07-06-2013, 04:43 PM
quote:
Originally posted by terracore
God bless the volunteers who work on the road. Even though I'm not an "official" volunteer, we do mow and/or weedwhack the adjoining property easements that seem to have no owners, and prior to this last incident I have put fill into one of the lakes on the road down from our house. I'm definitely not slamming the volunteers... as I am one of them. But this brings up a good point... where do the road association fees go? Why are we entirely reliant on volunteers? Why can't they pay somebody to check out an imminent danger?
I work two full time jobs. I am not able to join the board or go to meetings. The time I can dedicate towards the road problems thus far have been spent writing checks, filling holes, taming the road jungle, and bitching about the problems here.
There are quite a few "imminent dangers" around the sub-division. To answer your question as to why we can't simply "pay somebody", goes to the issue of one board member who pretty much put a stop to all maintenance work being done in OL because the crew at that time did not have a contractor's license.
Logically then, your would ask if this ONE issue did not cost more than $1K to fix, would it be necessary to hire a contractor? The DCCA made it clear that any road work done on a particular stretch can be counted up to 3 years back and that if the cumulative value exceeds $1K, all that work required licensing. Total BS in my book but it is what it is.
Kudos to you for volunteering, I do quite a bit of work myself and am resigned to the fact that if you want it done, do it yourself. Right now, of the 60% that pay fees, NONE of it is going to maintenance other than materials for volunteer work. The rest is simply deposited and there it sits. There are very few contractors willing to do jobs in OL based on a $45K (labor) budget.
Like other posters have said, if you feel so strongly about it, go to a meeting or get on the board. Having "2 full time jobs" in a county with one of the highest unemployment rates in the state tells me you must be in high demand with employers, imagine what you could do on the board.