be ending soon, we will do a full grading of all the ranch roads. We’ll post the grading week on our website so property owners can be sure to have the road ways clear of any debris, vegetation and/or gates that may obstruct the graders path.
HLR Calendar of Meetings and events: check out http://www.hlrpoa.com/Calendar.html
LRHRPoints of Contact:
The official HLR POA webpage is: http://www.hlrpoa.com ;
The official HLR POA E-mail address is:
Send written correspondence to:
High Lonesome Ranch Property Owner’s Association
Cadden Management Company
(Attn: Lisa Wallace)
555 East Wilcox Drive, Suite L
Sierra Vista, AZ 85635
Office phone: 452-3780
Office fax: 452-3782
Email address
Supervisor: John Price; ; 520-297-0797
If you do not have access to a computer and want to receive your minutes or News Reports by mail, contact us at the address above. If you have changed your email address, phone number or mailing address, please send us an update. Help us keep in touch with you.
Neighbors’ Corner
Remember we have a Neighbors’ corner Tab on our website. If a HLR PO wants something posted (for sale, trade, free or just information) send it to .