Throughout the year the association receives numerous calls and emails from residents requesting repair of streetlights, roads, sidewalks, and trash collection and the homeowners are advised to call the utility or County direct so that the association does not become simply a communication relay center for the utilities and County.

Frequently, the caller asks, “What is the association’s responsibility?” The established policy of the Village Boards is for the associations’ staff of two to be limited to reporting lighting and road problems for the major Village boulevards only and not for the lighting, roads, or sidewalks within the subdivisions.

That said, the associations did try to pass on all homeowners’ requests to the appropriate agencies and found that the initial request was not a problem, but repeated calls from homeowners to find out the status of their requests were overwhelming relaying information back and forth.

When homeowners submit their request directly to the utility or County, instead of the same call made through the association, their response to the inquiries is made directly to them, thus removing the association from the loop which is a much more efficient process for all concerned.