"I know and the Board knows that speeding is still a big issue here. I gave an in-depth presentation at the last HOA meeting about the entire survey. We spent a lot of time on speeding.

What is clear is that no single answer will please everyone.

Some people absolutely hate speed humps. They feel that speed humps damage their cars are noisy and create a bad esthetic view of our neighborhood.

Some people think speed humps are the only way to solve our speeding issue. We don’t have a 7 x 24 motorcycle cop inside our community.

Some people think that speeding is the only issue the Board should spend any time on, while others are concerned about landscaping or the pool.

Many Meadows residents live on short flat streets, and don’t know what all the fuss is over since there isn’t a speeding problem up there.

We put a speed hump on Vercelli. We had two blog opportunities and several HOA meetings since the speed hump was placed. I was expecting some comment at a Board meeting, on the blog, in my e-mail, or a note to Marinel or the Security Committee about the speed hump, either positive of negative. The only comment I got was that it might be a good idea to put a sign up. We did that within a week. But so far nobody has said to us that the hump was too big or small, too noisy, too far up the hill, too far down the hill.

We do listen to all comment. I like clear concise unambiguous comments. I try not to react to anonymous snipes at me or other residents. I want to hear all sides. I know that just because I have feelings about an issue, it doesn’t mean that the 50 people who disagree with me are just wrong or stupid. It also doesn’t mean that the 50 people who agree with me are all Einsteins either. I will give everyone a chance to address the association at the meetings. I don’t like it when someone with another viewpoint is shouted down, or when one person tries to monopolize the time.

The last several meetings had between 5 and 20 residents in attendance. There is always time in the open forum for resident statements. The last few meetings have had little acrimony, and no yelling.

We can not stop all speeding. When all is said and done everyone who has a driver’s license is responsible for understanding the 25 mile per hour speed limit on residential streets and every driver knows what a full stop at a stop sign means. It is unlikely that those who speed and violate stop signs outside of our community will become polite and safe when they enter Sorrento.

We are making some changes is Security here. We have added more stop signs, and re-painted the streets in several places. You will see more signage in our community to better inform residents and visitors that we take speeding seriously.

I am not opposed to speed humps in the right places. The sense of the community seems to be to minimize the number of speed humps. We will look at each request carefully to keep within the law, and to try to make the hump effective.

As you know, there is an election this June. Four Board seats are up for election. Any candidate will be given an opportunity to address the community and have their profile and positions on our website. If you want to run on a pro-speed hump platform and win, you can influence how many speed humps we install and where and when they will be placed.

On the other hand if you choose not to run, and consider that speeding is an important issue here, but not the only issue, you can work with the Board and the Security Committee to help us reduce speeding. If you choose not to run for the Board you might want to consider joining the Security Committee. They are all people just like you that have a job, and a family and want to work to improve the quality of life here. They spend a few hours each month working together to solve speeding and other security issues.

Thanks,

Pat Pope
President"