MY WEED STORY

So, my weed story and my weed verdict.

Let me first go back to April of 2009 when I received my first notice of a weed violation.

I was in Mexico visiting my family as I do every year and yes I am a blonde American girl that is lucky enough to have parents that live in a foreign country and can combine vacation with quality family time.  My father had just gotten news of an illness and, as any concerned daughter would do, I extended my stay for another 2 weeks to spend time with him.  Upon returning home and getting my mail (from my NEW mail box that held all my mail) I received a notice from Jomar about horrible weeds in my yard that I must remove in two weeks or else....pending fine!  Thank goodness I was home in time to remove them!  After all, it was spring and weeds do flourish during this time since we live in the desert.

After walking my entire yard and looking for the weeds;  I found 3.  I plucked them with anger and satisfaction.   I sprayed my entire yard to make sure that no more of those little buggars would show their ugly heads again.

So we come around to January 15th, 2010.  I received a notice that I had a SECOND violation of weeds!  OK,,,,,let's look....Rain, Rain, Rain...Rain...Rain...Rain...Rain...worst rain storm since 1960???something or other is what I experienced and it was confirmed on the news so I knew I was not imagining it.  Aaaaah..January 24th, Sunday, the sun is shinning and I get a chance to find those little nasty weeds and pull them.  I found a 12" square patch of weeds on the corner of my driveway!  All 7 of them...tiny little grass weeds that did not stick up above the rocks in my yard.  Gone!  I wanted to put them in an envelope and mail them to Jomar but I thought how childish and it was a Sunday after all!!!

On the 26th of January, I left the state.  Knowing that my yard was FREE of all weeds!

On my return on February 9th I received a notice stating "This Letter is being written on behalf of the Board of Directors of Sierra Ridge.  In an effort to maintain the aesthetics of the community, the Board strives to ensure the Association's Rules and Regulations and CC&R's are enforced.  This violation was noted on 01/28/2010, by The Jomar Association Inspection Department.  Please note per A.R.S. State Statute, you have 10 (ten) days to respond to this violation letter and must do so by certified mail."  "Please remove weeds from the side yard.  Thank you".

What weeds?  Oh you mean the ones I pulled almost two weeks ago?

I sent that certified letter as well as an email.

Jomar said they never got the letter.  In fact the board of directors said that because I had a letter back in April of 2009 I deserved the fine because I have "chronic weeds". 

So let's ignore the fact that they say I am not truthful about when I pulled my weeds.  The letter I received dated the 15th of January, stating I had weeds, I had 14 days to pull them. The weeds were so called still there on the 28th of January, 13 days from the date of the letter.  I still had 1 day to pull weeds.  Regardless, there still were no weeds.

So for those of you that have cared enough to read this entire post...I have been fined by a "unanimous" vote, by our Board of Directors of the Sierra Ridge HOA, to pay a $25.00 plus an additional $5.00 processing charge and an additional $5.00 processing charge because I have not paid the fine since the outcome of the appeal from a letter received on the 27th of February.  For a grand total of $35.00.

This is all for 7 small weeds that were pulled, in the time allotted, that the inspector has made a mistake on, and that, most importantly, have decided enough is enough.

Do you actually think I would have spent this much time in the big scheme of things, one, to prove a point and secondly, fighting this hard if in fact that there were any weeds in my yard?

It was agreed upon by all board members at the meeting on the 24th of February, that maybe they should back off on all the weed violations because of all the rain.  Could this be that one particular board member has a yard full of weeds and has had weeds for a month now and they have not been pulled?

What good is an appeal?  I was guilty with no possibility of parole long before the HOA meeting.  There is just no possible way that the inspector made an error!  HA!