• Dear Huntington Hills Neighbors,We wanted to inform you of a meeting this morning with representatives from Violet Township to discuss the installation of a gate and speed bumps at the entrance to the park on Springbrook Drive.The meeting was not initiated by either the HHCA or the HHRC (Huntington Hills Recreation Club), which owns and operates the pool facility adjacent to the park. Because of this, we did not have an agenda or formal invite to share with the community at large. We participated as guests.A representative from the HHCA attended the meeting. Also in attendance were 2 board members from the Huntington Hills Recreation Club (HHRC), as well as a resident who called the meeting with the Township requesting a gate and speed bumps be installed at the park.The township representatives indicated they did not have the authority to install either a gate or speed bump on the property, as it is a joint ownership between the HHCA, HHRC, and the Township.While we understand the concerns about speeding and after-hours activity, the installation of a gate has greater impacts to the community that need to be taken into consideration. First and foremost, there is a large financial commitment to buying back a portion of the park which would lead to several increased costs for many years to come, including the yearly taxes on the property and insurance. In addition, we need to look at other long-term financial impacts including maintenance of the park, lighting, staff, and security. We want to make sure we exhaust all possible solutions to address the concerns at the park before we look to such options with longer term impacts, many of which are financial impacts on Huntington Hills and the owners of the adjacent property, HHRC.Regarding speed bumps – speeding in the neighborhood is a community-wide issue and not isolated to the park or Springbrook Drive. The Trustees have been working diligently over the past few years to address this issue with the Township and the Sheriff’s Department. We have been following their recommendations on this, such as installing additional speed limit signs and painting the pavement with the speed limit. We know these have not “solved” the issue by any stretch of the imagination, but they are processes that we are following.The neighborhood is filled with children that play close to the road and we need to be proactive as a community to try and reduce speeders on all streets in the neighborhood, not just the entrance to the park. It would be ideal if we could stop speeding at the entry points to the neighborhood like Huntington Way, as it sometimes acts as a speedway between Refugee and Stemen.

    At the end of the day, under our current fee structure, the HHCA does not have the funding to pay for all these changes and keep all of our current amenities like our holiday events, spring and holiday contests, garage sales, beautification efforts, and the replacement of playground equipment. That does not mean we are opposed. It just means, like any organization, we need to look at the budget, gain whole community input, develop a plan, and execute. Being thorough is not ignoring or being against an issue. We cannot just say a gate is going up…there is a process to follow and there are entities with property ownership other than the HHCA.

    On a separate note, there has been chatter on social media that has been untrue, misrepresenting, mischaracterizing, and most of all disheartening regarding exchanges between residents and members of the HHCA.

    1.) First, please remember that we are volunteers, and we are all neighbors living in the same community.

    2.) The HHCA Board Members do their best to address concerns for the entire neighborhood in a fair and impartial way. There are many duties the board is tasked with including events, improvements, communications, fiscal management, enforcement of deed restrictions, safety, etc.

    3.) The Trustees (again all of whom are volunteers) have been harassed on social media and have heard and been on the receiving end of threatening behavior from fellow residents. This has NEVER happened before and we should all be concerned. This is not the Huntington Hills we know and love.

    4.) As a Board, we do our best to stay off of unofficial social media channels and to keep our communication contained to official means such as meetings, the Holler, the HHCA Facebook page, and the HHCA website. But, unfortunately, more people participate in unofficial social media channels than in the community channels and meetings. When this happens, the HHCA loses its voice and residents are not given the opportunity to look at situations from more than one side.

    5.) There has been talk that the Board has not made fiscally responsible decisions. That is just blatantly untrue. We have secured funding for recent initiatives through 100% donation including the website, redesign of the Holler, IT maintenance contract, and donations for our upcoming community Easter event. To say the board spends funds unscrupulously is an insult to all their hard work.

    Moving forward, as a board we hope we will get more community participation in our official forums.With that, we are working on a date for a community-wide meeting to address several topics that will include sheds and updates to the park. We ask that you put your trust in us as your neighbors, friends, and individuals voted by residents to oversee the many tasks of the HHCA.

    We hope for a more positive path moving forward.