Community Welcome

The Grange Homeowners Association would like to welcome you to the community. We are excited to see the community continue to develop and are pleased that so many people have chosen to make The Grange their place to call home. We look forward to sharing this great community with you.

The Grange is ideally situated within the Glastonbury neighbourhood and it stretches along the north and south sides of Guardian Road.

Homeowners Association Fee

Invoices for Association Fees for the 2011 fiscal year were sent out in mid-July. The fee structure remains unchanged from the previous years and is as follows:

• Single Family Home - $36.00/year
• Multi-Family Home - $18.00/year

Should you have question concerning the Homeowners Association or the fee please direct you questions to info@thegrangecommunity.ca.

Annual General Meeting Notice

On November 23, 2011, we will be convening the 2011 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of The Grange Home Owners Association (GHOA).

All people who currently own residential property in The Grange are members of the GHOA. This is by virtue of an Encumbrance that is registered against all the Land Titles of the residential properties in The Grange. This Encumbrance legally obligates you to contribute financially to the operation of the GHOA. It also entitles you to one vote per Grange residence at all General Meetings of the GHOA.

The GHOA was created to provide a means to uphold the aesthetic standard for our community. The GHOA intends to provide immediate value to its members through the development and maintenance of common areas within our community and representation to the City of Edmonton on issues of interest to all Grange residents. The intention is to go beyond the limited and infrequent grounds maintenance provided by the City in an attempt to elevate and promote The Grange. GHOA members are encouraged to take an active role in achieving these goals by attending General Meetings, volunteering their time for activities that support these goals and by serving on the GHOA Board of Directors from time to time.

For a variety of reasons that will be explained at the AGM, the last AGM was held in 2008 and the last time annual dues were invoiced was back in 2006. The current Board of Directors deeply regrets the lack of communication to the GHOA and the fact that the most recent communication to the members was in the form of invoices for GHOA dues. However, we cannot lose sight of the goals mentioned above and therefore, we urge you to attend the upcoming AGM. We need to elect a new Board of Directors to help get the GHOA back on track, to achieve its goals and to make us all proud to call The Grange our home.

If you feel that you would like to serve on the Board of Directors but are unable to attend the meeting or have any questions, please contact Steve Dockum of Caskey & Company LLP at 780-487-7135. You can also visit this website for more information and to view the audited inancial statements, the President’s Report and the Minutes of the last AGM.

Sincerely,

The Grange Home Owners Association Board of Directors

2011-09-27- Message from the President

The Grange Homeowners Association (GHOA) was created to provide a means to uphold the aesthetic standard for our community. The GHOA intends to provide immediate value to its members through the development and maintenance of common areas within our community and representation to the City of Edmonton on issues of interest to all Grange residents. The intention is to go beyond the limited and infrequent grounds maintenance provided by the City in an attempt to elevate and promote The Grange. Painting the fences on the main routes through the community, maintaining the flower gardens on the street islands and possibly adding dispensers for dog bags as seen in other communities are just a few examples of how some of these goals can be achieved.

The GHOA originally started out with great momentum. A web site was created, we acted as the defacto community association for several years until the Glastonbury Community League was created and we provided regular updates for the community.

The original members of the GHOA in the first term (2004-2005) had been involved in an audit of the GHOA books. The provincial government had indicated that their Statement of Audit was insufficient to process the GHOA’s yearly financial submittal. By the time the GHOA was notified, the members who had completed the Audit in 2005 had long since left the community and where no longer reachable to complete the missing requirements.

In 2007 we hired a property management group to manage the invoicing for the Association’s dues, to keep track of all the payments and to be a point of contact for the Association. The filings following that time period were complete and accepted but the GHOA still did not have a professional auditor to redo the 2005 submittal. On September 2, 2008 the GHOA received notification that the Association was going to have their certification revoked as they had not resubmitted the correct forms to verify an audit in 2005.

Our last Annual General Meeting (AGM) was in 2008. Attendance at the meeting was not very good. As a result, we were unable to get anyone new to sit on the Board to keep our momentum going. By this time, a number of the Board Members had served several terms continuously from 2004 taking on various roles over that time. In addition, some Board Members had started to lose interest and stopped coming to the Board Meetings.

At the end of 2008, the Board started to look for an accounting firm to complete the audit of the 2005 statements. We were challenged as we were trying to minimize the costs of a professional financial audit. During this time period other developments within the Grange community were started and some were being completed. As the developers completed their developments, they wanted to hand the covenants and titles over to the GHOA but we were unable to act upon changing titles or invoicing until the Association was restored.

In the fall of 2009, we established a retainer with Caskey & Company LLP to complete the audits for the Association. The actual audit work was not completed until the spring of 2010 and the Association was then re-established in the fall of 2010. Re-establishing the Association required significant work by the firm Parlee McLaws LLP. They were also involved in registering and transferring title of all the new properties within the Grange community since 2008 that had been placed on hold.

Between work by the accounting group, legal fees and fees for the assistance from the property management company, the GHOA exhausted their funds. A commitment has been made by both the accounting and legal firms to continue their work based on the fact that the Association will proceed to invoice for the years from 2008 through 2010 and conduct an AGM in 2011 to elect a new Board.

At the end of 2010, our current accounting group was retained to prepare the statements and collect fees for the Association for the previous years. As you are aware, the invoices were finally issued in July of 2011. When the fees collection is complete, the GHOA will have sufficient funds to begin the community upkeep activities that were started by the original group, as well as any new mandates as directed by the Grange homeowners.

We understand that people are looking for confirmation of the Association certification and fees. All of the Associations’ yearly financial statements, association certification and Bylaws may be viewed on this website. We feel there is value in the Association to maintain the look and feel of the community and look toward the new Board to take the Association forward.

Regards,