DID YOU KNOW?

Homeowners Associations have the right to place a lien on your home for non-payment of assessed violation fines and to force a sale of your home to collect on the lien. Now that we have a formal resident-run homeowners board, they have a limited number of days to approve, accept, or work to alter our builders template of Rules and Regulations, and then have the power to become another ruling authority layer over our lives? Fellow residents: Lets get this right from the beginning!!

SHOW UP to the Meet / Greet Board Meeting - SEPT 1st 7pm Village of Volos meeting room and let your thoughts be heard! Most people don't want a mini-government anyway,'' said Frank Askin, the director of the Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Rutgers Law School in Newark. ''They want effective operation of the association the landscaping and such. They don't want another bureaucratic body,'' (Mansnerus, August 2002, NY Times) directing every aspect of how to live their lives. This is the most common cited reason people DONT want to buy into these communities.
Under common law, developers and purchasers are free to create and/or mutate any part of the homeowners association the parties desire. Not only could the restrictive covenants themselves be structured as the parties see fit, a homeowners association enforcing those covenants could conceivably arrange a variety of enforcement tools. Evan McKenzie, a political science professor at the University of Illinois, warns that privately run developments have proliferated because of local governments' insistence. ''It's a financial windfall for cities.'' It forms a fundamental shift in the balance of power from private property owners to homeowners associations, which he characterized as "private governments." Webster's Real Estate Law (30A-1, at 1231). .
www.morelaw.com/cases/homeowners_association.asp

First they came for those that kept their garbage outside, and I did not speak out -- Because I kept mine in my garage. Then they came for the ones who use charcoal grills or small fire pits or had a patio gazebo, and I did not speak out -- Because I do not use my patio nor admire fire... Then they came for any surplus pets, and I did not speak out - Because I did not have any pets. Then they came after me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.
*Adapted from Pastor Martin Niemllers famous quote, after spending 7 years in Nazi concentration camp.

"Everyone deserves to live happily in his home. The public doesn't understand the possible consequences of living in a community with a homeowner association. They get swept up in emotions of the aesthetics of the home. They are told the association would offer them carefree living. Wrong! Homeowners must get involved in the community and stay ever vigilant. Over the past forty years there has been an ever-increasing dispersion of a new social order in America. Its roots are founded in the spread of planned communities and its model of community governance that is an undemocratic, police state insistence on conformity to rules set through the faade of democratic institutions, much like those we are familiar with in regard to those Peoples Republics throughout the world. Each day, more and more we are living under and learning about this form a private government that does not respect the beliefs, rights and freedoms underlying the US Constitution or US Bill of Rights.
www.homeownerassoc.com

This is MY Home !!

STORING GARBAGE IN THE GARAGE IS NOT AN OPTION! Household wastes is comprised of various common sources each having the potential to create an assortment of health concerns.
There are significant and numerous threats from the bacteria breeding, disease-transmitting insects and various toxic, biological hazards that arise from living amongst our household garbage; even wild animals have better sense. Household garbage is breeding ground for pathogens. The term non-hazardous waste is something of a misnomer--it simply means that the waste does not meet certain measures of hazard. Non-hazardous waste can still have negative impacts on human health and the environment since it nevertheless decays, harboring significant amounts of bacteria and poses serious health risks. Decomposing food waste is pollution (Dontigney, 2011). The current single car garage size is so tight, that once a homeowner adds simple tools, a ladder, or other basics, the car no longer fits and the garage becomes a variety of living spaces to different people, i.e. workshop, workout room, toy storage, child play areas, designated smoking area, man-caves, etc. While these garages were clearly not designed to accommodate a standard automobile and anything else, much less the large garbage carts containing so much hazardous waste. This is why we have nicely designed, secure garbage carts that uniformly blend into todays neighborhoods, as opposed to the random clashing varieties of trash-can choices homeowners once bought and provided themselves. In a study, the Environmental Protection Agency collected information (1994) to find the sources affecting indoor air quality by exploring outdoor pollution emissions near air ventilation intakes around random office buildings (cited from Burton, Baker and Hansen et al, 2000) shows a list of several major sources of outdoor air pollution as ambient sources within 2 to 3 feet from the buildings. It found garbage to be the highest ambient outdoor source of indoor air quality (81%), significantly higher than even generators, heavy motor traffic (61%), or industrial stacks (35%) in its vicinity (Burton, Baker and Girman, 2002). Imagine how much higher this would be magnified within a contained interior space with no air exchange system. The combined effect of the substances acting together is greater than the effects of any substance acting by itself.

DOG POOP: DID YOU KNOW

Dogs carry over 23 billion bacteria and parasites including salmonella and giardia. Giardia can live for considerable time so transmission is prolific. Hookworm is one of the dangers that can invade our bodies through walking barefoot in the grass. The EPA deemed pet waste a nonpoint source of pollution in 1991, which put poop in the same category as oil and toxic chemicals! It has already been established that a single gram of dog waste can contain over 20 million fecal coliform bacteria.. Fecal coliform bacteria are known to cause cramps, diarrhea, intestinal illness, and serious kidney disorders in humans. To make matters worse, flies like dog poop; there is much undigested food in dog feces which gives flies an easy dinner, they then carry the unhealthy bacteria and can contaminate by landing on things. A fly is one of the biggest disease carriers in existence (Swain, 2008). How much dog poop could there be left on the streets if no one picked up after their dog? Imagine a block of twenty houses with one dog per house. Every owner walks their dog within a 10 block radius. At two walks a day that equates to 14,600 poops per year. If we divide this by ten (blocks) this will give us 1460 poops per block per year. Imagine how easy it would be to affect our water; much of this waste is absorbed into our water supply (Barrington, 2010). Now consider how many dogs there actually are per capita within your community and how many of those dogs get walked within a smaller space, equal to the size of a single block.

Sources for risk:

Food waste (including animal carcasses); Animal Waste; Insects and other disease vectors; Microorganisms/Mycotoxins (yeasts, algal, fungi, bacteria, mold) generated by the decomposing percolates that has been shown as a factor in microbial contamination of homes; Human biological material or other bio-waste; Particulates (both respirable and nonrespirable). Reported problems: Range greatly, and some populations are more susceptible. Bioaerosol-related respiratory symptoms, including asthma and airway inflammation Fevers, muscle pain, fluid in the lungs, headache, nausea, vomiting, Cross Contamination (flies) leading to cramps, diarrhea, intestinal illness, kidney disorders. Illinois Dept. of Public Health: Garbage should be kept as far away from buildings as is practical. This is individually own property, and it should remain the homeowners choice to determine. Living with Garbage - This article endeavors to explore prior studies, evidence-based conclusions, and professional observation regarding the effects of indoor stored garbage on human health, specifically, household garbage which contains numerous common variants, each posing its own risks. The risks and the filth it breeds are the things nightmares are made of. Community health risks should not be over shadowed by the subjective perception of aesthetics.

CLEANING UP AFTER YOUR PETS IS THE RESPONSIBLE THING TO DOTHANK YOU!

Bottomline Wellness Solutions, Inc. Prevention & Wellness: The re-emerging path to health. Owned and managed by: Rosa Zarecky, MS., HFS, CPT. A wellness education professional, who has worked to promote health and fitness to large corporate clients over the last 20 years. Last employed by Centegra Health Systems.

For a copy of this complete article write to: Bottomlinewellness@yahoo.com