Sudden Valley Community Association will be hosting a Firewise program starting on July 11^th, 2022. The purpose of a Firewise program is to promote awareness of homeowners to the dangers of fires from vegetation surrounding their home and other properties. One hazard that is prevalent within Sudden Valley is the tree limbs that have fallen naturally or during windstorms. These limbs are referred to in a Firewise program as “ground fuels”. Because large limbs are difficult to remove, Sudden Valley Community Association assists homeowners by providing a free service whereby residents of the Association can dispose of the tree limbs that have broken from trees on or surrounding their property. This Firewise service is provided by SVCA’s Maintenance Department during a published scheduled time frame.  

Residents can take advantage of this program by having their tree branches placed in an accessible pile next to the roadway prior to the scheduled pickup time for their area. Piles of branches placed by the roadside after the scheduled pickup time will not be picked up and will be the property owners’ responsibility.

Scope of Service:

• Service is limited to resident’s; no commercial support is available.
• Branches must be plied next to the road and easily accessible to the Firewise crew.  Do not block ditches with branches.
• Pickup is limited to tree branches that have naturally broken from a tree. Services do not include limbs that are “cut” from an established tree.
• The maximum diameter of the limb is six (6) inches.
• There is no limit to the length of the limb.
• The height of a pile of limbs should be no more than five (5) feet tall.
• Vegetation such as brush, lawn waste, tree roots, bagged leafs, etc. will not be picked up as these items will jam/plug equipment. If these items are left alongside the roadway, they will be the property owners’ responsibility to dispose of.  
• Questions pertaining to the Sudden Valley Community Association’s Firewise program can be directed to the Maintenance Superintendent by calling (360) 778-2223.

Recycle Disposal: Limbs are fed into a large wood chipping machine and the chips transported to a Sudden Valley Association wood chip composting site. The chips will be made available free to residents to self-load on a first come basis.

Firewise 2022 Schedule:

Date                                    Location

July 11th                             Gate 5, Maintenance Zones 51, 52, 53

July 18^th                              Gate 3, Maintenance Zones 3, 4, 5, 6

July 25^th                              Gate 3, 9,13Maintenance Zones 1, 2

August 1^st                           Gate 1, Maintenance Zones 10, 11, 12, 14, 15

August 8^th                           Gate 2, Maintenance Zones 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26

Sudden Valley will hold its 2022 Annual General Meeting on Saturday, November 5 at 1:00PM. Many positions are open on the Board and Standing Committees, and applications are now being accepted. Please see the application letter from the N&E Chair, along with the official 2022 application package HERE. The application period is open from July 5, 2022, and closes at the end of the business day  September 6, 2022 at 4:30 PM.

Yesterday, June 27th, the Sudden Valley Community experienced a chlorine leak at Lake Whatcom Water and Sewer District water treatment facility proximate to AM/PM Beach. Initially, LWWSD personnel thought the event was minor, and shared that information with our maintenance manager, who shared that with our Operations Manager and me, Dan Pike, the SVCA General Manager. Following outreach from the South Lake Whatcom Fire District to the LWWSD, it became clear that the situation was more serious than originally understood. One child was transported by South Lake Whatcom Fire District personnel for treatment at St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham.  That information was not shared with Sudden Valley staff or leadership at the employee or Board of Directors level.

I reached out to LWWSD General Manager, Justin Clary, this morning to gain an understanding of what happened, what we can learn from it, and how we can ensure better notification protocols are in place going forward. We had a positive and productive discussion, and out of that Mr. Clary provided an informative recap of the events, our shared discussion, and some changes in LWWSD practice going forward to both prevent recurrences of yesterday’s events and also to ensure better communications between our agencies around any future situations that may arise.

I really appreciate the quick, effective response that General Manager Clary has provided to this situation, and want to share it with the SVCA community to provide greater accuracy in a time of overreliance on social media as a news source. GM Clary’s response and explanation follows:

We greatly appreciate LWWSD fast response to both the developing situation and changes to procedure to make these processes safer in the future.

Dan Pike, Sudden Valley General Manager.

On Tuesday, June 14th, petitions for the recall of 3 SVCA executive board directors were dropped off at the Association’s law firm. On Wednesday, June 15^th, these were retrieved by Board president AJ Tischleder and N&E chair, Nancy Alyanak. 

As per the bylaws, the president is required to hold an SGM for any legal petitions with signatures from at least 10% of all members–or 313. After careful vetting and recounting as a result of slim margins, the N&E committee found that two petitions had enough valid signatures to move forward.  AJ Tischleder (321) and Sonia Voldt (318) will go forward. A third, Josh Bowens (310) did not have the required number of signatures. 

A voting packet will be sent by mail and the recall SGM will be held on August 13, 2022. Further information about the process will be forthcoming from the N&E committee. 

~Andrew “AJ” Tischleder, SVCA Board President