Refuge Community residents, Happy New Year to all from the Landscape Committee volunteers. We hope that you had a enjoyable and safe holiday season with friends and family.
We would like to provide you with an update on the Landscape Committee activities that are supported, funded, and approved by the Refuge POA Board. Our intent is for this written update to be semi yearly going forth and will be posted to our Refuge POA website under the ‘Landscaping’ tab.
First, we hope that you enjoyed the Holiday lights that we installed at the North gate entrance this year. We thought it was important to add some Holiday spirit to the community. We hope to add lighting to the South gate next year.
Second, as you are hopefully aware of from our POA Annual Meeting updates and have noticed, with the support and approval of the POA Board, there has been significant activity this year focused on cleaning up and enhancing our community common area landscaping. A new landscape company has been contracted n 2018 in Elite Landscaping and they are now responsible for our weekly common area maintenance. All common areas have had an initial cleanup completed.
North Gate: The North gate common landscaping revitalization project has been completed this year. Elite Landscaping was contracted to complete this work. The irrigation system has been completed redone to address multiple issues identified i.e. insufficient zones, low water pressure, non working zone valves, undersized irrigation lines, non functioning irrigation timer etc. Additionally, new plants and landscape rocks have been installed as well as many of the trees along the South side of the entrance have been removed and thinned out to promote greater growth of the remaining trees. New low voltage wiring has also been installed and the existing lights have been cleaned up and reinstalled prior to the Holidays. Lastly, flowers have been planted in the center boulevard area and will be changed from time to time.
Storage Lot Access Road: The access road to the storage lot has had weeds removed, trees trimmed and some piles of excess dirt removed. While this road is not highly visible to Refuge Community visitors, we did feel that it had been neglected for some time and needed to be cleaned up. Some remaining weeds still exist near the storage lot and these will be addressed in January.
Arnold Palmer Drive: The 10 foot common area adjacent to the street along the East side of Arnold Palmer from the North gate to the mid gate near the Refuge RGC clubhouse has been revitalized. Desert Mountain Landscaping was contracted to complete this work. New irrigation has been installed in the section from the North gate to just past the Swilican intersection. New plants and landscape rock have been added to enhance the visual appeal. From Swilican to the mid gate, new landscape rock has been added and dead bushes and trees have been removed.
Lighting fixtures: The street lights and entrance lights are now being checked and cleaned 2-3 times per year. Hopefully you have noticed that they are now much more clean despite the desert environment challenges and are being kept lit. If you happen to observe a non working light, please reach out to Amy Telnes so that she can organize to get them repaired.
South gate pedestrian gate: The pedestrian gate that is on the South side of the South Gate entrance has been found open on several occasions. Amy is in the process of organizing a closer spring to be added so that the gate will shut when opened.
Water Valve Wire Cages and Unisource Electrical Boxes: You may have noticed that there are these cages and electrical boxes are spread throughout our community with many being located on your homesites. Many are rusting and have paint that is peeling While not really a landscape issue, the Landscape Committee is working to address these issues and expect to have a plan in Q1 2019.
Future work: With the completion of the work above, we estimate that we are approximately 50% complete with the common area landscape revitalization. We are working with the Refuge POA board to secure funding to continue the landscape revitalization along the South end of Arnold Palmer Drive and the South gate entrance and the many remaining common areas throughout the community. You may have noticed that the lighting along the South end of Arnold Palmer Drive and the South gate entrance has some lights not working and frequently is not working altogether. This lighting is in major disrepair and will need to be replaced and they frequently will trip the circuit breaker. Our intent is to get this issue resolved when the irrigation and landscaping revitalization is completed. This will avoid the extra expense of having to run trench twice for irrigation and lighting low voltage wiring.
Thank you for your continued support and hope that you continue to enjoy the improvements that we are bringing to our Refuge POA common areas. Please feel to reach out to any of the landscape members above or Amy if you have any questions or concerns.
Regards,