Fall 2017 Newsletter Items

Notes from the President of the Board. I would like to remind all homeowners that it is all of our responsibility to act as good neighbors – keeping our grass cut, snow shoveled off the sidewalks, outside of our homes and lots clean and clutter free and obeying all the local ordinances for Boone County and the City of Belvidere. Violations should be reported directly to the appropriate enforcing authority i.e. police, city zoning officer, etc.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We are looking for bids from landscaping companies that have ties to our neighborhood. If you own or work for a landscaping company and would like to submit a bid for maintaining our common areas, please see one of the board members or you can call or email us for more details.

This year we are going to have our 4th annual Christmas Decorating Contest with the 1st place prize being a $50 gift card and runner up prize will be a $25 gift card to a local restaurant. To make the contest more competitive, the same home cannot win the 1st place prize in 2 consecutive years. Last year’s winner was 4100 Hearthstone. The judges will tour our neighborhood the week of Dec 18 to select the best decorated home. If you are not decorating your house and would like to be on the judging committee, please contact us. Prizes will be awarded for the most appealing lighting display. As a reminder, please make sure that your lighting and displays are removed after the Holidays as soon as weather permits.

This Spring we had our annual garage sale on June 15th, 16th and 17th. The weather cooperated and we had a great turnout. We will definitely be doing this again next Spring.

Neighborhood Watch – we are still looking for a coordinator and street captains to work with the Community Officer from the Belvidere Police Department. It is a proven fact that this program reduces crime and vandalism in communities that have an active Neighborhood Watch program. Please send us an email or call if you would be willing to participate in our program.

Some of you may have gotten notified by postcard or heard about a website and application called Nextdoor.com. We have successfully changed the name to Belvidere Prairie Place. Please review this site and join if you are interested.

We will now have our website updated on a regular basis. Please make sure you check it often for new updates and announcements. If you have suggestions for future enhancements – be sure to share them. If you are a small business owner and offer a service that would be of value to the residents, send us an email and we can advertise for you on our website. You can send your submission in a PDF. Ideally you should include a special offer, discount or coupon to redeem by our homeowners. All submissions are subject to review by the board.

We want to make sure that all the homeowners realize that we are a volunteer board. We are all still required to pay our dues just like all of you. We donate a lot of time each week and month having board meetings, working with real estate agents & attorneys when properties are sold, filing out various forms and IRS tax returns, keeping track of all the finances and paying invoices for various services, writing newsletters and going to the printer, stuffing envelopes, answering emails and phone calls from homeowners and working with our association attorney to name but a few of the tasks we perform. Our goal is to try to have a nice neighborhood to live in and keep our property values from deteriorating. We still have 3 openings on our board of directors. This is your chance to have a voice and make a difference in our neighborhood.