Effective Wednesday, Sept. 20th Family Lawn Care will take over the maintenance of Meadow Walk’s common ground areas. After repeated attempts to have McKenzie Signature & Landscaping, our present lawn care company, improve the quality of their work, and abide by the terms of their contract the board voted to replace McKenzie at Wednesday nights HOA meeting. Family Lawn Care submitted a proposal detailing the services they’ll provide, the proposal was voted on and approved at the HOA meeting held on Wednesday, Sept., 13th. Family Lawn Care comes to us highly recommended and have an outstanding reputation in the Sarasota area.
The board would like to thank Diane Treharne for all her efforts in this matter. We would also like to thank Eddie Martin for his continued diligence in over seeing the maintenance of Meadow Walks landscaping and general appearance. Both your efforts are greatly appreciated by the entire community.

It has recently come to the Board’s attention that Waste Management has been doing a horrendous job of trash collection in our neighborhood. I’m sure you have all noticed the thrown trash cans and littered streets when you arrived home on Tuesday afternoons. We have lodged a complaint but would like to encourage each resident to do the same. You can register a written complaint on www.wm.com and/or a verbal complaint at 941-924-1154.

Sarasota County has changed lawn watering days. Effective immediately, odd-numbered houses are no longer to water on Sundays, but on Thursdays. The news said there will be fines for those who do not adhere to the new schedule. Even-numbered houses will continued to water on Tuesdays. Irrigation is prohibited from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., except irrigation with recycled wastewater, which is allowed any time, any day. Reclaimed water users must comply with the time of use restrictions. There is no limit to the number of days that reclaimed water irrigation may occur. Hand watering of plants, excluding lawns, is permitted any day. Cars may be washed anytime, as long as a hand held hose with a shut-off nozzle is used. Rinsing boats and flushing boat motors is allowed for 10 minutes daily.

The clean up and refurbishing of our wetlands continues. The water in the lakes is finally high enough, tilapia are gone and most of the west indies grass is dead. Plants are being chosen for the shelf and will be planted in a couple of weeks. We’ve signed a contract to clean up the existing wetland buffer, perform selective spraying and then proceed in the removal of invasive species. We will then undertake a monthly maintenance program to control it so it does again get out of hand again.

The total cost to the HOA will be $1200 for the initial work and then $50 per month to maintain our wetlands. The wetland area has to be brought back to it’s original size by the landscapers. The long grass surrounding this area is just that, grass. They keep getting further and further away from the original line. We will work with the landscaping company to show them what needs to be done.

We on the board would like to thank fellow member Diane Treharne for all her tireless efforts in spearheading this project.

That being said, we again wanted to take this opportunity to remind all of you about a few things that continue to be brought to the boards attention:

• Please remember to be careful when driving through the neighborhood – the children are back in school, the speed limit in Meadow Walk is 20 mph! Please remind your visitors, too, that they should drive slowly.

• Please check your post-lights after dark to be sure they are working properly. Also, don’t forget to adjust any timers for landscaping lights – you’ll save energy costs by setting them for later in the evening.

• As always, a reminder – you must keep your dogs leashed when on or off your property, and always pick up after them!

• Please remove all ladders and construction material from the roofs of vehicles when parked overnight.

• There is absolutely no renting of any space within any home. The association documents are clear as to the procedure regarding leases. We need to know who is living here, and no one may sub-let or rent any portion of his or her home to anyone. Renting of entire homes is allowable, under the guidelines of the “Declarations of Maintenance and Land Use Provisions”, Section 4.2.

Finally, we’d like to extend our welcome to all of our new residents. Meadow Walk is a great place to live.