Capital Improvements/Asset Management/Water Company Liaison

The  snowmobile gate is now open. HOWEVER, please note the following:

Access through the gate is restricted to Timberlakes Owners and their accompanied guests. This means that you, the owner, have to be with them. “My Uncle in California is the owner and he told me I could do it” is not the same as accompanying your guests.
There is not much snow. We have about 18 inches at the gate this evening. This means that there are lots of big rocks, posts, trees and other impediments. Please be cautious.
Your snowmobiles must each have a current season Timberlakes sticker affixed. If you have paid your assessments and any fines you may have incurred, in full, you, the owner, may purchase stickers for your snowmobiles at the security gate house or in the office. If your account is delinquent, you may not purchase stickers.
If you are an owner, renting your snowmobiles, you must purchase a sticker for each rental machine.
The speed limits in Timberlakes apply to snowmobiles. Slow down. You can drive like a maniac when you are safely outside of the subdivision.
Hundreds of thousands of your dollars have been spent this past summer by the Water Company (We are not the Water Company) laying pipe, installing fire hydrants and rebuilding miles of roads. We, the owners are paying for these improvements. Please do not allow your group to tear up the roads or try to drive through fire hydrants.
There is NO PARKING anywhere in Timberlakes except in your driveway, the parking lot at the office, and the small parking area at Duck Lake. The area at Duck Lake is for you to drop your snowmobiles trailers IF you cannot get to your […]

Effective immediately, all Timberlakes roads are closed to heavy traffic for the season. This means that vehicles in excess of 10,000 pounds will not be allowed into Timberlakes. Propane delivery trucks are exempted from this provision, provided they are chained up. Package delivery trucks are also permitted to drive to the mailhouse. We will post a notice on the website when the roads are reopened in the Spring.

Also, please be aware that roads are extremely icy and dangerous during the winter months. Conditions are more slick during the first several snowstorms than during the heart of the winter. Please slow down and use caution. 4-wheel drive or chains are required. We have already had several vehicles slide off the road. Don’t let yours be the next one. You drive in Timberlakes at your own risk; please don’t put someone else at risk by not taking winter driving seriously.

Gary, the Road Guy

We are tentatively planning to close all Timberlakes Roads to heavy construction traffic on Thursday, October 29. If the weather holds out, we may push this out a few more days. On the other hand, if we get winter weather earlier, we may have to close the roads sooner. The point is that we are fast approaching the closure to construction traffic of all roads in Timberlakes for the winter. Please plan accordingly and thanks in advance for your cooperation.

Gary, the Road Guy

The date for closing the roads in Timberlakes to heavy trucks has been extended from Oct 15th to Oct 18th, 2009.  At that time we will evaluate if the 18th of October is the final day or if it may be extended.  Don’t plan on an extension. In the meantime, please use some common sense. For example, you cannot take a heavy truck up Blue Spruce in the rain. Without road base, the surface of Blue Spruce is slick, extremely muddy and dangerous.

Thanks.

Gary
Road Guy

Timberlakes will close it roads to construction traffic (any vehicle over 10,000 GVW) as of October 15, 2009. Please make appropriate plans when arranging for deliveries.  You never know what mother nature will do and it could still be sunny skies, but the road closure will still be in effect.  The roads will reopen to construction sometime in the spring. Many times in the past, lot owners have asked for exceptions to the closure and they say they are only going “just off the paved road” and we find them up on the east or west side at the top.  If we did not have so many people telling us one thing to get around the rules and then doing something else it would make it a lot easier for those that do abide by the rules.  It takes away the opportunity to give a variance on occasion because of a few that choose not to follow the rules. That is why we close “all roads” to heavy vehicles on October 15.

You may see a dump truck enter Timberlakes on occasion after the road closure date – that truck is delivering salt to the maintenance building that is used on the asphalt roads to melt ice. The road closure also does not apply to propane delivery trucks.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

Gary
The Road Guy

Blue Spruce from Cottonwood to Green Briar is still closed and will be through the end of August.  Our road crew is making a major cut in the mountain side in an effort to improve the grade of Blue Spruce.  As of today, we have yet to complete the section between Green Briar and Cutoff Road.  This area is where the major cut into the mountain is taking place and that dirt is being moved down hill to the Blue Spruce – Cottonwood intersection.  We are raising that intersection several feet. At some point in this project we may have to close the intersection of Blue Spruce and Cottonwood.  If we do, we will route cars to Cottonwood via Red Willow.

Please remember that there is a lot of road construction taking place all over the mountain and the speed limit on non-paved roads is 25 mph.

The Board has recently authorized the issuance of citations to people speeding in Timberlakes.  Don’t be one of the first to be issued a citation! And please remember, there is no parking on any of the roads in Timberlakes. Even though some good citizen stole our No Parking sign, you will be issued a citation and may be towed if you park on the road.

Drive Safe.

Gary, The Road Guy

Many lot owners have contacted me during the past few days, expressing concern about speeding drivers in Timberlakes. Generally, cars, pickups, SUVs and ATVs are driving faster than the speed limit. Please make sure that everyone in your group is aware of the speed limits: 35 mph on paved roads and 25 mph on unpaved roads. If you have contracted with someone to work on your cabin or lot, please make sure that they know the speed limits. If we catch a contractor speeding here, we will not allow them to re-enter the security gate. We will give a contractor or visitor one warning. After that, they will be added to a list of drivers not allowed inside the gates.

For those of us who travel Blue Spruce, starting next week, it will be closed between Cottonwood and Greenbriar for approximately 2-3 weeks. You will need to take the snow plow detour route until we open Blue Spruce back up. We are going to lower Blue Spruce by 12-15 foot cut on Blue Spruce, at the Cutoff Road intersection. At the same time, we will be raising Blue Spruce several feet at the Cottonwood intersection. These two improvements will make these intersections much safer to drive through and will hopefully reduce the difficulties of coming up along the snow plow plow detour route in the winter.

Please SLOW DOWN as our road crew works in this area. Also please SLOW DOWN when you are passing by the water pipe constructions crews.

Next item. This is the second notice to all lot owners that ATVs, motorcycles, ATVs, UTVs and all other recreational offroad vehicles be registered with Timberlakes. Owners only (not their guests, friends, or impersonators) […]

The road grading is grating on someone’s nerves. We received an anonymous fax at the Timberlakes office today. The quality and font size of the document does not allow us to simply show you the fax here on the website. We have retyped it, exactly as we received it, complete with the original text and spelling. The content has not been edited in any way.

May 18, 2009

Dear Timberlakes Association:

It is out of complete frustration that we write this letter to you. In all the years that we have lived in Timberlakes, the roads have  never been in such poor condition. Unlike the letter that circulates once a month claiming that the roads are always taken care of, we have not seen a pot hole (some very deep), rut, deep crevices etc. filled or taken care of in three years.

The roads we are talking about are Greenleaf, Acorn and Deer Creek roads. They haven’t seen a grater or ANY fill dirt in the last three years. The roads are in horrible need of some fill dirt and grating. When it used to be done (years ago) it would take a day or so to smooth out the roads so they were drivable….that is doing all three in our area. We know there are a lot more, obviously.

We realize your response to this will be that there are so MANY roads and they do the best they can. Our response to you would be that we have all driven around and we would suggest less time on the pricy landscaping of the Maintenance building and grooming around the ponds, and spend some time grating the roads. We pay just as money a year […]

The roads on both the East side and the West side of the mountain are open for construction traffic as of May 15, 2009. Please make sure if you are involved in a construction project that you have all the proper permits from TLPOA and Wasatch County. Security will ask the delivery truck drivers to provide lot information to them before they allow deliveries through the gate. Also, remember that all ATVs, UTVs, 4-wheelers, etc. need to have a current TLPOA permit (available at the office without charge to lot owners only). There is a lot of road construction going on as the water company lays new pipe. Please drive slow and be aware of all the workers. Remember the speed limit is 25 MPH on all non-paved roads, even if you are on an ATV. Please note that your construction projects need to be completed during the spring and summer months. Some time around October 15, 2009, depending on weather and temperature, we will close the roads to construction traffic.
Gary Hume
Road Guy

Winter has finally come to a close (we think). Many folks are asking when construction trucks well be allowed on the roads of Timberlakes. We are hoping that the west side will be available the first week of May 2009. Next would be the lower part of the east side and then the upper east side. There is still about 4 foot of snow on the upper east side and that part of the mountain probably will not be open for at least 3 weeks. All of these dates are estimates!

If you have a specific question when your part of the mountain will open for construction traffic, you can contact the security personnel at the front gate for a day-by-day update. They will be the first ones that get the word as to what part of the mountain is open and when.

Gary Hume
Road Guy

Effective today we have closed the roads to heavy vehicles for the winter. The ground is beginning to freeze in many areas. This morning the roads were icy, very slick and and dangerous. For the remainder of the winter, we will not allow construction vehicles larger than a pickup to enter the subdivision. It required so much of our time to consider all the requests for exceptions to the road closing last month that we can no longer take such requests. The roads are closed to heavy traffic until next spring. Please note that your contractor can still come in with a pickup, weather permitting. However, pickups without chains endanger everyone else on the mountain on icy days. Please ask your contractor to follow the rules.

Gary Hume
The Road Guy

Summer was way too short for the many projects we identified to do and winter is just around the corner. As those of you with property on the upper part of the mountain may have noticed, we have removed the brush and some trees at the corner of Blue Spruce and Cut Off Road (or Club House as some may know it). Many of you have called me and asked about the “big drop off.” Our road crew is in the process of widening Cut Off Road, along with reducing the steepness of the slope at this intersection. This intersection is probably the worst one on the mountain. This part of the road has always had very steep sides and has always been dangerous but no one ever knew just how much it dropped off there until we removed the brush. Most of the fill dirt for this project is being moved from the new building site where we are making room for the driveway and parking area.

Some of you may have noticed that there are big cement boxes along some of the roads – these cement boxes are going to be put in the ground and connected to the culvert that runs under the road. These boxes will help keep dirt from filling up the pipe and will prevent trucks from crushing the end of the culvert. This will improve the drainage water flowing down the bar ditches.

Some have asked about our paving plans. We are not paving anything this year and perhaps not next year. Asphalt has jumped in price just like the gas for your car because it is an oil-based product. One of the reasons we will hold off for […]

Many have asked about our winter snowplowing schedule. Timberlakes has a full-time crew of two people who maintain the roads year-round. In the winter, the snowplow process is not dictated by an exact schedule. The first road to be plowed is the paved section referred to as the Dugway. This is paved portion of Lake Pines Drive. Generally, the second road to be plowed is Blue Spruce and the third is Ridgeline.

This schedule is always subject to change based on the amount and location on the mountain of snowfall.

As time permits and the main roads are cleared, the crew then plows side roads that feed into the above-mentioned roads. If the west side get more snow than the east side then we will work on that area first or if the east side (upper part of the mountain) gets more snow we will spend more time in that area at first.

Our crews are on a 40-hour week and we try to manage their time so they are available to work on the roads when Mother Nature decides to let it snow. We generally do not start plowing until there is at least 6 inches of new snow.

If you have additional questions about plowing, please check our website for updates during the winter months.

Please remember that snow removal depends on several things, including the amount of snowfall, where the snow falls, availability of equipment, availability of our 2-man crew and availability of funds.

There are always many questions by the lot owners as to what projects are ongoing and why “my road is not fixed”! We have been holding off on repairs to the roads while waiting to see if the water bond project was going to pass. Now that the water board has decided to move forward with the project, we can now prioritize our road projects.

John B. and I attended a meeting with some of the water board members this week and worked on a plan as to what part of the mountain they would suggest to the contractor he work on first. I have been holding off on applying any new road base to the roads that will be dug up (approximately 18+ miles of road) when the new water pipe is laid as this would be a waste of our dollars. If we laid down new base now the new base would be mixed into the dirt and then reapplied. This does not make for a good road base.

It looks like the water contractor will start laying pipe in early September. The water company will probably ask for them to start on the upper part of the mountain (as that is where most water leaks are) and a second crew start on the west side. If snow hits the upper mountain early this year, that crew will probably move to the west lower side.

As the pipe is laid in the ground on the side roads those roads will be put back to some improved condition and then most will receive an additional 3 inches of road base added to the surface. Our road guys will be working ahead of the pipe laying crews […]

As I commented in the last update – if the snow would stop coming down we could get to work on the many projects we have in relation to the roads. The snow came again over the holiday weekend, much to the disappointment of many 4 wheelers. We are still waiting to define major projects to see what direction the water company takes in regards to the improvement bond. If they continue with the bond project it will keep us busy working on the roads where they are laying pipe.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome back as our Mountain Road Manager, Mike Camper. Mike knows the mountain like the back of his hand and also has a lot of knowledge about what has gone on here for many years. Mike is joined by Rick Straton who has been working on the roads by himself for the past few months. These two guys have a lot of work ahead of them this summer, starting with digging out the culverts that have been covered up with mud this past year.

Some folks wonder what the projects are and who gives the priority to the projects. The Board listens to you, the lot owners, as to what needs to be fixed or improved on the mountain. Not all the requests make the “to do list” but they are prioritized based on overall benefit to the majority of the owners. When driving down our Timberlakes roads please remember the speed limit is 25 mph. I was out picking up trash on the Dugway last Saturday with two of my grandkids and folks drove by us at speeds that only an autobahn has seen in Europe. […]

Hello Timberlakes owners (full time, part time and lot owners):

Every time I get ready to write this update about the roads I start to say, “now the snows are over” it snows again. We did make it through the winter thanks to Don, Bonnie, Gordon, Rick (our current mountain employee) and many others. My thanks to them and anyone else that helped. As the snow melts, the ruts get wider, deeper and the road base becomes thinner. We are currently reviewing the roads and the budget to see what the projects will be for the summer. This past winter took a real toll on our equipment when we were trying to clear the roads with employees that were not completely trained on the equipment. We are currently looking to hire a full time “Mountain Road Manager.” We hope to fill this position soon as we have many projects to complete before winter arrives again.

We anticipate one of the projects this summer is to place major culverts on the main roads in order to channel the rain and snow runoff and keep it from running down the middle of the road. This project will close part of the main roads from time to time as we work to place these culverts. We ask for your patience during the road detours.

The road group is very excited about the new maintenance building you can read about on Ole’s blog. This building will allow for the parking of all the road equipment inside and out of the harsh weather. We hope to be in the new building by late fall.

We are currently enlarging the parking area near the office and when completed should have about doubled […]