Road & Timber Incident Report

Sunday, August 10, 11:50am

Hello SLE. Gus is out of town on a well-deserved family trip, so I’m posting (with his input) this update, which concerns both Roads and Timber…

On Friday, we had an incident on our roads involving a commercial tree buncher that got hung up in the overhead telco lines at Newman and Tahoe. This was a dangerous situation, and led to many complaints.

To confirm, the homeowner did fill out a logging form with the HOA, as is protocol.

However, the logging company listed in the application was not the one that was used or approved, which made it harder for us to figure out who the contractor was to make sure everything was handled, and service restored once the operator hit the lines.

Upon visiting the site, it was clear heavy equipment had also been inappropriately used on our roads. The logger had added to their schedule tree removal down the road, which didn’t equate to a second logging project in need of approval. However, because heavy equipment was used on our roads, it should be cleared with the HOA.

We really do appreciate homeowners managing their forrests and keeping the trees cut back (especially along our roads) as well as taking care of all deadfalls. We continue to encourage this and thank you all who stay on top of it for yourselves and your neighbors who may need help.

Work should always be done with community, safety, and the preservation of our roads in mind. Equipment must be trucked in to a property, and stay on that property until work is completed, and then trucked back out.

The way we keep our dues down is through volunteer management of our community, and having processes in place that we all need to follow to help us keep things on track, and costs down.

On Friday, processes weren’t followed.

Approved cutting plan wasn’t adhered to, info was incorrect or withheld, while in transit, the buncher hit the lines. Besides being rough on our roads, things like this happen when trying to hit multiple jobs.

If the info on the approved app had been correct, there’d be no need for more calls.

The contractor now knows we do not want his equipment used on our roads again. This is for the preservation of our roads, safety of drivers, and avoidance of accidents like getting hung up on lines, and potentially downing poles across our roads or on vehicles, residences, outbuildings or people.

The telco company (I believe it may be Ziply) will be out Monday to install two new poles and rehang the line on the contractor’s dime. Please drive slowly through there until repairs can be done.

If you have any questions about logging or use of logging equipment, both need to be approved, and that information can be found at https://www.spiritlakeeast.org/timber or email Gus at timber@spiritlakeeast.org. Thanks - Jon Dore