The Board of Directors and other volunteers work many hours attending meetings to address CC&R violations, flood control, and traffic control issues.  Staying in touch with City Hall is important.

We are now putting out our third newsletter for this year.  I can’t believe that we are half way through the year already.  I am hoping that you find something of interest to you in this newsletter.

At the present time, we are trying to work out a deal with Principal Sylvia Mendez of the Ann Soldo Elementary School (which is adjacent to our Village), for a permanent monthly meeting place as well as for our annual November meeting.  In return for the use of their meeting room, we will help her with a few small projects at the school.  We will need, at leas, 20 volunteers to read to the children, listen to students read, filing books on library shelves, helping with a small garden project, and their popcorn sales on Wednesdays and Fridays.  These sales are held on Wednesdays from noon until 1:00 p.m. and on Fridays from 2:00 p.m. to 3 p.m.  All tenants of Bay Village are welcome.  You can work for 30 minutes or for as long as you like.  I think that this is a very good deal for us, and I know that the children could use our help.  Please call 761-2511 and leave your name and phone number.  We will give this information to the school, and they will call you to find out the times you are available to help the children.

I see that we still have our mailbox on the corner of Bridge and Bronte.  That means that you are making use of it.  That is a good thing as many of us do not drive or cannot walk to the post office!  Keep using it folks!

I am pleased to announce that we have a new Board member.  Her name is Rosalyn DiNatale.  She has attended two meetings and has already proven to be a productive member of our team.  She is known to many locally as the, “Quilt Lady.”

We are still having trouble with the speeders on our Village streets.  The city did put in some cement dividers to narrow Bridge Street at one end. Even so, some of the neighbors in that area say that only about 2% pay any attention to it.  The city and the police are trying to help with this problem.  Every day I see one or two police cars in our neighborhoods.  I am sorry to have to say it, but some of those speeders are our own tenants.  Please slow down!!

Thank You.

President Bob Fiorilla

I am very happy to report that the age verifications and assessments are coming in steadily.  As we have pointed out to you, the age verifications MUST be sent out to you every two years.  The Federal Government and California Civil Code state that in order to keep our Senior status, we must do this.  I thank those of you who sent nice notes about our work.  We can only do our jobs with your cooperation.

This article was received from a friend who is in the insurance property business, and was originally written by a lady whose brother and wife learned a hard lesson.  Their house burnt down…nothing left but ashes.  They have good insurance so the house will be replaced and most of the contents.  That is the good news.

However, they were sick when they found out the cause of the fire.  The insurance investigator sifted through the ashes for several hours.  He had the cause of the fire traced to the master bathroom.  He asked her sister-in-law what she had plugged in the bathroom.  She listed the normal things…curling iron, blow dryer.  He kept saying to her, ‘No, this would be something that would disintegrate at high temperatures.’  Then her sister-in-law remembered she had a Glad Plug-In, in the bathroom.

The investigator had one of those ‘Aha’ moments.  He said that was the cause of the fire.  He said he had seen more house fires started with the plug-in type room fresheners than anything else.  He said the plastic they are made from is THIN.  He also said that in every case there was nothing left to prove that it even existed.  When the investigator looked in the wall plug, the two prongs left from the plug-in were still in there.

Her sister-in-law had one of the plug-ins that had a small nightlight built in it.  She said she had noticed that the light would dim and then finally go out.  She would walk in to the bathroom a few hours later, and the light would be back on again.  The investigator said that the unit was getting too hot, and would dim and go out rather than just blow the light bulb.  Once it cooled down it would come back on.  That is a warning sign.

The investigator said he personally wouldn’t have any type of plug in fragrance device anywhere in his house.  He had seen too many places that have been burned down due to them.

Thanks to the great combo of more rain than usual and lots of sun, the levee plants are prospering, as are the weeds.  We’re trying to negotiate a way to get the weeds on the bank of the levee sprayed by the City.  Not the best of solutions as we want to have a water and herbicide free landscaping, but they grow faster than we can pull them.

You received, with your assessment letter this time, a plea for donations to the levee.  Ideally, we would have liked to add a couple of dollars to the $30 assessment and used it to pay for some one time help in weeding and pruning at the levee, but our attorney tells us that’s not doable.  Because Bay Village doesn’t have any common property, e.g., a club house, park, and because we don’t hire a management company as most homeowner complexes our size would do, we have one of the lowest annual fees in the state, if not the lowest.  But, the levee is a definite asset to our community and we’re trying to keep it that way.  Driving into the village with weeds and trash as the first thing you see was a very negative first impression.  And the homeowners across the street from the levee definitely have had their property value increased due to the better view.

So, we hope that when you paid your annual fee, you included a generous donation to help those of us who are trying to make the “front door” of our village not only attractive, but a statement about the quality of our community to all who walk the levee, or who drive by.  It’s an asset to our village and an asset to our City.  Let’s be proud of ourselves!

Gail Olson

P.S.  If you already paid your annual fee but didn’t include a donation to the levee, please re-consider and do it now.  It’s never too late to help the levee!

Gail’s Garden

Kind hearts are the garden,
Kind thoughts are the roots,
Kind words are the flowers,
Kind deeds are the fruits.

Since our last newsletter, our Police Department has responded to 163 telephone calls pertaining to our three senior villages!  Among those reported  by Lorraine Stucki are the following:

49        Medical
  9        911 Hang ups
14        Traffic
  9        Follow ups
14        Traffic
16        Unknown persons
  9        Alleged thefts or trespassing

We would like to take the time to express our most sincere, “Thanks,” to our Law Enforcement Officers who are always on call and on the ball. That, most assuredly includes the person who provides us with these reports, Lorraine Stucki. 

Thanks Lorraine!

Get to know your neighbors – an obvious first step to being a good neighbor.  It’s surprising how many problems, big and small, may be handled by just knowing and caring about the people who live around you.  This is a “village” though, a very large one, but we can reduce that overwhelming size by just knowing the folks on our immediate street.

If some behavior of your neighbor is causing you discomfort, worry or inconvenience, don’t wait until you’re ready to blow your top.  Handle it right away, before you’ve reached the point where your neighbor can only react defensively to your anger and demeaning language.  Knock on the door with a bouquet of flowers from your garden or a plate of cookies and make your pitch using sentences that start with “I” not “You.”  It works, you’ll see!

Practice good pet owner behavior.  You want others to love your pets as much as you do, I’m sure.  A wandering cat that uses your neighbors yard as a potty, or a dog that barks for longer than 3 or 4 minutes will not endear them to your neighbors and, also consequently, you as the adult owner.  Barking dogs are one of the biggest complaints we get and for good reason.  It’s beyond aggravating to listen for very long to an unhappy animal trying to get attention from a supposedly loving owner.  If you put your dog outside when you leave and a neighbor reports that the dog barks the whole time you’re gone, make other arrangements for your animal when you have to leave.  (A barking dog may also be a sign to a would-be thief that there’s no one at home too!)

Keep your landscaping neat and attractive.  If you’re not the gardening type or a disability prevents you from doing the work yourself, enlist family or hire one of the several reasonably priced landscapers that take care of many properties in the Bay Village.  And, owners, please check on your properties frequently if you’re expecting your renters to water and weed.  Make sure it’s happening before you have to spend a lot of money re-doing your landscaping.

If you have several cars, think carefully before you decide to use your garage for everything but parking a car.  Street space for parking is limited in Bay Village and each village and each resident has a reasonable expectation to be able to have a visitor be able to park a car in front of their house.  If you constantly overflow from your garage and driveway into the street, perhaps you need to consider renting a space somewhere for that car that you don’t drive.

Remember that this is a senior community and people are often not feeling well and need their rest.  Noise is a problem if you really need that nap or a good night’s sleep.  Become aware of the volume of your radio, tv, how many visitors are gathered in your backyard.  We love parties, but they need to be reasonable in terms of time of day and length of party.