Sierra Bonita Village Homeowners

Association, Inc.

PO Box 3345

Paso Robles, CA 93447

Sierra Bonita Village

Homeowners Association, Inc

Board Of Directors,

Committee Chairs And Staff

Gay Smoot, Vice President

Larry Miller, Treasurer

Barbara Dowdy, Secretary

Chris Andrews, Director

Mark Rapoport, Director

Carla Crane, Manager

SIERRA BONITA VILLAGE

HOMEOWNERS ASSOC.

BOARD MEETINGS

2:00 PM 3rd Wednesday of the month

Paso Robles, Senior Center

******************

(805) 237-3880

PRESORT STD

U.S. Postage Paid

Permit #84

Paso Robles, CA 93446

Volunteers for spring inspections needed! Do you have a little extra time on your hands? We need a team of homeowners for the spring inspections. Just send an email to sbvhoa@gmail.com to get information on how to apply. No spe-cific experience required.

To insure consistency in expectations for maintenance of yards and homes, all volunteers will be trained in what to look for.

The rule of thumb is that a yard must look well maintained, whether you choose a natural look of drought tolerant plants, rocks, bark or a manicured lawn. Short dry weeds do not qualify.

The Voice of the Village A Quarterly Publication of

Editor: Paula Peargin

Website: sierrabonitavillage.com Fall Edition Oct 2019 Phone: (805) 238-9249

Email: sbvhoa@gmail.com

Fall Festival!

Mark your calendars, the an-nual fall festival will again be held at the Senior Center.

Saturday, October 19th the doors will open at 11:30, to sign-in and get your door prize ticket. Lunch will be served at 12:00.

Come one, come all residents and home-owners and enjoy lunch on us. Come join your neighbors for a fall celebration.

This is an in house party for homeowners and residents only. Sorry, no outside guests.

Reservations are a must and will be tak-en from Wednesday October 9 to Friday October 11th.

See you there

Don’t Stop Now! There is still a fall bloom waiting in your flower bed! If you dead-head your annuals and give them a little flower food you may be treated to a smaller second bloom from petunias, carnations, and asters. If you want to add some fall color, mums are the norm, but don’t forget about snapdragons, which will give you a color bump now and in the spring, tool

Shorter days are coming…

You may have noticed the sun arriving a little later and retir-ing a bit sooner. Monday, Sep-

tember 23 was the autumnal equi-nox when both the Northern and southern hemispheres experienced and equal amount of daylight. For those of us in the Northern Hemi-sphere, it marks the beginning of as-tronomical fall, with daylight hours continuing to shorten until the win-ter solstice in December.

Winter solstice in December, al-ways one of my favorite days, marks the shortest of the days of the year, and I always look forward to in-creasing sunlight every day after that.

P a g e 2 T h e V o i c e o f t h e V i l l a g e

Delicious barbequed hamburgers, hotdogs and chili are for sale every Thursday from 11:00—1:00 at the American Legion on Scott Street, right next to the Senior Center. Come and join your friends for lunch.

Please do not feed the ground squirrels in Turtle Creek Park. They get plenty to eat and it is preferred to discourage their numbers due to habitat devastation!!

We may be getting some damp weather shortly! Slips and Falls are a major cause for injuries for seniors. Here are a few reminders to avoids slips and falls.

• Linoleum, tile and hardwood floors can be slippery, and thick carpeting can snag a cane or walker and lead to a fall. Short carpeting is often best for seniors.

• Any ramps that have replaced stairs should feature a non-slip surface and not be too steep.

• Walkways and floors should be kept free of clutter.

• Handrails on stairways should be strong enough to sup-port the full weight of an adult.

• Rugs, doormats and runners should be secured to the floor with double-sided sticky tape or rubber matting.

• Use nightlights in the bedroom, hallway and bathroom

• Handrails should be installed in the shower/bathtub and

along the sides of the toilet.

2020 Budget

Passes

INCOME:

2020 DUES 550 X 65.00 $ 35,750

ESCROW FEES 34 X 150 $ 4,950

TOTAL INCOME $ 40,700

EXPENSE:

ADMINISTRATION $ 25,800

INSURANCE $ 7,000

LEGAL CONSULTING $ 1,800

MEETINS/SEMINARS $ 1,200

OFFICE SUPPLIES & SERVICES $ 1,200

POSTAGE $ 1,800

TELEPHONE & INTERNET $ 700

STORAGE $ 700

MISC, MAINTENANCE & REPAIRS $ 500

TOTAL EXPENSE $ 40,700

Safety First

The budget committee submitted the proposed 2020 budget to the Board for approval, which passed unanimously. Due to increased costs of insurance, legal consulting, and postage, it is necessary to increase dues from $62.00 to $65.00 per year as of January 1, 2020.

The Davis Stirling Act now requires that HOA liability insurance coverage be increased from one mil-lion to three million dollars increased insurance costs from $3,200 to $6,800 per year and attorney’s fees are on the rise due to homeowners who continue to violate the CC&R’s.

P a g e 3

Possums!

Recently our terrier has been an ab-solute terrorist at night and I suspect he is chasing off possums from raid-ing the deadfall from our apple tree. (apologies to our neighbors).

Opossums get a bad rap as garage invaders and “creepy looking” ani-mals that wander up onto our porch-es at night. They’re not the cutest, in fact, some go as far as calling them ugly. The reality is, opossums are incredibly useful, and typically mis-understood. Here are a few fascinat-ing opossum facts (and yes, the “o” is silent) that will make you think be-fore you shoo them away from your yard!

Opossums are voracious eaters that

will try anything they find, something you know quite well if you’ve ever found one pawing through your gar-bage bins. Ticks, particularly the black-legged ticks like deer ticks that are responsible for the spread of Lyme disease, appear to be a top item on the opossum’s menu.

You’ve probably never heard an opossum make a noise before be-cause they are usually fairly quiet. However, they do have a few distinc-tive calls. Young opossums will make sneezing sounds or a soft “choo choo” to call out to their moth-er, who will respond with clicking noises. Males make those same clicking sounds during mating sea-son. And when an opossum is threatened, it may hiss or growl.

If you’ve ever watched an opossum at play, it might have struck you as a somewhat clumsy little critter.

However, opossums are world class tree climbers, with sharp claws, op-posable thumbs on their hind feet and a prehensile tail that helps them scale trunks and hang onto branch-es. In fact, opossums love trees so much that they often nest in tree hol-lows.

Opossums are so often misunder-stood, but they are great creatures to have around. They’re docile, un-likely to threaten pets or carry dis-ease, and they help keep pest popu-lations under control. Instead of shooing them away, let them hang around and they’ll clean up ticks, venomous snakes, discarded bird-seed, old fruit and more. Among all the wildlife visitor to your back yard, opossums are one of the best to have around.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, health issues and various other issues,three di-rectors have resigned from the board in the past two months; however, two and possi-bly three homeowner’s have already stepped up and volunteered to serve.

We are fortunate to welcome Chris Andrews, who is currently a construction supervisor and site coordinator with People’s Self-Help housing. He teaches homeowners to con-struct their own home . Chris is an advocate for homeowners needing help to maintain their homes, and is looking to develop a team of volunteers to assist them.

We also welcome Mark Rapoport, who is “happily” retired from Cal Poly, “doing what he loved to do” as a gardener. You have probably seen Mark around the Village walking his Border Collie. Mark volunteered as a director hoping to help maintain Sierra Bonita Village as a “pleasant, quiet and well maintained community”.

If you have time to make a monthly meeting, and are interested in contributing a little extra time to the community where you live, consider serving as a director. To volun-teer, call the office at (805) 238 9249. The basic requirements are: to be a resident homeowner, have a computer and internet communication, and to consider all issues in a fair and equitable manner. If you are interested in joining Chris’ maintenance assis-tance team, call the office or send an email to sbvhoa@gmail.com, with the subject “volunteer”.

Ever Changing Faces of the Board of Directors