February 2020 Newsletter

Happy February! Hopefully you all had peaceful holidays and are enjoying the new year. We’re building on the momentum initiated in the second half of last year, and looking forward to collaborating with all of you on our ongoing maintenance, improvements, and community building in 2020. Budget and Next Dues As recommended at the 2019 PLE HOA Annual Meeting, the Board approved an increase in dues (also known as "annual assessments” in the CC&Rs) from $375/year in 2019 to $430/year in 2020. This is the first increase since 2004 and is necessary to catch up on overdue maintenance, keep PLE’s common areas in a neat and trim condition, and assure we have adequate funds for long term infrastructure and unexpected events. Meanwhile, we also continue to harness the energy and talents of our homeowners to keep costs as low as possible. For example, our recent snowstorms severely damaged several trees on 190th, almost blocking the road, but we were able to clean them up ourselves rather than spend HOA funds on professional tree services. We shared several other examples during the last HOA meeting and will continue looking for creative ways to stretch our HOA funds. The minutes of that meeting and budget details can be found here. If you have any related questions, please contact our treasurer, Larry Raklios at 425-615-1477, or Larry.Raklios@gmail.com. The next annual payments are due March 15th, 2020. We will be delivering bills in the next 1-2 weeks. Timely payment is appreciated, as we’d all like to avoid the application of penalties per the CC&Rs. Late or missed payments put a strain on the account used to cover expenses, so to be fair and responsible, we plan to track this more closely this year. Thanks in advance for your consideration, support and timely payment. Snow That snow dump a few weeks ago sure was something. Luckily the big hill was plowed and side roads were manageable, although it was borderline. If we have a future snow event that makes you feel trapped or unsafe, please reach out to this email, Facebook group, phone or text, or knock on our doors. We can help coordinate a network of volunteers to shovel a driveway or decide to pull from the emergency fund to hire a plow. Trash bins Another affect of the snow was a delay in our trash pickup. We've had a few bins left out until the delayed pickup, which is understandable in these circumstances. Now that everything is back on schedule, please make sure that your bins are not visible from the street except on collection day (Wednesday), or the eve before. There are a few homes that have been in violation of this CC&R provision for some time, and these homeowners will be contacted directly if the bins are not moved out of sight this week. Please remember that this simple act, when done consistently throughout the neighborhood, keeps everything looking that much more beautiful. Mailbox security There have been reports of mailbox break-ins around Woodinville, and we've seen evidence of tampering with our mailboxes. We're exploring ways to improve our security and could use help from you. If you already have a video security system and way to keep a spot on the mailboxes, this would be a good way to keep a close watch. Likewise, if you notice suspicious activity, please don't hesitate to report it to the police and neighborhood. Networks like Ring are also useful to being notified of activity. Volunteering As mentioned in relation to the budget, volunteering is a great way to keep costs and dues relatively low. While we already have a long list of possible PLE projects, we’d appreciate any inputs you might have for maintaining and improving PLE. Thanks in advance for your input and support in making 2020 a great year for PLE!