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BURN STATUS: See Sign at Entrance.
Planning to burn? Don't forget your (free) permit available at the firehouse on US 2.
Remember: Big Bend Fire Status Supersedes Any Lesser State/County Warnings.
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Monetary transactions are not conducted at Board of Director's Private Homes.
All Payments MUST be mailed to the Monroe PO Box on the statement.
=Do NOT Send Cash!=
Allow for USPS travel time. You are responsible for any late payments.

~ President's Corner ~

Big Bend President’s Report:
Spring/Summer 2019

After enduring a snow-laden February that complicated travel in Big Bend and throughout Snohomish County, it may seem odd to now be considering a summer drought in all of Western Washington. With a much warmer and drier spring this year, mountain snowpacks are as much as 50% lower than normal. These conditions have already resulted in many spring fires in Western Washington. Summertime flows in the Skykomish River are expected to be exceptionally low this year which will stress fish and other important aquatic habitat. As of last week, the Governor added 26 counties to the Statewide list of drought emergencies.

Be Careful/Be Responsible

We all love the beautiful area of Big Bend where we live. The predicted summer weather conditions make it essential that we all become good stewards of our land, homes and community by:

• Observing Big Bend’s fireworks ban and outdoor burning rules

• Using water wisely and practicing water conservation at all times

• Picking up litter, leaves, branches around our homes to reduce fire potential

• Using caution, especially with children, in swimming and playing in the river

Special Assessment for Snow Removal

In accordance with Big Bend’s Rules and Regulations (R&R’s), the Board approved a special assessment of $11/lot to recover the funds spent in February to plow Big Bend’s roads. Snow plowing is not budgeted in the Roads Operations Annual Budget. The special assessment will be on the September annual homeowner’s statements and will replace funds in the Roads budget spent on plowing.

Wellhead Protection Committee w/Cadman

Big Bend and Cadman continue their cooperation through the Wellhead Protection Committee which will meet next on June 12. Cadman’s annual water quality monitoring reports have shown no change in the quality/quantity of the groundwater used at their gravel operation. Big Bend also has probes in our wells to monitor similar water quality parameters.

Gravel operations are expected to increase significantly at the Gold Bar site in years ahead due to the closure of several older sites. Careful monitoring of the groundwater will be very important to ensure the integrity of Big Bend’s wells is retained. Cadman’s 2018 Monitoring Report is posted on our web site.

Water System

Work on Big Bend’s water system continues on many fronts. The probe used to collect water samples has been reprogrammed to improve collection of data. Big Bend is currently looking to hire a contractor to help install 3 water quality testing stations. The new stations will be used to collect water samples directly from the water mains rather than individual homes. Samples can be obtained at any time from the new sites.

The pump was recently replaced that runs the soda ash feeder to our water system. The older pump was 10 years old and not repairable. Soda ash is needed to reduce the pH of Big Bend’s water to reduce the potential for reaction to solder used on older water pipes and faucets.

Big Bend is also investigating options to have a contract with an on-call contractor who would be available for water system emergencies and repairs to our distributions lines. Work continues implementing the projects in the Water System 5-year Plan approved last year. And thanks to Board Member, Scott Hoskin, for stepping in this spring to manage our system when both Dick King and Kim Peterson were out of town.

Be a Good Neighbor

Neighbor Day is a special day set aside each year to reach out to neighbors, make new friends and express thanks to those who help make the neighborhood a great place to live. Neighbor Day this year was May 4. We can all be good neighbors throughout the year working together to make Big Bend as good as it can be in the future. If you haven’t yet done so, reach out and connect with your neighbors.

Annual Homeowners Meeting

The annual homeowners meeting is scheduled for Saturday, July 13. As usual, it will be held in the work shed at the entrance on Fir Road and start at 10:00am. Mark this date and time on your calendars and plan to attend. There will be two Board positions open for nominations.

Note: If you are unable to attend the meeting and plan to vote by proxy, your signed proxy authorization must be received by the Big Bend Administrative Secretary one week in advance of the meeting (July 6).

The Board always appreciates your ideas and comments.
Feel free to leave us a message on the Big Bend messaging center line at 360-793-7852 or send us an email at this address: bigbendtalk@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Your Board of Directors

Big Bend Landowners Association

~ Current Events ~

An Important Message from the Water Manager!

Posted on Jan 16th, 2019

RE: Sulfur Smells.

There have been some comments about the BBLA water smelling like Sulfur this past week.
If you are experiencing this please do the following and if this is still an issue contact BBLA right away so that we can work to address the problem you may be having.

Sulfur smell on a water system is typically from the hot water heater.
When someone is on a private well there are times that the well water can become impacted from nearby wetlands, but this is very unlikely.

#1. is the smell coming from the hot water or cold water?
If the faucet being used is a MIXING faucet (one handle) please test water coming only from a cold water tap only (sometimes the bathroom sink has two handles and thereby two lines). The goal is to be sure that no water from the hot water heater is getting into the mix As a last effort use an outside hose bib if all faucets are mixing faucets.
If the smell is not present when it is only cold water, but the smell is present with hot water, then this is a problem that arises due to the metal heating rods in the hot water heater. There are all kinds of "tricks" to remove the smell but the best is drain the tank and start with fresh water. Often people do this once a year (like changing batteries in the smoke alarm).
If you have questions or do not feel comfortable with this process it will be best to contact a plumber.

Draining the hot water tank:
In all cases turn off the breaker to the hot water heater before doing anything.
Turn off the water coming into the tank (if you do not have a separate shut off turn off the whole house), attach a hose to the drain at the bottom of the tank and make sure the hose gets outside or into a drain, this will be a lot of water. Open a hot water faucet somewhere in the house (bathroom) this will help the water flow more easily.
Open the drain valve, and let the tank drain out, once drained turn on the water valve and allow fresh water to flow all the way through the tank and out for a couple minutes. Shut down the drain valve, remove the hose and let the tank refill before turning on the breaker.

#2. If it is the cold water which actually stinks...
Turn on an outside hose bib which is furthest from the incoming water location (typically the back of the house) and let the water run from a hose for about 1/2 hour. This does not need to run full blast or anything but you want to run through the whole system. Then before the 1/2 hour is up run each tap (Hot and Cold) in the house a couple minutes while the outside tap is still running. This should flush the system

Please notify BBLA if you still have an issue.
It is typical that hot water heaters have this problem on occasion. If you search on line for draining the hot water tank you will see most plumbers suggest doing this as an annual maintenance.

– Kim Peterson WDM

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9/30/18
This message from our water manager is so huge it gets it own link and window!!
You can read it and/or download the PDF here!

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In the last 2 weeks we have had very unexpected shut downs of the well.

This was something we experienced in 2008 during the summer and have not had an issue with since that time.

Worst case would be the demand is exceeding the recovery of the well, best case we have some electrical issue that we can address and solve.

I have contacted the well pump company and we are looking at possible solutions.

Meanwhile, as a general conservation issue we want to remind everyone to use water wisely.

Don’t over water gardens and yards because you forget the hose is on. A timer is a great addition to your watering plan.

Don’t let water sprinklers water hard surface (roads, walkways, driveways etc…)

While washing your car in the driveway is convenient using a car wash uses far less drinking water (remember we have to treat every ounce of water that goes into the system) and it is better for the environment to wash your car in a controlled area.

And Pools! If you are going to have a backyard pool please consider filling it on a cold or wet day, fill it late in the evening or early in the morning.

If you see someone else filling a pool, wait till they are done.

We will be looking for the solution and get information out as soon as we have any more.

Thanks

Kim Peterson WDM

Barking Dogs!

Posted on Jun 1st, 2017

Excitement, Fear, or Boredom? Common dog barking issues.