Rio Crossing, Avondale AZ

Help Stop Vandalism in Rio Crossing

April 29, 2021

We’ve had several incidents of vandalism on common-area property in the last week or so. Most of it is trivial, but that doesn’t mean we can ignore it. We’d like your help in stopping vandalism — both on common area property and on homeowner’s lots.

The best thing you can do is to call Avondale Police Department whenever you see vandalism in progress. But if you don’t see the vandals in action, please report vandalism on common areas to Lisa, our Community Manager.

There are a couple of organized Block Watch areas in Rio Crossing. Unlike the older Neighborhood Watch areas that encompassed an entire community, Block Watch areas are focused on smaller parts of a neighborhood… one where people are more likely to know each other and be willing to look out for each other. If you want to know more about the Block Watch program – to see if there’s one where you live, or to help get one started (it’s not much work!), contact Lisa.

If vandals see we’re not taking action on vandalism in the entry way, they’re more likely to come into the community and do damage on private property. Help all of us by being proactive.

Avondale Transit Study

March 2, 2021

I was asked by Maricopa Association of Governments to invite anyone interested in the future of transit service in Avondale to consider attending a community meeting.

I attended one of these a few weeks ago, and I was impressed with the forward-thinking approaches to enhancing transit in the Avondale-Goodyear area.

Zoom Transit will Likely Be Affected

If you are a current rider of the Zoom service that circulates around Avondale and connects to other transit resources, you should definitely attend, as there will likely be changes in that area.

Sign Up!

MAG’s Transportation Planner Jennifer Valentine wrote:

Please feel free to invite friends, coworkers, employees, customers, members of your HOA, etc. who have an interest in the future of transit service in Avondale and Goodyear. We’d appreciate your help in spreading the word about the community meetings. Meeting information can be found on the project website, at azmag.gov/Avondale-Goodyear, and below:

March 4, 2021 from 5:00 to 6:30 PM
https://azmag-gov.zoom.us/j/97465886384?pwd=MHA5a3hWOXZra09ERXlMSXlhajBWZz09
Passcode: 575516

March 10, 2021 from 9:00 to 10:30 AM
https://azmag-gov.zoom.us/j/97171711790?pwd=U2oxenhRS0E5V1FZTEZrN1JiY2lTUT09
Passcode: 388134

Special Board Meeting

February 22, 2021

The association president has called a Special Meeting of the Rio Crossing Board of Directors.

Date: Wednesday February 24, 2021
Time: 7pm, estimated duration 1 hour
Location: Online via Zoom (see meeting call document below)

The meeting will be held online via Zoom, hosted by our management company.

Download the “call of the meeting” document along with business items to be discussed here:

2021-02-24-SpecialMeetingNotice Download

Homeowners are welcome to attend and participate in accordance with ARS 33-1804. Dial-in information is included in the call of the meeting, or contact community manager Lisa Reisland for additional information.

“No Sale” Property Transfers

December 4, 2020

This happens more often than you think: ownership of a home in Rio Crossing changes, without a sale. Here is a short list of ways that generally happens:

Sometimes a home changes hands without a sale involved

The current owners — “real people” — start a trust which is given ownership of major assets, including homes, vehicles, and other valuables. The legal and tax reasons are beyond the scope of this web site, but you can watch a number of YouTube videos from Lee Philips (not an endorsement, just a good resource).
Older owners sometimes deed the property over to their kids — again, often for a variety of legal and tax reasons.
One company (often an LLC) transfers an asset directly to another company (often owned by a common group of people).
A person who acquired the property as a single person later adds a spouse or partner as an owner.

Please Update Contact Information

When a home is transferred without a sale, very often the association isn’t informed. You should contact our community manager with information about any transfer, even if a sale was not involved. Even if the contact information remains the same, we need a copy of the deed. Ownership records are important to the association.

Noise from Across El Mirage

That’s a 5am picture of the noise-making equipment across El Mirage from Rio Crossing. I’ve heard several people complain that this very loud noise is often occurring early in the morning.

If this noise is affecting you, call the Maricopa County Sheriff Department’s non-emergency line at (602) 876-1000. Yes, across El Mirage, it’s mostly Maricopa County property.

The storage business is in Avondale; everything else between Indian School and Camelback from El Mirage to the Agua Fria is Maricopa County.

FYI, Wigwam Creek to the west of Rio Crossing is also Maricopa County.

Accident, or Vandalism?

For the second time in 6 months, there are fresh tire tracks and a broken sign in the Heatherbrae entrance. Part of me wants to believe that this was an accident, but the sign was replaced the next day, and was stolen within a couple of hours of being put there.

I won’t bore you with the technical definition of “criminal damage” from Arizona statutes, but if you see someone damaging common areas of the community, please contact Lisa with details.

If you have a beef with the association, there are more productive ways of dealing with it. If you just want to get rid of the association, there are ways of doing that too.

In November of 2019 (just before the last Winter Festival) there was more extensive damage done to the Roma Park turf caused by someone taking their vehicle on a joyride through the park in the wee hours of the morning. For that damage, the Avondale Police Department was involved.

Please respect your common area property.

2020 Annual Meeting Wrap-Up

November 25, 2020

There was no quorum for the annual meeting. See a draft of meeting minutes here:

2020-11-05-DRAFT-AnnualMeeting-NoQuorum Download

Traditionally we have held the annual member meeting and election of board of directors in September of each year. Due to extra planning required to conduct an online meeting, this year’s annual meeting and election was postponed to November.

All members of the Rio Crossing Homeowners Association were sent candidate application forms in September, and a meeting notice with a hard-copy ballot and postage-paid return envelope in October, with an early November deadline.

A quorum is normally described as the number of people that need to be present at a meeting in order to conduct business, such as an election. Arizona statutes (ARS 33-1812) state that absentee ballots also count toward a meeting quorum.

Our Bylaws state that one-tenth of the Eligible Votes constitute a quorum, and with all members eligible to vote and 345 homes in the community, the quorum requirement is 35. There were 28 absentee ballots to be counted as “present,” and only 3 association members present — all of whom had already voted absentee ballots, so their presence did not add to the number “present” for purposes of quorum.

What happens to the election? Nothing. The election is part of the business of the annual meeting, and there was no quorum, so no business can be conducted.

Who are the directors now? The incumbent directors — those previously in office at the time of the election — remain in office, per the association bylaws in section 3.1.

This is the second consecutive year with no quorum at the annual meeting. Quorum was present in 2016, 2017, and 2018, and historically not very often before that.

Thank you to those of you that took the time to send in an absentee ballot.

Backwashing or Draining Your Pool?

November 3, 2020

The City of Avondale doesn’t permit draining of pool water into the streets.

This isn’t particularly an HOA issue, but we often try to get the word out to folks on things like this. We’ve noticed a number of people lately just rolling the hose out to the street and letting it flow. Here’s the flyer provided by the folks at the city:

Drain and Backwash Pools Download

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