- Blue Mountain Newsletter -
Our Thirty - Fifth Year of Publication
Blue Mountain Property Owners’ Association------Fall 2008 & Winter2009
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President’s Corner
The 2007 county reappraisal of our real estate happened just after the most significant increase of real estate values we can remember. That reappraisal generated a number of questions and concerns from members.
Warren County and your Sanitary District (SD)are compelled to use those higher appraisals for several more years despite the fact that they are nowhigher than real market values.
However, Virginia law requires that the tax rate be adjusted if a reassessment causes taxable values to rise (or fall) more than 1%. In essence, this law keeps your real estate taxes from being automatically changed in direct proportion to significant changes in assessed values.
In 2009Warren County is scheduled to begin a reassessment which will not affect taxes before 2011. The tax rate (millage rate)will then be readjusted so the taxes to remain close to the same,unless the county Board of Supervisors sets a new tax rate to provide revenue to meet the budget needs for acoming fiscal year.
The Blue Mt. SD taxes are not limited by Va. law. Our Treasurer proposes, and the Board must approve,aSanitary District tax rateeach year that supports our anticipated budget needs. Property owners then vote to approve any change at the annual meeting. So your SD taxes don’t change because of county reappraisals.
These checks and balances of Commonwealth law and the BMPOA By-Laws and procedures protect property owners from unwarranted increases in their taxes.
James McManaway
CurrentExecutive Board
President
Jim McManaway 635-7630
1st VP
Nynette Rourke 635-6381
Treasurer
Pete Plourd 636-3657
Secretary
Greg Young 703-625-4241
Directors
Greg Beahm 635-9254
Chuck Campbell 635-3848
Jon Morrison 540-454-1326
Jeff Rash 703-989-9478
Tim Winfield 540-878-1375
Email the board at:
Board meetings are held at the Lodge the 2nd Monday of each month at 6p.m. All property owners are welcome and encouraged to attend. Checkfor updates or cancellations at:
Recreation Passes
Look for your 2009 recreation passes which will be inside an envelopewith the next Newsletter.
Covenants Enforcement
Over fifty notices of a covenants violation were mailed to members in early August asking that deficiencies be voluntarily corrected by the end of September. A follow up survey was done in early October and there is some good news to report. Six of the original notices were withdrawn. One was an address error, several vehicles which appeared to be parked on BMPOA roads were later determined to be on private property, and some spark arresters which were not observable from a road were later determined to be installed within chimneys.
Of the remaining violations, twenty five have been corrected and we are appreciative and thankful for the good work of those property owners and members.
Unfortunately, in sixteen cases there was no evidence of any improvement. In three cases, the owner could not be located. Most of the rest have been discussed with or turned over to Warren County’s Zoning and Planning or its Building Inspections Departments.
Please continue to help us protect property values and to keep our community an attractive and safe place to live.
Jack Davis,
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Roads Report
In early October Warren Count hosted a meeting of officers from all nine Sanitary Districts. We were briefed by Doug Stanley, County Administrator,Blair Mitchell, County Attorney, and David Beahm, County Building Official. David briefed on State Erosion and Sediment control (E&S) requirements which could have important implications for our road maintenance efforts. Basically, Virginiais tightening up on counties to enforce laws like the Clean Water Acts going back to the 1970s. In the future, BMPOA will have to obtain permits and possibly engineering surveys to:
- widen road surfaces,
- add or deepen roadside ditches,
- add driveway culverts,
- change the size or location of culverts,
- add cuts to roadside ditches to change the discharge of water, or
- change the road surface to anything other than the existing material.
Normal road maintenance such as grading, repairing potholes, reopening existing culverts, or applying more gravel is not impacted.
The county is under increasing pressure to levy significant fines for violations. Our contractors will be advised of these new restrictions and required to adhere to them.
Fortunately, a number of our roads were reworked in recent years that now would require expensive engineering surveys, permits and inspections.
Jeff Rash, Chairman, Roads Committee
From The Lodge
Missy McManaway has volunteered to take over lodge reservations as a part of Jon Morrison's Recreation Committee. Missy can be reached at:
Home, M-Th(703)532-4481,F-Sun (540) 635-7630
Cell (540) 622-4966 or,
The lodge is available from about the middle of May until late October and may be reserved for social events, weddings, and so forth,sponsored by a Blue Mountain Property Owner.
The rental fee currently is $150.00 of which $100.00 is a refundable cleaning deposit.We expect it to be properly cleaned after each use because the $100.00 can be easily exceeded by a professional crew ifwe have to pay to have it done. If that is the case the property owner will be responsible for additional costs incurred.
The kitchen area includes a range for warming food and a refrigerator. The kitchen cannot be used for "cooking" due to county/insurance requirements. There are 32 folding tables and approximately 128 chairs which may be configured to meet theproperty owner's needs. A hot/cold food buffet bar is also available.
The lodge has no heat or air conditioning though it has always been comfortable with the windows open and the overhead fans on.Large ladies' and men's rest rooms are located in the basement. The executive board meeting room and adjacent small bathroom on the main floor may be configuredas a bride's dressingroom if necessary. There is ample parking on two levels in front of the building.
The building is still not certified in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) so it can only be rented by "property owners”. There are plans to reconfigure it to be ADA compliant.
A property owner who anticipates renting the facility should contact Missy McManaway to make an appointment to visit the lodge andactually see what is available.
Wildfire Mitigation Program
It is unlikely that any of the Warren County Sanitary Districts will be receiving any state funding in 2009 to pay for chipping and removal of deadfall. However, the Virginia. Dept. of Forestry (VDOF) is trying to move forward with other programs that will continue to improve the fire safety in our communities. I have been working with our state Wildfire Mitigation Officer to draft an emergency evacuation plan for Blue Mountain Subdivision to include designating certain of our roads as emergency evacuation routes, opening emergency use roads to allow evacuation to the north and south into adjacent subdivisions, and signs to route outgoing traffic to minimize blocking roads to incoming firefighters. A pamphlet is in draft and will be mailed to all property owners when the plan is finalized.
I have discussed the possibility of property owners’ agreeing to give dead and downed trees to commercial wood sellers to reduce the fireload. Over a dozen of you contacted me to try that approach. To that end I contacted several woodsellers in the business in our area. (continued, pg 3)
Not one of them was interested in our free, dry, hardwood because they already have customers who are willing, and sometimes eager, to pay to have trees removed that can then be split and sold for firewood.
In light of our vulnerability to an out of control woods fire, the VDOF strongly recommends that we put first priority on keeping dead trees, limbs, brush, woodpiles and other combustibles at least 30 feet away from buildings, cabins and homes.
Jack Davis, Firewise Program Manager
or 941-346-5253 (Nov-May)
Jim’s Reflections On Winter Driving
During winter one of our challenges is navigating our steep and narrow roads. Three years ago I offered some suggestions based on my having lived up here for a lot of years, having been Chairman of our Roads Committee back in the 1980s and again in 2004, and since then the coordinator of our snow plowing. The Board recently suggested that I reprint those suggestions for the benefit of new members.
It is best that one person control the operation and thus the costs. This is how I have approached snow and ice and why and how I plan to continuein order to stay within our budget:
- I follow VDOT's guidelines on snow removal tempered by half a century of combined experience with our contractors, most of whom live up here.
- When we have a significant amount of sleet or snow, I have our contractors plow during or near the end of the precipitation cycle.
- I normally call the plows out when we reach four inches on the top of the mountain where it accumulates fastest. The weather predicted to follow the storm also affects my decision to plow or to wait.
- Contractors are instructed to plow snow down to where some patches of gravel or dirt are showing so you can steer for these patches and your tires can get some purchase. If there is solid ice under the snow which can't be plowed, they are to clear the snow off the top of the road so that we can gravel it later.
- After plowing, and depending on road conditions and the forecast, we may have gravel laced with calcium chloride spread on top of the ice to improve traction.
- If rapid thawing and refreezing is expected, new gravel can be mashed down into the mud, refreeze and become useless for traction. (There have been occasions when we could have easily spent an additional $1,500 per day for a week replacing gravel which would have sunk into the ice or mud.)For this reason, I sometimes delay spreading gravel.
- Some roads may need to be graveled twice as often as others because of their steepness, the amount of traffic they bear, or the amount of thawing.
- Because of the severity of a storm, it may be impossible to open all roads, or any roads, for a time. In that case we will try to post notices on: (Any property owner can read the notices or join the group to provide comments.)
- We pay to plow. People who have plows or other equipment that can move snow should let me know at 635-7630.
- We can’t afford to call in plows and gravel trucks every time snow or ice is threatened for a nearby town or city. It might or might not happen here.
Ice events don't occur every year but they tend to last ten days or so when they do. Though this gets old very quickly, it is not long-lived enough to be a major focus of remedial action to the extent that we would need to raise our sanitary district fees significantly in the hope of making our roads a little bit easier to drive in bad weather.
Vehicles with 4-W-D are a big help in being able to live up here year round. But the way to ensure mobility is a full set of tire chains which will permit travel on any of our roads in anything but deep snow. Though I hate putting them on, when I have to move (such as go to work) they are the ultimate answer.
Living in a place like Blue Mt. in the winter has its perils and challenges and, in my opinion, some of them are just not fixable regardless of how much money we throw at them. Your Board keeps some additional funds in reserve for unusually heavy ice and snow or a late storm but wants to avoid using that unless absolutely necessary.
However, this Sanitary District operates as a democracy and if a majority of the property owners think that we should take another approach, we will of course attempt to do so with the funds approved by the membership.
Jim McManaway
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BLUE MOUNTAIN PROPERTY OWNER’S ASSOCIATION
P.O. BOX 114
LINDEN, VIRGINIA 22642
Address correction requested
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