The "OVER" View - OLCA News

Many condo owners may have noticed the popularity of the Overlook Lakes Condominiums by the number of sales of condominiums here in the past year or so. We welcome our new residents! But there is something that should be kept in mind if you’re selling your condo. Many condo owners give a key, a garage door opener or garage door keypad code to a relative, close friend or a neighbor for emergencies. That’s a great idea, but if you’re selling your unit, be sure to get these keys or other means of entry to your unit back from them to give to the new owner.

It’s been great to see our community out walking and bicycling our beautiful development!

It has been brought to the attention of the OLCA community that while most people give “walkers” and bicycle riders a “wide berth” when driving past them, there are a few who are clearly driving at an unsafe speed.

14.08 (3) FIRE PITS

(3) RECREATIONAL BURNING (Wood Burning Appliance) A recreational fire is defined as a fire to be used for cooking, or esthetics benefit similar to that of a campfire. The fire shall be confined to a commercially designed outdoor wood burning appliance.

1. Requirements on size and location of recreational fires, and general requirements.
2. Fires shall be in an approved outdoor appliance less than or equal to 3 feet in diameter and less than or equal to 3 feet in height.
3. The fire area shall be protected by a screen or wire mesh as to hold down any flying embers.
4. Fires shall contain only wood or charcoal; any other building materials are prohibited
5. The wind velocity may not exceed 10 mph.
6. Fires shall NOT be started or accelerated using flammable liquids, such as gasoline.
7. The fire must be a minimum of 10 feet from all structures, roadways and lot lines.
8. The outdoor appliance shall not be used on any deck or wooden surface.
9. If smoke travels in such a manner that it obscures roadways, if the fire department receives complaints from the area, or it is deemed to be a hazard, the Fire Official reserves the right to require that the fire be extinguished.

Are you on Facebook? Overlook Lakes Condo Association now has a private group just for condo residents! You can chat about happenings around the neighborhood, updated OLCA news, post local events and more.

Join the group today

Have you ever returned to your condo on trash day to find your recycling container or garbage container had rolled away or blew away, maybe the lid was missing, or it was located at your neighbor’s two doors down?

Well, we can’t prevent wind or inadvertent placement. However, there is something you can do so you can identify your container.

Take a permanent marker and write your address number and street (can be abbreviated WL or WB) on the lid and drum of your recycling and garbage containers.

This way you can identify these important items should they be blown or moved away from where you placed them. And, if they end up in a neighbor’s yard, your neighbor will be able to find the rightful owner.

If you have light fixtures that suddenly flicker sporadically or do not work as intended, here are some good troubleshooting procedures from easy to more involved:

1. Check for loose light bulbs that can be tightened.
2. Make sure you are not using non-dimmable lightbulbs with a dimmer switch.
3. Replace damaged light fixture that may have damaged light sockets from years of replacing light bulbs. Be sure to turn off circuit at circuit breaker before inspecting or working.
4. Replace damaged light switch. Also be sure to turn off circuit at circuit breaker before inspecting or working.
5. Call a certified home electrical technician for assistance. The Condo Maintenance & Improvement page has some owner recommended vendors.

The purpose of this memo is to clarify parking guidelines for owners and guests on Woodbridge Drive. Woodbridge Drive is privately owned and maintained by the Overlook Lakes Condominium Association (OLCA) and was not built to “city street” standards. Woodbridge is patrolled by Greendale PD. Unfortunately, Woodbridge is a well-known “shortcut” for many non-OLCA residents, some that do not adhere to the 20-mph speed-limit. Many OLCA owners have reported seeing cars traveling in excess of 40 mph. Woodbridge is also very popular with walkers, both residents and non-residents. The policies in place for Woodbridge have Safety First as the primary consideration.

For many of us, we chose to live in a condominium to avoid having to make costly repairs/replacements to things like roofs and driveways, but we still have responsibility to maintain and/or replace certain things around our condominium. Some of those replacements can be expensive and it may be cost AND quality effective to obtain more than one estimate for some of the more high-ticket items.

The condominiums here at Overlook Lakes do not have basements and as a result, hot water heaters are in “closets” within the living area. Most of the time, we don’t really give them much thought, but because each unit is in the living space, there is a need to be taking precautions to minimize the risk of water heater failure. Such a failure can be very damaging to not only your own living area but also to the living areas of your neighbors in the adjoining units and to the common areas of the building.

From April to June the OLCA Buildings and Grounds volunteers have completed a variety of tasks in our neighborhood. While on duty, our volunteers have been fortunate to meet new neighbors. Neighbors have expressed appreciation for the work and also agreed to do their own watering, saving time and potential losses.

We would like to thank volunteers: Sally, Russ, Linda, Dave, Cathy, Alex, Randy for a total of over 50 donated hours, saving the OLCA over $5000!