Somerset Hills VIII Homeowners Association

Trees, wildlife, peace, and quiet

Uncategorized

Those Tree Tags

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During the recent ice storm, several homeowners noticed that a number of the trees in the HOA had been tagged with metal tags during the tree survey done earlier this year. Both trees on private property and in the common area were tagged if they presented some degree of health concern. Not all tagged trees were considered an imminent risk. So several misconceptions need to be dispelled:

  1. The tags are not harmful to the trees (they were placed by an arborist). Please do NOT remove them.
  2. Not every tagged tree is on common area and some tagged trees at the HOA borders may not even be on HOA area at all, neither private nor common.
  3. Not every tagged tree was considered an imminent risk. Tagged trees were graded on a scale. Only a small number out of all tagged trees on the common area were identified as imminent risk.

Note that during the ice storm a number of trees that were not tagged suffered damage. Also note that, just as in auto damage claims, your first contact for damage to your home or property should be your own insurance carrier. If the HOA possibly bears any responsibility (unlikely even for trees on common area), your carrier will contact the HOA’s insurance carrier.

As stated before, when cleaning up your property, please do not move more debris to the common area. That’s a violation of common area use guidelines. Your board is working on plans to help our neighborhood clean up after the storm. Like it has for all areas of the city, that takes time. Thank you for your patience.

Ice Storm Damage Response

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The recent weather has been challenging for us all. Thank you for remembering that your HOA has a volunteer board of directors who give their time free of charge to help keep things running smoothly in our neighborhood.

Your board has responded to ice storm problems as follows:
First priority was getting blocked streets cleared on Thursday, December 15 which was accomplished quickly and efficiently by our tree service aided by volunteers.
Second priority has been assessing further damage, considering communication to homeowners and planning for future cleanup. The board had an emergency meeting Saturday morning December 17 to discuss these matters.

With regard to ice storm damage from falling trees or branches, whether these came from the Common Area or not, homeowners should pursue solutions through your homeowner’s insurance or auto insurance. Such insurance will usually pay for removal of branches or trees lying on your house or car, and will very likely pay for any damage.

As homeowners clean up around their homes we ask that debris or limbs NOT be moved to Common Area or to the street. Homeowners are free to haul away debris themselves or to take debris from the Common Area to use as firewood.

After our meeting today, which focused on dealing with cleanup from already down trees and branches, we have received several messages concerned about trees in the common area which present a perceived imminent risk to a home or fence. Please be patient as your board confers about how best to respond to these concerns.

Using our recently completed tree survey, we will be working on an updated assessment of imminent hazard trees and taking action as deemed necessary. If a homeowner wishes more immediate action in regard to a currently standing Common Area tree, then that homeowner may request approval from the board for the homeowner to contract tree service at the homeowner’s own expense.

Your board will attempt to plan a community work day in January or February when we will ask volunteers from the whole HOA to join in moving debris to designated sites for chipping and hauling away. Again, we ask that debris not be moved to the street nor to the Common Area prior to that work day. Cost (for chipping and hauling) and scope of that work day will be considered further at our next regular board meeting on December 29.

Thank you for helping us maintain a safe and pleasant neighborhood. If you have questions or concerns or wish to volunteer, please use the contact forms here on our web site rather than phoning individual board members or other HOA members.

Tree Damage from Ice

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As of 11 a.m. on Thursday, December 15, your board is aware of fallen trees blocking our private roads in four places, at 2929 Timberline, at 2975 Timberline, at 3018 Timberline and at Timberline and Ashford Dr. There is at least a single lane around each blockage except at 3018 Timberline. We have contacted our tree service person and he will do his best to work on these as soon as possible, possibly today. Please be patient as obviously tree service is in great demand all over the city and things are still encased in ice and still falling. We urge any homeowners attempting to clear fallen limbs or trees on your own    to be careful.

Primary coverage for damage caused by fallen trees or branches, including those on common area, will be your own homeowner or auto insurance.

Welcome to Our New Site

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This is the new home of the Somerset Hills VIII web site. Both our old URL (web address) somersethillsviii.net and our new URL somersethillsviii.org now bring you here. Please use the contact form to let us know if you find any errors or glitches in the new site, or to request the posting of information you haven’t found here. As always in HOA affairs, please be patient with your all-volunteer board and/or web site managers.

Annual Meeting of the HOA January 19

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Our annual meeting of HOA members will be January 19, 2016, 7 p.m. at Valley Covenant Church, 3636 W. 18th Ave. in Eugene. Business will include election of board members, review of financial reports, and important announcements. Each household attending will be entered in a drawing for one free waiver of HOA dues for 2016.