Homeowners' Association Meeting, and More!

Congrats to Tanya Hedges for stepping onto the Trustees for the Village Green Homeowners' Association (VGHA); and many thanks to Bill Moore for stepping off after six (or more?) years of service. We had 14 residences represented by 18 people present to plan for the management of common areas and common concerns for the 47 properties in VGHA.

The minutes and budget and 2009 assessment will go out shortly to all; the outgoing trustees determined that we can keep VGHA dues at $170 for one more year (likely not into the next!). Plans are already afoot for the VGHA Picnic this August -- we alternate years with the Great Granville Picnic, which is in even-numbered year Augusts.

There will be some other neighborhood issues discussed that will be posted here in coming weeks, but an item that we missed in covering mail delivery (scroll down and read more below) and recycling concerns -- our VGHA assessment may have stayed the same, but on our property tax bills that just came out, there was a new item on the bottom of the right hand total column, called simply "Special Assessment."

Here at 120 Bantry, that was for $18.09. Apparently, there is some variation on this number, and no one official or unofficial can find out (yet) how this was calculated. It is for the next twenty years, and will go into something called the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District -- www.mwcd.org -- which seems like a worthwhile purpose and a fair thing to assess for.

But the way it appeared/appears on our tax bill has reasonably triggered many questions, starting with "what th'eck is THAT?" and churches, camps, and not-for-profits are reeling with major, unexpected new bills at a very inopportune time.

If you're interested in some of this, you can see my blog postings and comment discussions, including some very helpful input from the head of the Newark/Heath Port Authority, Rick Platt, at my Advocate blog.

If you got different "Special Assessment" amounts than $12 or $18 on your property tax bill, i'd love to hear about it -- won't use names, but we are trying to figure out how this MWCD special assessment is being applied. Data always helps!