Brooks Management

Dumpsters And Trash Ediquette –this is the largest area of head aches in every community across the country. We would like to thank all of our homeowners for your cooperation in following the trash guidelines,  breaking  up big boxes and pushing rubbish to the back of the dumpsters. If you need to dispose of appliances or large items, please call Brooks Management to make special arrangements. We are grateful for your cooperation.

     Parking is one of the areas that plague every neighborhood and condominium community in America. The problem with Condominiums is that the bulk of them were built at a time when the most of society had one car per household. Condominiums were built with one designated space per home and some scattered guest parking spots around the property.

     Today, however, most drivers have more than one car at their disposal. Almost every household with a husband, wife, and at least one child of driving age has two to three vehicles. Our environment and society is ever changing.  We need to be aware if what we are doing is adversely affecting our neighbors. If you are in a complex where the development was designed for two cars and you have three; what do you do with the third car?

     First thing I suggest is, go back to the governing documents and find out how many cars per unit they originally allowed for. You might also check how many guest spaces are allotted per homeowner.

     Something we here at Brooks Management like to promote is open communication. We suggest you talk with your neighbors over a cup of coffee and discuss any solutions you or they may have. If we all are trying to make life a bit easier for the person down the walk or across the way parking might not seem like such a big deal anymore.

     It is completely understandable that some folks do not live watching out for the other person, this is when you may need to do a bit of research, find out the rules and then discuss it with your Board.

     Everyone wants good neighbors and hopefully to be a good neighbor.  We all live in such close proximity to one another that going about these things this way could make all the difference.

     Where there is a problem, there is a solution, we just need to work together to find it.

WANTED: Employees who are honest, responsible, dependable, loyal, focused, organized and mature

 Is this too much to ask?

American employers spend millions of hours each year placing ads, interviewing, hiring and training workers  only to find out that many of the new hires work for only a few months and then decide they don’t want to be “just a clerk” anymore as they work their way up the corporate ladder.

Where can American employers find dependable, steady employees who have no plans to move up and out?

The answer, we have seen in many business ventures, is senior citizens or older workers.

Here are a few advantages of hiring mature workers that may solve managers difficulties with maintaining a reliable, dedicated workforce and result in significant cost savings in both the long and short term.

Dedicated workers produce quality work, which can result in significant savings.                                                                                                                   

Punctuality seems to be a given for older workers. They look forward to going to work each day, so they arrive on time and ready to work.

Honesty is common among many older workers, whose values include personal integrity and a devotion to the truth.

Maturity comes from years of life and work experience and makes for workers who get  less “rattled” when problems occur.

Setting an example for others employees is an intangible value many employers appreciate. Mature workers make excellent mentors and role models, so training other employees is less difficult.

Mature workers unique skills and values make hiring them a simple matter of rethinking the costs of high turnover in a more youthful workforce versus the benefits of experience and mature standards that mature workers bring to the mix. Some employers like Home Depot may allow employees to split time between two states such as Massachusetts and Florida so that you won’t stop your employee contract.

Insurance is the best place to demonstrate the Preservation instead of Restoration thought. If you work on keeping an eye on your unit for leaks, not just in the roof, but under sinks, toilets, washing machines and hot water heaters. You will most likely catch leaks before they get to be a problem.

We advise all owner occupied units to have condominium insurance. Known as an HO-6 policy. If owners are unfamiliar with this, we suggest they contact their insurance agent. Owners should insist that their tenants carry renter's insurance for their personal property.

Please be reminded that the following policy is in effect regarding insurance deductibles for claims against the Association's insurance:

• With regard to insurance deductibles on association claims, the individual unit owner will be responsible for the deductible per incident.
• Individual HO-6 policies should have a provision to pay for the deductible, less your stated deductible. Be sure to check with your personal insurance provider to be sure that the deductible is covered.
• Most associations now have what is known to be an “all in policy”. This means that if you could flip your house up side down anything that fell to the ceiling would be your responsibility, the rest is the associations.

Even if you do all you can do to preserve your investment, there will always be times of accidents. We live in an imperfect world where the Second Law Of Physics (Things are in a constant state of decline, iron will rust, homes will deteriorate as time goes by.) is always at work. However, we can stay ahead of the game if we keep our eyes open.

Winter in New England is very harsh to concrete/masonry stairs. Salt of the earth is usually a good thing unless it loses its saltiness or destroys your stairs. Most concrete/masonry damage is a result of the natural effects of freeze-thaw cycles, not a chemical attack by an ice melter. Moisture seeps into the surface pores and cracks in the concrete/masonry, and as it changes to ice, expands and puts pressure on surrounding surfaces. Stress on weaker areas in the concrete/masonry may result in cracking or surface deterioration.

Using an ice melter increases the number of freeze-thaw cycles, and the potential for damage to concrete/masonry. However, the hazards and risk of injury associated with slippery surfaces must be weighed against this.

With our motto of Preservation instead of Restoration we have found a product that works pretty well here in New England and so far has proved to be pretty safe on the masonry steps. That product is a Urea based ice melter it does not melt at the extreme low temperatures of say a Rock Salt or Calcium Chloride, but does do a very adequate job. We suggest you clean the stairs off as often as possible after all snow falls. Do not leave the residue ice melter on the steps. Sweep the stairs often and try to manually keep them free from the snow build up.

Let us keep the salt in the shaker as the spice of life and not on the stairs.

In keeping with our mission to preserve and not have to restore (preservation not restoration), we are going to touch base on one of New England’s most common winter problems: the ice dam. In the name of saving money, some of us have done more damage to our homes than good. The costs of living are constantly going through the roof, and we as individuals try to do all we can to cut costs and yet be green minded.

We know that heat loss is a bad thing and that most of the heat in a home is lost through the attic. As a solution to reduce heat loss, we hire contractors or go to the local home improvement store and buy more insulation for the attic. In theory, this looks and sounds like a great idea, but it could actually be very detrimental to your unit’s health.

Here is where the problem arises. Homes and condominiums in New England need to keep their roofs cold in the winter. The best way to do this is to keep a constant flow of outside air in the underside of the roof. When we place more insulation into the attic we often look down into our eaves and can see daylight. We then call one of those aforementioned contractors or put even more insulation in ourselves. In turn, we cut off that well designed air flow, then this creates the ice dam we were trying to avoid.

Most condominium documents declare the roof as the association’s responsibility to maintain or repair.  In light of this, we don’t think about it until there is damage, or worse, an injury.  We must remember that proactive prevention is the key to saving us all some of that well earned money.

In conclusion, when we are constantly blurring the jurisdictions of government and society it is much more difficult to define the responsibilities of the association versus the homeowner. When pondering this I came to the conclusion that we need to go back to the original documents we agreed to in the beginning.

Imagine if our Congress went back and followed our countries founding document.  Isn’t it wonderful when simple annoyances like an ice dam can make us think on the greater good?

A selective cut can greatly increase the biodiversity of the land. After a selective cut, this process can be advanced more quickly by applying a seed mix containing legumes and other nitrogen-fixing plants. This will improve the quality of the soil as well as attract additional species of wildlife. The result? Birds, mammals and other wildlife provide opportunity for a broader variety of trees and shrubs to successfully become established. Those native berry and nut-producing plants provide an excellent source of food for deer, birds, squirrels and many other animals.

There are other factors that contribute to the level of biodiversity such as proximity to water bodies and other undeveloped areas that can act as a matrix of habitats in conjunction with the managed forest. Ideally, the managed area is not isolated, rather it acts as a wildlife corridor with adjacent habitats so that additional sources of food, shelter and opportunities for mating are available.

A selective cut is not always an appropriate management tool for some areas, especially those with sensitive natural resources, such as vernal pools and other wetlands. The benefits of a sustainable harvest must be carefully weighed and the harvest must be carried out by a qualified forestry professional with extreme sensitivity using Best Management Practices.