Aloha Wailea Ekahi Homeowners,
Reminding you all about our Wailea Ekahi website, and the resources provided for emergency preparedness, seems very timely given the tsunami scare that was luckily averted. There were just a couple of guests confused about where to go and what to do, and the communication and mandatory evacuation order across all channels from Maui County and MEMA was very thorough. In case of future emergencies requiring evacuation or advanced planning, you can direct guests straight to https://waileaekahi.com/ . Our website does not require a guest log in to view the home page. The home landing page offers house rules, a property map, and detailed guidance on preparing for natural disasters including but not limited to fire, tsunami, and hurricane.
We are very excited to announce the beginning of the exterior painting project starting next week at Building 1! H Painting is bringing in their storage container for materials tomorrow, and owners/agents at buildings 34 and 35 have been notified about the parking restrictions due to the storage and staging adjacent to their buildings. A building sign will go up today, reminding guests and service providers at building 1 that units must be vacant with lanai work completed by 5 PM on Sunday August 3rd. In my observations of that building this afternoon, all 6 of the building lanais still need to be cleared off. Please don’t forget that décor items, ceiling fans, and shades affixed to exterior stucco walls must also be removed. Your service providers can enter your units to prepare for incoming guest arrivals at 8 AM the day after the painting is completed. We will be sending direct owner, and agent, communications with the schedule reminder, and again with completion of each building. Ekahi is not responsible for damages to personal items left on lanais. Air conditioner condenser covers will be removed by the painters and painted with the new field color to match the buildings. If maintenance is required for your lattice cover, we will send you a notice so you can plan to have it repaired or replaced. All AC must be turned off for the duration of your building’s painting. Please refer to the attached FAQ for more information and resources to assist with your exterior responsibilities.
When owners are scheduling a renovation or other interior work and have time constraints based on bookings or vendor schedules, I often receive an alteration application with dates being proposed before the next Board meeting, or immediately after. With most of our owners participating in some form of vacation rental, a waiting period to alert our confirmed guests is a courtesy and has been part of our alteration program since its inception. For your forward planning, it is important to build in this 30-day neighbor notification period for noise and nuisance. There is an opportunity to request written authorization from the other owners in your building waiving their right to said notice. It makes sense to ask for this waiver sometimes during slower periods, and I often help with this communication. However, if all our owners shared a basic email address and phone number on the owner contact list, the office would not be responsible for assisting with this owner intended communication. We urge you to log in to your Ekahi owner account and simply opt in to our owner contact list. In my review of the list today, we are missing over 115 owners. This contact information becomes especially important for an owner that lives upstairs, who might be experiencing a flood with major damage possibly occurring downstairs, and no way to inform you that your condo is underwater.
Pacific Asphalt will be here the week of August 25th for removal of the 7 existing speed bumps in Phase 1. The work might be loud and dusty, and traffic down the main driveway will be flagged for contra flow. The vendor may be staging equipment in the lawn area across from building 54 at our main entrance. Once the speed bumps are removed, they will install 3 new bumps, made with an alternate composite material like the new parking stall bumpers. The new speed bumps will be lower and seemingly less disruptive to drivers in that area. The first bump will be close to the gully bridge by building 51, to slow drivers down so golf carts can safely maneuver that hill with weight behind their cart. The second bump around building 12 will be installed before the green waste disposal site, due to the frequency our carts use that area to dispose of landscape debris. The 3rd speed bump will be installed across from building 2 and 11 to slow vehicles down and allow pedestrian traffic to and from the pool and BBQ area. We recently spent about $8000 in advance work with a local welding company and made necessary improvements to the storm drain grates that were still loose and making noise.
September is scheduled for turf maintenance right after Labor Day weekend, and the most critical area is our expansive green belt. We started dethatching the sloped sections, with a continued focus on water conservation due to Maui County irrigation restrictions allowing only 2 days of watering a week. If you have a home that backs up to the main fairway, it will be important to advise your guests of this routine and sometimes disruptive work. We have been posting building signage about our noise as we are tackling specific areas, and reminding occupants to keep windows and doors closed due to the amount of dust and debris being stirred up with our drought conditions.
In July, we had the damaged Public Beach Access gate replaced, and we dug out and reinforced the drain system for the Pavilion showers with a new drain grate cover. There is a replacement fridge on order in the Pavilion kitchen that should arrive the first week of August, and the repairs to the BBQ at the green belt location were successful. We are still pending repairs for the electric grill at Pool 2. This week we are painting the exterior BBQ islands with the new field color, cleaning and painting the monument pedestal signs at our 7 entrances and finishing up new paint on the other wooden signage around Ekahi. Advanced lanai trellis repair work for Phase 1 is completed.
Finally, we are very pleased to announce the successful hire of a Pool Manager just in time to ramp up for owner season. Please help me welcome Salah to the team next time you visit.