Congratulations to the rental office located in Phase II on being named Business of the Month. I would estimate that more than one million dollars worth of rental receipts are collected on an annual basis. It's no small wonder that many HOAs are organizing and running their own rental operations to retain profits for their own use. We amended our declaration years ago to allow the onsite operation we had in the mid 1990s.
Several owners have noticed that our water pressure has, on recent days, been very low. When the city water dept. came by to do their annual flushout seen here, I asked about the pressure. They said they measured 59 psi for us, but that we are at the end of the supply line for service. The tower in Fulton is not high enough to generate much more than that. It takes 2.3 feet of height of the tower to produce 1 psi of pressure. The worker did have a hose bib digital device with him that he attached to monitor our local water pressure. The device is not much larger than a golf ball and will record pressure for weeks. He will check back later to see if we have any problems.
This was a mess this morning. The garbage was picked up early Saturday morning. Later that morning some oak trees were trimmed and placed in the dumpster to nearly fill it. The rest of the day Saturday and all day Sunday, guests and some owners continued to pile the trash on top of the trimmings. There was an empty dumpster at the end of the boat parking not 150 feet away that could have been used. The high winds scattered the overloaded trash. Lamar picked up the litter later this morning, but when the big truck came to empty the dumpsters about noon, more paper scattered in the wind. By this afternoon it was all cleaned up again. There was a crowd here this weekend and that did not help the trash situation either. I believe every bayside condo that was available was rented.
The mailbox that has been broken was repaired today too. For at least the last three months Alma, mailperson, has had to door deliver mail that should have been placed in the second large box in the cluster, about 16 small boxes. I tried to repair it last week, but it appeared it was a lock problem with the post office entry point. With that broken, anyone could open all 16 boxes. I called Max at the post office this morning. He came out within the hour and replaced the lock and everything is fine now. Every other part of the boxes is our responsibility, but that small part is their responsibility. I can't imagine why they had not repaired it a long time ago. I would think Alma was getting tired of hand delivering the mail although not many here get any mail.
All weekend with the good weather, we had vehicles driving in to walk the HEB beach or fish there or on our pier. HEB has placed new signs about no trespassing, but no one seems to notice. I can understand why HEB would not be happy that our failure to control access to our property is allowing unauthorized access to their property. I did question one couple in a white truck who did not have a parking permit. They told me that they did rent here at one time in the past and just wanted to use our pier. So what did they think the signs mean? They did leave. Some interlopers have tried to be sneaky. I saw two drive in and one parked at 708 and the other at 101. They then got out and walked down the HEB beach. They know they stand out when they park in the open at the end of the pier.
The Friday local paper listed most of the Crowley owned condos as under contract. I'm hearing that maybe only two are left of the original 25. I talked to John and Carol Rice yesterday. They sold their Phase I condo in 2007. They are now in the process of buying back in with purchasing condo 220.
J.R. climbed the tall ladder Saturday morning to replace the light bulb on the security light by the boats. It had been out a long time. It was good to see it on again. That thing really lights the place up. He also said he has ordered replacement light fixtures for the bayside skirting lights. A few are out, but the rest are highly corroded and need to be replaced. There are 14 in all and he said they cost only about $18 each.
Yesterday afternoon the pelicans were all over the place diving into the water around the pier. I counted at least 32 around the pier, but they stayed just out of casting distance. I could see small fish they were eating and made a few casts, like a few other folks who saw the same thing. Whatever it was, was not biting lures. I did see six good sized black drum caught in the early evening hours.
The ever changing hours for sunrise and sunset have kept me busy setting pier lights. People want them on as soon as the daylight dims, but I don't want to waste any electricity. People asked me to reset the ones on the crossbridge Friday night and I got those done. Saturday I reset the big pier lights for optimum on and off times. I looked out Sunday morning about 6:30 am and saw people trying to fish in the dark. I went out and manually turned the lights back on. The people on the pier turned out to be Libbi Bosworth(221) and some friends. The were happy to get a few more minutes of lighted fishing before sunrise.