The 2015 Year in Review

Due to increases in both the cost of maintenance activities and the amount of maintenance required in our community of the Properties of Donsdale, we face having a shortage of the funds needed to continue with our past levels of summer/winter grounds keeping and maintenance. What this means to us as homeowners and board members, is increased personal involvement in the maintenance of the areas adjacent to our homes.

The increase passed at the 2013 annual general meeting supported the repayment of a debt owed to Alldritt at the time they stepped back from the operations of the board in 2012. Additionally, a portion of the increase was captured into a reserve fund the board can use for capital expenditures.

The board has taken additional steps to ensure the future viability of our association. To reduce expenditures, your Properties of Donsdale Residents’ Association has divested itself of the management company we’ve used for years. Instead we will be utilizing a bookkeeper, and board members will be taking on more responsibilities themselves. We are also cutting back on snow removal and summer lawn maintenance (the phased-in details of these cost reductions are outlined below).

Your annual fees will continue to support the following activities:
1. Landscape maintenance around the pond and stream courses and entrance way features.
2. Snow removal throughout the pond and stream courses
3. Maintenance to structural buildings and accessories within the pond and stream courses as well as other common areas throughout the Properties of Donsdale

The residents’ association will be discontinuing the following activities starting this summer and next winter (i.e., 2016/17):
1. Lawn maintenance alongside homes on corner lots.
2. Removing snow alongside homes on corner lots.

These maps provide the details.

How our members can help
To help mitigate potential negative impacts to our community from these cost saving measures, it is important to be involved in helping to maintain the areas around your homes by:
1. Continuing to maintain the lawns in front of your homes. This also includes adjacent sides for homes on corner lots
2. Removing snow from your sidewalks and driveways. This also includes adjacent sides for homes on corner lots.

For details, please refer to these City of Edmonton documents. See Maintaining Winter Sidewalks. See the City of Edmonton’s Community Standards Bylaw.

As per the Donsdale Encumbrance, association dues for 2016 are $339.70. In addition, to continue to build a reserve fund to support the ongoing replacement of capital assets, the
Board is asking homeowners to contribute a voluntary amount of $110.30, for a total of $450. You will find these amounts on our invoice to be circulated with our Members in January 2016. You can also view the 2016 budget here.

Communication & Board Participation
For day to day inquiries – billing etc., we can be reached at info@donsdale.ca. We currently have 6 Board Members. We have space for up to 4 more people to participate. We’d like to offer our heartfelt thanks to those Members who have supported us with their time in the past as Board Members, and look forward to any volunteers who would like to step forward at our Annual General Meeting to be held in the Spring of 2016.

We’d like to wish our Members a joyous holiday season.