Churchill Falls Newsletter, January 2011

Happy New Year to all our Churchill Falls neighbors! This year, Mother Nature wasted no time in ensuring it would be an interesting one, with the first white Christmas in Georgia in over 128 years followed by a week-long snowjam in January. As a long time resident of Churchill Falls , I’ve seen how the steep hills, tall trees, and northern exposures conspire to make our neighborhood among the last to thaw out. (Of the neighborhood, I think my driveway is often the very last one to melt!)

This time, however, we experienced a markedly better outcome, because as a neighborhood we came together and dug ourselves out. I saw many people, shovels and rock salt in hand, venture into the cold to clear off ice and snow, not only on their own driveways, but on the streets as well. I cannot thank you enough for taking this initiative, for that cleared the way for people to get to work and not lose precious vacation days. We were able to buy groceries and fill prescriptions. (Before the roads were drivable, I had to make the 4+ mile trip to Walgreen’s on foot to get one filled for my daughter.) It allowed delivery trucks to drive in and provide essential services. In fact, our community fared much better than many other surrounding neighborhoods because of your help. Again, many thanks.

As the Winter season is not necessarily finished, here’s how we’ll make it even better the next time:

• We are considering acquiring some flat edged shovels for future snow days. We’d make these available for those who need them for an hour or two. We’re also considering having some ice melt on hand to tackle those habitually problematic areas: the hills on Downing St. and Clementine Dr., Suicide Hill (aka Chartwell Dr.), Chartwell Ct. , and Trafalgar Ct. This will be on the agenda at the bonfire/general meeting for discussion and suggestions.

• If you would like to organize yourselves as block captains to focus on clearing your particular street area, that’s great. Let me know by return e-mail or by contacting any of us on the Board if you’d like to volunteer. There’s strength in numbers, especially for shoveling wet, heavy snow.

• Keeping the pavement clear of parked cars: In severe weather events like these, it’s essential we keep the roads as clear as possible.  For those of you with super steep driveways who can’t shovel yourselves out, if you choose to park your car in a strategic spot on the street, please do so in a manner that does not restrict through traffic. No one wants to risk injury to their vehicle (and yours!) as they try to slalom through these bottlenecks. Important: Cars parked on both sides of the road is a nightmare scenario: Imagine an ambulance or fire truck trying to get to your house in an emergency, but the street is blocked. Whatever you do, please don’t create that situation by parking your car opposite another car on the same stretch of road. In fact, this holds true year round, no matter what the weather.

And in other news:

Bonfire March 5 – Carnival! Our next neighborhood bonfire on Saturday, March 5 will have a Mardi Gras theme. We’ll get our party on at Dave McClain’s house, 3600 Spencer Lane , shortly before dusk. Hope to see you there!

Tool Time – Fellow neighbor and HOA co-President Joe Pendergrast has made arrangements to rent a thermal imaging camera sometime in the near future. This is an excellent way to find heat loss and  air infiltration areas of your home to make informed decisions about improving your home’s energy efficiency. The camera can even spot potentially overheated and dangerous wiring conditions in and around your circuit breaker panel. Once camera is in hand, Joe plans to test it out and report back to the homeowners in the next newsletter.

The Social Network – We will be establishing a Churchill Falls Neighborhood & HOA presence on Facebook in the next few months in order to provide another convenient way to communicate among ourselves. Go ahead, hit the “Like” button now!

Worthy Causes - Businesses which pay to advertise on our website go a long way toward keeping our homeowner dues extremely affordable. Return the favor and patronize those businesses who advertise with us. In fact, if you own or work at a business that might want to place an ad, contact us! We’d be happy to oblige.

New Neighborhood  Directory -  Back by popular demand, a hard copy of our new neighborhood directory will be available shortly. Please include the information you’d like to have in the directory by filling out the attached form and returning it to me via e-mail. As always, we strive to balance the desire to build a strong community with respect for your personal privacy. If you’d prefer to opt out, you can do that, too, but we hope you won’t. Deadline for entries is March 5, which coincides neatly with the date of our bonfire. (Yes, we will accept handwritten forms at the bonfire, but e-mails would be much better – and if you fill it out using the attached Excel spreadsheet, better still. If you’d prefer to mail in your form, please send it to Churchill Falls Homeowners Association, PO Box 670892 , Marietta , Georgia 30066.)

Having a tree taken down, but have no idea what to do with the wood chips? Let us know – we’d be glad to use that for mulch for entrances and common areas for all to enjoy. The same goes for spare dirt or topsoil. Contact Todd Flanagan, our Grounds Chief, or any board member to make arrangements.

Finally, do you have an unrequited desire to join the most dynamic Homeowners’ Association team west of Bryant Lane ? Contact us for upcoming open Board positions – Social Director will be available soon. You know you want to.

On behalf of all of us, have a great start to the new year.

Edward Burdell

Co-President, Churchill Falls Homeowners’ Association

eburdell@earthlink.net

678 794 9359