Fall 2018 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.  The more residents that call the faster the city seems to respond to the issue.

Our subdivision looked pretty good this summer.  Many homes had beautiful flowers, shrubs and landscaping.  There were a few instances where yards were not mowed regularly and these were usually properties that were in foreclosure.  We try to work with the realtor and bank to get this taken care of as quickly as possible.

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This spring we accepted the bid from Three Oaks Landscaping Company.  This company is owned and operated by a resident in our subdivision and I am happy to report that service provided exceeded our expectations for the first season.  It is our intention to continue using Three Oaks for the 2019 season.

This year we are going to have our 5th 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 were First Place 4127 Brookstone and Second Place 4131 Hearthstone.  The judges will tour our neighborhood the week of Dec 17 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 14^th, 15^th and 16^th.  The weather cooperated and we had a great turnout. We will definitely be doing this again next Spring. Watch for the Spring newsletter for the dates.

Neighborhood Watch – the board met and we have decided that our Neighborhood Watch will be a committee that will report to the full board.  April and Mary are going to be co-chairs of the Neighborhood Watch committee and drive our efforts to get the residents involved in ensuring we have safe place to live and raise our families.  Officer Blankenship has been invited to attend our annual meeting and answer question about the program.  Please let us know if you would like to be a part of this very worthwhile project.  Below is a survey that you can take to tell us about your concerns for the neighborhood and to join the Neighborhood watch team.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SQTNN5Z

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.  There will be tips posted on this site about different things to lookout for to help keep our neighborhood safe.

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.

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 have a nice, safe neighborhood to live in and keep our property values from deteriorating.