EASTER BUNNY EGGS...

RON THOMAS


THERE IS A SIGN UP SHEET IN THE CLUB HOUSE...


If you do not want the Easter Bunny to hide Easter Eggs in your yard this year. Sign the list and we will see that Mr. Wiggley Ears gets your request.


For the rest of us get ready to hunt-em down and eat-em up.

Social Club Dinners Have a Problem...

ron thomas


The St. Patrick's Day dinner experienced a problem that could affect quality for future dinners and breakfasts.

Here is how a dinner works...

You have noticed when a dinner is being advertised that it usually has a sign up sheet? We think some of our folks don't understand the importance of that sheet.

That sheet tells the committee running the dinner how many tables to set up and how many place settings to put out . In the case of this dinner (St. Patrick's) it also was used for determining how much food was purchased by the Social Club and how much help would be needed to serve the dinner.

The sign-up sheet was taken down by the shoppers the day before the dinner and it was calculated how much food the Social Club would need to buy and then they went shopping and bought it. 21 people signed up for the dinner. 35 people showed up for the dinner and 2 dinners were sent home to folks who were laid up. 37-22=15 people who were not signed up. Fortunately, our shoppers overbought and everyone did get a dinner... Barely.

Sign up from now on ok?

RED LIGHT SEMINAR

Don't miss the coming red light seminar on the 29th of March at 1:00pm. You need to be there if you are new and want to understand the system. If you don't understand the system or you are having problems with it. Or, you are contemplating buying it.

This will be the time to learn. For years now Jim Rose and I have been going on free calls to fix simple things that residents have caused to the system and could have fixed themselves. It's always easier to call someone for free than to sit down and learn how to yourself.

Now calls are coming in about lights that don't have anything to do with the red lights but with the post lights.. Everything from changing light bulbs to why wires are brown or why some folks have sockets with tape on them or globe repair or replacement or fixing mounting brackets or rerouting wires or replacing worn out sockets or defective photo cells. These are the free calls that Jim and I have been doing for 3 years. Now the time has come for you to take responsibility for your own system. This seminar will show you how.

Larry Henson, as manager, is responsible for changing light bulbs in your post light. Now he doesn't understand the red light system nor does he understand any problems beyond changing a light bulb. Nor does he want to.. He contends it is the homeowner's responsibility.

I would like to emphasize that your red light system has absolutely no effect whatsoever on your post light... For instance it is impossible for it to effect how soon a post light burns out. The red light does absolutely nothing until activated. It just sits there doing nothing. It consumes nothing it just sits there.

This does not mean that good neighbor Jim Rose or I won't be there for you but we want you to shoulder the responsibility for your light by learning about its upkeep and cut down on the nuisance calls we are getting. Free is a good price for everyone but Jim and I want you take more responsibility for your light... because your free means work for us.

McKinley Services....

ron thomas

EDITORS COMMENT:
This article has a large on-going COMMENT conversation and is becoming difficult to follow as it approaches the bottom of the site and goes off into the ARCHIVES. Since it has not reached a conclusion yet we have moved it to the head of the webpage and put the comments from indivduals below. Afteter you read the comments you may want to put your 2 cents in too.


When you have a good experience with a contractor ... You ought to tell everybody about it. This is a fella that goes under your home and fixes level problems. In addition to that he found a water leak and fixed it. He came out with several recomendations. From instructions about air vents.. when to close them and when not to. Drainage ideas. And excellent suggetsions about what to do about your water heater to keep it from damaging your subfloor should it leak. These were all things I didn't know about with these modular homes since we had never had one before this experience.

My personal rating on a scale of one to five stars..... 5 stars. Price was $125.

Don't lose his phone number. Have already heard wonderful things about him. And we do need more people like him because Lee is getting older and Ron is swamped. Thank you for his name!
NancyLee Moore

Ron: I may have sent my first comment accidentally, and wasn't finished. Sorry folks if this is a repeat. I just paid for round trip ticket for my son-in-law to do a bunch of little odd jobs around my home. I have not personally, up to now, met but ONE honest, ethical, GOOD "licensed" contractor since I came here, and was doubting one existed. I have stories about plumbing contractors, electrical contractors, carpet installers, and contractors, in general, that would make you sick to your stomach. Recently had rubber seal replaced on my garage door, and that was an experience that cost me $140, 2 trip charges, and the man messed up the once perfect operation of my garage door because he didn't put the screws back in that held the door sections together. Ha Ha Ha, Oh my "I forgot to put the screws back in"! Oh, it was REALLY "funny". Remember, this was just to install a rubber seal, as this was the ONLY problem I had. Two trips! Two weeks apart. I am to the point of making the mistake of letting things go for lack of any faith in anybody who works in this area. I am happy to hear that someone is pleased with any contractors work! The state of Oregon seems to be interested in taking the contractors money for license, insurance bonds etc, and am not sure they really care if the contractor is worth his/her salt, or not. I can recommend one person, so far, and that's the person who repaired my roof after another group made a big mess of a repair, and the first big wind, my neighbor called to say my shingles on the ridge were flapping in the breeze. Ho Hum. Story of my life with contractors! I'll not lose this number. Thanks and thanks again.
Ruthanne Carson


Just so there's no misunderstanding here. I'm talking "licensed contractors", which I think may be what Ron was referring to. ??? I have no complaints about Cleda's Ron. But thought the reference was to licensed contractors. Maybe not.
If anyone wants to know who NOT to call, let me know.
Ruthanne Carson

And so we have here a kernal of an idea... Who would like to start a column here on the website devoted to keeping track of our folks' experience with contractors? Maybe a rating system or what have you? It would all be on one page with ratings anyone could look up when they are looking for somebody.

I have too many irons in the fire but am willing to set someone up to do it. Email me.
Ron Thomas

Previously, left a question as to whether or not we could do that...name names etc., without getting into some kind of hot water? I like this idea, and think it might be good for us. Know it's difficult to get referrals as one persons' poison might be someone elses' delight. So the rating thing ought to work, if people knew to go there and check it out, etc. Am still hesitant because of what could be some liability involved? Am no lawyer and don't know any Oregon lawyers to find out. The Oregon Licensing Board expects one to give the offending person a chance to correct problems, however, if some company/person has screwed up a job, I don't want them back to further screw it up, which is what my experience was. Makes me want to toss in the homeowners towel.
Ruthanne Carson

Legality is an important issue.
I've spoken to Jim Dodds about that issue on the site he has created and have been thinking hard about it since.

What we might do to get rid of any legal issues is to only rate those that we like. This would result in a list of contractor experiences rated from average to excellent. Also, a box could be put in for checking if the resident used the contractor but does NOT want to rate a contractor for some reason.

This could result in a list of rated contractors and a list of contractors that were not rated for some reason.

The homeowner could then choose what they wanted to do. Go with a rated contractor or venture into unchartered waters.
Ron Thomas

The site I created with the rating poll allows you to input anything you want, for the example that is posted on the site I used:

Poor
Below Average
Average
Good
Very Good

However you can add anything you want or change it entirely. You can have 50 choices if you wish...so the poll format is up to you. You could have:

Would Recommend
Would Not
Dig them a grave
Give `em a pot of Gold

everything in the poll format is open..
Jim Dodds

I like the idea of a no holds barred type of site..after all, a LOT of contractors have made a LOT of money from the residents of Longview Hills, over the years, and we ought to have the right to blast them if we feel they deserve it, or praise them to Heaven, if they deserve it. Maybe if some of them read it, they might get the idea that they can't pawn off inferior work on people and continue to get work! Now, I realize that just because I'd like to kick a few hind-ends, based on my own bad experiences, doesn't mean it's the thing to do, nor does it make it "legal" if one of them wants to get a little "testy" about it! So, if it's not a matter of liability, I say "don't be bashful". Jim, your ideas sound just fine to me! Will this be coming up at the next meeting?
Ruthanne Carson

If it's decided that other people think there is a need for this sort of page, I'd offer to do it, but would need some help getting it set up, etc.--sounds like Jim has a plan already.
Ruthanne Carson

The Social Club is for Social Activities. This is out of their purvue but the Comunity Mediating Committee has brought this up and it is the reason that the link to the Oregon State Contractor Board appears on the web page. It was also requested by them that we research a way to do this that would keep us away from legal problems.

As far as attending a meeting on the subject you can call Blaine Kalar (KAYLER) the current chairman and request it be put on the agenda and ask for a meeting date and time.

What gets put on the webpage is more of a what people want type of thing. We hear enough positive requests and it will be put on. The Social Club never has provided any help to this page. However we have spent countless hours helping the Social Club. For that reason the content of the webpage is upto its contributors and editor. Right now that would be those that write comments and those that write articles (3) . That would be Cleda Hampton, Jim Dodds and me that write articles. You are all cordially invited to be a team writer on the web page just email me.
Ron Thomas

Ruthanne,
The software that is used is "very" simple, the poll wizard is easy to create for each contractor. If you decide you would like to give it a whirl, it will take about an hour to walk you through the software functions.


Jim
Jim Dodds

Editors note: I goofed the first time around on the coding of these pixs. That is what made the web page out of shape. You can help in the future by telling me when you see a mistake. Thanks to Jim Dodds for catching the error... Sorry, this is a learn as you go operation. :)

We wore the green..

ron thomas


25 people signed up for the St. Patrick's Day festivities... 35 showed up for dinner and 2 dinners were sent home... Despite that there was plenty for everyone not to mention the green beer (a personal favorite of mine).

If you weren't there and have been thinking about joining in park activities you missed a good time but fret not because the Easter Potluck Brunch is coming up on Saturday the 26th...


A lot of folks showed up to help today at high noon and the dinner was set up in nothing flat as well as a re-arranging of the storage room.


Hope you found a 4 leaf clover we did.

Left click a picture to enlarge it. Use your browser's back arrow to come back.

A Volunteer Opportunity for a person that can use a computer...

Ron Thomas


We have clout and if we stand together as a group we can help one another in a variety of things. But this one is being championed now... We need a web page where folks can come and rate their experiences with contractors and local bussiness'. Such a site would guide folks to the business' that provide good services and steer us away from those that don't. I know the Better Business Bureau does that but it is to large and impersonal for a small community like ours. Because we do get older and are less able to do the things we used to we more and more have to turn to Services to get our things done. After seeing RuthAnn's experiences and seeing what Jim Dodds had to say I think it would be a great idea to have a place where you could go and read about how a work group performed in our community.


Our website is an ideal place for such an extension. We would create the site and take care of the technical aspect of it but another person here in the park would keep it upto date, categorized and organized. This is a job that a person with a computer could do. If you are disabled but want to help the park in some way and your neighbors this could be for you.

Residents fight park-sale law

from the stateman journal

Manufactured-home park owner says he won't evict anyone

CRYSTAL BOLNER
Statesman Journal

March 5, 2005

For-sale signs are posted on 16 homes in the Iris Village manufactured-home park, a 28-lot housing park off O'Neill Road.

The residents in the park are upset about a law that allows manufactured-home parks to be subdivided and individual lots sold.

Though residents are given first choice to purchase the individual lots, loopholes in the law could allow park owners to force residents off the property if they choose not to buy.

Donna Burleigh and her husband, Stephen, faced that choice four months ago when they received a letter from the owner of the park saying the park had been subdivided, and they had 60 days to decide whether they were going to buy or move.

The note said: "Please be advised that if you elect not to purchase your lot, we will be selling it to another buyer who will probably locate a new manufactured home on the lot. The sale of your lot to a third party who is interested in locating another manufactured home on the lot will result in your having to remove your home from the lot. We do not intend to own any lots in Iris Village in the future, so we recommend that you purchase your lot if at all possible."

Burleigh, then the assistant manager of the park, said that was when she began talking to her neighbors.

"It was scary," Burleigh said. "Where do I move this home? It doesn't have wheels underneath it, and I don't have the money to move it if I wanted to."

Manufactured home parks in Oregon are one of the victims of rising property values across the state, said Chuck Carpenter, executive director of the Manufactured Housing Communities of Oregon, a group that represents park owners.

Carpenter said that vacancy rates are an ongoing problem in many parks, and owners are facing the choice: either subdivide the parks and sell off lots or shut down the park and redevelop the property for other uses.

The law, passed by the Legislature in 2001, allows residents to purchase properties in the park, giving tenants a way to stay when the park might otherwise close, Carpenter said.

"For some manufactured (home park) owners in Oregon, the land has become extremely valuable, the rent simply doesn't cover that value anymore," he said.

The owners are required by law to offer the current renters of the property the chance to purchase the lots.

If purchased, the parks are treated as if they were a planned unit development, with a homeowners association taking on management of roads and utilities.

"By the time you figure the tax advantages of them owning their own land, they come out ahead," Carpenter said.

Not all residents in manufactured home parks see it that way.

In the case of Iris Village, the manufactured home park wasn't built to all the normal subdivision requirements, such as street width, sidewalk setbacks and sewer and water specifications.

So when owner Brian Fitterer of Newport Beach, Calif., tried to get residents to purchase their properties, some were leery of purchasing properties with utility systems that, once bought, would be their responsibility to maintain.

Sharon Forsell, 60, a teacher, who lives in Iris Village, told state Rep. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, and Sen. Charles Starr, R-Hillsboro, in a town hall meeting last week that she worried if she purchased her lot and anything happened to the water and sewer systems on her property, she could not afford to fix them.

"Why can't the law require the owner of the park to bring everything up to code before he's allowed to sell it to someone else? I'm on a fixed income. I can't afford to get stuck with this problem," Forsell told Thatcher.

After hearing that residents were organizing against purchasing lots in Iris Village, Fitterer sent a letter to representatives of the Manufactured Home Owners of Oregon saying that he would not require residents of Iris Village to move and that he never intended to require them to move.

Interviewed by phone, Fitterer, who owns 25 manufactured home parks in Oregon and several others in California, Washington and Nevada, said that he was happy to keep the property if people don't want to buy.

"If they want to keep renting, that's fine," Fitterer said. "Obviously, some of these people flunked elementary algebra if they don't see the benefit of owning the land under their homes. Manufactured homes depreciate. The land's the valuable thing, not the home."

To avoid problems in the future between manufactured home park owners and tenants of the parks that are subdivided, the two lobbying groups working with the manufactured home industry in Oregon said this week that they plan to begin working later this year to revise the current law to close loopholes such as those encountered by residents of Iris Village.

They likely will introduce a bill in the next Legislative session, both groups said.

The current law was revised once already in 2003 to forbid park owners from building stick homes in manufactured home parks.

cbolner@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 589-6967

An email from Jim Dodds faults local computer repair service...

An email from Jim Dodds...

As I am finishing up scanning "yet another" Longviewhills residents's computer that was returned "REPAIRED" by a local two initial computer sales and repair businees that I will not name, here is what I found.

SPYWARE/MALICIOUS PROGRAMS/BROWSER HIJACKS/AD-WARE

28 - Registery Key Values
11 - Registery Values
13 - Malicious Files
2 - Malicious Programs
1 - Transponder Parasite
8 - AdWare Programs
2 - Malicious ToolBars
5 - Internet Explorer Plugin Worms
6 - Browser Hijack Files

This is the 7th machine I have "re-repaired", that was just returned from this not named two initial computer company. I did not ask this customer what she paid this company but I would guess it was anywhere from $45.00 to $80.00. She might as well have tossed that money out the car window. Some of these Registery Key Values do have to be manually deleted, which even "very" experienced techs tread in fear when editing the Windows Registery Files, so I may understand why this local company might not have been willing to attempt the repair but, they "were" willing to bill the person for substandard or bogus work performed. Always ask your computer tech if they are Microsoft and Symantec Certified. If they are not, don't hire them. On a scale of 1 to 10 I rate their repair at -20. I would even place it in the catagory of a formal complaint to the Better Business Bureau.

Jim Dodds

Hello..a program that shares pictures fast for free!

ron thomas

A few posts ago I tried to stimulate interest in a program called Picasa. We were discouraged because there did not seem to be any takers. Well yesterday I found there is at least one. So, I wanted to tell any others out there about a second program that goes hand in hand with Picasa. It is called HELLO.

The below quote is from the home page of Hello and describes what it does

"Hello is a new way to look at pictures with friends and family.
When you use Hello, you get to see your photographs together with your friends online. You don’t have to wait for huge email attachments to download or upload your pictures to a public website. Just point at a picture and you can tell the person who sent it exactly what you think. With just one click, you can get the original high-quality, full-sized file to print.

Hello is easy to get going (as long as you have someone to share with). You’ll be talking about pictures in just minutes."

So we will be adding this free program to our list of downloads on the left side of the page. You will find a link there that will take you to Hello's Home page.

More on our St. Patrick's Day potluck...

ron thomas

We are going to need help at the clubhouse this Wednesday setting up for the party and with preping and cooking the food. This is an excellent way to meet the folks that serve our community on a regular basis. We would like to meet you. Come and play with us as we ready the clubhouse to usher in St. Patrick's Day.

From the article on Evolve the park....

ron thomas


Here is the second and third points in the form of a question about what would happen if we change the way the Social Club does business. Please remember that this is a discussion and not an attack it reflects only my opinion.

• Who will fund those park activities like coffee, popcorn, equipment upkeep, etc.?
• Will the Social Club exist to fund clubs or will each club fund their selves?
  

Well, this would be an operating point the Social Club itself would take up. In the past fund raisers and raffles have restocked the treasury well enough. We would expect that the Social Club would do as it always has and find the money in that way.
The direction the Social Club would take with earned money would be new and different. It would be dedicated to keeping up the activities that are shared by the clubs and to helping the clubs grow interest in the park.

Maybe the clubs would give a portion of their treasuries to subsidize the Social Club.
It might work as if the Social Club was our Federal Entertainment Government and the clubs as the States that it helps. Maybe not. How it would work would have to be worked out by an elected group of residents who would figure that out, we should think.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY POTLUCK...

RON THOMAS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16 @ 5PM Social hour... 6pm dinner.

Come to the Irish potluck this Wednesday Social Club is providing Corned beef, Cabbage and Potatoes.

As the potluck part you bring appetizers, desserts, and your other St Patrick Day dishes.

Remember to wear green, bring your own plates and eating utensils. Bring your own refreshments