News and Happenings

February 20, 2008

Be sure to go to the meeting tonight! It's OUR community. What happens there is of interest to you!

January 6, 2008

I have some great news! There are a lot of things going on in our community, and the website is updated accordingly. First, Crawford is gone. If you have seen, or stopped by the Christmas display on Van Zile Road, you know who our new management company will be - Paul Hayes.

Also, it seems there are some changes on the board. Fresh blood is always good, and it appears the new members are ready go get to work.

It appears we will be getting more documents from the board, and I will be posting them here as soon as possible.

The board also requested I post this reminder:

Reminder that dues for a 2 bedroom unit are $144 and 3 bedroom are $164. If you are more comfortable sending your payment to Paul Hayes, please feel free to do so. Payment booklets will be ordered and distributed in the next two months. Continue to make checks payable to Primrose Lane Condo Assn.

April 20, 2005

Many residents have been asking why there haven't been any updates to the website. There are a few reasons for this. By far the main reason is because we simply have not received any news. We haven't received any Maintenance updates from James Lawrence since January of 2004. We haven't received meeting minutes since May of 2003. If I got electronic copies of the flyers that are distributed, I would gladly post them immediately, but I don't have the time to re-type that kind of information. Also, I've noticed that, of all the flyers and notices sent out to residents (One of which even used the Website's Primrose Lane graphic, pictured above), not a single one has mentioned the website. This has led me to re-evaluate the purpose of the website. While I will continue to post and store any information I receive, I believe Primroselane.info must move in a different direction. It seems we have fallen into the habit of having board meetings only once a year. Frankly, this isn't often enough. I know from talking with my neighbors that many of us feel disconnected and uninformed. It's similar to these old and proud words... United we stand, divided we fall. I would like Primroselane.info to be the forum that unites us. We should not be left at the mercy of a single yearly meeting to voice our concerns, or to plan what is best for our community. 24 hours a day, this website has been here continuously for over 3 years, and will be here for a long time to come. If you're not yet registered for the message boards, I urge you to do so (It's completely free. I don't charge anyone for anything here), and take a voice discussing your neighborhood with your neighbors. Also, when there is important community news, we email everyone who is signed up on the message board. Also, other than profanity and repetitive commercial ads, I don't edit the messages whatsoever. Feel completely free to speak your mind.

Personally, I have been very busy running my own business, and don't have the amount of time to dedicate to this website as I would like. However, I always welcome information and suggestions. If you would like to see more information here, you might suggest this to the board. They are among the best sources for this information. They most likely already have this information in electronic format. If they would simply email it to webmaster@primroselane.info, I would post it within 24 hours.

April 29, 2004

Dear Homeowners,

I know many of you are wondering about the landscaping at Primrose. We have been hard at work reviewing proposals for the landscaping contract now that our contract with New Dimensions has ended.

We have hired a much larger landscaper, Down To Earth Landscaping Inc. They are a much larger company with the resources and manpower to handle our needs. Work will begin Friday April 30th.

We have also hired a new pool company. Sparkling Pools Incorporated has been hired as the pool company for the 2004 season. They were chosen because they have much better management and life guard support system. There are also many other changes planned for the coming year. The pool will have new lights and 24 hour surveillance to prevent any further vandalism. I will be sending out a notice for the next meeting soon.

Regards,

James C. Lawrence

President

December 1, 2003

We have a community problem. We pay around $100 a month to have all our problems taken care of. We see trash on the ground, and it's not being picked up. We see kids doing vandalism, and the person responsible for handling such things is not doing their job. Our neighbor's car is keyed, and yet nothing was done to prevent it. We really should hold these people accountable for letting us down.

Problem is, it is us that has let us down. If every resident here lived in a single family house instead, there would not be garbage in most people's yard. Every yard would be neatly mowed and look great, and nobody would think of driving on the grass or of parking right outside their door. Responsibilities are very clear when you own your property 100%. Unfortunately, most people here adopt an "It's somebody else's responsibility" attitude. While I agree that specific issues, such as maintenance, should be handled properly by those we pay to do so, many issues can, and should be handled ourselves. There is what appears to be an old tire in the back field. I was going to remove it myself, but I was curious as to how long it would stay there before SOMEBODY picked it up. Sadly, I'm still waiting, and will probably just do it myself in a few days.

There has been talk in the past about a neighborhood watch being formed. Well, here's some news.. We already HAVE a neighborhood watch. At it's basic level, a neighborhood watch is simply neighbors looking out for each other. I personally try and walk through Primrose Lane at least once or twice a week. If there's something suspicious, I investigate. For those times I find something illegal going on, I bring a camera to help identify the guilty. At least from my perspective, it has already made a difference.

If you'd also be interested in helping our community to be a safer place to live, please contact me at Webmaster@PrimroseLane.Info. If the response is good, we can expand on the idea.

Also, in the past, I was not updating the 'Last Update' date for minor or regular changes, such as maintenance updates. In the future, I will update the date any time a change is made to the website.

Look for more pictures soon in the 'Pictures' section. We've saved them up for almost a year, and need to organize them. Also, if you have any pictures of our community you'd like to share, please send them here.

July 9, 2003

We had a bit of a problem with the website. As I really don't know much about setting up a Website, it seems I left out something somewhat important. To make a complicated story simpler, many of you were not seeing the most recent version of the Website. I've made the needed changes, and hopefully you will always see the most recent version.

The Website has also had a lot of additions in the past few weeks. The full text of the By-Laws are online, thanks to some very generous residents. We also have maintenance schedules, directly from the board, online as well. These are in the new DOCUMENTS section. Also, there are a lot of smaller additions and updates all around the Website.

June 25, 2003

There have been a few changes to the website over the past few days. While we made a lot of little changes here and there, the biggest change is the addition of the DOCUMENTS section. This section is meant for all the miscellaneous documents we are gathering, including the By-Laws, maintenance reports, and statements from the board. The section is incomplete, but I expect it will grow fast.

We also had our board meeting this evening. It's good to see that we tend to get a better turnout than in the past. The quality of the meetings has greatly improved. Also, Mr. Lawrence 'officially' announced us as the community website.

We got a chance to hear from Steve at Mighty Maintenance. The more I hear, the more I think he knows his stuff. In addition to actually saving us money, we are getting better quality service. In the past, we would get the lowest bidder for every individual project. Since the contractor was gone the moment he got paid, our results were not always up to standards. Steve seems to be a man who appreciates quality.

From the meeting, we found out that we apparently did get a quorum, and that the new board will consist of:

James Lawrence
Kelli Jennings
Robert Dangler
Marissa Diab
Dawn Lawton

It still remains to be determined who will occupy which position. We will post it here as soon as we know.

Also, Mr. Lawrence would like ALL residents to be involved. While the By-Laws prevent residents who rent from voting, there is no reason they can't attend meetings, or contact the board with their ideas.

June 20, 2003

As I'm sure most of you already know, the meeting has been rescheduled for June 25, 2003. I encourage EVERYBODY to vote. If you can't make it to the meeting, you can vote by proxy. If there's a good excuse for not voting, please let me know, as I haven't heard one yet.

June 12, 2003

Unofficially, the word is there will be a meeting June 25, 2003. I strongly urge everyone to come out and vote, again. From the letter that Mr. Lawrence mailed out to us today, it seems that we are increasing the number of board members from 3 to 5, which is why there are 4 seats now open for election. Also, as I'm sure you're aware, the pool is now open weekends, and will be open daily on June 21.

The letter Mr. Lawrence sent out spoke of his hopes and expectations of this community. Personally, I have one hope for the board.... Better Communication. I believe his letter is a step in the right direction. I encourage everyone with any kind of questions to call or email Mr. Lawrence, as it is your right to know what is going on in your community.

May 24, 2003

We met with Mr Lawrence, Mr Wilkes, and Mr Steve Spano from Mighty Maintenance this morning. We felt it was very productive, and got a a brief look at the challenges the board faces. Personally, we feel the board is trying to do a good job. What we believe is lacking is communication. If you do a good job, and nobody knows, it can create a frustrating experience for everyone involved.

While we learned quite a bit in our meeting, I would rather you hear most of the news from Mr. Lawrence directly. One thing I will mention is the insurance issue raised at the board meeting. I believe Mr. Lawrence didn't do an effective job of expressing the entire issue. I, and many other residents, thought he was asking us how to get cheaper insurance, when I believe he was asking for ideas on how we can afford the unavoidable extra $60,000 a year. Again, I believe communication is the issue. Hopefully this will be improved in the future.

We also spent time with Steve Spano of Mighty Maintenance. From speaking to him, he seemed competent and honest. We all know that we have had less than satisfactory contractors working here in the past, so this is significant. We are hoping to get online soon a list of projects that Mighty Maintenance is working on. This way, you can see that your maintenance problem is scheduled to be fixed, and when you might need to be home if necessary. Many residents may be thinking their complaints are being ignored, when in reality they may already be scheduled to be addressed.

We were also made aware of the disgusting vandalism on the trailer behind the old association office. Apparently someone took a baseball bat to the sides, and door. The damage is signifigant, and it's surprising that nobody heard anything. We are a community, and what happens to the common elements affects us all.

Also, thanks to a few generous residents, we should have the full text of the by-laws online soon.

May 21, 2003

We've got even more news to report. First, Carol at Crawford is gone. Crawford assigned Lisa Williams to replace her. Let's hope she's better than Carol.

Second, our community's insurance coverage will be terminated this Sunday. The board was notified of this in February, but decided to wait until tonight to ask us for ideas. While we can get coverage, the replacement policy will be around $90,000 a year, while the original policy was around $30,000 a year, leaving us $60,000 a year in the hole. We also found out that Mighty Maintenance is charging $3000 a month, and they apparently only work here 4 days a month. This is in addition to the approximately $27,000 that Crawford charges.

Also, we had a great turnout! We were only about 30 people short of a quorum. Really, every person counts! While the by-laws mention that another meeting must be held in 48 hours, the meeting was adjourned until some undetermined time, possibly next month. Actually, according to the by-laws, this meeting was supposed to be held the first Saturday of last December.

Also, we received word that John Rogerson removed himself from consideration for the Board. Apparently, his job duties prevented him from doing a proper job on the Board.

Also, Mr. Lawrence mentioned why he refused to deal with the website. Apparently he was waiting for an engraved invitation. While our identities are no secret, we have sent him such an invitation, and introduced ourselves. I have an open offer to Mr. Lawrence, and any member of the current or future board, to post on the website any relevant information they have to offer. I think it would benefit our community greatly if we could receive information from the board, and offer it here to everybody. Many of the documents distributed at the meetings originated in electronic form, and we could post them here if we had copies.

May 13, 2003

We've got a lot of news to share! First, I'm sure most of you are aware that we are finally getting an Association Meeting. It will be held at 7:30PM at Brick Memorial High School on May 21. It seems the main reason for calling the meeting will be to elect people to fill open seats on the board. It's still a bit of a mystery why there are 4 open seats, but I suspect we won't find out until after the election. The important thing is that there are actually 5 people running for these seats. To all the residents of Primrose Lane that have long complained about things here, you lose ALL moral right to complain if you don't vote in the upcoming election. We are all unwilling to listen to someone whine, while that person refuses to do the slightest thing to make things better. As we need a Quorum of 51% of the residents to even have an election, EVERY VOTE COUNTS! Below are the candidates, and their email addresses. I STRONGLY urge everyone who is undecided as to who to vote for, to email the candidates, and see where they stand on the issues that are important to you.

Robert Dangler dang9922@aol.com

Marissa Diab rissdeebs@aol.com

James Lawrence president@PrimroseLane.Info

Dawn Lawton dawnynj@yahoo.com

John Rogerson jdrogerson@comcast.net

The qualifications of these residents should have been mailed to you. If they have not, you can either contact the Board, or I can provide a copy to you directly.

If you CANNOT make the meeting on May 21, you must vote by proxy. Be sure to send in your proxy vote early, as it must be received by 5:00 on May 20.

On another topic, we should have the full text of the By-Laws online soon. As it has to be typed in by hand, the going is slow. If anyone would like to volunteer typing in a part, or proofreading, please contact me here at Webmaster@PrimroseLane.Info

December 5, 2002

Is it time to get rid of Crawford?

A number of recent events, and realizations, seem to point towards a conclusion. There's the matter of musical parking spaces, where someone can get a better spot through some secret process. We've got Carol at Crawford, who apparently doesn't realize she works for us, and handles our complaints with incompetence and rudeness. We've also got a lawyer who, according to the last meeting's minutes posted below, charges $1291 to collect $1225, and he also doesn't seem to realize he works for us. He certainly isn't working in our best interests. But he is incredibly rude. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't even think of buying a car from a rude salesman, or a house through a rude agent. Or hiring an employee who can't even be polite to you. Why should we tolerate being treated like this from these employees of ours?

And now, a week after a run-in with Crawford, we suddenly and mysteriously have Crawford trying to collect money he claims we never paid, using incomplete records, years after the fact. From our communications with many of you, it seems our experiences are not unique. If you're dissatisfied with Crawford as well, be sure to make your voice heard.

To be fair, I think the board, particularly James Lawrence, is honest and decent. I find it ironic that we, as residents, get by far the best, and most respectful service, from those that are in essence volunteers. But I think the board needs to start managing the management company. Better yet, we should have a new management company, or just manage our affairs ourselves.

Because of the mishandling of the parking spots, some residents are still left unsure which parking spot is theirs. If you are one of them, please contact James Lawrence directly, as our experience tells us you are unlikely to get an accurate answer from Crawford.

On other matters, it's rumored that we might have a board meeting in December. Apparently there's been a lot of activity between the board and the Brick MUA. James wants to hold off having a meeting until he has something definite to say on the issue.

Thanks to the help of one of our residents, we will hopefully soon have online the full text of the bylaws, as well as the NJ laws that pertain to management of condominiums. We would also like to put the yearly budgets online as well. If anyone has any of the budgets in electronic form, please let us know.

Also, despite the infrequent updates of this webpage, the LOCAL EVENTS link near the bottom of the main webpage is always updated.

We have made minor updates all over the website including updating the website information to reflect Crawford's new address in Little Silver.

November 7, 2002

We still haven't heard anything about the next board meeting. As soon as we hear anything, we will post it here.

We have heard a number of complaints concerning Crawford Management. While we cannot help you with anything specifically, please let us know about any problems you have encountered. It may help in the future if we can compile a list of complaints.

Halloween seems to be a big hit around here! This year, we tried taking pictures of everyone's unit that was decorated. The results are now in the pictures section. Be aware, for some of you, this page may take a while to load, as there are a lot of pictures there.

October 18, 2002

There hasn't been much news to report, but a few people requested an update to the web site, so here it is.

The first annual Community Cookout seemed to go nicely. We have posted some pictures in the pictures section.

As soon as we know about the next board meeting, we will post the info here.

On another note, it seems that there is still some confusion over parking spaces. When the city repaved our parking lot, they made the spaces a little smaller, making a few extra spaces. The spaces are still numbered, and this is what you go by to determine your spot. It does not go by general position of the spot. The numbered spots belong to a unit, the spots marked FREE are for anyone, and the spots without markings, since they have not been assigned to anyone, are also for the use of all.

June 4, 2002

Seems some interesting things have been happening the past week or two. First, I'd like to welcome Kelli Jennings as our new board secretary. She has provided us with the minutes from the May 22 meeting. In case you missed the meeting, the minutes are below. In the future, we'll set up a separate section for meeting minutes.

The bike jump is gone. So is the tractor.

Seems we're getting our block party. Saturday, June 15 will be our first annual COMMUNITY COOKOUT. Free food and music is hard to beat! There will be a short meeting at 11:30 AM, and the fun runs from 12:00 to 5:00. In case you haven't received the notice in the mail, you have to let Derrick Wilkes know if you are attending.

May 15, 2002

We've made a lot of small updates to the website. The voting booth is up and working out well. We've also set up an email forwarding system to Mr. Lawrence. So if you want to email the president of the board, he can be reached at PRESIDENT@PRIMROSELANE.INFO

We also have a board meeting May 22. EVERYONE SHOULD ATTEND!

March 14, 2002

In case you haven't received the notice, the Board of Trustees is having a meeting Wednesday, March 20. Seems they want to discuss something about Primrose Lane making an income. I urge everyone to go.

Some people have reported password problems while trying to log in on the Message Board area. If you have any problems, please email us and we will take care of it.

The voting booth should be available within another week.

We also need your help to get the word out about the Web Site. We still haven't distributed flyers to all residents yet.

February 24, 2002

Things have been going well at the Primrose Lane Website this past week. We've had quite a few visitors, and emails as well. Many of the emails wished us well. Others had complaints or asked information. We are just residents here, and are probably not even as informed as you. If you want your questions answered, leaving a public message on the Message Board will get your question seen, and most likely answered.

Also, we've decided to use some of the suggestions sent to us. We've rearranged Primrose Lane, and put a search function here so you can make Primrose Lane your start page. Keep the suggestions coming!

February 14, 2002

We have finally opened the Primrose Lane Website! We are here to help communication of ideas about our community. After years of frustrating hours of annual meetings that left us depressed, we decided a website would serve the community well. Complaints AND good ideas are welcome here. Please be aware:

1. We have no official connection with the board or Crawford Management. We are just residents.

2. If you have complaints, you are welcome to post them on our complaint message board. Please do not direct any complaints at us, as we have no magic powers to help you.

3. Please don't post heavy complaints anywhere else except the complaint message board. Many people just can't tolerate a lot of negativity.

4. Please be polite and avoid profanity while expressing your ideas here.

If you have any suggestions on how we can make things here better, Please let us know!