Montgomery West has several common areas that are maintained by all of us through payment of our dues. Our dues also pay for trash collection and insurance to cover our common areas.
These lovely greenways and open fields are beautiful and useful. Children and parents are drawn outside on beautiful days to play ball, practice cartwheels, and just sit in the shade of a tree reading a book and feeling the breeze. We hope everyone treasures these areas as one of the particular pleasures of our neighborhood.
There are a few people who are using the common areas as a place for their pets to defecate. This is not a problem if those same pet owners immediately clean up and properly discard their pets’ waste. Other homeowners have discovered cat litter discarded in the common area. The board is aware of at least one incident where another pet was sickened by contact with that cat litter, resulting in an expensive repair to the owner’s carpeting. If you choose to keep a pet, please observe the law and be courteous enough to clean up our common areas of your trash and your pet’s waste. If you see a neighbor without a plastic bag to use for their pet, offer them one of yours. Insist on protecting the beauty and safety of our common grounds and then be sure to take a break from everyday life and treasure a few moments among the trees and rolling hills – they are yours to enjoy.
Heather
Patton – President (pattoninmd@aol.com) Janet
Cooper – Vice President (cooperfmly@aol.com) Thelena
Williams – Treasurer (williamsatmk@aol.com) Michele
Heffner – Secretary (michele.heffner@i-sac.com) John
Clay – Chair, Architectural and Environmental
Review Committee (john.clay@usmint.treas.gov)
Your Board
Reminder
Pre-approval is required for home additions. Spring is near and many homeowners will be considering additions or modifications to their property. The Montgomery West covenants include the complete list of rules. Some key rules to keep in mind: only split rail fences are allowed, homeowners must keep the original external color scheme unless approval for altering is received, and all permanent additions to the property, including sheds, must be approved by the architectural board. The form to request approval is available on the Montgomery West website at: http://www.montgomerywesthoa.org
Health and Safety is
Everyone’s Goal
As spring arrives and days become warmer we need to be careful to cover our trash. Uncovered trash cans attract rodents, wandering pets, and crows. MWHOA Covenants require that your trash cans be covered and not be in public view except on the evening before and the day of trash pickup (Sec. XIIe).
Please remember that after 6:00 pm on Sunday and Wednesday evenings Covered Trash Can(s) can be placed at the curb for next day pickup.
Discarded appliances and large bulk items will not be picked up in the regular trash collection. However, you may schedule a special curbside pick-up for these items. Go to http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/swstmpl.asp?url=content/dpwt/solidwaste/collection_services/trash/special_collections.asp to schedule your pick-up. If after trying to schedule a pick-up you find your item is not eligible, please take it to the Montgomery County Transfer Station on Route 355 and Shady Grove Road.
If we can all pitch in and together perform this simple request, Montgomery West will be lovely throughout.
Recycling
Facts
Recycling Facts
(From the Montgomery County Recycling Website)
You may have been wondering what to recycle in your blue cart.
The following items are accepted in Montgomery County’s paper recycling program; put these in your blue cart:
- Newspapers and inserts
- Corrugated cardboard
- Cereal and other boxes
- Telephone books
- Computer and office paper
- Paperback books
- Unwanted mail
- Magazines
- Catalogs
- Shredded paper
- Envelopes and boxes with plastic "windows"
- All other clean and dry paper
Large pieces of cardboard too big to fit into the cart may be set out on the ground next to it.
Wheel your cart out to the curb by 7:00 a.m. on your recycling day. The orientation of the cart does not matter. You may set your cart at the curb with the handle facing the street, your house, or sideways.
For more recycling information go to: http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/swstmpl.asp?url=/content/dpwt/solidwaste/index.asp