On May 28, 2016 the Association will be holding its 41st Annual Meeting of Members. The Notice of Annual Meeting was mailed to all owners, in good standing, in mid-April. The Notice contains this past year's financial information and the 2016/2017 fiscal year budget, committee reports and ballots for matters concerning membership vote. If you are planning on attending the meeting in person please bring the admission pass (included in the mailing).

 

If you do not plan to attend the meeting in person please mail in your ballots to be received by our office by May 27, 2016 (a postage paid ballot envelope was included in the mailing). The meeting will begin at 9:30 AM at the Clubhouse and later that day we will be holding a pot luck dinner at the Clubhouse which is a great event to meet the Board of Directors and your fellow Chimney Hill owners. A full agenda for this Memorial Day weekend was included in the mailing.

 

 

All Chimney Hill homes have their own septic systems. Systems normally have a holding tank (usually 1,000 gallon concrete, some older homes may have steel tanks and some newer homes may have plastic tanks) which holds the solids and then the liquids go out to the leaching field, some fields are in ground and some are mound type fields. Some systems may contain a pump chamber that pumps the liquids to the leaching field, common in mound systems (see diagrams below).

 

Although systems should last the life of your home with proper maintenance and inspections, we have noticed recently that some septic systems in Chimney Hill have been experiencing some issues. This could be caused by lack of maintenance (pumping your tank and inspections every 3-5 years), ground movement dislodging pipes, driving on or heavy equipment going over lines crushing/breaking them and heavy vegetation/tree growth on leaching fields and distribution lines.

 

Some system issues are not visible to the eye (or nose) as a broken or dislodged pipe from the tank to the leaching field may be dumping waste water out of the line which never reaches the leaching field for proper disposal but still may be leaching through the soil to the ground water. The only way to detect this type of issue is by a septic inspection.

 

You can pay me now or you can pay me later....

 

Having your septic tank pumped and inspected every three to five years will cost you under $ 500.00. Failure to do so may result in system failure and cost of the system replacement up to $ 30,000 - seems like a no brainer to me.

 

Your septic system has been designed for the number of original bedrooms that were in the home when it was built. Most systems in Chimney Hill are designed for 3 bedrooms, that means 6 people per home (2 per bedroom) and normal use of the home. We all know that from time to time we have more people in the home especially during the holidays and this should be OK for short periods of time depending on your water usage. Too many people using too much water even for a short period of time may cause damage to your system.

Please also note that Chimney Hill has a central water system with many sources scattered throughout Chimney Hill. A septic system failure at a home close to one of our water supply areas may have devastating consequences to our water supply and affect all that are served by it, not to mention possible legal ramifications if you are the culprit.

 

Some other helpful reminders:

Uncle Bob's Septic - (802) 232-2222

Houghton Sanitation - (802) 254-9221

All Out Waste - (802) 442-5064