Winter Newsletter

SANTA IN THE PARK DEC 15

The Santa in the Park party will be held Sunday, Dec 15 from 12:30 to 3:30PM at Kay Redden Park. Last year’s party was a big event, don’t miss it! More here.

Assessment increase for 2025

Annual Assessment due Jan 1 2025 will increases $20 to $380. This reflects a 5.5% increase, and only the second increase in 20 years. We have been doing well managing finances, but have not been consistently setting aside funds — the recommendation from the new Reserve Study (on TownSq) we are following will set aside the increase ($35K) to meet vendor cost increases and unplanned expenses (e.g. ice storm cleanup and repair) as well as major reserve maintenance like the Lakeline Pool replastering this year.

If you had setup automatic payments, please change the amount to reflect the increase. Look out for the invoice in your mail later in the year.

UPDATE ON LAKELINE LANDSCAPING

We are working with the City of Cedar Park to upgrade irrigation on Lakeline between Buttercup Creek and Zach Russell. We hope to start planting trees on that section of the road before the end of the year as part of a multi-year master plan for replanting along Lakeline.

NEW LEASING RULE

The Board has approved a new Leasing Rule to restrict short term rentals. The document has been officially recorded with Williamson County as of Sept 10 2024. In general, the rule states a minimum lease term of 30 days, and requires lease documentation to be submitted to the Association. The Board will be pursuing an amendment to the CCRs in 2025 for a minimum 12-month lease term, and welcomes your support to help gather signatures.

NATIONAL NIGHT OUT

There was a good show of support from our Cedar Park government, police, animal control, firefighters, and others at the October National Night Out event at Kay Redden Park. Plenty of pizza, drinks, face painting, and snow cones! It was a good time to talk with our mayor and mayor pro tem, the chief of police and others in the department, finishing the night with a light show and demonstration by Quint 2!

Homeowner 101 - KNOW YOUR SHUTOFFS

Introducing a new series of tips for the homeowner. Our first installment is on how to locate and shut off water, gas, and electric to your home in case of emergency. Good idea to look around your property to locate these before there is a crisis!

Water

water meter and cutoff

Water meter, cutoff valve, and irrigation valve in green.

Cutoff valve uncovered.

Locate your water meter, which is likely toward the front of your property in the utility easement. Note the meter box is City use only. The cutoff valve is located near it, conveniently labeled ‘Property Owner Cutoff’. Note your meter may be next to your neighbor’s, but should be closer to your house. Other items you may notice nearby are irrigation valve boxes (green cover in the photo above) and sewer cleanouts (the white PVC cap you have likely run over with the mower).

To shut off water, reach in and turn ‘righty tighty’. If you cannot locate the valve, or find it doesn’t move, contact Cedar Park. When you turn it back on, open one faucet in the highest floor of the house to bleed the air—start slowly (quarter turn) to avoid overpressure.

Electric

Main electric panel and meter (telephone line as well)

Conveniently labeled main breaker

GAS

Gas meter and valve

Note you should never need to shut off your gas, and if you do, you will need to contact Atmos to turn it back on as there are safety steps to follow to prevent problems. And if you are having work done, your plumber will know the proper procedures and permits.

If you smell gas (the ‘rotten egg’ smell of mercaptan added to odorless natural gas) leave the property immediately and call 911 from a safe distance. Don’t try to diagnose it yourself.

However, in the case of emergency—earthquakes (not common here, for now), wildfire, tornado, poor judgement DIYs—it is good to be familiar with the equipment. There are 2 valves circled on the photo, one from the ground before the regulator, and one after the meter to the house. You need a crescent wrench to turn one of these perpendicular to the line—so the holes line up (this is where the gas co. would put a padlock when service is discontinued). Note there may be other levers on the lines that turn off gas to different appliances or parts of the house.

If you have other suggestions or questions about your house, please contact us.

Summer Newsletter

Dive-In Movie this Saturday 8/10/24 at Kay Redden Pool.

Please join us for ‘Back to the Future’ at Kay Redden pool this weekend! Movie starts at 8:30. Snacks and drinks will be provided. Bring your key tag to get in as normal or ask nicely at the gate!

Board meeting Tuesday 8/13 at 7PM

Join us for the August WBCHOA board meeting this coming Tuesday at 7PM. We had to cancel the July meeting thanks to the statewide internet outage, and couldn’t reschedule to meet vacation schedules and TX meeting notice rules. The meeting will again be on Zoom, you will get an email notice to direct you to TownSq for the agenda and Zoom password. If you can’t access TownSq, contact us. You can change email notification settings through your TownSq profile.

Lakeline Shared Use Path

The City of Cedar Park approved a design and engineering services contract for a 4 mile, 10’ wide shared use path on the east side of Lakeline Blvd to connect Little Elm Dr. and New Hope Dr, as part of the City’s Mobility Master Plan. You can view the City Council discussion (jump to agenda item H2) from their July 25th meeting. Note this is design, not build approval.

The board has been in contact with the City staff, as we have our own Lakeline landscape master plan scoped out earlier this year to replace drought and storm damaged trees and provide other landscape improvements, sharing cost with the City per our license agreement. This announcement essentially places all landscape improvements on hold, at least east side of Lakeline, until we understand how the design will affect our HOA common property. The first phase of our plan, evaluating the irrigation lines north of Buttercup Creek, was accomplished earlier this summer but will need to wait until we learn more about the design, which could accommodate some of our desired improvements.

Modifications and other committee volunteers

Thank you for your patience if you have been waiting for Modifications approvals. We also thank our hard-working Modifications Committee volunteers who have been stretched with the reviews. We are again soliciting for volunteer homeowners who would like to support our community on the Modifications committee, social, communication, or anything you would like to do to get involved (landscape planning? organizing? writing a newsletter?)

May Music Bingo party

Music Bingo from May

Hope you were there at the Adult Night: Music Bingo in May. Prizes were won! Drinks were drunk, snacks were snacked! It was a lot of fun and we hope to do it again. Thanks to our social committee Michelle B. and Cheryl S. for planning, and the team at Goodwin & Co for putting it on.