It is time again for home addresses to be painted on Rossmoor curbs, a free service that the Rossmoor Homeowners Association has provided for the entire community for decades.
No government agency would do it and those numbers would not be there but for the RHA. It is one of our biggest budgeted items, something we do every three years as the paint weathers off the curbs.
Thanks to the generosity of our members this year, who number nearly 1,200, we have ordered a stencil to include a signature “R” for Rossmoor in green along with the numbers in black and white.
A large number of RHA’s members have made voluntary contributions above their $30 dues in recent months. RHA board members talked about what we could do to return our appreciation to the community and giving the address numbers a custom Rossmoor look is one thing we chose.
The address numbers are a big help for our community, giving police and other emergency responders a quick way to locate homes. And obviously visitors to our community don’t have to guess about an address when one isn’t displayed on the house itself.
The number painting is done by our long-time contractor Tim Major, who paints addresses on curbs across Southern California. He has a custom-built electric cart that rides low to the street and goes house by house with number stencils and reflective paint. Tim does about 200 homes per day and will get through all of Rossmoor in about three weeks.
Sometimes people ask whether we paint these numbers only for our members. The answer is we do it for everybody, because it satisfies a need across the community. If an RHA member is trying to find a home, that person will need the address whether or not the household is another RHA member.
It is one of many RHA activities that benefit the community as a whole, which we hope encourages homeowners to pay our modest annual dues.
In additional to the address painting, the RHA decided in March to provide a paper shredding service for the community twice each year. It will be held at Rush Park, allowing residents to bring their private documents for destruction. It will be paid for by the RHA, again helped by the generous support of our members. Look for more information at our website: OurRossmoor.com.
I feel it is particularly meaningful that we can offer these two benefits at a time when we have made the unfortunate decision to cancel this year’s Rossmoor Festival because of theCovid-19 epidemic.
The RHA board voted on March 17 to not go forward with contracts and permits, given the overwhelming recommendations from local, state and national health authorities to cancel large gatherings.
Although it is possible the situation could improve by May, the RHA would face too great a financial risk if it would have to cancel the festival at the last minute. RHA is in good financial health, but we are always mindful of preserving the financial integrity of the organization. We will, however, be considering some other less formal community celebration later this year.
RHA is run by a 13-member board of volunteers. We get no meeting pay, no perks, no travel expenses and no donuts when we meet. For more than 60 years Rossmoor residents have been joining our organization and volunteering to help.
But every year it gets a little bit harder. The RHA has struggled like so many nonprofit organizations to attract volunteers, willing to spend a bit of their time to support community needs. People have less time or think they have less time to become involved in the community.
As many of you know, the RHA had to cancel the monthly paper drive last year. Wholesale wastepaper prices dropped and the volume of high value newsprint went down, but the real killer was the lack of volunteers to help with the physical work of collecting the paper from cars as they rolled through Rush Park’s parking lot.
As an unincorporated community, Rossmoor has its government services provided by many different agencies and RHA fills many of the gaps in watching out for the community’s welfare. We operate the Neighborhood Watch with the Orange County Sheriff, interface with a variety of government bodies to advocate on public policy issues and much else.
Currently, we have a need for a board member or a committee member who could bring expertise in helping us improve our online membership management system and many other functions that we have. If you would like to join or know more, you can write to me at ralph.vartabedian@gmail.com.
Thank you for your continued support.
Ralph Vartabedian,
RHA President