CHESTNUT HILL Spring 2017 Newsletter Letter from the President: Happy Spring Chestnut Hill Neighbors! As I have said before, I love Spring! It’s my second favorite season after college football season! It’s about time to get out in our yards and blow the winter away! In case you haven’t noticed, your new board has been very active during the winter months. At the tennis courts, the old arbor was torn down and a new pavilion was built. A basketball goal was put in at the clubhouse parking lot and was lined with a key. Overgrown trees and junipers were removed from the entrances and in other HOA maintained property. A much needed street light was erected at the Larkspur entrance. A new security system was put in at the clubhouse/pool/tennis courts/playground common area. The clubhouse got a secondary air conditioner and ceiling fan and all of the lights have been upgraded to LED lights. I may have missed a few things, so make sure to read through the newsletter and see what else is going on! On another note, we will be printing a new directory in the fall. If you would like to update or change any of your information, download the form http://www.chestnuthillonline.org/commu nications.html and send it to [email protected]. All the best, Lauren Horton

Alyssum

Upcoming Calendar of Events Saturday 4/15 - 11am – 1pm Easter Egg Parade and Egg Hunt Friday 5/5 – Saturday 5/6 Neighborhood Garage Sale Wednesday 5/17 – Sunday 5/21 Spring Tennis Tournament Thursday 5/25 Pool Opens

Friends and neighbors, Chestnut Hill will again be having a summer swim team! The Chargers are back. Kathryn Staphylaris and Brandi Miller will be coordinating this season with retuning coaches Chantal LaFLamme and Caroline Sarris. The parent orientation/registration and swim suit fitting will be held at the clubhouse Saturday, March 25th from 1:00 – 3:00. All American Swim will be there to fit your child for our new suits. An exciting change that is occurring this season is that we have switched from Cobb County Summer Swim League over to a new league called West Georgia Summer Swim Association (WGSSA). They run their organization with a great deal of communication and shared leadership. We are so glad to be a part of this new league. For planning purposes, our meets will be on Thursday evenings with our first meet on June 8th. We will only have four meets this year. Practices will be after school beginning May 15th with dry land practice/conditioning and switch to water practice the week of May 22nd. Times will be determined based on the number of swimmers in each age group. Morning practices will begin May 25th. Again times will be determined by the number of swimmers we have in each age group. We will be offering evening practices again twice a week. We will be working with Collin Willmott (our pool board member) to arrange the best days of the week. Fees this year will include your child’s swim suit and a t-shirt, 7 weeks of swim lessons, awards at the end of the season and the celebration party. Fees are as follows: First child - $150, second child - $100, third child $100 (family max is $350). We are asking that each family donate either a case of Gatorade/Powerade or a case of soda (Coke, Diet Coke or Sprite) and volunteer for three of the meets. Both home meets are a requirement and you may pick the away meet that best suits your schedule. Volunteer sign-up sheets will be available on March 25th at the clubhouse during orientation/registration. To register and pay your dues, you may either go to www.chc.swim-team.us or register on the 25th. Please bring payment at that if you choose not to pay online. We can’t wait to see everyone and get this season started off! Brandi & Kat

Pool Update

The first day the pool will be open will be 5/25. Swim team has new lane ropes. Swim team signs are now up in the neighborhood and swim team registration is going on at the present time. The pool pressure washed and cleaned after we have the pollen invasion. The pool will have a canopy in the back left hand corner to help with the hot heat for the little kids this year. I am hoping to have this installed before 5/25.

Chestnut Hill 2017 Spring Classic Adult Doubles Tennis Tournament

Welcome to the 2017 Chestnut Hill Spring Classic Adult Doubles Tennis Tournament! This year’s tournament dates are May 17 – May 21 and will contain Men’s, Women’s and Mixed doubles events. Our levels for Men’s and Women’s doubles will be 3.0, 3.5, 4.0 and Open based on USTA rankings. The Mixed Doubles levels will be 6.0, 7.0, 7.5, 8.0 and Open based on USTA rankings. To determine the appropriate level for mixed divisions combine the partner ratings from USTA. For those people who do not have a USTA rating, use your ALTA level as a guide with AA=4.5, A=4.0, B=3.5 and C=3.0. When you register for the tournament, be careful to select the appropriate level. If partners have different levels, use the highest partner’s level to select your tournament level. The Open level is the highest level. Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Doubles, both main draw and consolation matches will be 2 sets with 10-point match tiebreakers. You are guaranteed two matches for each event. We provide the tennis balls, t-shirts and division winner trophies. There will be a concession stand where you can purchase Boars Head products. Fees: $40 for 1st event;

$15 for 2nd event

You will be able to register and monitor tournament results from our online tournament page. Our Tournament information can be found at “tennislink.usta.com/tournaments” and can be found by searching in the “Find a Tournament” using number 700132117. Our tournament is not a USTA sanctioned tournament, so it will not count towards USTA rankings. We do this so non-USTA members and USTA members not current on their memberships can participate. We reserve the right to make changes to the format in case of inclement weather. There will be no refund for inclement weather and Chestnut Hill reserves the rights to change tournament format due to bad weather. Please direct any questions to our tournament coordinator, Lauren Horton [email protected]

ACC Update Spring is here, and with it comes all of the things that make the South such a wonderful place! Well, assuming we can take pollen out of the equation, I love the South! The Architectural Control Committee (ACC) is one of those Board committees that exist for a reason, but you hope to never hear from them. The ACC is here for a reason, and we appreciate everyone’s understanding in dealing with it. From time to time, certain maintenance issues get behind, or just overlooked, and it is our responsibility to try and remind everyone to maintain their homes. The goal of the ACC is to work with homeowners to review and approve projects, and to address certain maintenance issues, so that all homes in Chestnut Hill are maintained to the established standards to preserve the market values of our homes. The ACC inspects the neighborhood on a routine basis and takes note of potential maintenance issues so we can bring them to the owner’s attention for remediation. If you get a notice from the ACC, it should notify you of the issue of concern, and ask that you take steps to remediate the issue. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the issue, please follow up with an email to get any clarification needed. If you think the notice is not important enough to question, and you choose to do nothing regarding the issue, you can expect to get a follow-up notice the next time inspections are conducted. On the third time of no response or action, you will be notified of the ACC’s intention to start fining you for being in violation of the ACC Guidelines. We prefer not to resort to this measure, but sometimes people just have a difference of opinion on what is considered proper maintenance of their home. Over the winter months we understand that some maintenance items are difficult to complete, due to the weather. This past season we sent out notification letters to a small group of homeowners advising them that their mailboxes needed attention, and we gave them sufficient time to address the issue and advise us of their progress. With the spring season coming and moving into summer, the grass will start growing, weeds will start popping through, and certain other pesky yard problems will rear their heads. Spring is a great time to address the maintenance issues with a fresh layer of mulch or pine straw, trimming bushes, refreshing yard beds with fresh plantings or flowers, and even putting a nice clean edge on the beds. These are the type issues we look for, and love to see. For the majority of homeowners, this is the time of year they look forward to and want to take advantage of our pleasant weather and get some exercise while working around the home. Another responsibility of the ACC inspection team is to review the homes in our neighborhood who take exceptional care and a dedicated pride in their home, which can earn them the Chestnut Hill Yard of the Month! We want to single these families out for exemplary maintenance and upkeep of their home. The award is an honor and something to be proud of. This past quarter’s winners were: January 2017: The Painter residence at 537 Delphinium Way February 2017: The McKinney residence at 5800 Monarda Court March 2017: The Proot residence at 457 Gaillardia Way Please remember that the ACC is not out to get anyone, rather we are here for the benefit of all. We take pride in our homes, and we should all be able to enjoy our wonderful neighborhood community. If anyone has questions, concerns, or other items we may need to address, please drop me a note at [email protected] Thank you and have a great Spring!

Tennis Update from George

Chestnut Hill Tennis Court Rules   

The Tennis Courts are for Tennis Only! Proper Tennis shoes must be worn, No street shoes No food or glass containers – Leave Courts clean No Bicycles, skateboards, skates, roller blades or other such items

   

Do not jump over or stand on nets Keep gate closed at all times Tennis Court Hours – 8:00 AM – 11:00 PM Daily Tennis Courts and Parking lot are under 24 hour recorded video surveillance

Progress Update: Amenities Area (Tennis Courts) We are pleased to let everyone know that we have completed work on the new Pavilion and it looks awesome. The grill at the courts has been cleaned and ready for some Burgers and Brats after those long tennis matches. Thank you Danny Flavin for getting that done for me. Also, the bathroom locks underneath the clubhouse are now working and are set to open daily at 8:30 am and close at 11:00pm. The locks on all the entry gates to the courts are now fixed. Please remember to close the gates when you are done playing and also empty any trash to the many receptacles we have outside the courts. Spring is here so dust those racquets off and get to the courts and start playing. Also, our great and fabulous Chestnut Hill Spring tournament is coming May 17-21 so don't forget to sign up. If you know of others outside of the neighborhood who are interested in having a great time and playing tennis direct them to our web site for more information. Thank you and see you all at the courts.

Clubhouse Update Easter is right around the corner and the clubhouse will once again host the annual Chestnut Hill Easter Parade\Egg hunt on Saturday, April 15th from 11-1. The coordinators do such a fantastic job with this event and we highly encourage you to bring your children\grandchildren to the clubhouse and join us for the fun. The parade starts on the corner of Mistflower and Verbena at 11:00 sharp, so please arrive a little early. The parade will end at the clubhouse and the hunt will start shortly after. We look forward to seeing everyone there! Over the last couple of months we have made improvements to the climate control in the Clubhouse. We’ve added a 2nd air conditioning unit, LED lighting, and a large ceiling fan to help keep the clubhouse cool in the summer months. Also, if you would like to rent the clubhouse for any occasion, please visit our website @ http://www.chestnuthillonline.org/clubhouse.html for more information on amenities and available dates.

Is one of your street lights out?? In order to expedite the process of replacing street lights in our subdivision, the Chestnut Hill Homeowner’s Association is recommending you do the following: Simply e-mail the home address nearest to the light which is out to: [email protected] . We will collect this information and contact Cobb EMC at the end of each month to replace the malfunctioning bulbs with LED lights. We should get a quicker response if they can replace multiple lights with a single service call.

Landscaping / Lake News: As one of the HOA’s new board members I want to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Joe Murphy. My wife Julie and two boys JP and Jack have immensely enjoyed living in Chestnut Hill for the past 13 years…and we look forward to many more. I also want to express sincere appreciation for the great work my predecessor, David Wilderman did presiding over landscaping and the lake for the past several years. Dave kept meticulous records and unselfishly set aside time to bring me up to speed on the ins and outs that I value to this day. Thanks Dave! Over the winter we embarked on some cleanup and tree trimming at both main entrances. This is part one of a multistep process to maintain and enhance the beautification of our entrances with additional color and new landscaping. Some additional improvements we’ll see over the next sixty days include trimming trees and branches alongside the white HOA fence facing Bells Ferry Road, repairing and cleaning our main entrance signs, additional landscaping around clubhouse area and erosion control along our creek bank adjoining tennis courts. Additionally, Boy Scout Troop 220 just finished spreading 550 bales of pine straw throughout the neighborhood common areas. Kudos to Troop 220 for a job well done. We also installed a new Proview 660 basketball goal with 60” backboard in the back parking lot of clubhouse, so please encourage your kids - and yourselves! - to come out and play. Aquatic Resources, our fish experts, recently completed a restocking of fifty 10”-12”grass carp in the main lake. Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon Idella) provide ideal long-term biologically sound control of submerged weeds. They can eat up to FIVE TIMES their body weight in one day (don’t try this at home) and are required to be triploid by Georgia law, thus are sterile. Our lake overall is very healthy and provides good fishing, including some nice smallmouth bass. So get out and enjoy your lake, Chestnut Hill residents! At times last year it seemed our lake is one of our best-kept secrets! As we emerge from one of the mildest winters any of us can recall, beautiful sunsplashed spring days will be soon beckoning us to come outside and partake in warm-weather activities, one of which is keeping our yards looking great. With the beauty of Augusta National’s azaleas in the national spotlight this time of year, perhaps you’re craving some gorgeous blooms in your yard. Azaleas are flowering shrubs that provide a great option to add color to your landscape. Once established, they thrive in a range of growing conditions with minimal maintenance. Late spring is a great time to plant azaleas, after the last frost and before the dog days of summer are upon us. Be sure to plant your azaleas in partial shade, otherwise too much sun will burn them out, while too much shade can result in stunted growth. Azaleas thrive in well-drained, rich organic soil. Prepare your planting location by digging a large hole, tilling the soil and mixing in compost or soil conditioner. Create a mound about 2”-3” above ground level and plant your azalea in the center to promote ideal drainage. Water your plants immediately and continue to water weekly for a few weeks if the weather is very dry. Looking ahead, one of the most exciting projects that all Chestnut Hill residents will be able to benefit from will be a new walking trail that will extend beyond our tennis courts into the HOA-owned vacant lot that is between Mistflower and the tennis courts. I’ll be working with landscapers on the execution of this plan over the spring and summer. The primary goal will be to extend our common areas so that residents can enjoy walks on a well-maintained trail that will also surround additional recreational opportunities. Enjoy the spring!

Steve’s Realty Check: Hello! Here I am on the back page, make some Noise! Even though we have already celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, I still want to holler “Happy New Year” to Chestnut Hill!! Hope you had a wonderful 2016 and I see things getting even better because 2017 is going to be an awesome year! By the way, I did not get any feedback on my inquiry regarding “stuffing” or “dressing” with your holiday dinner. Oh well, let’s just make the overwhelming vote cornbread dressing. Moving on, Spring is blooming and the pollen has already begun to build! The dogwood trees are about to explode. It is great to market homes for sale this time of the year because the outside pictures always look the best! Ok, enough intro, now for our real estate status: As of Tuesday evening, 3/21/2016, Chestnut Hill has 4 houses for sale at an average price of $348,650 (range from $339,900-$364,900). Can you believe it? That is a 9% increase from our last reported average price in November 2016. Now you may have a better idea of why 2017 is going to be a great year! Now I would be remiss if I did not mention some of these prices may be pushing the market price. However, Chestnut Hill is a sought after neighborhood and no one really knows what the market will allow until you test it! We have 5 houses under contract (that has not closed) with an average list price of $329,940, which is a 9% increase from last quarter. These 5 homes had an average days on the market (DOM) of 31 days. That is actual right in the range of the average DOM for the Atlanta area (41 days) and the specific regional area for Chestnut Hill (26 days). However, what I think is more reflective of the current market, we had 3 of these 5 houses going under contract within 6 days of the for sale sign going up in the yard! There have been 6 houses sold/closed since last report with an average price of $314,460 (235,000-355,000). You may recall this is a drop from last quarter and that is due to one of the houses being sold as a distressed property and carried a lower market value. If you removed this anomaly from the calculation, our average sold price would increase to $330,353. As expected, 2017 has started off strong and should continue right into Christmas! You may recall our KW experts have been reporting a market correction appears to be headed our way, however, they are not expecting it this year. This is a good year to sell, the market inventory is low and there are buyers trying to find the perfect home for them. As always, if you have any questions or need something from me, give me a shout! It does not have to even be related to real estate….I am here to help!

Thank you for your attention!

Steve Boyd Realtor Keller Williams Realty Partners Direct: 404-889-3446

[email protected]