Happy Summer, Ledgewood!

Hello from your president, Zarina. I hope you are enjoying this warm weather, our sometimes balmy sometimes cool pool days, and all the greenery that only our Ledgewood neighborhood has to offer.

Several exciting announcements to put on your summer calendar:

FOURTH OF JULY POOL PARTY
When: Tuesday, July 4
Time: Noon - 4:00PM
Where: Ledgewood Pool and Clubhouse
Join your neighbors for a fun afternoon of swimming, food, and fun! Pizza and hotdogs will be provided. Please bring a side dish or dessert to share!
LEDGEWOOD COMMUNITY GARAGE SALE
Ledgewood Community Garage Sale is scheduled for Thursday, August 3rd through Saturday, August 5th. Each household is responsible for acquiring their own FREE city permit. Please go to the following link to do so: https://www.strongsville.org/departments/building/garage-sales
The following rules and restrictions are applied by the city of Strongsville:
- Garage sales shall be conducted in accordance with Strongsville Codified Ordinances, Chapter 822.
- No garage sale shall last more than 4 consecutive days, including the specified start date.
- Garage sales shall only occur between 8:00AM and 7:00PM.
- Only 3 garage sale permits are allowed within 1 calendar year.
FIRST ANNUAL END-OF-SUMMER COMMUNITY POTLUCK AND FAMILY BINGO
The First (and what we hope to be) Annual End of the Summer Community Potluck and Family Bingo will occur on Saturday, September 2nd, from 12 to 4. We will communicate with further details very soon. If you are interested in helping us organize this event, please contact Zarina at president@theledgewoodassociation.com.

HOA BOARD

I call you to serve on our HOA board. Although there are still several months left until many of our board members finish serving their terms, I would like to call you to serve on the next year’s opening board positions.

The Ledgewood board is comprised of six members. We are a group of volunteers, who diligently serve our community. We meet regularly to discuss, manage, and plan for current and future issues pertaining to our neighborhood. Whether we are fully employed or retired, these volunteer positions are considerable responsibilities for us all, and we thank all the former and future board members for their commitment and dedication to Ledgewood.

If you are considering volunteering, please contact Zarina at president@theledgewoodassociation.com. Here are the descriptions of the various trustee positions for you to contemplate.

President of the HOA

Prepare, gather, organize, and communicate monthly meeting agendas to all the board members and secretary in preparation for monthly meetings.
Prepare and organize annual meeting.
Prepare annual report.
Call for votes on expenditures at meetings.
Appoint committees.
Oversee the website. Update at least twice a year. Assign the updates to the various trustees in their areas of responsibility.
Gather information and publish quarterly publication of The Ledger.
Identify and assign projects to specific trustees. Assist and follow up on trustee’s projects until completion.
Act as a spokesperson for the association.
Recruit and contact perspective new trustees for any future board openings.
Regularly communicate with the neighborhood via e-mail and social media posts.
Answer regular e-mails, phone calls, and social media questions pertaining neighborhood business.
Meet with various vendors regarding neighborhood business.
Advise other board trustees regarding neighborhood business.
Handle tough situations concerning residents and be main point of contact to solve difficult scenarios.
Organize various social events for the neighborhood.

Common Grounds & Maintenance Trustee

Advise Trustees on all matters pertaining to the maintenance, repair and improvements of the common grounds, inclusive of:
- Mowed common ground areas
- Wooded common Grounds
- Ravines on common grounds
- Parking Lots
- Tennis court, basketball court, and playground area
- Entrance signage
- Street signage and street entrances
- Trees
Supervise Maintenance Operations Manager
Receive and act upon residents’ comments/complaints concerning command grounds
Interface with City Engineer, Service Departments, and Councilmen as needed
Things to know:
- When a tree is cut down in common ground, it is left where it falls

Pool Trustee

Hire Pool Operations Manager.
Oversee the opening of the pool. If any necessary repairs are to be made, obtain bids and submit these bids to the Board for necessary approval.
Be responsible for everything that is involved with the pool. This includes the Pool Operations Manager, the pool equipment, the lawn chairs, the lighting and maintenance of the grounds surrounding
the pool, and all the pool equipment that is located in the maintenance garage and outside of the garage (including pump and deep well). Get Maintenance Operations Manager involved with any
pool repairs as necessary.
Oversee the closing of the pool.
At all times be aware of the red light warning posted over the garage. If the red light is on, there is a problem with the pump that must be taken care of immediately.
Maintain records of pool equipment maintenance and replacement. Update pool manual on an annual basis in conjunction with the pool operations manager.

Clubhouse Trustee

Monitor regular Ledgewood e-mail and phone communication, answer anything pertaining to clubhouse area, forward appropriate e-mails to the clubhouse manager, and answer what is
appropriate.
Maintain communication with our clubhouse manager, Karyn Wheeler, who manages clubhouse reservations and its logistics. Any e-mail received about reserving the clubhouse, questions about
clubhouse reservations, payments in regards to reservations, etc, should be forwarded to Karyn.
Make sure the physical maintenance of the clubhouse is in good working order. The fireplace is working, the kitchen appliances are working, the furnaces and air conditioning units have been checked
out. Many of these are done together with the Common Ground trustee, who manages our maintenance crew.
Maintain an up-to-date log of services for the clubhouse, contact vendors if something needs to be fixed. Communicate all these to other board members and Carleen, and keep a log.
Make sure our cleaning person is doing their job and everything is going smoothly. If there are any problems, they will communicate with you and with the clubhouse manager.
Discuss with other trustees rental applications that are questionable and fall outside the guidelines of clubhouse rentals allowed. Clubhouse Manager will also advise.

Architectural Review Trustee

Maintain a schedule of walk/ride through the area and check for maintenance and upkeep of the neighborhood.
Enforce covenants and restrictions and receive complaints on covenants and restrictions.
Enforce the maintenance of the lampposts throughout the neighborhood - there is a lamp post outage form on the website for resident to use. Advice if Brian and Eric can assist in fixing the lampposts.
(Both Brian and Eric can be hired outside of their Ledgewood responsibilities to assist with this, as lamppost maintenance is a resident responsibility). All lamppost parts are available at the
Maintenance garage.
Review plans for any outside structures and additions, fences, decks, etc, and review applications for building permits.
Log to be kept for all requests for additions, including applications for building permits and disposition of all requests. Architectural Trustee maintains a spread sheet.
Maintain a walk-through log.
Things to keep in check: garbage cans, sidewalks, bushes and tress, grass and weeds, log piles.

Common Grounds News from Ken Tocco

Summer is when we usually take care of bigger Common Grounds projects and this summer is no exception. We’ve got two complete, one underway now and a fourth coming soon.

If you’ve been to the playground or started your community garden plot you’ve probably noticed that we’ve extended the walkway from the bottom of the steps from Falling Leaves to the asphalt road. The idea was suggested by several residents as it’s difficult to get through the grass there while pulling a wagon or pushing a stroller, especially after it rains. This one is complete.

A bigger project is replacing a second section of the retaining wall behind the pool. The left hand wall was done last year; the right side will be done this summer. The lumber sitting in front of the garage is for the new wall. Should be done by the time you read this newsletter.

The third project is to upgrade and repair the steps leading from Falling Leaves to the playground. This one is also being handled in-house. The last project is being done by Moscarino Landscape and Design. We’ll be upgrading the landscaping at several intersections through Ledgewood. Doing them all in one year was cost prohibitive so the board decided to spread it out over 3 years. We’ll do 12 this summer and the rest in 2024 and 2025.

The wall, walkway, and steps projects are being handled in-house. Countless other ones, large and small, are done by our outstanding Maintenance staff, which consists of Supervisor Eric Schmiedlin (pictured) who has been with us for 7+ years and has extensive maintenance and installation experience in a wide variety of areas.

Brian Nary is our other Maintenance staff member. He has 22 years of experience as a machinist and a great deal of additional maintenance experience.

Eric and Brian are part time Ledgewood employees but are available to do work for Ledgewood residents outside of their job responsibilities. They’ve replaced light posts and done other work for many of us over the years. They can be reached at 440-864-0218 if you would like to hire them.

We get quite a few resident calls with questions about how Common Grounds are maintained. Our first priority is the safety of our residents and their homes. While we try to preserve as many trees as possible but there are many that get storm-damaged or diseases of various kinds. When we get a report of a tree or limb endangering someone’s home we react quickly and take the tree down. We follow Cleveland Metroparks guidelines and leave the tree and branches on Common Grounds for nature to take its course.

THANK YOU

Thank you for reading our summer updates. I leave you with the photos which might embody our neighborhood summers the best, the Barracudas! And I hope to see you soon at either the Fourth of July Pool Party or at the Community Potluck and Family Bingo. Make sure to say hello.

Best regards and warmest wishes.

Zarina Melik-Stepanova