Tony's Lawn Service came by on Tuesday and cut our lawn. It has never looked nicer. The rain has greened things up nicely. John talked to them and they agreed their original proposal was to also trim the shrubs and bushes. They will begin to include that service on their weekly visits. That will eliminate the expense of hiring other workers to do this work as we have been doing.
While most owners wanted to rebuild the end of the old pier, Alex and the most recent storm have eliminated that simple option. I believe the old pier is history. My recommendation at this point would be to just add lights to the south side of the new pier. On summer weekends every light has people fishing under it. We really don't need more pier, just more fishing area. The south side lights could be put on a separate circuit and used only during the summer season. There are three lights remaining on the old pier that could be salvaged and used. I believe these lights cost just under $1,000. This would minimize cost and still provide adequate night fishing opportunities. Our contract with General Land Office of Texas requires us to either remove a damaged pier or rebuild it in, I believe, 90 days. If we don't, they can come out and remove it and send us the bill.
Rob has now been fully paid for the construction of the new pier. $8,800 was paid from a savings account of the HOA. We had been assessed for the total bill, but some money was spent on other items last year. Since the pier was not built to the full specifications that were the basis for the cost estimate, we thought the bill had been paid off last year. It would have been nice if Rob had informed us when this year's budget was voted on in November. I am curious to know if Phase II also received a late billing for their share of the pier.