2014 Budget Approved at Annual Meeting

The annual meeting of the WMC is now history.  The 2014 proposed budget, which will include the first assessment increase in 6 years, was approved by those in attendance and by the use of proxy votes.  The increase from $115 to $120 is due to added costs for lawn care and snow removal.

In other business, the four currently serving board members will return for another year following the election.

More detailed minutes of the meeting, as well as the 2014 invoices, will be mailed to all property owners around January 1st.

The meeting included a presentation by several of the Girl Scouts who created a prairie garden on outlot 14, the area off of University Court near the former site of the tennis courts.  Be sure to visit the page "Girl Scout Project" (see above) that includes a link to their presentation.  The girls and their parents worked tirelessly on the project throughout the year.  The WMC board appreciates the efforts of the girls and their parents and wishes to congratulate them on doing an excellent job. 

Flight for Life Responds to Noise Complaints

Waukesha Freeman 11/26/2013, Page A06

GUEST OPINION Pardon our noise Flight For Life balancing neighbor concerns with training needs By Jim Singer It has been brought to my attention that several neighbors near the Waukesha County Airport have been asking about an increase in Flight For Life activity in and around the airport during the late evening and nighttime hours. FFL’s mission is “To provide safe, high quality, customer oriented and efficient medical transportation, with a commitment to education.” In our organization, safety is paramount. As we near our 30th anniversary in 2014, over 32,000 patients have been safely transported by our aircraft. Many of those patients flown by Flight For Life have been from the Waukesha County area. In August 2008 – after collaborative meetings with Waukesha County and airport leadership – FFL located its primary base at the Waukesha County Airport. This enabled us to provide a more rapid response to the western agencies we serve. We were also able to significantly augment our culture of safety by adding certain tools and procedures to our daily practice. This includes the use of night vision goggles by crew members during all night operations. Additionally, we have very recently begun the process for our aviation staff to become certified to fly in “instrument flight rule s” conditions. Both of these safety enhancements require increased staff training – while flying in the helicopter – to maintain these proficiencies. The Federal Aviation Administration requires this instruction for both our clinical and aviation personnel. All initial and recurrent night vision goggles training must occur after dark. In order to remain available for patients who need our services, we target the majority of our training to take place during those windows of time when we generally receive fewer requests for patient transports. We have tracked when these “off peak” hours occur, which is during late evening and nighttime. In addition to this increased flying time for our personnel – driven by FAA requirements – one of our pilots was recently promoted to the position of aviation compliance evaluator. His sudden departure necessitated the hiring of a regional relief pilot, who will serve several regional air medical programs including ours. The pilot began his in-flight training (which is also occurring during offpeak hours) last month at our Waukesha base. This training was completed in late October. Flight For Life strives to be a good neighbor to those who live around the Waukesha County Airport. We understand the importance of balancing the need for ongoing training with the increased noise level this causes. With safety as our primary goal, we will continue to work closely with the manager of the Waukesha County Airport, the control tower manager and the Waukesha County Airport Operations Commission. Our purpose is to constantly review all flight training procedures and minimize the impact this may have on the surrounding neighborhood. We welcome feedback and questions from our neighbors and look forward to continuing our relationship with and service to Waukesha County and its residents. (Jim Singer is transport system director for Flight For Life.) Our purpose is to constantly review all flight training procedures and minimize the impact this may have on the surrounding neighborhood. Powered by TECNAVIA Copyright © 2013 Conley Group. All rights reserved 11/26/2013

Meet the candidates...

As you get ready to fill out your proxy card for the December 2nd meeting, below are short descriptions of the candidates for the four positions up for election.  All four candidates served on the WMC Board this past year.

Jason Hoeppner:  Lives on Coventry, has an MBA with a finance emphasis and works as a manufacturing engineer. Jason and his family have resided at their Coventry address since 1998.

Andrea Puricelli:  Moved to the Windings in 2011 and lives on Woodridge along with her husband and son.  Andrea is a mortgage underwriter for a Milwaukee area real estate company.

Frank Remfrey:  Currently serving on the WMC Board as president.  Frank is a retired Waukesha School District educator and works part time at a local clock shop.

Ann Schefus:  Presently serving as secretary of the WMC Board.  Ann and her family have lived on Coventry Lane for several decades.  Ann is an office manager for a construction company in Waukesha County.

Annual Meeting Slated for December 2nd

The 2013 annual meeting for Windings homeowners will begin at 7 pm, Monday, December 2nd at the West Wood Fitness Center, 2900 Golf Road, Pewaukee.  The meeting will be held in the main conference room, located to the left of the reception desk.  The WMC Board decided to change the meeting's venue because the cost is significantly lower and the furniture more comfortable than the previous site.  West Wood Fitness Center is located next door to the Country Springs Hotel.

The main items on the agenda will be to elect four board members, approve the 2014 budget, summarize the progress of the prairie garden and other issues with the maintenance of our 21 acres of common property.  In addition, Atty. John Raasch will provide an update on various legal matters.

If you have any items to add to the agenda, please contact Frank Remfrey at least a week prior to the meeting.

City of Waukesha Announces Leaf Pickup Schedule

Below are the three dates for leaf pickup by the City for our aldermanic district:

Oct. 23
Nov. 12
Dec. 4

Keep in mind that leaves should NOT be raked into the street.  The terrace area between the sidewalk and curb should contain all of the leaves that will be removed by the City crews.

Dutch Elm Disease Present in the Windings

The WMC Board has contracted with Wachtel Tree Science to have 20 diseased elm trees removed from the outlot at the corner of Rolling Ridge and Lancaster.  The work will take place this winter to minimize the spread of the disease.  Even though ash trees and the emerald ash borer are dominating arborial news reports lately, dutch elm disease is still a problem throughout the US.

Several arborists with whom we spoke recently while discussing the elm trees mentioned above indicated that the emerald ash borer is not a big problem yet, but when it arrives it will be "like a tidal wave."  If you have healthy ash trees you may want to consider some type of preventative treatment from a company such as Wachtel.

The article below appeared in the September 20th Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  

More attention is being paid these days to the emerald ash borer, but the disease that ravaged our tree canopy decades ago has not left town Dutch elm still claims victims By DON WALKER dwalker@journalsentinel.com Across Wisconsin, communities continue to closely track the spread of the tree-killing emerald ash borer. Twenty counties are now under quarantine, 13 of them in the southeastern corner. But on the north side of Milwaukee and in the Story Hill neighborhood, it is a different scene, one with a more historical bent. Some of the last stately elms are coming down, victims of the decades-old Dutch elm disease that literally changed the landscape of the city. Of the estimated 128,000 elm trees on Milwaukee streets in 1950, perhaps a thousand or so are left, less than 1% of the original population. Like many Midwestern urban centers, Milwaukee once had streets lined with American elms. It was considered the country’s most popular shade tree. Ron Perszewski of St. Francis remembers walking along S. 20th St., between Lincoln and Cleveland avenues in the 1960s.   Just the trunk and stubs of major branches remain on an elm tree being removed in the 300 block of N. Pinecrest Drive in Milwaukee’s Story Hill area. Though ash borers are more in the public eye, Dutch elm disease still kills Milwaukee trees. “That was a solid, well-kept working-class neighborhood in those days, and the elms made it beautiful,” Perszewski said in an email. “As I remember it, high above the street, the trees on one side of the road actually touched the branches of the trees on the other side. A green tunnel, it was. And in one season it disappeared, as crews removed every single tree. Overnight, it became a barren place.” According to Greening Milwaukee, a local nonprofit that evolved from the Mayor’s Beautification Committee, Dutch elm disease was first found in Holland in 1921. It came to America through the port of Cleveland, on wooden crates made with infected elm wood in the early 1930s. The disease is actually a fungus that moves into the water. It invades the vessels of the elm, clogging the flow of water and nutrients. It’s spread by elm bark beetles. By the 1960s, 17 million of the country’s 23 million elm trees were dead. Dutch elm has been in Milwaukee since 1956. David Sivyer, the city’s forester, said in an email that some remaining American elms may have some resistance to the fungus. That resistance allowed infected trees to survive for years with little or no symptoms. But eventually, they give out as other stress factors “tip the scale in favor of the disease,” he said. Sivyer said he did not have an exact number being taken down now, but crews “still remove a relatively small number of elm trees annually that succumb to Dutch elm disease.” Last year’s drought likely was the tipping point for much of what remains of the American elms in Milwaukee. There are now no concentrations of the trees left, just a relative few scattered randomly around the city, lone shadows of what once was. Information online To learn more, go to http://na.fs.fed.us/fhp/ded/ Powered by TECNAVIA Copyright © 2013 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 09/20/2013

Windings Residents Invited to Join "Nextdoor"

A social media site known as "Nextdoor.com" is now up and running with a branch dedicated to the Pebble Valley area.  The site is a means to share information about events, crime, and numerous other possibilities.  The best way to learn more about the site is to visit it by using the link below.  So far we have 20 Windings residents signed up.

https://pebblevalley.nextdoor.com/news_feed/

You may have to paste the above link into your browser.  If you are interested in joining Nextdoor, send Frank Remfrey an email and he will invite you to join.  Frank's email is fremfrey@wi.rr.com

New Company Begins Lawn Care

Blaze Landscaping, based in Menomonee Falls, will take over the lawn contract for the nearly 19 acres of common property throughout the Windings subdivision.  The WMC Board decided to terminate the services of JNM Landscaping and solicited bids from four companies.

Blaze workers have been present for a cleanup throughout the last week of April.

The contract with Blaze extends for one year.

Annual Brush Pickup Slated for May 6-10

The City of Waukesha's annual Spring brush pickup is scheduled for May 6-10.  Since Thursday is our garbage day here in the Windings, our brush pickup day will be May 9th.

For more details about this service, visit the link below:

http://www.ci.waukesha.wi.us/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=822e672e-8147-44e4-a083-73b776694ac1&groupId=10113

Two Dozen Property Owners Alerted About Prairie Restoration Plans

Several weeks ago the WMC Board authorized President Frank Remfrey to send a brief letter to the property owners who live near three areas under consideration for planting of native plant species.  The areas are near University Court, Turnberry Court and St. Andrews Court.  The letter invited the property owners to an informational meeting scheduled to begin at 9am on Saturday February 23rd at the West Wood Fitness Center.  The meeting will be held in the conference room located near the main reception desk on the first floor.  All WMC property owners are welcome to attend.

The purpose of the meeting is to advise the homeowners of the discussions that have taken place at WMC annual meetings the past two years regarding the conversion of several rather small areas in the Windings outlots from grass to native Wisconsin plant species.  The meeting will give the homeowners an opportunity to ask questions and provide input.

Presently, several Girl Scouts are planning a leadership project this spring to plant native species and are seeking permission to proceed with the project on one of the areas in the Windings.

In addition the to the 9 am meeting, a walking tour of the grounds under consideration will take place later on Saturday beginning at 1 pm.  The tour will begin near University Court.

If you have any questions or concerns about this topic, feel free to contact any of the WMC Board members.