President’s Letter

By Jeff Janssen | Email
309-846-0250

With each passing day, the anticipation and excitement continued to grow.  Although I’m not sure that my daughter truly knew what to expect, her enthusiasm was contagious.  Yes, it was the first day of kindergarten! 

Hopefully you had the joy of experiencing this in your household or remember this glorious day from past experience.  Of course, with this time of year comes many new safety issues and these were discussed in depth at our most recent Board Meeting.  Please continue being extremely careful as you drive throughout Fox Point.  All the usual warnings apply…  No speeding.  No cell phones while driving.  Stop for school buses.  

An additional note on parking:  Please do not park on both sides of the street across from each other and encourage your guests to do the same.  This creates another hazard for pedestrians and an additional challenge for safety vehicles/school buses.

I have also received a couple requests to republish the Good Neighbor Guidelines that were composed a few years ago.  In order to allow you more reading time for these guidelines, I will draw my letter to an early close.

Please let me know if I can be of service to you and your family. 

Fox Point Good Neighbor Guidelines: 

Fox Point’s Governing Documents limit the association’s authority over activities on public or private property. Our roads are public and speeding and reckless driving are matters for the Police. The Village of Barrington is responsible for building codes, permitting processes, dog licensing, dog waste ordinances, waste removal and noise issues. The Village bans overnight street parking. The State bans fireworks. Nonetheless, these and other issues related to activities are often brought to the attention of the Fox Point Board. We take this opportunity to share common attributes of a good Fox Point neighbor: 

Safety First

Comply with posted municipal speed limits. Avoid talking on the phone or texting while driving. Be alert to walkers and especially children. Walk facing oncoming traffic. If possible, move to the grass when traffic approaches. The school path on the South Side was created to accommodate walkers. The streets on the South side are not appropriate alternatives to the designated school drop-off/pick-up for cars. Use the designated school drop-off/pick up area, off of Eastern. Also, please do not drop kids off in homeowner’s driveways or outside of the signs in these designated areas.

• Monitor battery life of underground fence collars to keep your pet contained on your property. 
• Comply with village ordinance by leashing dogs and picking up their waste.
• Comply with village ordinance banning overnight street parking.
• Remove dead trees and shrubs from your property to reduce your potential liability.
• Keep your front yard light in working order.
• Comply with state ban on fireworks.
• Report suspicious or reckless behaviors and vandalism to the Police.
• Comply with Village ordinance and don’t burn your leaves.
• Encourage guests to park on one side of the street to allow emergency vehicles to pass.
  

Pride of Ownership

• Secure offsite storage for RVs, boats and trailers. However, as a courtesy, you may store these for no more than one week on your property.
• Mow your grass and rake your leaves, when necessary.
• Remove holiday decorations within a reasonable time, after the holiday.
• Put your waste cans out no earlier than the evening before pick-up and retrieve empty cans same day.
• Make obvious repairs to and replacement of elements that front the street, as necessary.
• Remove portable sport equipment from front yard at the end of play.

Respect

• Respect the peaceful quiet of the neighborhood.
• Respect the peaceful quiet of the neighborhood by not mowing or leaf blowing before 8:00AM.
• Respect your neighbors’ view and hearing range when positioning temporary trampolines and seasonal ice rinks.

Social

By Stephanie Paine | Email

August was a fairly quiet month with only one social event – the annual Fox Point Campout. This has become a family favorite over the years. On behalf of all attendees, I want to extend a HUGE THANK YOU to our chairs Mike Fleming, Mike Dimucci, and Greg Paris for pulling it all together! Over 140 kids and adults had a blast playing by the boat docks- activities included fishing, a scavenger hunt, games, and a glow stick dance party (thanks to the DJ extraordinaire, Kris Jankowski, and music system provided by James Colon). Another thank you goes out to Erik and Amanda Vandenbergh for donating Guinness bratwurst and hot dogs.

After the rush of summer activities, the social committee is gearing up for fun fall events!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

September 23 – Fox Point Golf Outing (noon)

The Annual Fox Point Golf Outing is once again upon us!  Cost is $110 per player and includes golf, cart, two beer tickets and prizes (If there is revenue left we will order appetizers for the group).

RSVP here – http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080c48a8a92fa4fa7-foxpoint3

This event is open to men and women.

If you already have a foursome, please list the names in the comment section when you RSVP.  If you prefer that Marc match you with a team, note that as well.  If you have a specific tee time you prefer, note that and we will work to accommodate.

Sign up by September 9th — Space is Limited, so don’t delay!

For MORE Information please contact Marc Muhs @ marcdmuhs@yahoo.com or 630-338-6311

September 16 – Annual Fox Point Garage Sale (9 am – 3 pm)

Time to clean out those closets! The annual Fox Point Garage Sale is happening on September 16. To participate, please pay the $5 fee via SignUpGenius (link below) and drop off a completed permit to Cara O’hara at 170 N Valley Road. The RSVP deadline is September 11. On Friday before the sale (September 15), Cara will put the completed permit back in your mailbox along with a balloon to hang that signifies that you are participating in the sale. Note – House of Hope will not be able to provide pickup for unsold items this year. Thanks to Cara O’hara for coordinating this event! RSVP for the Garage Sale here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080c48a8a92fa4fa7-foxpoint4

October 8 – Fall Fest (1 – 3 pm)

Join your neighbors at Citizens Park (Jewel Tea Pavolion) for some fall fun! There will be games, face painting, balloon animals and more! Snacks and drinks will be served. The cost is $15 per person. If you are interested in assisting with coordination of the event, please reach out to the event chair Rena Slovik at remschmi@gmail.com. Kids of all ages are welcome (but the activities are geared toward kids under the age of 10). RSVP via SignUpGenius here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080c48a8a92fa4fa7-foxpoint5

Pool

By Horace Seely-Brown | Email

The Pool is officially closed for the winter! While it pains me to utter those words as it seems like yesterday we were experiencing the kick off pool party, I do look forward to the changing seasons and college football. Go Trojans!

It was quite the summer and I would again like to congratulate the swim team and water polo teams on great seasons. I would also like to thank the Pool Watch staff for keeping this a safe and primarily uneventful year!

With the season now past, we look ahead to ways to improve upon the pool experience and opportunities to offer new programs. A few things we plan to focus on include guest fees, bathroom cleanliness, and safety concerns including the ever appearance of glass on the pool deck along with new programs such as swim lessons and adult aerobic classes.

We hope to have more details in the months ahead,  however should anyone have any suggestions, please send them my way.

See you around the neighborhood!

Common Grounds

By Mike Moran | Email

As we move into the fall we wind down much of what we manage in the common grounds arena. After much delay due to the weather, the contractor finally arrived and has repaired the front entrance fence at the northeast corner of the Valley Road entrance. They did a great job in the repair of this fence and wall area. As a reminder, a tree fell on this wall early in the summer during one of our very windy storms and crushed the fence and wall.

I am working with our landscapers and am hopeful that we will see them address some of the warrantee issues within the new landscaping sometime this fall. There are a hand full of bushes or plantings that have not made it since they were originally planted during one of the couple of large projects at the pool and entrances.

We also addressed the trimming of the 25 or so tree’s that are located in and around the pool/tennis courts as well as the boat dock areas. I am sure that I am the only one that was looking up at those trees and the dead limbs but take my word there was a ton of stuff cut out of those trees to insure that they continue to grow and prosper.

Thank you to all that watered, pulled dead flowers, and simply talked to the flowers that we planted and hung at the pool house entrances. They looked exceptional for the entire summer up until the last week or so of the season!!! I guess we can ask for better timing.

We are still working on the light project at the boat dock area and I hope we can get the two small black light poles and fixtures changed out to something less 1960’s still this fall. It was a budgeted item from this year’s commons grounds capitol program and I know they will be a huge difference in and around that area once they are installed.

If you see something that needs addressing, please call or email me.