Mulberry Park Community Website

If you are new to the neighborhood forums and create an account so that you can create posts and reply to posts please send me an e-mail co i can approve your account. otherwise the account creation is currently locked untill i can find a way to keep the spam at bay. send e-mails to: info (at) mulberryparkweb (dot] com

Regards,

-MBPW Staff

Greetings Neighbors!

As i am sure some of you are aware Yearly assessments are coming due. Last year our neighborhood got into a bit of trouble due to the failures of all 3 builders that were constructing and selling homes in Mulberry Park. Also, a nasty round of foreclosures has created a hit against our home values and made it hard for our neighbors trying to sell their homes to sell them for what they are truly worth. As 2008 came to an end between 20% to 30% of our neighborhood had either not paid or were behind on paying their homeowners dues. As we look back on 2008 I think we can all agree that it was a tough year for our community.

Having said all of that, 2009 is a fresh start. A chance to start over with the Association and to move forward towards creating a stable community with a more stable housing market that will help to bring the values of our homes back in check with the quality of our community. If you want a better neighborhood it all starts with you!

We cannot control our neighbors. Whether or not they are keeping their yards neat, their driveway clear and the area in front of their houses free of boats, trailers, cars, mobile homes or pannel vans. However if you take care of yours that is a start!

Things you can do to help improve our community in 2009 are:

1.) Pay your dues!
As many have stated here not paying your assessment will not hurt the builder that screwed you over nor will it teach HOA Management a lesson. All that we can accomplish by not paying our yearly dues is remove services that we all like such as the pool, neat and tidy common areas and the gym and tennis courts. These amenities are part of the value of each and everyone of your homes. If you allow these things to go into disrepair it is like letting your driveway crack and crumble. If you want to personally attack HOA Management or your previous builder, that is an endeavor that should take a path that does not damage the value of your largest asset. Sue them! i am sure that there are neighbors around you that will join in.

2.) Clean up your house
Get your yard and home looking good. Pressure wash the siding and brick surfaces of your home. Caulk and re-paint areas that have become weathered or fallen into disrepair. As spring approaches get your neighbors to chip in to rent a weighted punch and aerate your yard so that it will grow in thick and green. Trim your bushes and plant flowers this spring. If our neighborhood looks like a better place buyers will pay more for the houses that are for sale within it, thus raising our home values across the board! If you want your asset to be worth more make it so!

3.)Obey the covenants
When you bought your home you agreed to abide by the rules of Mulberry Park! Yes everyone. Even the people shaking their head no, yes you did. So please realize that your transgressions against these rules that we have all agreed to are slowly chipping away at the stability of our community. Also, by breaking these covenants you are disrespecting all of your neighbors and reducing the value of both yours and their home.

Parking is an issue throughout the neighborhood. Many residents park on the street. This violates the covenants that everyone signed and causes rifts between neighbors throughout the community. Parking on the street is a safety concern for parents of young children and emergency personnel trying to enter our neighborhood to provide emergency medical care and to respond to police and fire situations. Not only is it dangerous but it is also a slap in the face of the people living around you to blatantly disregard the rules that you agreed to and signed. Park your vehicle in your driveway, garage or at the very least in one of the many parking lots around our community. this also violates our covenants but reduces the occurrences of children being hit by cars and allows emergency personnel to enter our community more easily.

The ARB (Architectural Review Board) has not be utilized. We need to make sure that changes to our homes such as exterior color, fence types and other additions to our homes fit with the rest of the community. If you want the freedom to do whatever you want to your house and property then you should not have purchased a home inside of a planned community. The rules governing the ARB are in place to maximize the value of all of our homes. The builders are out of here people. This is all about OUR VALUE now, not theirs.

Respect the assets of our community. You are a shareholder in this community and the home owners association is yours! treat everything in Mulberry Park as if you own it because you do! If something gets vandalized or broken we have to pay to fix it. If our clubhouse becomes dilapidated because we cannot afford to maintain it we have to replace or fix it. We own it. You are a shareholder and the total value (or loss) of this place is ours to share. There has been some vandalism in our community recently. There was damage done to the pool, clubhouse and some of the gym equipment. Also, the sign across from Jeffery's sports bar and grill was "tagged" with spray paint. Each of these things chip away at the neighborhood and cheapens our investment. If you know of someone doing these things to our property report it to the police or to HOA Management. Remember if someone hurts our sign or our clubhouse and amenities it is like someone keying your car. YOU will ultimately pay for it whether in assessments to fix it or in decreased value of your home.

Let's work together to create the community that we all envisioned when we sat down to sign the papers to buy our homes. If we work together, 2009 can be a great year for Mulberry Park!

Please discuss this in our forum

Warmest Regards!

-MBPW Staff

This was taken from the Community forum, the discussion is going on here

Hi all - I am writing to let you all know that I resigned from the Mulberry Park Board of Directors effective last night.

The board has had several issues with the management company primarily involving collections and legal bills. The final straw was their failure to send out annual assessments. The board sent a letter to Sivica requesting that we be allowed to replace the managment company with a company that was more proactive and better equipped to handle the complexities of our neighborhood. Sivica refused and therefore I resigned. If the board does not have the power to make these kinds of decision on behalf of the neighborhood, then there is no point in having a board. I refuse to be a part of this farce any longer.

Thank you for your support these past few months.

Sincerely,

John Ray

A Home owners Meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, October 28th at 7:00 pm at the Neighborhood Clubhouse. Please do your best to attend this event so that we can begin to address the financial crisis that our neighborhood is facing due to the delinquent payments of annual dues. we will address many items but i am sure that there will be an emphasis on the over $120,000.00 in unpaid dues that we are faced with. please come bearing ideas to help us collect this money so that we may preserve the quality of life in Mulberry Park!

We would like to welcome the new boardmembers that will be representing our community to the current H.O.A.
The new board members are: Chenoa Maples, Samuel McKittrick and John Ray.

Congratulations and thanks to all who volunteer in our neighborhood!

We plan in the near future to have more in regards to information on how these new elected positions will serve to aid our community. so keep checking back and feel free to e-mail me with questions that you would like for us to have answered in regards to these new posistions.

Regards,

-MBPW Staff

Fall 2008 Mulberry Park Community Yard Sale
A neighborhood wide yard sale will be held October 18th. Thank you to Chenoa and Kim for setting this up!

Neighborhood Watch Meeting
The next Neighborhood Watch meeting will be held at the clubhouse Saturday, October 11th at 11am. All are encouraged to attend. Contact Patricia Ellis at 843-553-6333 or cyberbrit@comcast.net

RiverWalk Clean up Day!
Please join your neighbors and friends in a clean up day for the Braselton Mulberry RiverWalk. The Town will provide trash bags and gloves and haul it all away! Just meet us at the wooden bridge on Silk Tree Point in Mulberry Park on Saturday, October 11th, 9 am. Please email or call if you need more info: jdees@braselton.net or 706-654-5720.

MulberryParkWeb.com reaches 20+ hits per day!

It has been only 3 months since the website launched however we are already receiving between 700 and 800 views of the site each month. People are using the forums and interacting with their neighbors. I am so glad to see the neighborhood using this resource to communicate, plan events and discuss the issues that impact us all as residents of Mulberry Park.

Get ready for the noise (and fun) of the biggest road race in the south!