As the warm weather sets in, all of our employees and departments are busy gearing up for outdoor work.

The Landscape Department is up to full strength, which is about 5 full-time and 8 seasonal employees.  Seasonal plant replacements are currently being finished up, as well as repairs and replacement to turf areas caused by the unusual yet necessary snow removal and clearing efforts required by this past winters huge amounts of snow.  During the coming summer, we will be looking at other possible methods and alternatives to utilize in helping to alleviate the necessity for piling and shoveling large amounts of snow onto grassy areas … in the event we get bombarded like this again in the future.  Even though our employees and contracted help did an excellent job for us last winter, we will still be analyzing possible cost-effective methods to speed up the snow removal process on roads, walkways and parking lots.  The mission is continuous and ongoing to find better ways of accomplishing this task. Landscaping is also set to work with Organic Sediment Removal in June to do muck removal on additional ponds.  Last years dried-out sediment was placed along the berm by Rt. 120, and they will also select strategic areas for placement of bags and the subsequent spread of this material for this coming year, cognizant of and in compliance with Village and County Watershed rules.

The Maintenance Department has also been very busy preparing the pools for their opening this Memorial Day weekend. A new pool person has been hired and put in place to care for the pools on a daily basis.  A good review of old and new methods has been learned by the Maintenance staff by their attending of the special class given by Lake County last month.  Also, the maintenance people have finished the hot patching of potholes along Vose, Chase and Clark, and the drainage work for Scott and Farwell has been completed, setting the stage for the upcoming asphalt resurfacing work scheduled to begin on June 9^th.  Quotes are also being obtained to determine if it would be cost effective to use alternate financing plans in getting the rest of the roads in need done within the year.  With the price of petroleum-based asphalt constantly on the rise, it may make sense to do this quickly instead of adhering to the Six-Year Plan.

New windscreen material has been received and installed at the tennis courts, and alternative solutions are being looked at to economically maintain or repair the surface on the two upper courts.  The Maintenance Department will also be repairing and restoring, as time and personnel permit, the insides of the Hidden Hills Clubhouse, which was torn up as a result of repairing the flooding and leaking situation in that building.  Finally, we must say goodbye to a valuable employee and asset of the Maintenance Department.  Matt Henby has been the right-hand man of Jason for several years, is leaving us.  He has been well respected by many here during his tenure, and has gone on to pursue his professional and educational first love … that being work leading him to be a paramedic / EMT person.  Our thanks to Matt for his past service here and our best wishes to him in his future endeavors. 

Our Security personnel have been very busy getting the last minute rush handled for the new security keycards at the StoneyBrook / Cambridge neighborhood.  They have processed over 95 cards, and the system is working great.  As soon as we get our re-quotes and installation of the Covered Bridge fences around their pool, the next phase of the installation for security can begin.

The CRF now has their new Golden Tee game and they are looking at ice machine alternatives to eliminate the supposed conflict with utilizing the Cabana Bar / Golf ice machine.  They also have a great month planned out for June.  Catch their ads and have some fun.

Bob Marcus, CMCA, AMS Community Manager