Greetings all SOMRA members.
This past year all the members of the Shield O Mesa Road Association (SOMRA) chipped in $3,500 towards a special assessment which enabled us to pay off the loan from Alpine Bank. This was an accomplishment. That loan enabled us to pave the lower Mesa Road five years ago. Paying it off early frees up an additional $25,000 a year that was going to service the loan.
As of the writing of this letter SOMRA has $81,659 in the bank that can be used for road maintenance. The Board of Directors (BOD) agreed - at our last meeting on 3/21/26 - that our two main concerns this summer are 1) seal coating the existing asphalt to prevent cracking and 2) simply getting more material (roto-mill / recycled asphalt) down on the heavily used sections of our roads that are pot-holed and wash-boarded. This will also keep the dust down.
The BOD also decided to change the structure of the road impact fees for new construction. From now on we will be charging 0.5% (half of one percent) of the county's estimated cost of a construction project. In other words a larger impact fee will be charged for a larger project. For example, there would be a $10,000 fee based on a $2,000,000 project.
We also discussed weed mitigation. As mandated by the state and county we will be spraying for weeds along the roadways. We encourage owners to piggy-back on the weed service and save money by having your weeds spot-sprayed at the same time. Tim Spitler has agreed to spray for us again this spring. His base charge is around 150.00, but that depends on your property size and how much chemical he uses. (Previous average costs were 200.00.) Hopefully costs will decline as we get weeds under control. We’ve noticed white-tops coming up – their seeds can survive many years, so they will reappear even when we spray - but hopefully diminish as we stay on top of the mitigation program. Please let Susan know if you agree to spraying your property. She will coordinate with Tim (as in the past).
At the meeting we also discussed setting up an Association website – especially for access to Association documents like CC&R’s and BOD Minutes, etc. TBD
Regarding the drought, we are receiving some nice rain as I write this, however it can’t replace a deep snowpack that melts gradually into our ground. This is a reminder that we should all be mindful of how much water we use! We are all on wells – and all of our wells are in some sense interconnected.
Also associated with drought is the potential for wildfires. We took some steps this fall to mitigate fuels along the lower Mesa Road. We had an opportunity to piggy-back with the Terrace
Association’s planned work and they agreed to pay for a portion of the costs. A win-win arrangement.
Lastly, timely dues payments keep us afloat. We sent invoices close to the beginning of the year and most of you have paid! Thankyou! We don’t charge a late fee until the end of March (yesterday) – that’s plenty of time. Just a reminder, that late and / or partial payments on dues are a real bookkeeping cost and a time expense for the board. (We must pay for someone to review the late accounts and send out reminder statements – and often a board member is making calls or writing emails and letters.) On that note – we also completely understand that we all sometimes have good reasons for being a little tardy with payments. Any effort to pay or to communicate regarding payment is very appreciated.
Best Regards,
David Hale
Board of Directors:
Tom Carr tcarr@aspenreinfo.com
Clint Coerdt clintoncoerdt@gmail.com
Ralph Gunning castleaspen@comcast.net
David Hale, President. chateauway@aol.com
Kelly Hayes malibukj@aol.com
Susan Hale, Secretary shale@shieldomesa.com