AUGUST 8 Update: Caron Pump went out to inspect the irrigation system. During their inspection, they noticed the self cleaning filter in the exterior vault had a bad bearing and wasn’t working properly. They fixed the problem late in the day on Friday and things have been working properly since. Between the increased water and the routine inspections and maintenance as needed, we should have things ironed out for the remainder of the summer. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

AUGUST 7 Update: Water stayed on for four days and then shut off again. It appears the outside vault is clogged. Caron Pump has been called out to service the system. Sorry folks.

AUGUST 3 Update: Bill spoke with Farmers Union and they removed the weir (board) that limited the flow of water into our vaults and that seems to have made a difference. The water has stayed on for two days now. Keep your fingers crossed.

AUGUST 1 Update: (From Bill W.) The water was off again at 5:30 this morning. I went down and turned it on around 6:00. It went back off after about 5 minutes. I waited a few minutes then turned it on again. When I came home my front sprinklers were on for about 10 minutes then the system shut down again. What was interesting was, the small filter on the back wall wasn’t registering any pressure both times I turned the system on. All other gauges were registering between 15-50 lbs of pressure.

We are contacting Farmer’s Union and Caron Pump today to ask for more water upstream and to review any pump issues.

JULY 31 Update: Water shut off this morning (I don’t know when) and was restarted around 8 am. Looks like the problem is not solved after all.

JULY 30 Update: Water did not shut off this morning for the first time in almost a week. Maybe this really has been solved.

JULY 29 Update: We met with the ditch master from Farmers Union this morning and they agreed to increase the water flow to our vaults. We inspected the vaults this afternoon and there is a lot more water coming from upstream and that will hopefully solve our water problems permanently – stay tuned…

JULY 28 Update: Caron Pump inspected the system on July 24 and believed the interior filter was the problem with the system. However, the system has shut off each morning and Bill has had to turn it back on. Caron Pump will be continuing their work today (Monday July 28) to determine what the problem is.

JULY 22 Update: We are aware of the current irregularities and inconsistencies with the irrigation system. Currently the board has been employing the services of Lawnco to do periodic maintenance and cleaning of the accessible filters. To date, Lawnco has stated that the filters have not been overly dirty and don’t seem to be the contributing factor in the systems unreliability. We have been working diligently to have the homeowners adhere to the watering schedule and we have noticed greater compliance in that area. Unfortunately, it appears we have a more complex problem on our hands. Over the past week and a half Bill Warnick (our board president) has been waking up early and going down to the pump house to reset the pumps at approximately 6:00 AM (when they are off). This has occurred 4 times in the last 10 days. It appears when the pumps are going down; it is early in the morning.

Our best option, it appears, is to invest in a more in-depth research effort to identify the problem and provide a long term solution.

• We may have dirty filters inside the vault which need to be thoroughly cleaned.
• We may not have enough water availability which leads to the vaults depleting too rapidly.
• We may not have enough water rights from the irrigation system.
• We may need to increase our water storage capacity (other associations have ponds to handle the volume requirements) by adding additional vaults.

The reality is that there are going to be some preliminary research expenses involved (up to $2,500 initially to investigate). This will involve water engineers, pump experts and the irrigation company. Once the problem is identified, we my incur further expenses to remedy the problem. We have no idea what those figures will ultimately be. We are doing everything in our power to rectify this problem. We understand the inconvenience it is causing and appreciate your understanding and patience.

While we’re investigating the problem, please continue to follow the mandatory irrigation schedule:

• East Rockingham Drive: 10:00pm to 11:30pm
• North Caledonia Place (Closer to Floating Feather): 11:30pm to 1:00am
• North Caledonia Place (Closer to State Street): 1:00am to 2:30am
• North Beachwood Court: 2:30am to 4:00am
• North Beachwood Street: 2:30am to 4:00am
• East Kite Drive: 4:00am to 5:30am
• East Knoll Court & East Knoll Drive: 5:30am to 7:00am
• North Red Leaf Way: 5:30am to 7:00am
• North Macaile Way: 7:00am to 8:30am
• North Windham Place: 8:30am to 10:00am
• North Yarmouth Place: 8:30am to 10:00am

Posted on August 3rd, 2008 by Dave
Filed under: Out of Date