Friday, October 25, 2013

Ten Reasons to Serve on your Association Board

As a homeowner, you have a big investment in your neighborhood. In addition to your own dwelling unit, your Association may have common amenities, such as a clubhouse, pool, sidewalks, roads, and more. How do you make sure that your Association is properly maintained and cared for?  One way is to volunteer with your homeowner’s Association as a committee or board member.
Protecting your own investment is just one reason to serve as a volunteer for your Association, though. Read a list of 10 important reasons to serve on an Association board.  
1. Protect Your Property - One of the top priorities of all board members should be to protect the value of all homes in the community. This is not a self-serving act; it is an obligation to all members of the Association.  Being involved on the board puts you in a better position to make and implement rules that directly affect property value, especially if they require decisions about the Association’s budget or routine maintenance.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Keep Water Flowing for Growth and Prosperity

Vote on November 5

This article contains information reported in the Dallas Business Journal, October 18-24, 2013, pp. 2-3, Thirsty Work.

As a Texas homeowner, you can vote to ensure the continued growth and well-being of your community.   Not only suburban lawns and shrubs have suffered through the prolonged drought; Texas business and new home growth could dry up if Texans don’t keep the tap of plentiful water flowing.

The November 5 election tees up a critical decision for North Texans.  If passed, Proposition 6 will create the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas, transfer $2 billion from the Rainy Day fund and set up a framework for a sustainable revolving fund with revenue from completed projects refilling the fund for future projects. 

If approved, Prop 6 is expected to create thousands of engineering and construction jobs.
 
Municipalities are the largest users of water, selling water to residential users and businesses.  Certain types of manufacturing such as semiconductor plants also use large volumes of water.  On average it takes one-third of a gallon of water to make one semi-conductor chip.

Access to a water supply is one of the first things the Huffines brothers look for when they decide to build a residential community according to Dallas-based Huffines communities, a builder of master-planned communities.

As one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country,(according to the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce),  the Metroplex has much to gain from plentiful water.  Economic recession plus drought temporarily dampened homebuilding. Texas housing has staged a strong recovery in recent months, and new jobs are outpacing the national average.

To read more about Proposition 6, see these Dallas Business Journal articles. 

http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2013/10/14/most-texans-support-spending-2b-on.html
http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/blog/2013/10/how-gov-perry-plans-to-address-dfws.html  

Also, visit the http://www.watertexas.com website.Please vote on November 5.