BTPOA, Letter from Board President Fitch to members, 3 April 2007

BENT TREE PROPERTY OWNERS' ASSOCIATION, INC.

P.O. Box 2631

Monument, CO 80132

www.btpoa.org

I’ve been working on improving the safety in Bent Tree which is one of the BOD’s primary goals, and in my recent letter to all Bent Tree owners, I inadvertently provided information to all of you that needs to be corrected.

First, I have met with the Brian Beland, President of Tri-Lakes Disposal, and unfortunately, the prices quoted had a caveat that wasn’t well communicated to the BOD, nor in turn by me to you in our recent letter. Therefore, I need to provide you all an update on their offer.

Like any business, if they can decrease the distance between stops in an area, they can lower their price because it is more cost-effective for them. Brian clarified that he would need to get more than 170 of our Bent Tree owners to sign up to use Tri-Lakes Disposal before he can offer us pick-up of $12 per month for up to three owner-supplied 32-gallon containers per week. It is $14 per month if they supply the 95-gallon tote cart, and this rate includes up to five additional 32-gallon bags of trash each week. Additional bags (more than five) would be billed to the owners at 75 cents per bag. Residents can also call them for large items to be picked up. Tri-Lakes Disposal does not pick up recyclables such as glass, tin, and paper from your home, but they do have a recycling container set up at Monument Academy School for newspaper and aluminum, and they donate all the money from those recyclables to the school as one of the ways they “contribute back” to the community. Good for them.

Tri-Lakes Disposal currently provides service to 75 residents in Bent Tree. If we can get 170 residents to use Tri-Lakes Disposal, not only will we get the lower rate, but Brian will reschedule their pick-up day to Monday. This will coincide with the same day that U.S. Waste picks up in Bent Tree. If both trash companies are scheduled on the same day, this will help the appearance of our neighborhood, as we would have only one day a week with trash outside, and it would improve the safety in our neighborhood because it would eliminate one day of trash trucks driving through Bent Tree. Here is an opportunity for all of us to consider using Tri-Lakes Disposal. For our homeowners that use Tri-Lakes Disposal and like their service and want to help us out by referring your neighbors to use Tri-Lakes Disposal, please do so.

Secondly, U.S. Waste called me on March 30^th, and stated they would not participate in their verbal offer. I apologize, because as a business owner I should have known better than to not get their offer in writing. U.S. Waste may be able to provide more competitive pricing if they could get all of the Bent Tree owners to use them, but they would require this to be billed through BTPOA HOA, which the Board of Directors is not prepared to commit to at this time (but this might be a good topic of discussion at the Annual Property Owners Meeting in September). The standard rate they are quoting to individual owners is $14.75 per month, which includes a tote, and the recycle option increases it to $17.75 per month.

Again, I apologize for the incorrect information that we provided to you. If you are mad at me, come to the board meetings and chew me out, but don’t hold back on this opportunity to make Bent Tree safer and more attractive. As I see it, the decision is to choose if you want your trash carrier to pick up recyclables, or do you want to use a local firm that costs less?