Good Afternoon Residents,
I hope everyone is making it through the heat but at least we have missed the rain the last several days. Several things to update you on this week and I hope to see everyone at the Resident event tomorrow evening at Porches.
Development Updates
Work at White Cliffs and Barnesmore is continuing, and as I indicated last week, we firmly discourage taking any vehicles back there as heavy construction equipment will be going back and forth. We will let you know when we plan to close White Cliffs. Sales in the rest of the community continue to be strong with several contracts on Lots and homes over the last three weeks. Traffic did slow during the weekends on either end of the 4th of July, but it has picked right back up. We are happy to announce that Marty Vahue with Vahue Building will be rejoining our builder team and plans to start a home on Lot 70 in the next three weeks. Additionally, Pat Puetz with JMP Builders has joined the Builder Team and has begun construction on Lot 38. Premier Homes will be starting garden home buildings on 251 and 252 in the next couple of weeks which will give us an inventory of garden homes as both homes on Lot 250 have both sold.
Amenities Update
We are still waiting on the fencing company to finish the gate for the Boat/RV storage area, but we did get the electrical chase pipe I talked about last week, and they are installing it today to get a pathway for power to the whole amenity area. On the Marina/Riverwalk front, we received confirmation from the State that our major permit modification application was accepted and is currently under review by the 28 different State and Federal agencies that have to approve it.
A couple of exciting new amenity-related items. The farmer’s market will be starting next Saturday (July 22) from 11:00am-2:00 pm on the front porch of Porches. Stephen Douglass with Turner Family Farm has been working on the Community Farm for a couple of months and has about a dozen rows of produce growing. He will be offering produce from both the River Bluffs Farm and his farm in Teachey, NC. More will be developing with Stephen over the next month or so as he acquires additional help and begins using the greenhouse that is currently on site but needs to be covered.
The other exciting amenity news is that the development company has decided to finish off the room over the fitness center and make it available as a meeting/gathering/multi-purpose room for the HOA. A committee of homeowners (with developer involvement as well) will be established to determine how best to utilize and manage the space, but conceptually it will be available for homeowner association activities and for use by those who might want to use it to teach classes. In those cases, the individual teaching the classes will be able to lease the room from the HOA (with the proceeds going to the HOA). We are in the process of collecting bids now for the up fit. Please understand that every contractor everywhere right now is slammed with business so it may be several weeks before we can get started.
Neighborhood Safety
The community watch meeting last night was well attended, and I hope everyone got some useful information. As my earlier emails indicated, you should never hesitate to call 911 when something doesn’t seem right, but you can also contact the non-emergency numbers for the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Department. The front desk of the Sheriff’s Department is 910-798-4162, and the 911 Dispatch Center is 910-542-6120. Tyler Smith will be joining Ron and Scott at the front gate and will begin working tomorrow evening. We are going to experiment having him here all night on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. There will not be any impact to the HOA dues at this time, and the community will still have an opportunity for input before any adjustment to the dues. Camera installation is underway and about halfway complete at the front entrance.
Community Activities
Resident Gathering – By now you have all seen the flyers, e-mails and calendar posts about tomorrow night’s Resident gathering. At 5:00pm River Bluff’s own Otis White will answer the eternal question “What is a Cornubia?†Otis’ presentation on the history of some of our road names will take place in the restaurant and will be followed by a cookout with hamburgers, sides and beer and wine provided. The restaurant will be closed to the public beginning at 3:00pm tomorrow to prepare. As we are not sure about the weather, we may be on the patio or inside. Food will be served until 8:00pm.
Live Music – Sunday afternoon from 4:00pm-7:00pm the band “Overtyme” will be playing at Porches and of course you are all invited. The “Babyboomers Band” will make their monthly appearance at Porches on July 21st from 6:00pm-9:00pm and we are also working on getting some other bands to play.
Special Wilmington Water Tours Boat Ride – On Monday, July 31st Wilmington Water Tours will have our first “Dinner and a Boat Ride†event. Residents will be picked up at the River Bluffs Marina at 5:30pm and then enjoy a peaceful ride downtown to the Port City Marina to dine at Black Fin restaurant and then they will bring you back to River Bluffs. More information about food choices at Black Fin will be sent out as we get a handle on the count of people. The cost of transportation with Wilmington Water Tours is $27.00 per person and will not include the cost of dinner. The boat can accommodate up to 49 people, so I encourage you to contact Wilmington Water Tours office at 910-338-3134 to sign up quickly if you’re interested. We hope to expand the “Water-Taxi†options in the future and reduce the cost while increasing the frequency. Please call them at 910-338-3134 if you are interested as space is limited.
Community Hosted Event – Many of you were able to attend the organizational meeting for the Operation Hope Front event River Bluffs is hosting on August 10th from 10:00am-2:00pm. Operation Hope Front is a faith-based ministry that provides support to the spouses of soldiers deployed away from home. The event will be a pool party for the wives and their children with food and drinks provided to them as well. River Bluffs own, Tina Chadwick has been the driving force behind this effort, and ten other residents from River Bluffs have jumped in to help. (THANK YOU!) If you have an interest in participating, please feel free to contact Tina directly at 301-751-4790, or you may e-mail her at tinachadwick@outlook.com.
Resident Portal – The resident portal has undergone a nice revamp aimed at making navigation of content and use much easier for residents and resident club managers. There are so many great clubs, login and manage your subscription preferences. New Clubs have been added such as the Community Farm and Neighborhood Watch. You will ONLY receive email notices for Club that you subscribed to. If you are interested in being a Club Manager please let us know! Plus we can now have more than one club manager now. Log in today to see all of the new features in the resident portal.
I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow night. As always, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
– John LennonÂ