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Brentwood Branches and some Splinters, too!

The Storm and Power Outage of August 23 & 24
Sump pumps: A sump pump works because a French drain which is a perforated plastic pipe lined in stone is installed beneath the basement floor surface to collect water. This water is then lead to a sump pump and pumped away from the home. Of course, a pump requires POWER. If your pump quit working for good or there is a prolonged power outage like on August 23-24, then a battery backup like “Ace in the Hole” or “Watchdog” or a power generator may be your only salvation.
Check your sump pump regularly even if you don’t have a finished basement to make sure your pump is working properly. The builder installed 1/3 hp sump pumps of low quality that ceased functioning in many unit basements after just 2-3 years.
Also, it is a good idea to install extensions on your downspouts to divert the rainwater away from the outside of your basement walls. Such an extension costs about $9 at Home Depot or Menards. This decreases the likelihood of your French drain being over-whelmed. Each building has just one French drain with outlets to each basement’s sump tank. So, if your sump pump is the only one still pumping during a heavy downpour, your odds of keeping your basement dry are greatly diminished. Talk to your building neighbors and ask them to make sure their sump pump is still chugging along.

Window Well Covers
At the June 20 Board Meeting a couple of unit owners asked if and when we were planning to have the window well grates cleaned up and painted. A goodly number of them are quite rusty. Handy Randy, our contracted painter, gave us an estimate of $100 per grate to remove the rust and paint each of the 74 grates with a Rust-Oleum paint.
In lieu of having your 2 window well grates painted at $100 a piece, the Association will pay each unit owner $200 towards the cost of 2 lockable window well covers. We have negotiated a $220 per cover price with Well-Covered. These covers are made of G.E. Lexan and support 500 lbs. The covers are made to fit on site and a unit owner has to be home for payment. Care Property Management will issue a reimbursement check after the installation. In other words, if you have two of the plastic type covers, it will cost you $240 after the Board reimbursement.
You must inform Care Property Management (847-839-8383) by September 19, 2007 if you want to take advantage of this offer. After that Handy Randy will be contracted to paint the window well grates and the $200 participation will be off the table for a minimum of 3 years.
Four (4) unit owners already got rid of their grates during the past 5 years and had lockable covers installed by Well-Covered. Those basements are definitely warmer in the winter and almost no animals or debris get into these 8 window wells.
The Chesterbrook Daycare Academy was broken into and burglarized between 11:00 PM on Monday 8/27 and 6:00 AM on Tuesday 8/28. As of now nobody has been apprehended. Lockable window well covers will add a measure of security to your unit and put your mind a bit more at ease with just a small investment on your part.

8/25 Block Party
The party was a success despite the ongoing recovery from the aftermath of the power outage. A special thanks to Jo Ann Fortino for organizing it and working the grill. Some pictures will be posted on the web site an a few days.

Carbon Monoxide Detectors
Effective January 01, 2007, Illinois Public Act 094-0741 requires that every dwelling unit in the state be equipped with at least one carbon monoxide alarm within 15 feet of all rooms used for sleeping.

Units FOR SALE
1426, 1432 & 1450 are currently for sale.

A Sad Note
Our neighbor, Josephine Giltzow, who lived at 1439 with her daughter Barbara passed away in the early morning hours of the 28th of August. We’ll miss her. Our sincere condolences to Barbara MacFarlane and her family.

Three Happy Notes
Congrats to Sylwester & Edyta Chojnacki (1411) for becoming parents of a baby boy on July 11. Double congrats to Bruno & Dena Renzulli (1408) for recently becoming parents of twin boys and to Bill & Maria Alex (1441) for becoming parents of twin girls.

www.brentwood-townhomes.org
Lots of good information... you’ll find this edition and the 8 previous Brentwood Branches, the Minutes from the last 8 Board meetings, the Brentwood Bylaws, the latest Brentwood Rules & Regulations and the Budgets for 2005, 2006 & 2007. Access to our web site is restricted to unit owners and Care Property Management (CPM) personnel because of the financial data posted on the site. You will need to enter space2/brentwood as the User Name and bwth2002 as the Password to gain access. Maybe you want to bookmark it as one of your Favorites on your PC. The site is a living document. Your input and ideas are welcome any time.

Grapevine...Email Style
If you have an e-mail address, please share it with us. It speeds up communication and decreases expense when we communicate via e-mail. The board would love to hear from you and e-mail is a great way to do so. Please send us your ideas. Board e-mail addresses are
Ray Mann 1435mann@comcast.net
Sue Mool semool@sbcglobal.net
JoAnn Fortino fortino68@sbcglobal.net

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Parking
Please make sure your guests know not to park across the sidewalk, in front of the mailboxes or within 15 feet of a fire hydrant. The Bartlett police will enforce these ordinances. We have five common parking areas for guest parking. There are also a number of spots for street parking but keep in mind that a Bartlett Village ordinance prohibits parking on streets between 2:00 and 6:00 a.m. all 7 days of the week.
The sidewalk is not part of a unit’s driveway. If you or a guest park across a sidewalk, you may force your neighbor(s) to detour onto the street, whether they are just out for a stroll, walking a dog, pushing a baby stroller or even a wheelchair.

All dog owners:
Don’t forget to take a pooper-scooper and/or a plastic bag with you when you are walking your dog. It’s your responsibility to pick up your dog’s feces immediately and dispose of them in your garbage. You can pick up used plastic shopping bags at Dominick’s that were returned for recycling.

Garbage and Trash
As per the Village of Bartlett and as stated in the Brentwood Rules & Regs Section 1.10, garbage containers (sealed garbage bags, hard containers, and/or recycle bins) cannot be set out earlier than 6:00 p.m. on the night before collection and must be at the designated curbside area no later than 7:00 a.m. on the day of scheduled pickup. Containers must be removed by 9:00 a.m. on the day following collection service. Make sure your trash is properly secured before putting it out on stormy days.
It is the responsibility of every unit owner to contact Allied Waste customer service at 1-847-429-7370 to contract for refuse service.

and stay dry

your Brentwood Board
September 2007

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