The Loss of Our Trees

Homeowners have been contacting us to find out why several trees along Cedar Run Dr were recently taken down.

We have confirmed with the Village of Wheeling that these trees were infested with the Emerald Ash Borer.  Since Cedar Run Dr is a public Wheeling street, these trees technically belong to the Village, and the Village was responsible for their removal.

This is a sad situation.  Not only does this diminish the look our our neighborhood, but it also takes away a lot of our shade and protection from the sun.  Many homeowners who once enjoyed the shade from these trees will see their utility bills rise during the summer months.

More information will be posted on this blog as it becomes available.  But this begs the following questions:

How many more trees will we lose?

What can be done to save the trees we still have?

We are still investigating how many other vulnerable trees are on the property.  What we do know is this....Cedar Run once had a contract with a Certified Arborist called Best Trees.  When the Sher/Shaw group took over, they immediately ceased payment to Best Trees.  Ultimately, Best Trees sued them for breach of contract and won a judgement (including legal fees) on 6/12/2013.

A qualified, Certified Arborist could minimize and prevent the losses of trees by inspecting and treating our Ash trees and immediately removing any trees that are too damaged for treatment.  To our knowledge, the Cedar Run Master Board has not worked with a Certified Arborist to maintain our trees.  At best, they have only worked with a tree trimming service (which incidentally is owned by one of the Master Board's directors).  But this company does not have the expertise or resources to fight the Emerald Ash Borer and save our trees.

We remind you once again that cost cutting by eliminating needed services is NOT SAVING US MONEY!

As always, we welcome any questions or comments from homeowners at restoreCR@gmail.com.  We have received dozens of encouraging emails, and we make every effort to reply promptly.

Transparency??? Checks & Balances???

Robert Sher and the master board have constantly dodged any questions about who is being paid and how much.  With a clubhouse full of homeowners holding overwhelming evidence right in front of them, they had no choice but to finally admit it.

Robert Sher justifies his looting of our money by claiming that it's a good deal for homeowners.  He claims to be saving us so much money, that his salary is very insignificant compared to the money he saves us.

IF IT'S SUCH A GREAT DEAL, THEN WHY DIDN'T HE DISCLOSE THIS FROM THE BEGINNING?!

It took a court-ordered subpoena and a great deal of effort from Cedar Run Concerned Homeowners to expose how much Robert Sher, Jack Shaw and other people in their inner circle are being paid.

Then next question they are dodging
Now that the question of of pay has been answered (thanks to the CRCH), the next question homeowners have is about what type of contract we are locked into with the Sher/Shaw group.

When questioned at the August 14th meeting, one master board director came close to saying that they signed a 5 year management contract with the Sher/Shaw group.  But then he was interrupted and silenced by Robert Sher.

Homeowners have the right to know the contract terms that we have with Robert Sher!
Is it 5 years??? Is it 100 years??  Or is it until Robert Sher leaves on his own??
Keep in mind, most professional management contracts have a 60 day termination option.


Robert Sher condemned the old master board for a lack of transparency and checks & balances.  With Robert's closed-door (illegal) board meetings, refusal to answer questions about budgets and handling of our money and countless other secret policies ....is this his example of transparency?? With Robert Sher in the position to make major legal and financial decisions on our behalf, with nobody but his wife and father-in-law to answer to.....Is this what he calls checks & balances??  Homeowners strongly disagree!

As always, we welcome your questions and comments.  Feel free to shoot us an email at restoreCR@gmail.com.

TURN THE CAMERAS BACK ON!

The following is a message from Jim Hartmann, Cedar Run Concerned Homeowner and blog contributor:

My name is Jim Hartmann. I own a unit on Exeter. I was very upset to hear about the shooting incident this past Sunday, August 11.

I called the Wheeling Police Department and spoke with Officer Chirio, Sergeant in the Special Operating Unit and the investigator who is looking into incident.

I asked him what we can do as homeowner's to assist in this situation.  He told me we can do two things:

• We need to turn our security cameras back on.
• We need to call the police (911) immediately when we hear gunfire.

Apparently, nobody called the police until the following morning.  This greatly lessens their chance of catching a suspect.

Here are the facts:

• 23 shell casings were recovered
• 3 rounds hit the unit, one penetrating the wall and hitting the bedroom wall in the unit.
• 9 mm handgun, semi-automatic was used to fire these shots
• At this point, they have no suspects.

If you know anything about the incident, please call the Wheeling Police Department at (847) 459-2632.

Officer Chirio told me that he had spoken with Robert Sher about turning the cameras back on last year. In fact, he even sent out somebody from the department to assist in getting the cameras back on. He also said that the cameras have proven very helpful in the past and may have provided evidence in this latest incident.

Why is the board not turning on the cameras?

 

Would these cameras guarantee that the this crime would have been solved?  Maybe not. 
But they would tell the police the license plate numbers and times that any vehicles entered and exited the property.  This could at least give them clues as to who they should question about the incident.

Welcome Cedar Run Homeowners!!!

Thank you for visiting our blog!!  If you're reading this, you probably received a postcard from our group recently.  The purpose of this blog entry is to elaborate on what we said on this postcard.

Follow the Money!!

Robert Sher has ruled Cedar Run with an iron fist for the past year.  Homeowners have become increasingly dissatisfied with the services provided by Sher and the Cedar Run Master Board.  Many have begun to question Robert Sher's true motives.  Sher and the his board have been asked many times who is being paid among them and how much.  They refuse to answer these simple questions.  What are they trying to hide??

The Cedar Run Concerned Homeowners are proud to say that we've obtained (through a court-ordered subpoena) the Master Board's bank records, and we now know exactly what they were trying to hide.

Robert Sher, his family, and the Master Board have been issued checks totaling $160,000 since they took over Cedar Run last August. Sher and his cohorts are bleeding our money away instead of managing our property properly!!!

Sher claims to be saving us money, but neglecting maintenance and providing substandard services are not saving money!!!!

• Grass not being cut until it is an eyesore, weeds running rampant throughout the property, and bald patches of grass spreading rapidly.
• The worst snow removal service we've had in over ten years!!! In fact the snow removal was so bad, Wheeling fined the Master Board.
• Shoddy patchwork to fill potholes on Cedar Run streets. These streets need structural repair!!!
• Algae in the ponds totally out of control because of discontinued water treatment.
• Our swimming pool closed for an entire summer for the first time ever!!!
• Still no garage coach light bulb replacement – our safety appears to not be a concern of the Master Board.
• Trees dying due to the cancellation of our tree maintenance contract.
• Litter & trash all over the property due to insufficient grounds keeping 

There is enough money in the Cedar Run accounts to pay for proper service, but instead the money is going to Robert Sher, his family, his closest allies and their families.

 

Robert Sher claims that the Master Board is a self-managed association............then why are we paying him so much to manage it?!?!?!   If you want to know Robert Sher's true motives, just follow the money!!!

Click here for a breakdown of payments made to the Sher/Shaw family, Master Board directors, and their family members.

 What do you think of these checks??

 Robert Sher gets checks like this every month....from OUR MONEY!!

Or these checks.......

Jack Shaw gets checks like this every month....once again from OUR MONEY!!

In fact, these two have been getting checks like these from us since September of 2012!!

The next Master Board meeting will be on Wednesday, August 14th, 2013 at 8PM in the Cedar Run Clubhouse.  We encourage all homeowners to attend and voice their questions & concerns about where our money is going.

Stay tuned for more updates and information on how you can help put an end to Robert Sher's reign of terror.  Feel free to shoot us an email at restorecr@gmail.com.

The Truth About Our Insurance

 

Just like Flo says.....

When you bundle your house and car insurance, your insurance rates are lower for the combination.  Cedar Run has always had a bundled (aka umbrella) insurance policy for all phases and the master board. 

Robert Sher has refused to continue this policy.  He chose to break up the insurance into separate policies for each phase.  We lost the savings we had with the umbrella policy, and this created a dramatic increase in our insurance costs.  Of course Sher blames this on Alma, but he has actually been promising to do this since January.   He even filed a lawsuit (which of course failed) to argue that the umbrella policy was wrong and should be declared illegal (See Count VIII, p. 16).

Consequently, after the umbrella policy expired at the end of July, each phase had to obtain its own insurance policy.  We homeowners will now pay triple what we used to pay for insurance. 

Now that Sher has offloaded the insurance costs from the master board, he will try to portray this as a savings, but in actuality he has only shifted the cost of insurance to the phases. Worse yet, he caused the price to go UP and not down.

Just like the pool, insurance is yet another thing that we've been paying for through our master board assessment, but Robert Sher has chosen to slash it. Will Sher reduce the master assessment to make up for the costs he shifted to the phases?  He should!!!

Robert Sher should reduce the master assessment by at least $25 because that is what you will be paying for your insurance through your phase assessment.

We remind you once again that we are paying Robert Sher a healthy salary to make such irresponsible decisions.