Village of Oak Lake Homeowners Association

N e w s l e t t e r September , 2017 Volume XVI, No. 09

Message from the Board

WINNING COUPLES -- Lonnie and Sue Hutson, left, and Sam (Samantha) Huynh and husband Tuan Nguyen just completed transfer of Kids R Kids Learning Academy, 11118 SH 6 South. The Hutsons started this academy 15 years ago, and are retiring. Sam and Tuan, from Katy, plan to maintain the same quality of education and retain the current academy staff.

The HOA Board had its monthly meeting Monday Aug 14th at the Pool House Room B. We had 5 home owners drop by to discuss various issues. We discussed the damaged landscaping blocks at the SH6 monument, the grass growing over the curb at the Baptist church, fencing along Oyster Creek Ele-mentary and social media. The landscaping blocks were hit by a vehicle and we approved Property Ser-vices to restore the flower bed at a cost of $545. We are going to inquire if the contractor working at SH6 is responsible for the damage. Next the Board is go-ing to ask the church to see if they can edge the grass at the curb. If they cannot, the Board will con-sider adding that to our landscaping contract. Next the Board is going to ask our attorney what the cost would be for drafting a letter asking FBISD to remove trees on their property that are damaging adjacent property fencing. Finally, we had one neighbor stop by to tell the Board, “Thank You, thank you all for vol-unteering your time to serve out community…..” and she also told us not to listen to those who lash out at the Board via social media. The Board discussed the email expense directives that have occurred since our last Board meeting. The expenses are as follows : • AquaDect Plumbers: clear main sewer line at

pool house at a cost of $247.00 • Arbor Care: remove dead tree and grind stump at

a cost of $495.00 • Property Services: Replace vandalized door at

the pool house at a cost of $1,200. The vandalized door cost above was the result of someone breaking down the door at the pool hour, room A. That room is located to the right of the wrought iron entry gate. All they took was cordless phone because we don’t use that room for storage. The Board reviewed our Action Item List and we have several projects in the works. As we previously reported, the Board invested in becoming exempt from paying sales tax and now we are officially EX-

EMPT. The total sales taxes paid in 2016 was $11,204.89, so our investment will yield dividends within a year. Our landscaping scope has gone thru several rounds of reviews and we expect to have a solid scope by the next meeting, then we will solicit bids from several companies. We will be keeping an open mind and not necessarily take a low bid, we need to consider the company’s portfolio of work. Pool manager contract, we have had persistent is-sues with the folks managing the pool and it is not looking good for the existing company. The existing contract expires in November and the Board will be exploring all our options. During the executive session, we discussed deed restriction violations, attorney reports, architectural log, moving forward on a foreclosure and modifying a payment plan for a home owner. We are 97% col-lected for our 2017 Assessments leaving us a re-maining uncollected balance of $15,023.75. If you wish to get email notices from the Board, please send an email to: webmaster@volhoa.com. Sincerely, VOL HOA Board

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A Texas Water Board chairman noted a few years ago that he believed that there would be a day when a bar-rel of water would be more expensive than a barrel of oil. He may be right. If you’ve checked your water bill lately you’ll recognize that our good water supply isn’t cheap. Water is going to become more precious all the time as there’s more and more demand for it. Your Fort Bend County MUD 41 is on a campaign to try to get residents in VOL to use 20 per cent less water this year. The board’s operator is listing the top water users each month, and sending a letter, asking if they are aware that they’re using a lot more water than most of their neighbors. The average monthly usage in VOL is 10,000 gallons. There were more than 15 residents who used twice that amount last month, one using 40,000, four times the norm.

***** All of us who travel eastward on West Airport to SH 6 need to be aware that there probably will be only one lane open at various points near the entrance for the next several months. To make the right turn only, and sidewalk, it may take until December to get it all done. Be careful. Now that school’s in again, please be careful of children crossing the street, And, the long lines of cars around the schools… It sometimes requires some patience on everyone’s part. Remember, the teachers and volunteers are trying to make the drop off and pick up as smooth as possible.

***** Does it make sense to keeping minting cents? In 2016 it cost the federal government 1.5 cents to make and distribute the U.S. penny, up from 1.43 cents in 2015. It produced 1.9 billion pennies last year. The U.S. Treasury has run a deficit on cent production every year since 2006, even though 99.2 per cent of our “copper” penny is made of zinc. It’s only lightly plated in copper. Over the past 11 years Uncle Sam has lost more than half a billion dollars, making cents. Canada stopped making its penny four years ago and Canadians have adjusted to prices up or down to the nearest five cent level. U.S. Sena-tors John McCain (R-AZ) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced a bill last March 29 to legislate the penny out of existence, but the Senate hasn’t taken any action on it. Sense or cents?

*****

(Continued on page 3)

The LetterWorks

...the letter works

Steve McHale Publisher

Wayne Chandler Editor

This newsletter is published privately, but with the concern and support of the Village of Oak Lake Homeowners Association. It is delivered, door-to-door, to 1,150 homes in VOL the last two days of each month. For advertising information, call

281-277-5267. The Newsletter reserves the right to reject, edit or omit an ad for any reason, and is not liable for any losses sustained as a result of printing errors.

For newsletter matters, call

281-277-5267 or e-mail to: stmchale@yahoo.com waynechandler@windstream.net

For matters regarding the Village of Oak Lake Homeowners Assn., Including Architec-tural Control and Landscaping Committee. Sterling Association Services, Inc One Avalon Place Sugar Land, Tx 77479 Becky Salinas Phone: 832-678-4500 Ext. 303 Fax: 281-966-1785 E-mail: servicedesk@sterlingasi.com

FOR VOL WEBSITES : WWW.VOLHOA.COM

WWW.STERINGASI.COM

AROUND THE ‘LAKE’

VOL OFFICERS

Laura Montalvo, President lauravol@windstream.net

Leo Furman, Vice President florpag@yahoo.com

JR Garcia, Treasury Ygarcia@pgal.com

Joe Hernandez, Secretary joehdez@hotmail.com

Walter Young, Director YOU1996@yahoo.com

RENT THE VOL SIGN

Rent the VOL sign at the entrance of the subdivision.. Use it for birth announcements, birthday wishes, awards, wedding congratulations, bon voyages, anniversaries, special occasions, welcome home, etc. It's $10 a day per side. Contact: Alan Ligh by e-mail at ajl.vol13@yahoo.com

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There are a lot of good reasons for students and parents to consider the local options for education after high school, and Dr. John Hansen details a lot of helpful information which I hope you all will read. Page 8.

***** Have you enjoyed your community swimming pool this Summer? Water aerobics experts claim that you really can use the pool for great exercise as well as fun. Simply tread-ing water for a minute can burn 11 calories, the same as running a minute at 6 mph. Using the pool noodle as if you’re riding a bicycle is suggested. Water pull-ups, either from a pool ladder or the diving board (if the guards will let you), are recommended, too.Clinic Waiting Room sign: Welcome: This is a Drug- Free, Alcohol-Free, Tobacco Free, Knife-Free, Gun-Free, Bully-Free Zone.

***** A QUESTION FOR ALL OF YOU: We were eating at a very nice restaurant, considering all the fabulous desserts. I asked our 22-year old granddaughter her favorite dessert. She immediately replied: “a chocolate chip cookie.” I was surprised, but I think that’s a very good choice. What’s your favorite dessert? Email me and we’ll have a vote count in the October newsletter. There are several pies that I might vote for as my favorite dessert. But,you may remember that, like Will Rogers, I’ve never met a donut I didn’t like. I might vote for a dozen donut holes. Email me at waynechandler@windstream.net.

(Continued from page 2) ***** Neighborhood Night Out will be Tuesday October 3. Get-ting together with neighbors and local law enforcement per-sonnel that night is a good opportunity to talk about com-mon issues with people who can help.

***** Lonnie and Sue Hutson have contributed greatly to these neighborhoods as hands on owners and educators at the Kids R Kids Learning Academy at SH 6 and West Airport. They’re leaving it in the capable hands of Sam (Samantha) Huynh and the current staff. In 15 years the Hutsons have seen kids from 6 months to 12 years old graduate and eventually become staff members, or have their own chil-dren get the same care and experience that they had re-ceived. The Hutsons constantly hear from past students who show their appreciation for their experiences here. We’ll miss the Hutsons, but life goes on, and so will Kids R Kids.

***** While Fort Bend County MUD 41 is responsible for the up-keep of Duhascek Park, the MUD gets big help from Fort Bend County Drainage District which maintains Red Gully and the foliage between the gully and Duhascek ‘s six-foot wide sidewalk. The Drainage District also plans within the next 10 days to clear a lot of grass from the Duhascek side-walk leading back to Austin High School and beyond. Jamie “Bubba” Reeves, area superintendent for the Drain-

(Continued on page 5)

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TRAVEL TIME

By Vi Chandler

In my 10 years as a travel agent, the Sim Family Reunion story may be my favorite. It just happened after nearly a year of preparation. William Y. Sim, who 65 years ago came from China to Kansas with his family, was graduated as a pharmacist from the University of Kansas, and eventually became an immigration lawyer in Houston. Last September Mr. Sim decided to try to reunite with his expanded family, some of whom he hadn’t seen in 30 years. Fortunately, and smartly, William Sim planned ahead. As a resident in Woodbridge with his wife, Serena, he called me to try to plan a cruise out of Galveston, and help him get them all to Houston. Some live in Hawaii, some in California, Canada, Florida and elsewhere, and most needed help with travel arrangements. As the year pro-gressed there, of course, were changes. Some had to drop out, some were added, many had to arrange work and other responsibilities in order to connect with Mr. Sim, who all except for a couple of brothers fondly call Uncle Willie. Uncle Willie did his share, too, sending general emails about the progress of setting a time, date and cruise ship. He also hosted shuttles from the hotel and Bush Intercon-tinental Airport to Galveston. After the trip, they all went to Forest Park Cemetery at Westheimer and Dairy Ashford, to visit the graves and pay respects to past family mem-bers. “This is where I want to be buried, too,” he said. After the cemetery visit, they ate a farewell lunch at Hiba-chi Grill and Buffet, I-10 and Dairy Ashford. They all said their goodbyes at the hotel near the airport. “We had a beautiful reunion,” Mr. Sim happily concluded. “We ate together on the ship and had hours to renew friendships and family stories. It was beautiful.”

It was heartwarming to see this truly American family re-unite, and show their concern for each other. And, what better way than a seven-day ocean voyage together. I’m happy and proud to have been a part of it. Traveling almost always is more fun in a group, and when it’s all relatives, that seems to make it even better. Just remember that I welcome the opportunity to help you with any of your travel needs. Please call me at 281-277-5267 or email me at vitravel@gmail.com. Remem-ber, it doesn’t cost a penny more to use a travel agent.

Vi and Mr. Sim

Last meeting together.

Esther Andrews Independent Sr. Sales Director 281-493-3613 281-633-1219 Esther@MaryKay.com www.MaryKay.com/Esther Enriching Women’s Lives TM

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age District, said that the district this Fall will kill a lot of the growth in Red Gully. Reeves said the chemicals used to spray the foliage aren’t cheap, some cost as much as $300 per gallon. Reeves said the spraying will be more effective when the weather cools and the plants aren’t growing. Then the chemical goes to the root of the problem.

***** There aren’t any more game rooms operating in unincorpo-rated Fort Bend County, and that includes all of our neighborhoods. Sheriff’s office detectives closed the eighth and final game room last August 3 in Needville, confiscating 43 machines and $16,800 in cash, plus arresting the 64-year old employee. “I am very proud of the work that has gone into closing these illegal game rooms,” said Sheriff Troy Nehls.”…we would love to keep it that way.”

***** A big renter in the Woodbridge Kroger shopping center has left. San Antonio Rose Dance Hall. It’s a shame when a new business comes in , spends a lot of money on making an attractive place, adds a big sign, and then sits back and expects customers to come rushing in. Lots of new businesses in this area are doing the same thing. They spend thousands of dollars to open a nice busi-ness, and then don’t spend a few dollars to tell residents that they’re open. Just one or two ads usually won’t be enough. Most of the successful businesses who have been in these newsletters for years will attest to that.

***** Another big renter, next door to SA Rose, soon will take up 5,000 square feet for a nails and spa place. Let’s see if they spend all that money and then keep the new business a secret.

*****

(Continued from page 3) The semiannual Fall garage sale for both VOL and Pheas-ant Creek will be Friday-Sunday October 13-15. Enjoy the last dog days of Summer. --wayne chandler

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There is the promise of better days ahead for the 754-acre Cullinan Park, between our neighborhoods and Sugar Land Regional Airport. The Cullinan Park Con-servancy promises. The Conservancy is a non-profit agency raising private funds in order to make vast improvements in this park which is almost as large as Central Park in New York City. A master plan for developing trails and a variety of recreational areas was developed a few years ago. Now the Conservancy is working with the City of Sugar Land, which gained control from the City of Houston two years ago. After raising a million dollars the Conservancy provided funds for the City of Sugar Land’s Park Department which has made significant improvements such as new front gates, and security cameras, and a much-needed

underbrush thinning and a trail map. Now the Conser-vancy is reviewing a schematic plan with the landscape architect, White Oaks Studios. The Conservancy has welcomed five new board mem-bers and hired its first executive director, Angie Wierz-bicki. The board is ramping up its grant writing efforts, and is hosting a fundraising luncheon October 20. The board is investigating installing a car-counter at the entrance since the number of visitors is increasing. Civic groups interested in learning more about Cullinan Park and the Conservancy are asked to contact the ex-ecutive director at cullinanparkconservancy@gmail.com or 281-616-7860.

LOOKING AHEAD AT CULLINAN PARK

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Dr. John P. Hansen

Trustee

Houston Community College

Why Attend Houston Community College? Why Attend a Community College?: Wayne Chandler has suggested that I write about the reasons that a potential student should select Houston Community College (HCC). Let me begin with an acknowledgement that there are hundreds of thousands of students attending college, just from the Houston area. These students have a wide vari-ety of interests and needs and there is no one college that best serves every single one of them. So, what is the tar-get student pool for community colleges in general and HCC in particular? Community colleges in general serve two basic functions: (1) Providing an inexpensive way for students who aspire to a Bachelor’s degree to get the first two years; (2) Pro-viding a place for students who wish to be trained for spe-cific occupations to get this training. This is often called mid-skills training and includes fields such as computer programming and support, welding, plumbing, carpentry, air conditioning, etc. For the first function, community colleges offer two-year degrees that roughly correspond to the freshman and sophomore years of a four-year degree. These degrees are called “Associates” degrees. Quite a few of the stu-dents who complete these Associates degrees transfer to four-year colleges to complete their junior and senior years. In Texas, public colleges and universities are re-quired to accept the credits earned at community colleges. Private colleges and universities do not have to accept community college credits, but they generally do. For the second function, the certificate that a student earns from a training course or program is usually terminal, although a student may choose to obtain multiple certificates. HCC has negotiated a series of “articulation agreements” with most of the public and private colleges and universi-ties in the area which specify which HCC course will be accepted in place of a particular course at the receiving school. This allows a student to have a high level of confi-dence that courses they take at HCC will not be “wasted” because the receiving school has agreed in advance that the HCC course is equivalent to their own course. You can find these lists on the HCC web site. For a number of occupations, the Associates degree is considered a suffi-cient credential to obtain a job in that occupation. So, it really is up to the individual student to decide whether they want to stop after the Associates degree or proceed on to the Bachelor’s degree in the field.

Public community colleges have three basic sources of income: (1) State support; (2) Local property taxes; and (3) Student tuition. Federal money comes to community col-leges mostly in the form of grants and loan guarantees to individual students. State support has been declining for some years now. Just in the last five years, State support has gone from 26% of HCC’s revenues to 21% and that downward trend seems likely to continue. Since HCC has not raised its tuition and fees during that period, the local property taxes have carried the burden of offsetting the reduction in State support. Each community college sets its own rate for tuition and fees. At HCC that rate is $56 per semester hour and that is on the low side for Texas community colleges. The total cost of attending depends on how many semester hours a student takes. A typical course is 3 or 4 semester hours – that means 3 or 4 hours per week for the entire semester. The recommended load for a full-time student is 12 se-mester hours per semester, although students can take more if they wish. 12 semester hours for four semesters plus 6 semester hours each summer session will get a student to graduation in two years (60 hours total). A 12-hour load would cost $672 in tuition and fees. The com-plete Associates degree (typically 60 semester hours) would lead to a total cost of $3360. These cost figures do not include the cost of textbooks which can easily run to $500 per semester for a full-time student. HCC has been actively working on reducing these textbook costs and I will discuss that in another article. About 70% of HCC stu-dents are considered part-time (taking less than 12 se-mester hours in a semester). How does this cost compare to the four-year colleges and universities? They vary widely in cost, but most of the Texas schools cost in the range of $15,000 to $30,000 per year (including housing costs). Private colleges and uni-versities typically cost even more. We think that makes the community colleges quite a bargain. But how does the quality of education compare to the major public colleges and universities? Obviously, the comparison is going to depend a lot on which community college and which four-year school is compared. But in general, the large public colleges depend heavily on graduate students and adjunct teachers in those first two years. Lower level classes of-ten have lecture sections with hundreds of students. The community college sections are typically 25 to 35 students, which allows the student far better access to their instruc-tor. I believe that makes community colleges generally competitive in the quality of instruction. Next time I will discuss some of the more interesting pro-grams that HCC offers. As always, I can be reached at jphan-sen.houston@gmail.com or at 281-531-9819.

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