New Board of Directors.   Feb. 17, 2006

     We should give the new board a chance to get organized and see what they can do.
      These annual meetings/elections don't provide the best  forum to bring up things of interest to the members as the old board may or may not be on its way out and the new board isn't seated until the end of the meeting.  The new board still has to meet to choose among themselves for officers, all board members at first having the equal title of director. 
     An issue that came up after the official meeting last Sunday is the matter of an association sponsored trash dumpster.   Now this issue is something that should be discussed by everyone concerned, but I think the new board has it's plate full with the roads. In the long run, if this is what members want, and every argument against it can be countered; in a year or so the board should have to confront this issue.  Preferably  not at an annual election meeting where authority is transitional.   I suggest an annual meeting completely out of cycle of the meeting to elect directors.  An additional  meeting well before the election where potential candidates could spell out their platforms or agenda would also be helpful.
     You could have the pro-dumpster candidates and the anti-dumpster candidates and maybe even those who wouldn't say which way they leaned.   We as members could hear their position on a number of issues, and in the end, have an association that moved the way we wanted.
     I think it would be  informative to look at other organizations in similar situations and see what can be learned.  Other property owner associations have faced some of the same issues we will face.  Some POA's actually have major disagreements and unhappy people.  I have learned of lawsuits by POA's and directed at POA's. I have even heard of people planning to sell their property and move away because of fighting.  In my opinion, anytime we can avoid dividing people into 'us' and 'them', it is a good thing.   A  very serious issue to people at  the center of it may have a different look  when observed from the outside.  I don't have a good example, but lets say that our sister association across Hwy. 93 had this hypothetical situation: (they do not)
     Lets say they had decided to rent a dumpster, but only for those that paid a monthly fee.   You can just imagine a person in a nearby home peeking out the window to see if someone unauthorized was putting trash in the bin.  Then those that were still hauling their trash to the city of Kingman's dumpsters in town would imagine that there was that person peeking out his/her window to see if they were about to make an unauthorized deposit.   And there might be the person who decided to burn his/her trash, since it was completely legal to do so.   This trash-burning party might decide that it was safer and easier to use the dumpster if it was included in their assn. dues.  When something is pre-paid this way, people tend to use it. You want people to use the dumpster.   Anyway, if this hypothetical situation was happening to us, we could be divided into camps, unnecessarily; but couldn't see it for being too close to the situation.

"We have met the enemy and he is us!"  Pogo

When in trouble, look smart, say nothing.

Roads 1-24-06 Editorial

We have been living on our parcel two years this month. We have finally moved into our new house and really appreciate its spaciousness after almost two years in a travel trailer. If I had to state the number one obstacle to our progress, I would say it was the eight miles of ranch roads that we each had to travel up to 250 times each year. There were times we couldn't pull a trailer of building supplies into our property. Many times during and after rainstorms we each had to physically shovel sand, rock and dirt to get in and out. One period last year we had to walk several miles after association-hired equipment working during a storm became stuck in soft ground and left the road impassable in two places several miles apart. Along with our neighbors, we were able to bypass this area by making our own path; changing the route as the washbed changed. Other full-time residents had to put up with commuting through an additional four miles of washed-out roads.

I have seen roads that poor people have. They can't afford better. I have seen bad roads due to inexperience. They don't know better. A mistake in roadbuilding on a single driveway is not unusual, but we have bad roads accessing  200 plus parcels.

Was I outraged? Yes I was. I saw the damage being done each day. I tried to alert the people whom I thought had the responsibility for heading off some of the damage but it didn't do any good. Most of my sixty years has been spent in rural areas where dirt or gravel roads are maintained by knowledgeable private, county, state, or federal managers. I know from observation and work experience that there is a correct way to construct and maintain such roads. This is not an area where it is just a matter of opinion. There is a right and a wrong. Damage to roads from rainfall and flooding is minimized every time proper road construction and grading is tried. The alternative is a road design that maximizes damage from storms. You can see the result here on the ranch when proper road drainage is not done. On Clove Hitch Road there is an old, abandoned section of road where the water was allowed to run down the road over a period of years. That old road is now a deep, wide ditch. That is the ultimate fate of all improperly graded roads.

There is a reason roads normally are built and maintained with a crowned road surface. Ditches are built and maintained so that water is carried off the roadbed and not allowed to return to run down the road with even greater volume and eroding force. Everyone I have talked to with an understanding of the basics of road design agrees that it was all wrong here on Windmill Ranch. The scheduled flat grading of the roads happened once or twice a year and the dirt was pushed to the side every time, leaving an increasingly deep channel for a road - and higher berms at the roadside. In places this resulted in the road surface having more exposed boulders or bedrock as the good, fine road material was removed by the grader. Of course, the wear and tear of use and seasonal rainfall removed even more. The good surface material is supposed to be brought back on the road in the process of grading.

 In other places where the road crossed the main wash channels, the roadbed was being lowered to the point that the floodwaters had an invitation to get in the roadbed and stay there, held in by the berms alongside. Obstructions to a free flowing of the floodwater in its own proper channel, such as a narrowing of the channel by large boulders right at the point the road crossed, were not removed. Thousands of cubic yards of good road material is now somewhere downstream. This damage started with the first monsoon rain of 2004. When the roads were finally graded last July about a year after the 2004 monsoons started the road damage, they were done the same old way by the same old contractor. The majority of the damage over the last year and a half was due to improper shaping of the roads, not  an act of God.

I acknowledge that the roads weren't built properly in the first place when the developer had the roads built. They just did what they had to do to sell property. No excuse for not making improvements to road drainage each time work was done since then. I have since learned that contractors were asked to make one flat pass at the road and were  paid by the mile for the work. I saw the grader going about 25 miles an hour while grading, never giving any attention to ditches or drainage. Large rocks would be kicked up by the grader and left in the road or the pits they left would remain. The faster they scraped the dirt off the roadbed, the more money they made.

Does it serve a purpose to complain in anger when you think something is wrong? What if you instead diplomatically try to point out what is not right? What if you try constructive criticism rather than screaming outrage? In our recent past I'm not sure it really would have made a difference. I can certainly understand those of you who are also outraged. I don't think we should forget the past, but we should focus on proper construction and maintenance standards to minimize future damage.

Culverts can be installed if they are sized to handle the maximum flood flow as determined by an engineer. I think the best results would be had in the minor drainages, if the culverts are installed properly by an expert. Proper grading would have to be done afterwards so they aren't dug back out by lowering the roadbed over them.  They would also need to be checked and cleaned out periodically.  Some wash channels  fill up with sediment in some years, plugging culverts. The culverts then wash out or are covered up completely. A washed out culvert would be quite an obstacle if you are trying to get home after a flash flood.   Culverts may be part of the solution, but if not done right, could be part of the problem.

I think we now have a chance for a new start. Some of you parcel owners have not been able to get to your property. I know some building materials are still down by the highway that couldn't be delivered last year. As more people actually try to reside on their own land, I believe those people will want better roads. We who live on Windmill Ranch need to stick together to get what we want. CC&R's have their place, but when roads become arroyos, lowering property values, CC&R's don't seem as relevant.