Berkeley Walk News

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STATE OF THE WALK
By Heiner Fuchs

Dear Neighbors:

This year's annual meeting had a record of 36 households represented! We appreciate the increased attendance and hope that the level of interest will continue to increase.

At this meeting, two new members were elected to the BWCA Board of Directors to fill the seats vacated by Jim Gilpatrick and Dan Huntington -- Chuck Wilkinson and me, Heiner Fuchs. The Board would like to thank them both for their time and effort to improve the Berkeley Walk Community during their terms. Robin Kessler, Susan Counts and Patty Thuman each have one year remaining in their term. We are all very excited to be able to contribute in making Berkeley Walk a better place to live.

As the new Board president, I would like to give you the "State of the Walk", outlining our goals and priorities for the coming year. First, I would like to introduce everyone to the 2003 BWCA Board of Directors:

Robin Kessler (VP)
Robin has served as Vice President of the Berkeley Walk Homeowners Association Board of Directors since January 2002. She has been a resident of Berkeley Walk for over 5 years.

Last year, Robin's focus on the Board centered on increasing property values. In particular, she was directly involved with the front entrance landscaping improvement project, street sign improvement, seedling project, covenant enforcement, and other issues as they cropped up throughout the year.

Property value improvement remains a central concern to Robin as both a member of the Board and as a resident. She believes that continued improvements such as mailbox replacement, continued covenant enforcement, and pool furniture improvements will help enhance our property values. She also believes that the student standards and performance at Berkeley Lake Elementary School plays an extremely pivotal role in our property values, and believes that the Board and our neighborhood must do all it can to insure that Berkeley Lake remains a good quality school and becomes an even better school.

Robin can be found at home at 3402 Glen Devon Lane, where she and her husband, Todd reside with their two children Mia (6) and Aaron (4). In addition to the duties of "busy mom", Robin volunteers one day each week at Berkeley Lake Elementary School, teaches children's art classes once a week, and freelances as a photographer.

Chuck Wilkinson (Treasurer)
Chuck and his wife Pamela have been residents of Berkeley Walk for just over six years. They do not have any children, except for their three dogs, Oliver, Simon and Parker! Chuck heads up the landscape committee and has been involved in various projects over the last several years -- most recently, the front entrance landscape renovation. This term is his first as a board member.

Chuck is currently unemployed, but most recently was a software executive at Clarus Corporation. He is a certified public accountant but has spent the majority of his career in software consulting. During his "time off", Chuck is training to become a Certified Master Gardener. As part of his volunteer responsibilities, he is happy to answer gardening-related questions for our neighbors including home site visits. In addition to gardening, Chuck enjoys golfing and vacationing. He does not enjoy having to look for another job!

Patty Thumann (Secretary)
Patty and her husband Brian moved into Berkeley Walk in August of 1997. Patty is in her second year serving on the Berkeley Walk Board. She works for the Association of Energy Engineers as an Exhibit Sales Manager. Not only does she volunteer for the BW board, but also is very involved with the Starlight Children's Foundation. Patty and her husband have no kids. They are very active in several sports and travel frequently.

Patty was responsible for creating our Berkeley Walk website, and currently is the one that updates it.

Susan Counts (Board Member)
Susan and her husband Tom have lived in Berkeley Walk for five years. They have two children, Brandon age 4 and Ryan age 22 months. This is Susan's second year on the Board. In 2002, she served as treasurer and lead the effort to replace the neighborhood street and traffic signs.

Susan works part-time as an information technology consultant for La Vista Consulting were she designs, builds and supports customer service, information and billing systems for the Energy Industry. She has a BS in finance and international business from Georgetown University. Susan enjoys playing tennis on the Berkeley Walk Women's ALTA team and soccer on a co-ed soccer team.

Heiner Fuchs (President)
In 2001, my wife, Christina and I moved from Cambridge, MA to Berkeley Walk and realized the dream of owning our own home. As a native of Germany, I lived and worked in Austria, the UK, Singapore, Spain, Mexico and in several states in the US. Now in Atlanta, I manage a German software company, which provides a web-based electronic patient records application to hospitals. You certainly have seen me walking the streets with my German Shepherd, Anka, who had just won the first price in an obedience trial!

What are our plans and priorities for this year?

1. Improve property values through upgrading of the neighborhood.
Last year the board initiated the upgrading of our front entrance landscaping, which should be completed by the end of February. Shortly, Chuck will be providing a detailed account of the plant material and what to expect this year and in the future. This article will be placed on the Berkeley Walk website for those interested.

We also upgraded our street signs to "cast iron" aluminum, which was a great success. To further enhance the outside appearance, we will upgrade the existing mailboxes to match the street signs. You should have received a detailed letter about this next important project.

Before the pool opens, we will also be replacing and adding additional pool furniture. We will also replace the current access system with either new keys or number locks. Since we are looking into how to better restrict access for unwanted trespassers, I can only appeal to all of you to make it difficult for freeloaders to enjoy our pool.

2. Communication
Many of you would like to receive more information on what is going on in our neighborhood and what the board is up to. I encourage you to visit our website frequently at www.berkeleywalk.com. If you like to write articles for the web site or have other input please contact Patty.

We thought it would be a good idea to have more frequent homeowner association meetings. Hence we have decided to have an additional meeting in May and one in October. I hope you all will be coming.

Our block captains are a vital part in communicating with the neighborhood. I would like to communicate more often with the block captains to get their and your input. Their names and the blocks they oversee will be published on the web site. I encourage you to talk more frequently with your block captains.

3. Rejuvenate the committees
The committees are vital to getting everyone engaged in community work and keeping our costs down. Robin did a great job with the sign-up board for the annual meeting, but we still have spaces to fill for the following committees:
Pool
Social Committee
Holiday Decorations
If we cannot find more volunteers, we either have to scrap some of the programs or hire someone to do it. Please come and join us!!

4. Covenants and Safety
Before being elected, I made it very clear that this was an important issue for me. I take your vote to have me on the Board as a support for covenant enforcement.

The covenant does not exists to annoy you or give some board members the opportunity to exercise power but rather to keep Berkeley Walk a great place to live and help to improve property values. No one likes to enforce it, but it has to be done!

We will have an external covenant enforcement officer going through the neighborhood and compiling a list of violations monthly. Please refer to your covenant declaration for details or contact me if you are unclear about any regulations.

Most of the violations are easy to fix and the majority of homeowners have been cooperative. The top five reasons for violations are:

Edging your lawn
Weeding your flower beds
Paint your mailbox (should be obsolete soon)
Garbage Cans in line of view (except collection day)
Broken and missing mullions (window panes)

5. Traffic safety
Walking my dog twice a day, I can readily see that we really need to slow down and obey the stop signs. People should not be afraid to have their kids playing on the road or pedestrians having to jump into a yard for fear of being run over.

I have asked the city to increase the police patrol. If you have special concerns with certain drivers please let me know. The Gwinnett police will be happy to keep a special eye on repeat offenders.

6. Social Events
To makes this a more enjoyable neighborhood, we should increase our social interactions. We need to plan and execute more community events, like block parties, tennis tournaments, Christmas party, swimming lessons, bowling, etc.

It would be really great if some of you would come forward to join the social committee and help out. We have funds in the budget to support these activities.

7. Liaise with City and County
One of us will be attending city council meetings to keep you abreast of issues relevant to our neighborhood. If you have any special concerns please drop me an e-mail or join us for the meetings.

All of this is only possible through your active participation, lets work together to make Berkeley Walk our dream community!

We would like to hear from you.

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LANDSCAPE UPDATE

The Berkeley Walk Front Entrance
Seasons of Interest!
By Chuck Wilkinson

During the Summer of 2002, it was determined that a major overhaul to the Berkeley Walk front entrance landscape was desirable and would give our neighborhood a more 'upscale' look and ultimately increase our home values.

By Fall, plans were drawn up and a landscape company was selected to install and maintain it. The majority of the work was completed by Christmas with the remainder by the end of February. This time of year is ideal for landscape installation. Our new plantings will have had plenty of time to grow established root systems and be very "sturdy" prior to facing the heat and stress of an Atlanta summer!

This project was a large investment for our neighborhood. In some instances, it will require a little patience - especially regarding the development of the evergreen hedge along South Berkeley Lake Road. We tried to select large hedge trees, but it will still take at least three years to develop the "privacy" look that everyone expects. We will work hard to keep our plants happy and healthy, so they grow at their maximum rate.

I want to introduce everyone to the different plant material that is now being used and identify the seasonal interest offered by each plant in the design. One of the critical requirements of this plan was to ensure that there was something to enjoy throughout the year. Interestingly, anyone driving into our neighborhood could see up to 40 different types of plants not including our seasonal annual display! Of that, there are 23 different species of trees represented - both deciduous and evergreens. At least 10 of these trees will grow to heights exceeding 40 feet! Striking flowers will be produced by 16 of the trees, shrubs, perennials and vines beginning in late February and carrying through September. In the Fall, at least 11 types of trees and shrubs will stand out with outstanding color throughout that season. Of all the plant material, nearly half is evergreen or semi-evergreen to ensure privacy and accents throughout the property. To provide additional evergreen interest, we have used seven types of hollies, three types of magnolia, cedars, junipers, abelia and cleyera all provide differing foliage textures and colors (silvery, bluish and deep greens). We have created an abundance of annual beds in the center island and flanking the left and right side of the entrance. This design will allow for intense flower displays that change twice annually and provide for the flexibility to use different plants and flower colors from year to year.

And hopefully, you will notice an extensive use of an ornamental known as Pink Muhly Grass (Muhlenbergia capillaries). Personally, I am not a big fan of grasses, but I was completely taken by this one when I saw it blooming at the North Carolina State Arboretum outside of Asheville this past October. It will bloom in late August and into September locally. The flowers create a haze of cotton candy pink blooms that sway gently in the breeze. In large mass plantings such as we have, it will most definitely turn heads. As with a lot of the plant material we have used, you will not find it in too many other subdivision front entrances. It helps make our look a unique one!

I have tried to provide a plant list including season(s) of interest and pertinent comments. If you have any further questions about any of the plants including wanting to know where you can buy them, email me at cbwilk@bellsouth.net, and I will be happy to help out. I hope all of you enjoy our investment for many years to come!

Please click here to see the plant listing. This file will open in Microsoft Word.

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LITTLE REMINDERS

Great efforts are being made to improve the appearance and safety of our neighborhood. Here are some no cost ways in which we can all participate in making our neighborhood more attractive, and preserve our property values.

ALWAYS put out trash in properly-secured containers. Recycling is admiral, but the purpose is pretty much defeated if the materials to be recycled instead become litter. Recycling, including papers, cans and glass, should be placed in the recycle container, and the elastic cords hooked over it. This makes a HUGE difference in the amount of papers, plastic milk bottles, and other trash blowing around in the neighborhood. Anyone that does not have a recycling container equipped with elastic cords can obtain one by requesting it from the scavenger service. By not putting trash out too early, for instance on holiday pickups, and by promptly retrieving the empty containers on the day of trash pickups will also help.

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Save TIME on your lawn - and grass clippings
By Chuck Wilkinson

It may be a bit premature to be talking about cutting the lawn already, but in order to take advantage of what I am about to tell you, there is some preparation that you need to do - and now is a good time to do it!

In a recent class I attended, taught by Dr. Wayne McLaurin, an Extension Horticulturist at the University of Georgia, I learned about a technique known as grasscycling. I think it is a sophisticated term for mulch mowing! I have been using a mulching mower for years, and therefore, let the grass clippings fall back into the lawn and serve as fertilizer for my grass. To be quite honest, I mulch mow because I hate bagging grass. It used to take me 50% longer to cut my lawn when I was a bagger. I also hate having the clippings stick to me when I dumped the grass into a bag or pile!

When I drive through the neighborhood, I see a lot of brave souls who still cut their own lawn - and bag it. It turns out that even if you don't have a mulching mower, you can still mulch mow your lawn. No special blade or mower is required. Everything has pro's and con's, and this topic is no different:

The pro's:

• Every time you cut your lawn (if you mow regularly), it will take you significantly less time.
• You won't have those ugly piles of Bermuda grass in the corner of your back yard!
• You won't have to buy those curbside yard refuse bags from Home Depot anymore.
• The grass clippings serve as excellent fertilizer for your lawn. Most of the nutrients in grass reside in the top third of the blade - the part that you cut off when you mow. So essentially, you are putting the nutrients back down where they can be recycled by the lawn.
• You are being environmentally responsible by not filling our landfills with useful organic material.
• You can spend more time in your air conditioned home during the course of the hot summer!

  The con's:

• You must keep a sharp blade on your lawn mower.
• You must cut your lawn when it is dry (you should do this anyway!)
• You must be disciplined about cutting your lawn regularly. Bermuda grass should be kept at a height of 1-2 inches, and you should not cut off more than a third of the blade in any single cutting. You may find that you have to mow one additional time per month during the height of the growing season, but studies show that you will definitely spend less time mowing overall.

And despite popular belief, grass clippings are not the major cause of thatch. A recent study notes that grass clippings decompose rapidly, and therefore, grass stems, shoots and roots are the actual cause.

So how do you get started? If you have not already done so, get your lawn mower tuned up for the next season. Whether you do it yourself or take it to a shop, make sure that in addition to fresh oil and a new spark plug that you replace the blade or have it sharpened. Do it now to avoid the rush, so you are ready to go when the time comes to start cutting.

Finally, click on the url, www.ces.uga.edu/agriculture/horticulture/grasscycling.html for more information on this topic. You will find a number of very good publications regarding lawn care available to you at this site.

Happy mowing!