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Dan Hickox, Shadowood Greenways HOA treasurer and chair of the Landscape Committee, requests that you read the following:

Shadowood residents, you may have noticed the graffiti along our wall on Wallace Road and elsewhere in the city. Last weekend the HOA Board and volunteer committee spent a day cleaning the graffiti from the Wallace walls, pressure washing and pulling weeds.

What’s happening:

• The Board and volunteer committee have decided to initiate a beautification project for the entrances to Shadowood. The Wallace area we determined should be the first to tackle due to the recent graffiti incidents. In the coming months we will work on the Michelbook entrance. With tall plantings it will help to deter vandalism in the future.
• Board and volunteer committee members have already donated over $350.00 toward purchasing plantings.
• We have arranged wholesale pricing with a local nursery for drought tolerant tall grasses and are scheduled to select and pick up plants for installation on or about Saturday, September 13^th.
• Volunteers needed – Don Dyer, who runs the volunteer committee, will be looking for assistance in area prep and planting on the date which will be finalized soon.
• As a Shadowood resident you own approx. 1/87^th of this thirty-three-acre establishment. We have a unique situation here with our woodland setting, creek, tennis courts and walking paths. This is all our property, and we are working hard to make it as perfect as possible.
• If anyone chooses to contribute, please contact Dan Hickox, Shadowood Treasurer, at shadowoodtreasurer@gmail.com prior to Monday, September 8th so we can plan our purchases. Donations will be deposited in the Shadowood account, then be distributed as a credit to landscaping.
• As we have previously mentioned, 2025 has been a tough year for landscaping while establishing our needs with the new contractor Solitude Landscaping. We had to make some sacrifices to align our budget with actual needs of Shadowood. We are on the home stretch now going into 2026 and will recognize significant long-term savings while bringing the Shadowood landscape back to a high standard.

Here’s a photo of what we are going for long term along the Wallace wall area. This will be a start, and we can add more in the spring after the new budget kicks in.

— Dan Hickox – Shadowood Treasurer and Landscape Chair

Several Shadowood Greenways residents joined Shadowood HOA board members on Aug. 30 to pressure-wash a wall along Wallace Road that was recently tagged with graffiti.

Board members who worked to remove the graffiti were Kelli Brooker, Dan Hickox and Peggy Rouse. They were joined by volunteer Shadowood residents Nancy Vaughn, Don Dyer and Rich Rouse.

Solitude Landscaping, Shadowood Greenways’ contracted landscaping firm, may begin drainage work in the Shadowood common area by the tennis courts during the week of Sept. 7.

“This will be a major project to improve several drainage issues we have for the long term,” said Dan Hickox, Shadowood’s Landscape Committee chair.

The work is expected to take five days to complete.

The walking paths may be closed at times in that area during the project.

Dan Hickox, chairman of the Landscape Committee for Shadowood Greenways HOA, requests that you read the following:

As you know, in January of 2025 we made a change in landscape contractors.

Shadowood is unique in the fact that we have large common areas, irrigation, lighting, walkways, the bridge and tennis courts, thus this infrastructure must be maintained. Along with that we are responsible for paving all the streets and for certain sewer lines within the community apart from 11th Street. The HOA maintains a budget for normal expenses and a reserve fund for longer-term expenses. 

HOAs are required by law to maintain a reserve fund to plan years in advance for these things. The current Board took over with no reserve fund or long-term reserve study and minimal savings. In the past three years we have brought Shadowood back to legal status by performing a reserve study, building up a savings account, opening a CD account and restructuring our landscape contract with our new contractor Solitude.

The Board is aware of the current appearance and condition of Shadowood. During the changeout to a new landscape contractor, we reduced the service level to (1) save money, and (2) determine what services we really needed. Landscape maintenance continues to be our largest expense, and to validate what we need to spend we had to do this. It has become apparent that a couple of areas will need to be upgraded in the future:

1. Tree maintenance and preservation
2. Weed control

Tree maintenance is a separate item in the budget and has cost about $18,000 the last two years. We expect this to continue as there are several trees in the common areas that will require maintenance in the future.

In the next few weeks, Solitude will complete the drainage and irrigation upgrades in the common area by the tennis courts. Following that, if we have funds remaining, we will have some of the areas wood-chipped or mulched and others cleaned up. We will be starting an annual weed control program with Solitude in the fall so there will not be the weed issue we experienced in 2025. We are beginning to discuss any other add-in items needed for the 2026 contract, but the end result will be that we are getting the service we need and saving money on our overall contract.

In closing, I would ask for your patience as we move forward to 2026. We have made many improvements for the community, upgrading the website, updating legal issues with our law firm, online payments, and many others. The sacrifices we had to make in 2025 will be well worth it in the long term.

The bottom line is all about money. Our goal is to not raise dues if possible, and the current Board was elected to maintain Shadowood and be financially responsible. 

If you want to know what goes on in the HOA, come to the meetings, visit the website, or chat with a Board member.

Dan Hickox, Shadowood Greenways Treasurer and Landscape Chair

Shadowood Homeowners Association

HOA Board Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, June 17, 2025 – 6:00 p.m.

1000 NW Springwood Lane

Those board members attending were Peggy Rouse, Dan Hickox, Roger Pence, Mark & Kelli Hilliard and Bill McGann along with two residents, Nancy Vaughn and Don Dyer.

The meeting was called to order at 6:01 pm.

Secretary’s report: Roger reported that the April 2025 minutes were approved by a majority vote on 4-18-25 by email and the changes to Exhibit A Schedule of Fines was approved by a 2/3 vote on 4-18-25 by email.

Treasurer & Budget reports: Dan Hickox reported that as of 5-31-25 the association has $33,964.74 in checking, $18,189.59 in savings and $40,443.88 in the CD. The CD has earned year-to-date interest of $381.25.

We are exceeding our projected expenses in Accounting, Landscape contract, the lighting/water budget and the tree budget. To remain on budget for the remainder of the year, we will need to keep the Landscape and Maintenance committees actions under $5,400.

Some funds will need to be moved from one account to another in order to pay the overages. At the time of the report, Roger moved that we transfer $1575 from the landscape account to the tree account and Bill seconded the motion. It was unanimously approved and passed by those attending Board members. Following that, Dan moved that the Board approve merging funds from the landscape and maintenance committees to accomplish drainage work in the common area and the irrigation controller switched to battery power near Lot 57 for $6,680; Bill seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved and passed by those attending Board members.

Old Business: Collection of Unpaid Assessments Resolution was passed on 4-15-25 and sent to Association owners on April 19 and April 21, 2025.

New Business:

1. Peggy brought up the subject of umbrella policies for Board members and whether the Association should pay for the extra insurance coverage. Further discussion will be held at the next Board meeting to decide if it should be added to next year’s budget and for what amount.
2. Peggy also brought up the need for painted no-parking lines at the end of Summerwood Drive to make it easier for delivery & emergency vehicles. The Maintenance and Volunteer committees will be responsible for making this happen.
3. A resident brought up a question about a deteriorating retaining wall on Summerwood Drive through email. In answer to where to report this type of issue, the Maintenance Chair will be building a Maintenance Concern Form for the website so residents can bring up issues that don’t fit in the Architectural, Landscape or Enforcement forms which already exist on the website.

Committee reports:

1. Architectural: Approximately 5 Request to Modify forms were submitted and approved; these were mainly for painting units.
2. Hospitality: Peggy reported on the progress and planned events of the upcoming picnic on Saturday, 6-21-25. If the weather is very rainy, we can take it to Peggy’s house instead of the tennis courts.
3. Landscape: Dan reported that Solitude cut down the weeds where all of the orange/red flags & tape were in the common areas. They will apply pre-emergent in the fall and continue applications approximately 8 times throughout the year, starting in 2026. Path and sidewalk weed removal/prevention will be part of the weed control package. We will be receiving free wood chips from several tree companies in order for us to disperse it as mulch. We’re hoping this will be a volunteer project, rather than having to pay someone else for the service. Some of the wood chips will be dispersed on the south side of the creek to help mitigate the drainage problem. The committee will be communicating with the residents adjacent to the area. A large tree leaning toward the tennis courts will be removed, which will also allow us to prep for drainage work in the area.
4. Maintenance: Roger reported that, along with the Volunteer Committee, one tennis court was cleaned and the committee is hoping that more residents will be inspired to help clean the other court. New combination locks were purchased and will be installed on the tennis court gates. The combination was decided on by those board members attending and, in the future, residents will have to get the combination from, possibly, the Maintenance Chair. The bridge railings and more Grip Strips are needed and will be handled by the Maintenance Committee. The drainage project next to the bridge will be determined by the Maintenance and Landscape Committees. The Volunteer Committee will be installing the last dog waste container near the mailboxes at the Michelbook entrance.
5. Volunteer: Don Dyer reported about the tennis court cleaning, which involved 8 volunteers and 44 hours combined. Sharon Scoltock allowed them to plug into her electric and water lines for the job. The committee will be installing the final dog waste container and bridge maintenance in conjunction with the Maintenance Committee. They are also planning to clear the underbrush along the creek and brainstorming weed control issues around the tennis courts in conjunction with the Landscape Committee.
6. Website: Peggy reported that Paul McAfee has added the ACH link for online payments to the website, as well as the weed control notice and pictures of the tennis court clean-up. Paul asks that when anyone sends pictures for the Picture Gallery, they include captions.
7. Mail & Correspondence: The Summer Letter was sent out at the beginning of June.

Discussion: There was discussion about changing the CC&Rs after getting a clearer definition from the city as to who is responsible for sewer repair in the Association. Roger will look into that.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:15 pm.

The next meeting is at 1000 NW Springwood Lane on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, at 6:00 p.m.

Dan Hickox, Shadowood Greenways Association’s Landscape Committee chairman, issued the following notice:

This week our landscape company Solitude will be doing a weed treatment all around Shadowood. You probably noticed the orange flags and red tape in various areas. This is to identify the areas for the weed treatment.

Following this we will begin an annual weed control program. Once this initial treatment is completed we will begin applying wood chips and mulch to areas over time to help tamp down weed growth and improve appearance.

Why are we having a weed issue you may ask? When we changed contractors we wanted to take the contract back to the minimums to reevaluate what we actually require for service. 2025 is our evaluation year and we are monitoring as the year progresses and will add services back in as needed to make sure Shadowood stays looking good year round.

This is part of our overall effort to keep dues stable and still accomplish the improvements and maintenance that we all want.