Bennington Crier February 2004

Board Meetings - Open Board Meetings are held the second Tuesday of every month. The meetings are held in the clubhouse and begin at 7:30 p.m. All members of the community are welcome to attend.

Bulk trash pick-up is scheduled for the first Friday of every month. Items should be placed outside for pick up no earlier than the evening before. Waiting until Friday morning to put items out increases the chance of your items being missed. If your items are put out late and you miss the bulk pick-up, it is your responsibility to dispose of the items. If this does not happen, the burden of removing the items then falls to the community and the responsible resident will be charged. Remember, NO paint cans, tires, batteries, items in plastic bags or whole cardboard boxes. For more information by telephone, call Division of Solid Waste Services Customer Service Line, 240/777-6410.

Recycling is every Friday. Recyclable items include cans, glass, and plastic bottles (numbers 1 and 2). Also, newspapers and mixed paper placed in paper bags only. Corrugated cardboard boxes must be broken down flat. Twigs must be cut and bound in bundles no larger than 18 inches in diameter and no longer than six feet. Leaves can be placed in brown paper bags and left at the curb with regular recycling materials. For more information, call the Recycling Hotline, 301/590-0046, weekdays, 1-4 p.m.

If your neighbor is in arrears on their quarterly assessments it costs all of us. Do we stop picking up a person's trash because they are in arrears? No, because this would cause even more problems. I don't think any of us wants smelly trash sitting for weeks, maybe even months next door to us. If you were trying to sell your house, would this be a positive selling factor? So, the trash continues to get picked up because the trash company continues to get paid with the money you and I pay on time.

Should we close the pool 10% of the time because 10% of the community has not paid its assessments on time? Why penalize the rest of the community for what 10% do?

But we are penalized because we pay our assessments and this money is used to pay to keep the pool open. I know some of you are saying, "I paid my assessments to get my pool passes." The Pool Company starts getting the pool ready in April. This means that the people who paid their assessments on time paid to get the pool ready to open on time.

There are many other items that your assessments pay for. For instance, cutting the grass in the common areas, maintaining the clubhouse, publishing The Crier, and much more.

For those of you that do pay your assessments on time, thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. For those of you that don't pay your assessments on time, we will use every legal avenue to get you to pay your assessments.

Lastly, let me say that we are all neighbors. If you are having difficulty paying your assessments for an unforeseen reason, we will try to work with you the best we can. Please contact us and we will make every effort to work with you.

(In case you are interested, as of February 10, 2004
Homeowners Association dues in arrears total $27,133.76).

may be placed in the mailbox next to the clubhouse door or mailed to the Association address found on the front page of the newsletter. If you have not paid your assessment for the January-March quarter please do so ASAP. If you have questions, concerns or did not receive payment coupons for 2004, please call 301/977-3376 and leave a message for the bookkeeper.

Parking Committee News

The covenant change to allow reserved parking spaces HAS BEEN APROVED! The balloting process initiated by the Board and the Parking Committee has been successfully completed with more than the required 75% of Bennington townhouse owners supporting the covenant change.

The final vote from the 295 homes in the neighborhood is:

227 (77%) homes voted YES,
39 (13%) homes voted NO,
20 (7%) homes did not vote,
9 (3%) homes voted YES but their votes were ruled invalid because not all owners signed or because the signatures did not match the owners of record for their unit.

Most homeowners returned their ballots by the requested November 15 date, giving the covenant change an 80% approval rate among voting units. However, there were still not enough signatures to meet the requirement of 75% support from ALL homeowners; i.e., 222 yes votes from 295 units. The Parking Committee requested an extension to contact owners who had not voted, especially new owners, absentee owners, and owners of units up for sale. The extension was granted, and the Parking Committee was able to round up another 20 votes.

The next step is for the Parking Committee and the Board to formulate a plan for assigning spaces. The parking areas need to be measured first. In order to meet city requirements for "striping" parking lots, some of the parking spaces may need to be widened. This will be good news to owners of minivans, SUVs, and other wider vehicles. Once the parking spaces are mapped out, a temporary ("straw man") assignment of spaces will be sent out to the community for the purpose of stimulating discussion. Meetings will then be scheduled to refine (or redo) the assignments. It is expected that assignments on the straight roads (such as Honey Brook Lane, Ramsdell Terrace, Shuttle Court, and most of Oak Shade) will be straight-forward. Parking assignments for the courts (such as Goodport Court, Darby Court, Wade Court, and the end of Oak Shade) will require more community input. The expectation is that each townhouse will get at least one parking spot close to their front door before the second spot is assigned.

More information will be sent to you as it becomes available. The Parking Committee will keep you posted on their progress!

Come give us your input. The Parking Committee is holding a community-wide meeting on Thursday, February 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the clubhouse. This is an open meeting of all Bennington residents who wish to make suggestions or express concerns about how the Board and the Parking Committee should proceed in assigning reserved parking. Please walk to the meeting, if possible.

Notes from the Administrator

Hello Bennington, it is hard to believe that my family and I moved here a little over a year ago and I have been the community administrator for about three-fourths of that time. My husband and I are delighted to have selected such a wonderful community to live in and raise our two young children. We have enjoyed meeting many of our Bennington neighbors while landscaping, cutting down trees, and shoveling snow (Our neighbors joke that we brought all of the wet weather we have had in the past year!). Many thanks to the residents, volunteer Board members and committee volunteers who have helped me make the transition from new resident to community administrator!

Starting in the middle of November 2003, the clubhouse encountered telephone problems while switching service providers. For about two months, the telephone and answering services were disabled. I am happy to say that all the problems have been fixed. However, any messages that were left on the machine during that time were eliminated when our system was restored. I would like to apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

If you have any community questions, comments, or concerns, please do not hesitate to call the office (301)-977-3376, stop by the clubhouse for a visit or email at BenningtonCommunity@starpower.net. My current office hours are:

Mondays from 11:30am - 1:30pm
Thursdays from 6:00pm - 9:00pm

I would also like to remind the community that our monthly open board meetings are on the second Tuesday of the every month. All residents are encouraged to come and participate. It is because of our volunteers that our neighborhood is such a wonderful place to live in!

Carla

Urban Growth - The City of Gaithersburg has announced that the Public Hearing on the Master Plan Special Conditions will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 17th. If you are interested in learning about the Master Plan, you can find the information at the City of Gaithersburg website (www.ci.gaithersburg.md.us). Once at the website look under Departments, Planning & Code Administration. The Master Plan information is under "Related News - Notice Joint Master Plan Hearing 2/17/2004."

"We are the Whales…" is a spirited cheer of the Bennington Swim Team, which has been competing in the Gaithersburg-Germantown swim league every summer for almost 25 years! In addition to yelling their cheers (and hearts) out at swim meets, team members, who range in age from 5 to 18 years old, encourage each other, and make new friends. They also learn how daily practice and hard work can slowly, but certainly lead to stronger bodies, improved skills and faster times. Some of them have gone on to compete in high school and college. The swim team has taught many children how to swim, and kids learn what it means to be part of a community. The swim team not only helps kids become capable, responsible adults, but it keeps youngsters occupied and gives them an outlet for their energy during the summer vacation. For all these reasons, the swim team is a valuable asset for Bennington.

The Community Association graciously provides enough financial support to the swim team so that any Bennington child can be a Whale, irrespective of their family's income. The Bennington swim team provides parents with terrific value, as membership dues for private swim team are over $500 each year.

Although the team deeply appreciates the community's support, these Whales also need the help of individual residents, too. You can help in many ways. First, you need to sign your children up! You can also encourage your neighbors to sign up their children.

You can be one of the 12-18 volunteers who help with carpools, time swimmers, sell food and run the computer at each swim meet. Your child doesn't need you to be at every meet, but being at to two or three is a big help. Volunteering is fun, too; we meet other residents and feel more a part of the community.

Our Whales work hard and have a lot of spirit. A number of them are participating in a training program this winter to improve their strokes and times. So we expect to have a great season this summer!

The team's next planning meeting for the 2004 season will take place in the Clubhouse between 7:30-9 PM on Sunday, February 22nd. Please come. Also watch for notices about registration, parties and other special events for team members this spring. Questions? Call either Giovanni (301-330-1639) or Bobby (240-632-0667). Thanks!

Bennington Community Website

The Bennington website www.BenningtonCommty.org is being redesigned to focus more on items of interest to residents: more photos of recent events, more community news, resident advertising, and email lists. Links for frequently-accessed pages, such as the swim team page, will be moved to the home page. Official Bennington forms, such as the clubhouse reservation form, the coupon for paying quarterly dues, and the ARC request form will be updated and placed online. You will even be able to submit stories to the Crier online. Hopefully, the project to create an online version of the Bennington official documents (covenants, bylaws, etc.) will be completed soon.

There will be a Bennington "Photo Album" for pictures taken in the community and digital images you contribute. Please email images and associated titles and commentary to webmaster@benningtoncommty.org.

If you own a business or provide a service and would like free advertising on the Bennington website, just drop off a business card or flyer at the clubhouse with a request to be included in "Resident Advertising." If you simply want to be listed on this page, the "Buy Bennington" page (without a business card image), provide:

your name (nickname or first name only is also OK),

telephone number and/or email address,

category of service, and

a short comment (optional).

It sure would be nice to know who is willing to shovel snow, babysit, tutor, mow grass, etc. Only the names of adults should be listed. If your child wants to provide services, just give us your name for the website so you can oversee requests.

There will be a monitored email list to distribute official announcements to the community, such as:

electronic versions of the Crier,

flyers that are passed out to the community,

announcements about the annual meeting, pool passes, swim team signup,

reminders to pay quarterly dues and put out items for the monthly bulk pickup,

special announcements about curbside trash pickup during ice/snow conditions

Board meeting minutes.

There will be another email list for residents to communicate freely with each other. This might be helpful to find a carpool member or a tennis or jogging partner. You could drum up support for changes you would like to see in Bennington. You could buy or sell a car, give away your old bike, share recommendations and warnings about local businesses and services.

For both of these email lists, you will subscribe and unsubscribe yourself, so it's up to you if you want to be "in the loop."

Changes to the website will be made in February and March of 2004. So keep your eyes open, send your news and photos, and sign up for the email lists of interest to you.

You may know that Seneca Creek State Park is just a few yards from Bennington. The park can be accessed via trails from the end of Longdraft that take you to the Greenway Trail, which runs from the Howard County line to the Potomac River. From your front door, you can walk through some beautiful woods and along the Seneca River to a spectacular, stone railroad bridge in the forest. After a Winter snow, you can see deer and fox tracks on the trail, too, Experience a peaceful workout in the woods and go for a hike! Call Robert (240-632-0667) if you need more directions.

Please fill out the following information and drop off the completed form at the Bennington Community Club House mailbox (or mail it in with your 2nd Quarter dues). Remember to include kids! Thank you.

Please indicate if any of the above information is to be withheld from the community directory; e.g., unlisted telephone numbers. We do not list children's names or work numbers in the directory.