Community Celebrates Memorial Day
About 90 members of our community gathered at our newly opened pool to celebrate Memorial day. There was plenty of food for all, and everyone had a good time. It was the first chance Chris Deaks ran an event, and it looks like we have a winner. Memorial Day 2008 Pictures
Amy is trying to find a way for residents of our community to receive transportation to the airport at a reduced cost. If anyone knows someone that is interested in providing airport transportation at reasonable prices for homeowners in the community contact Amy Tunison 395-7114 or Email atunison@wentworthmgt.com.
Any resident who wants a copy of the income statements and balance sheet for the last months of 2007 contact Amy in the management office
Women's Club hits Home Run with
Tricky Tray Auction
The tricky tray (Chinese ) auction put on by the Woman's club was a huge success. The clubhouse was bursting at the seams holding the aproximately 130 attendees, and women's club will be able to turn over a check for more than $2000 dollars to the Make a Wish Foundation. Photos of the event
Lifestyle Director's Page now available
A link is now avilable at the left to provide information from the Lifestyle Director. It will provide information on all kinds of events, including trips,parties, sports events, and all other information she needs to be made available.
First Aid Kit Available
A first aid kit has been placed in the fitness room closet. It is intended only for use in real emergencies. Please do not use the available supplies for minor needs, as they would not be available for real emergencies.
LMS
It is important that anyone that feels they have the need to contact LMS (Landscape Maintenance Services) contact them through Amy. She will contact them and provide the proper follow up.
New Pool Regulations
The latest set of pool regulations was released at the HOA meeting on Wed. April 16. The new regulations are available here on the website.
RCC Women's Club
The RCC Women's Club meets every third Thursday of the month at 7:30PM in our Clubhouse. Judy Flusser is the President and during her vacation, Vice-President, Barbara Frankel has been doing a great job handling all our meetings. Liz Mignano is our Secretary and Judy Seifried is our Treasurer.
Our Fundraising Committee (Sandy Buchansky, Chris Montagna and Evelyn Dunne) are wrapping up loose ends for our first "Tricky Tray" which will benefit "The Make a Wish Foundation". The event will be held at our Clubhouse on Friday, May 2nd at 7:00PM. Tickets are $20 (which includes 25 prize tickets). As an added bonus, if you buy your ticket before April 20th you will receive a bonus ticket for a high-priced prize. Please see any of the Fundraising Committee members for tickets. We hope everyone in the community will come out and support this worthy event. more information
If any of the ladies have not had an opportunity to attend one of our meetings or if you are new to our community, please come to our April meeting which will be held on Thursday, April 17th. Come out and meet all the fine ladies living in our community. Refreshments are served at our meetings. Hope to see you at our next meeting.
Liz Mignano - Secretary
Spring Fling
The Spring Fling was a great success. The food consisted of some very delicious Corned Beef, Pastrami and Turkey sloppy joe sandwiches. The DJ kept things moving and kept everyone's attention. The Social commitee should be commended for a good job well done.
Some pictures of the Spring Fling
A memorial day picnic is being planned for Monday May 26. Make sure you keep the day open. The last one was a lot of fun. Look for the details on the Lifestyle Director's Page
The interactive event calendar now shows recycle information
2008 Budget Released
The budget for the year 2008 is released
From your HOA Trustees
Randi Block and Mike Salinger
It has been pointed out that some residents are using the construction gate for entering and exiting the community.
Please do not continue to do this as it can lead to a safety issue and also a liability issue for the homeowner’s association.
The front gate is not that far away and your co-operation would be appreciated by all of the contractors .
Our Property Manager, Amy Tunison is scheduled to be in her office Wednesdays from 11 AM – 7 PM.
We hope this makes things a little more convenient for residents who cannot visit her during the day.
Just a reminder that we have access to a couple of websites that pertain to just us at RCC.
We have our own RCC website, http://home.comcast.net/~liselore/ and we have the Wentworth website,
www.wentworthconnect.com/renaissanceatcranberrycrossing.
Our RCC website is continuously updated on what is happening in our community and always appreciates
input from the residents. On the Wentworth website, you can check on the status of your account and on the
progress of your work order among other things.
Visit our RCC website often and you will notice that there are plenty of activities going on. If you don’t see something
you want, let us know and we will see if we can get it organized.
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There have been questions concerning the dues increase of $25 and how it was arrived at. Also, concerns why Renaissance at Monroe on Rt. 33 did not have their dues retroactive.
Our dues were retroactive because we are still controlled by Centex and they did not get us the initial budget until well after January 1. After review and rejection by the
financial committee and the HOA board, returning the budget to Centex twice, negotiations with our vendors, it was early March until at was ok’d by us and Centex. Renaissance at Monroe took over their
board in June of 2007 and did their own budget which was finished in December and went into effect January 1, the same time ours should have. Incidentally, they now pay more for dues then we do and we were told that the residents at Encore pay well over $300 month.
This is the first increase in dues since the start of RCC. Centex has been working on a budget they established in 2002 and have been subsidizing the community since the beginning.
This year we were told by Centex that we needed to establish a budget based on the 182 homes we will eventually have occupied. The figures in the 2008 budget comes from the contracts we have with our current vendors for this year, actual expenses paid last year, along with what information Centex gave us for what they subsidized in 2007. These were items such as clubhouse electricity, sprinkler system water, aerator electricity etc. Centex is currently subsidizing $255 per unoccupied home per month which is the same monthly amount as our dues. Monies left over in the budget will be applied to next years operating expenses.
With the new Wentworth website this year, they will be able to put each month’s accounts payable on the website for view by anyone wishing to do so.
All of us involved in the budget process live here, and we, like you certainly want our dues to be as low as possible without sacrificing any quality or quantity of service and this was accomplished.
We all live under a homeowners association which is a business entity and must be operated as such. Even if we are a not for profit, we need to have enough money to cover the daily, monthly and yearly operating expenses. Costs have gone up since the initial budget, and continue to rise every year, and an increase of $25 is very reasonable in this economic climate. If you have any question and/or concerns, please call one of us and we will do our best to address them.
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Randi and I would like to thank the members of the snow removal committee for the outstanding job they did this year of keeping snow out of our community. The snow dance helped.
Vinnie Barbarise
Joe Gualtieri
Tony Lavezzoli
These are the residents who get called early in the morning and make the decision of whether we needto be salted and/or plowed. Hopefully they will not have to make another decision this season.
Again, great job.
Randi and I would like to thank the financial committee for all the time and work they put into working on the 2008 budget. The committee consists of the following residents:
Bob Flusser—Chair
Steve Lubetsky—Co-chair
Michael Bayer
Marilyn Callahan
Barbara Meller
June Oakes
Judy Oliva
Once again, thanks for your time and help and it showed in a good 2008 budget.
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A couple of residents asked how it is determined what area gets cleaned first.
The procedure is that all roads get cleaned first. The driveways and sidewalks are done
on a rotation basis for each storm. If they started with the side houses the first storm, the next time they would start with the back houses and then the front houses and keep rotating.
If you have any questions, please ask.
For those residents that have their dues taken out from your bank, please see below concerning the retroactive payment.
Remember, if you wish, that can be paid over three (3) payments.
___________________
Subject: RE: Retroactive dues payment
The homeowner will need to send that $75 separately as the bank will not release it as it was not authorized.
(Since those who were having the HOA charges directly withdrawn from the bank may not be familiar with the check procedures, here is the information on how to write, and where to send the required check:)
Your $75.00 retroactive payment should be made payable to Renaissance at Cranbury Crossing and mailed to Firstrust Bank c/o Wentworth Property Management, P.O. Box 57999, Attn: Lock Box, Philadelphia, Pa. 19111-7999. Please be sure that your name and address are on the check so that it gets posted correctly.
Donna M. Belkot, AMS, CMCA, ARM
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Committee Reports
Architectural Committee
Martin Gilman, Architectural Committee chairperson asked if this message could be forwarded to all the residents.
The architectural committee just wants to remind you that any outside changes requires the approval of the architectural committee in most cases. The expansion of patios and decks also needs approval from the township before work can be started.
Please submit your paperwork in a timely manner as this is the time of the year that requests start to come in. Also remember that an approval from the township can take between two – three weeks.
The committee currently meets once a month (2nd Monday), but will switch back to twice a month soon to handle the anticipated request level.
Transition Committee
The only thing new to report is that we have hired Ron Perl as our attorney. Ronald L. Perl is a partner of Hill Wallack LLP and a member of the firm's Management Committee. He is partner-in-charge of the firm's Community Association.
Finance Committee
Bob Flusser
Club Information
Men's Club
The April meeting will be held on Monday, April 28th, at 7:30. At this meeting, the Executive Board will discuss the viability of the Club, and ways that we can improve our functions and activities in the near future. We plan to discuss membership participation and would like to hear from you, our members, what the role of the Men's Club should be in our Community. It is important that all members of the Club attend this meeting.
President
Book Club
Our next meeting is on Tuesday, May 20th at 7pm. This time we have chosen The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky. Please join us in the clubhouse library next month. Contact Barbara Meller if you have any questions.
Book Review-
After reading A Thousand Splendid Suns last month, the book club decided to read something a little lighter. Well, What Looks Like Crazy by Charlotte Hughes is definitely at the opposite end of the spectrum.
Although Charlotte Hughes a New York Times best selling author has written books with Janet Evanovich (author of the Stephanie Plum series), her character development is not very strong in this first book of a series featuring Kate Holly, a psychologist. But if you are looking for a light, easy read by our pool this summer, then the RCC Book Club suggests you try it. By the way, you may find a copy in our library.
Here is a brief summary provided by Barnes & Noble web site.
Psychologist Kate Holly’s own life has become the stuff of intensive therapy. She’s divorcing her gorgeous firefighter husband, she has an eccentric secretary, her mother and aunt have erected a vaguely sexual sculpture in her front yard, and her psychiatrist ex-boyfriend won’t stop calling to find out what color panties she’s wearing. Now, Kate’s being bombarded with mysterious threats, and the only person who can help her is the one man who always makes her lose her mind and heart.