Butterflys of Redland Woods

Butterflys of Redland Woods Park

Redland Woods Natural Beauty

Here are pictures of the park, which is full of natural beauty. During the season of the Bluebonnets, hordes of people came to the park to take photos of their families. Photos will be updated periodically showing different areas of the park and the community.

A Time for Reform

Most of us have lived in the Redland Wood’s community since 1997.

Over the period we have watched the board go through a series of board members and management companies making all kinds of promises. Under all these members and companies, the board has never lived up to its responsibilities, when they were required to act on a simple issue, they have taken nearly four years to finally move forward on the fence and it is still, as yet, not replaced!

In all fairness we have gotten great greenway protection, signs (we don’t need and some we can’t read), a newsletter, a good playground, but little else.

But it is time to bring change to the Redland Wood’s HOA board, open up the process, and get things done. The board of directors is not an insiders club, it is not a secret society, and it is not here to put out ‘informational e-mails’ endorsing issues and candidates.

A board is charged with the responsibility to be the managers of the association and protectors of membership’s money and home values. A management company should never be directing the board, our meetings, or our actions, that is the board of director’s job to direct and protect, not the other way around. A management company is a vendor and has a vested interest in pursuing its own agenda, namely, collecting management and legal fees. It should be treated as any other vendor and never allowed to assume a leadership role given its obvious conflict of interest. We want to bring change to the Board and the way it does business. If you feel the same way that we do, we ask you to join us and call the board members to voice your desires.

A Platform for Reform

Institute an amended and restated declaration of the convenant;

Institute a set of By-laws to compliment the existing covenant defining the non-profit corporation;

Institute a set of Standing (Organizational) Rules clearly defining the operations of the board of directors and committees;

At a minimum, conduct quarterly meetings of the Board open to all members;

Conduct an annual survey of the membership to assess community needs, i.e., curbs, roads, signage, police protection, greenways, etc.

Expand the Board to include representation from every area of the community or alternatively for major areas of responsibility (minimum of five);

Empower the membership through wider committee participation for the enforcement of association rules;

Improve the playground by adding lights, painting the jungle gym, policing the playground, and better more timely maintenance. Retain the park and playground for our community;

Follow through with the replacement of the fence;

Expand the duties of Citizens on Patrol (COP) to target specific offenders and areas in the community;

Approach Laurel Ridge Hospital about sharing the costs of greenways along Gold Canyon and Corporate Woods;

Approach Redland Heights HOA about the possibility of having our members 'buy' into the use of their swimming pool as part of our membership; and

Greater activism on behalf of the association in opposition to the continued encroachment of development and government.

What can you do?

A lot, if you want a better community and a better board, it requires each of us to take a stand, take the responsibility to act and demand that our representatives – the board of directors - do more on our behalf by opening up the process. We are appealing to you to take a stand, act today by calling your board of directors and tell them you want change:

Call Tom Bray at 497-4125

Dwight Zeigler at email address
deputy14801@sbcglobal.net

Email Larry McDonald at
bmcdon@satx.rr.com

Immediate past board member
Chuck Graff at 495-8228 or
email him at graff-ca@swbell.net

The Fence

There is no issue pointing up the failure of the board and the Management Company more than the replacement of the fence. It has taken years, not months or days, to replace the fences along Redland Road and Corporate Woods.

It has been almost four years for action to be taken, and there is still no actual plan to start work on replacement. While fences are rotting and being propped up, those in charge worry about unfounded 'legalisms,' bureaucratically imposed easements, and procedures rather than the membership and the need to act. All of these impediments are the result of the Management Company’s so-called 'expertise' on HOA issues, an expertise that has resulted in the project being unduly delayed. During this period, the management company has continued to make money, the lawyers are making money, the notary is making money, and we, the membership, are paying for it all.

The vast majority of members along these routes have agreed to replacement. Of the 38 homes along this route, all but 10 or 11 homeowners for various reasons have not signed. It is the board members who should first approach these homeowners with a local member to try and convince the homeowner to sign. Members should be enlisted, asked, and empowered to approach these unsigned, unconvinced homeowners, those who know their neighbors best. However, members are ignored, in favor of leaving it to the Management Company for "face-to-face" convincing? Do we really want the same folks who have given us the delays?

The overwhelming majority of members agreed to fence replacement, signed easement agreements to that effect, and the project should be commenced and completed as soon as possible, without delay and without a small minority holding up replacement and affecting home values.

The time for action is now!

The Playground

The Park

1. Woodpeckers have created several holes in the wood and these posts should be cut down to stop further deterioration from the birds and rains.

2. The main tower on the jungle gym is in serious disrepair and in need of immediate maintenance.

3. The jungle gym is in need of painting and wood replacement.

4. The mulch surrounding the jungle gym in both play areas is in need of replacement.

5. At least two of the landscaping logs need to be replaced.

6. Anchors on swings are loose in the middle section of swings. Allen screws need to be tightened.

7. The basketball court has been damaged by youngsters throwing large rocks onto the surface, pitting it. We caught them and stopped them but the damage will now require the membership to pay for repairs.

8. Ties holding the bottom points of the valley fence around the basketball court have been undone and the fence is now buckling, curling up from the bottom.

9. There is a need for lights on the basketball court to accommodate adults who wish to play and workout at night.

10. There is a need for the enforcement of the playground/park rules, namely, the enforcement of the 'NO MOTOR VEHICLES' rule where this rule is abused repeatedly. We have told the abusers to stay away and called the police.