CONDO VII NEWSLETTER – October 2019
From the Latin word orto, “eight”, because this had been the eighth month of the early Roman calendar.
DATES TO REMEMBER
• October 8 – Yom Kippur begins
• October 14 – Columbus Day observed
• October 31 – Halloween
At the time of this writing, our Condo board elections have not yet been held so the results will not be published until the November newsletter. Hopefully, many of you were in attendance at the September 26th meeting to vote and hear the outcome first hand.
New Fiscal Year and Common Charges
By now you will have received the budget for the 2019-2020 fiscal year and your new coupon booklets. As you will have seen, our four year assessment period is over since the roofs and gutters have been completed!
Common charges have been increased by $11 to $17 per unit. This is due to an HOA increase of $6 per unit and a Condo 7 increase of $5 to $11 per unit. The Condo 7 increase is two-fold. First, there is an additional $3 to $6 increase per unit so we can continue with our ongoing efforts to maintain and improve our condo. Second, the Board voted to increase the amount allocated to our reserve fund by an additional $5,000 (from $45,000 to $50,000) for the upcoming year which results in a $2 to $5 increase per unit. Why the reserve fund increase? It’s pretty simple. The HOA is planning to redo the roads sometime in the next few years as they are now well over 30-40 years old and rapidly deteriorating. However, the individual condos will be responsible for repaving the off-road parking plazas and parking lots. It would make sense, and be financially prudent (as we will benefit from a discount), to have that work done at the same time as the roads. Therefore, the decision was made to begin increasing our reserve fund in the hopes that we can avoid an assessment to cover the cost of this much needed work.
New Neighbors
• Patricia Bucher at 801 Bretton Woods Drive
• James DeLuca at 820 Woodland Court
Welcome and we hope you will enjoy living in Bretton Woods.
Fall is here, the temperatures are dropping, the days are getting shorter, and darkness is arriving earlier so it’s time for some reminders.
School is in session so please be aware of the children waiting on the streets for their school buses.
The speed limit in Bretton Woods remains at 25 mph. Please observe it.
Stop signs mean STOP.
If you are going to be walking after dark or early in the morning, wear light clothing and use a flashlight so drivers can see you.
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur takes place on the 10th day of Tishrei (in 2019, from several minutes before sunset on Tuesday, October 8, until after nightfall on Wednesday, October 9), coming on the heels of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year, which is on the first and second days of Tishrei).
Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the year in Judaism. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with an approximate 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue services.
No work is to be done on Yom Kippur, from the time the sun sets on the ninth of Tishrei until the stars come out in the evening of the next day.
During the observance of Yom Kippur, Jews abstain from food and drink, do not wash or apply lotions or creams, do not wear leather footwear, and abstain from marital relations. Instead, we spend the day in synagogue, praying for forgiveness.
Columbus Day
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer who set sail across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a faster route to the The Far East only to land at the New World. His first voyage to the New World on the Spanish ships Santa María, Niña, and La Pinta took approximately three months. Columbus and his crew’s arrival to the New World initiated the Columbian Exchange which introduced the transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, and technology between the new world and the old.
Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492. Since 1971 it has been observed in the United States on the second Monday of October.
Celebration of Christopher Columbus’s voyage in the early United States is recorded from as early as 1792. The Tammany Society in New York City and the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston celebrated the 300th anniversary of Columbus’ landing in the New World. President Benjamin Harrison called upon the people of the United States to celebrate Columbus’s landing in the New World on the 400th anniversary of the event.
San Francisco claims the nation’s oldest continuously existing celebration with the Italian-American community’s annual Columbus Day Parade, which was established by Nicola Larco in 1868, while New York City boasts the largest, with over 35,000 marchers and one million viewers.
Halloween
Halloween is an annual holiday celebrated each year on October 31. It is the evening before the Christian holy days of All Hallows’ Day (also known as All Saints’ or Hallowmas) on 1 November and All Souls’ Day on 2 November, thus giving the holiday on 31 October the full name of All Hallows’ Eve (meaning the evening before All Hallows’ Day).
Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, believed that the dead returned to earth on Samhain. To out-smart these ghostly beings, people would light bonfires and put on masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would think they were fellow spirits.
The custom of trick-or-treating on Halloween may come from the belief that supernatural beings, or the souls of the dead, roamed the earth at this time and needed to be appeased. It may also have originated in a Celtic festival, held on 31 October–1 November, to mark the beginning of winter.
Susanna & the Condo VII Board
Thought for the month:
Life is a sacred journey. It’s about change, growth, discovery, stretching your soul and taking risks with every step. You are on the path where you are meant to be, shaping your life story into a tale of strength, courage, and love.
– Unknown