Drainage and road damage topics at Townhouse meeting

Townhouse resident Martha Howe attended the Sept. 20 meeting of the Townhouse Association’s board of directors to discuss her observations about the road in front of her home and drainage around her home.

Howe, who lives on Kingsbury Drive, came to the meeting and explained that she likes living in a townhouse and appreciates the work done by Townhouse Association crews, but she’s concerned about the drainage and the road her house is on.

The edges of the road, she said, are breaking off.

“You’re not going to be able to just put some tar on it because the whole thing is going to collapse,” she said.

She also sees a lot of issues with drainage when it rains. Part of it, she said, was the black plastic placed under trees — something Townhouse Association general manager David Whittlesey explained the association no longer uses.

Howe said she believes water is rolling off the plastic and running down the road. If holes were poked in it, she said, she expects this would be less problematic.

Additionally, she said, she’s worried the drainage ditch near her property is designed poorly and isn’t performing well as a result. She’s also concerned, she said, that leaves clumping together during rains could clog it, and she’s gone out to remove leaves herself.

When it rains, she said, she ends up with a pool in front of her door and flowing water across her road. She’s also concerned, she said, that the driveway could be shifting because of all this.

“I got a river,” she said, “a river running over my driveway.”

Howe said she felt like her property was seeing less maintenance than others. A tiered assessment, she said, may help prevent her from paying for other peoples’ work while her property is receiving less attention.

Roy Clark, who lives in a townhouse on Dogwood Drive, said he had similar concerns. His house, he said, does not have a yard for workers to mow, and with the assessment increase the board passed in July this essentially means he is paying $75 per month to have leaves blown twice each year, while other properties need and receive more services.

“I came here 18 years ago, it was $40,” he said.

When he initially moved in, he said, the townhouses had two pools and tennis courts that he, his wife and his grandchildren were able to enjoy. These are no longer available, he said, though he believes most of the people in his court would be willing to pay extra assessments to keep these amenities.

He was unable to reach the board’s chair, Jack Adams, by phone, he said, so he came to the meeting to discuss it.

Because he’s retired, he said, he won’t get a raise to keep up with rising assessments.

“When I don’t get a raise, you’re really gouging me,” Clark said “I can go somewhere where I’m not paying $117 a month… I’m 73 years old and I’m not going to get a job to live in Drake Court.”

Adams said that the association has 1,048 townhouses to take care of and tries to do the best it can with the funds it has. Sometimes this means prioritizing work in one area at a time, he said.

“There’s no way around it,” he said. “Any given year, somebody’s going to get more service than somebody else.”

Whittlesey said that, while services may be different from one court to another, it is often less a difference in the amount of work and more a difference in the type of work. For example, he said, a home with lots of trees around it likely has less grass, which means it needs less mowing. But that same home, he said, will need more work to clear leaves and limbs than a house that has an open yard that gets mowed weekly.

In some courts, he said, the association has spent $300,000 on substantial infrastructure improvements, while others have little to no infrastructure that can be improved.

With these differences in mind, he said, a non-tiered system, like the association’s covenants require, is more fair than it may at first seem.

“When you look at all of the things we do and are responsible for … it is a lot more balanced,” Whittlesey said. “Trees are expensive, drainage work is expensive, retaining walls are expensive”

When possible, he said, the association has partnered with the city on larger projects.

There is plenty more for the association to do, he said. The drainage situation on Kingsbury Drive, he said, is something the association will work to address.

“You’re eating an elephant, it’s a bite at a time,” he said. “But we have made tons of improvements over the past 10 years.”

The board also approved a deck extension with storage under the deck on Canopy Lane and the construction of a 20-foot by 5-foot deck with stairs on Melinda Lane.

"You’re not going to be able to just put some tar on it because the whole thing is going to collapse." Martha Howe Townhouse resident