Hi all – there is lots going on, on the landscaping front, so here is an email to update you on several things.
Entrance way:
WOW! Thanks to everyone who has been working on making the entrance way beautiful these past weeks. People have been weeding the whole length, and hoeing, and the shrubs have been trimmed. It looks GREAT!
In addition, Paul put a lot of work into cleaning up the area by the rock wall and our main entrance sign. He cleaned out roots, put down commercial-grade landscaping fabric, and got and put on some crushed landscaping rock. (This was done because the vegetation there had become an unkempt jungle that we as a strata were not keeping up with in terms of maintenance.) This offers a clean look that is low maintenance – and we can now see our signs clearly.
(I found out today from Dave Milligan that he made the slate sign in the rock wall that says “Lighthouse Landing Estates, 5300 Gainsberg Road”. Cool!)
THANKS to all of you!
Mowing Service:
On behalf of the strata Council, Hugh and Suzan Chamney and I met with Island Mowers (Rowan and Jamie) last Thursday. It was good to meet in person, and Rowan and Jamie were happy to have the opportunity to talk with us as they also had some concerns that they wanted to share with us.
For the mowing:
- We discussed mowing frequency and agreed that they will mow as needed. At present, with the current dry conditions, we agreed that the grass doesn’t need to be mowed every week, and mowing can even be detrimental when it pulls up soil.
- On the weeks when they are not mowing, they will address other tasks such as trimming hedges.
- We agreed that this coming week, they will focus on trimming hedges, and will not be mowing.
For the overall landscaping contract:
Hugh, Suzan and I talked with Island Mowers about the contract overall (what is included and not included, and costs).
Island Mowers have let us know that they are losing a significant amount of money on their contract with us. Something needs to be adjusted.
Therefore, Council expects that the strata will have to negotiate a new contract for next year, either with Island Mowers or someone else.
We’ve asked Island Mowers to provide a costing for a new contract for the Strata to discuss, that includes either:
- two different options (lower and higher cost) for different levels of service, or
- a cost for what they propose as the “baseline services”, and then costs for “add-ons” to that baseline so that we as a strata could build what the strata decides it wants/wants to pay for.
The plan is that Island Mowers will provide this information to us in the next few weeks so that it can be available and discussed at our AGM.
Irrigation:
Ron LaRoy is replacing the broken timer for the lower pond area, which will allow the irrigation around the lower pond (i.e. where all the very brown grass is) to start again.
Deep Bay is on Stage 3 voluntary water restrictions now, due to the dry weather. Here is a link to the page that describes this: http://dbid.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Deep-Bay-Water-Restrictions-Package.pdf
Strata council is working to find the balance between keeping the grass alive, and conserving water. Currently:
- The Strata watering has been reduced from 4 days a week to 3 days a week.
- Council decided that we will start the strata watering at midnight (instead of starting at 4 a.m.) so that it can all happen at night when it is usually less windy, and less hot.
- And we are looking at reducing the watering time per station as well.
Thanks all –
Violet (LLE Council, Landscaping)