Author: Patrick Trant

On Saturday, September 19th, 2015 at 1 PM, we’ll be having our annual HOA meeting. It will be at Firehouse #21, located at the intersection of 135th and 21st St. We’ll be sending out more detailed notices in the near future, but wanted to post this announcement now so everyone could plan accordingly. In addition, we want to solicit feedback from homeowners for any agenda items (such as new covenants) that we should consider for the meeting. If you want to make any suggestions, please use the Contact Us form.

Greetings, all,

We hope everyone is enjoying spring so far this year. It’s a great time to start working on outside projects for your house and lawns. To help promote this activity, which makes the entire neighborhood look better, we’re organizing a Neighborhood Cleanup starting on Friday, May 15th until Friday, May 22nd. We’ve contacted Waste Management to have a dumpster delivered to the commons area across from 129 S. Forestview. All homeowners are encouraged to bring any unnecessary junk or yard debris to be dumped. However, there are a few guidelines on what is permitted. Hazardous materials or anything that would not normally be allowed in your trash cart cannot be disposed of in the dumpster. This includes things like:

• Aerosol cans
• All liquids
• Animals
• Antifreeze
• Appliances
• Asbestos
• Barrels
• Batteries
• Chemical products
• Computers
• Contaminated oils (mixed with solvents, gasoline, etc.)
• Dirt
• Fluorescent tubes
• Food Waste
• Hazardous waste
• Herbicides & pesticides
• Industrial waste
• Lubricating/hydraulic oil
• Medical waste
• Microwaves
• Monitors
• Motor oil
• Oil filters
• Other flammable liquids
• Paint (except completely dried latex paint cans, no liquids)
• Petroleum-contaminated soil/lead paint chips
• Propane tanks
• Radioactive material
• Railroad ties
• Solvents
• Televisions
• Tires
• Transmission oil

In addition, it is absolutely critical that the dumpster is not overfilled; nothing is allowed to protrude from the top. We will be monitoring the dumpster and if it fills up during the week, we will have it emptied.

We hope to see everyone out and about during the week and making use of this amenity, or otherwise just interacting with your neighbors. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Rainbow Lakes West Third Addition HOA Board

Due to the large volume of the debris from the storm overnight, the city has made it possible for residents to drop off storm debris at Brooks Construction and Demolition Landfill for free. The public may drop off storm debris through the close of business Tuesday, April 7 at no charge.

Because Brooks is a C&D landfill, accepted storm debris is limited to roofing materials, wood, wood products, wall or floor coverings, plaster, drywall, plumbing fixtures, electrical wiring, electrical components containing no hazardous materials and non-asbestos insulation.

All loads are screened by the landfill operator. Loads containing any unapproved waste will be rejected. Household hazardous wastes will not be accepted. All other C&D waste is subject to regular tipping fees.

The landfill is located at 4100 N. West Street and is open M-F, 7:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. and will be open extended hours on Saturday, April 4 from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. For more information, please contact the Brooks Landfill at (316) 722-0601. Residents are also encouraged to contact their normal haulers for additional assistance with debris removal.

City officials will be presenting information on the preliminary floodplain maps recently released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The meetings will be focused on the impact of FEMA floodplain map changes in specific City Council districts. District 5, where we are located, is meeting on Monday, March 16th, 2015 at Fire Station #21 (2110 N. 135th St. West) at 6:30 PM. Additional community meetings will be held in May after affected property owners have been notified. FEMA and officials from the State of Kansas will be present at the May meetings to provide more information about how property owners may be impacted by the preliminary map changes. If you believe your home may be impacted, it is highly recommended that you attend. Additional information can be found on the Wichita.gov website:

http://www.wichita.gov/Government/Departments/PWU/Pages/Floods.aspx

Greetings, all,

We hope everyone has started off to a great new year. Since our annual meeting back in September, the HOA Board has been hard at work. We have two new officers: myself, Patrick Trant, as the new President, and Jolene Kaufman as our new Secretary. In addition, last month, Travis Rakestraw decided to step down as the Zone 5 Representative and Keith Stutzman was appointed as his replacement.

One of the things we immediately wanted to implement was a website to host information about the HOA. This is now up and running at http://www.rainbowlakes3.com/. We’re very excited about this, as it has a lot of useful information, such as our Bylaws and Covenants. In addition, we’ll be posting our monthly Meeting Minutes and any other important announcements on the website going forward. For the latter, those will also be sent out to this distribution list. Lastly, the website also has a contact form so any HOA member can send questions or concerns to the HOA Board for review.

As noted in the email everyone should have received when I added each member to this distribution list, we’ve switched to using Google Groups as our method of contact for the HOA. We were previously using Constant Contact, and while it served its purpose well, we were also having to pay $15 a month for it while Google Groups works just as well and is free. There is also a page on our website about this so that members can manually sign up as needed.

Lastly, and most importantly, we’re also looking at a major maintenance project for our lake (Reserve A). As noted now if you look at it, the water level is already very low and during a summer drought, this can be a huge concern. We’re evaluating our options for getting a well setup to regulate the water level. Steve Cooper has been in talks with Harp Well & Pump Service and Ground Water Associates regarding this project and both companies are highly experienced in this type of project. The process is quite involved and requires applying for a permit, which is reviewed by the state to ensure there is a negligible impact on the surrounding water tables. It typically takes several months before the permit is approved. Based upon our initial discussions with Ground Water Associates, who reviewed the metrics in our area, there should be ample water, especially for the amount we would need. Specifically, we only need about 12 acre feet to maintain the lake and there is about 443 available in the water table, so this would have a minimal, if any, impact on individual members’ wells. At our January board meeting, the HOA Board voted to hire Ground Water Associates to assist us in completing the application for the permit, which can cost up to $1250. If the permit is approved by the state and we decide to proceed with the well and pump, we would be hiring Harp to do the work, which would cost around $10,000. The HOA has enough funds on hand to pay for this without needing a special assessment. This maintenance project is important and maintains the lake, not only as a vista, but also for the wildlife it supports. Specifically, if the water level gets too low, it can result in a fish kill, which can be costly to clean up. Overall, we feel this preventive measure will pay for itself in the long run and many other HOAs in our area have already done this, such as Fontana, Reflection Ridge, and the Thickets. If anyone has any questions or concerns regarding this project, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

We’re continuing to work on other projects for the HOA as well, but wanted to send out this update. We highly recommend everyone visit the website and to reach out to us with any other feedback they may have.

Patrick Trant, President
Rainbow Lakes West Third Addition HOA Board

On December 12, 2014, Sara Stolz, an accountant and member of the Rainbow Lakes West Third Addition HOA performed an internal audit of our bookkeeping. Attached is her report. The details of it were discussed at the monthly HOA Board meeting, that was held on Monday, December 15th. All issues, although only classified as minor, that were investigated and responded to at that time. Our Treasurer, Steve Cooper, has done an excellent job at keeping the finances in order to date.

Audit – December 2014

Welcome to the Rainbow Lakes West Third Addition Homeowners Association website!