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Maintenance, Improvements and
Repairs
Our present insurance carrier looked at the damage that La Jolla de Rosarito towers sustained
both last year and this year. As far as the insurance is concerned, damage is due to "faulty construction"
NO payment will be made to cover it. Needless to say, the BOD is currently reviewing other insurance options going forward.
For both Tower I and Tower II, the roof has been inspected and repaired to eliminate the leaks that plagued us
for many months. This turned out to be something of a long process interrupted by some really heavy rainstorms during
the early part of 2011. Roofs have now been repaired and we hope that the next heavy rain will serve to prove it.
On Thursday, April 21, we experienced some minor difficulty with the water level in our "pila" (water storage
tank) located under the floor of the lower garage. It turns out that the water department in Rosarito managed to turn
off the main valve to La Jolla de Rosarito. The normal usage of water depleted the pila after about a week and, in the
week immediately preceding Easter, we discovered that there "was no water". A temporary fix was to order several
truckloads of water for the pila and to complain bitterly to CESP (water company). Finally, on Friday, April 22, the
city workers showed up, found the valve they had shut off and fixed the problem.
The several truckloads
of water that we ordered filled the pila and there was no major inconvenience to our Owners and Guests -- Just another
development in the never-ending saga of "Life in Mexico". Time just runs a bit more slowly here than
in USA.
We are working to bring the hall and stairway lighting in both towers to an acceptable level.
The original lights that were installed in hallways were fluorescent with a non-repairable ballast in each fixture.
These ballasts turn out to be the weak link in the design and often burn out or otherwise fail within a couple of years.
Where lights fail, we are repairing the fixtures by removing the ruined ballast and installing an inexpensive screw-in light
socket. Into the socket, we screw modern CFL lamps with self-contained ballasts. This will allow us to simply
replace the hall and stair lights without the expense of a completely new light fixture.
The gardens and grounds
of La Jolla de Rosarito are under continuous attention of our capable Maintenance Staff led by Gabriel. A small example
of this attention and subsequent improvement is the Volleyball court in the South area of the fenced pool and party area where
Gabriel and his guys have worked hard to remove the large stones and concrete chunks and fill the void with fresh sand.
One of these days, we might actually see a volleyball game underway here.
Pablo Gonzales, our capable Administrator,
has added many beautiful flowers and bushes to our landscaping scheme and managed to find some outstanding buys from local
nurseries. When you visit next, we hope that you will be impressed by the new blossoms and facilities around the pool/clubhouse
area.
Our Security force, under the supervision of Alex, is now more effective than ever before with a new 7-camera
day/night TV surveillance and recording system. This will allow our Security Guard to monitor parking lots, lobbies,
pool, hot tub, rear gate and garage doors in the lower garage much more efficiently. When you visit, ask Alex (or whichever
Security person is on duty) to give you a demonstration.
Take a look at your hot water tank: If there
is no check valve (pictured) in the inlet line, we suggest that you consider getting one. This valve prevents your expensive,
electrically heated hot water from being wasted by siphoning back into the cold water line upon a power failure and subsequent
"hot water in the cold water line" issues.
The valve itself costs about $10 from Home Depot and
can be installed in a few minutes by a competent Handyman (I used Cruz: See the "HELP" page for contact information.
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