Toxic to horses, cattle, and goats. Can poison humans through milk and honey. The toxins accumulate in the body, causing irreversible liver damage and poor health or death, as more is eaten over time. Highest risk is dried, in hay, because the animal will not avoid it then.

Dig up the whole plant including roots; budding and flowering stems are easier to remove than rosettes. Flowers will go to seed after pulling, so bag and discard flower stalks. Do not put flowering or seeding stems in yard waste. All parts of the plant are poisonous, but flowers have the highest concentration of toxins. It is advisable to wear gloves and protective clothing and wash your hands after controlling tansy ragwort.

Due to its toxicity and invasiveness, tansy ragwort is a listed Class B noxious weed in Washington - landowners are required by law to control and prevent the spread of this noxious weed.

Since last Fall, the SBOA Board’s Architecture Committee has had a lot of activity from people interested in our water share situation.  At that time, it was the understanding of the Board, our water company, and the County that SBOA was out of water shares.  The Board decided to form a committee to do a thorough check of our water hookups.  Our records, the bookkeeping firm records, the water company records, and the County records were compared.

We have now determined that there are four water shares available.

Our attorney recommends that we hold a lottery for these last four shares. Because these shares will probably be the only ones available in the community for quite some time, the owners entering the lottery must be very serious about building and be prepared to follow the SBOA Architectural Committee’s timeline and procedures for building a residence on the property, should they be allocated a water share through this lottery. 

There will be more information at the SBOA Annual Meeting (10 am to noon on June 23rd, at Baby Island Club on Saratoga Road), and on the SBOA web site, regarding the lottery  procedure and timeline, as well as the requirements for building plans.

All SBOA member owners in good standing may apply. The lottery will close on September 1st, as determined by postmark on the submissions. Diane Ashman will be the contact for requesting an application from SBOA by email (sarbeach@whidbey.com), snail mail (PO Box 208, Langley, WA 98260), or phone (360-730-1343). 

All applications must be returned by US mail, with an earnest money payment enclosed. The earnest money for the lottery is $2,000 and will be held in escrow and applied to the water share fee for those selected.  Entrants who do not win the lottery may have their earnest money refunded.

Applications will have a slip on the bottom, stating that the application was received and upon which a random number will be assigned when received by SBOA. A copy of this will be returned to each applicant. The numbers will be drawn by an official at Chase Bank, in Freeland, with all entrants assigned a rank order matching the order in which they are drawn.  The date of the drawing will be at 9:15 am on September 15th, 2018.  All entrants are welcome to attend.  Winners have 60 days from the award of the water share to submit a completed “Saratoga Beach Owners Association Water Hookup Application and Checklist,” which includes payment of the full water hookup fee. Additionally, please note that all SBOA water fees commence upon assignment of a water share. If any entrant withdraws, the next entrant in the rank order is selected.  Once all lottery winners have accepted, the remaining entrants may remain, in rank order, on a waiting list for $500, and have the additional $1,500 refunded or they may have their entry fee refunded in full and not join the waiting list.

We hope this information is helpful and that it will answer your questions and concerns.

Disaster Preparedness is all about “What If?”  What if there was a major earthquake? - our biggest risk for a community wide disaster.  What would you need immediately? If you were hurt or had to leave your home very quickly?  

The Island County emergency management website has advice and suggestions for each of us to be prepared.  Take a look at www.islandcountywa.gov/DEM

Our SBOA Disaster Team suggests getting started with a kit to grab and go.  Again the County Website has suggestions to build your own kit as well as what supplies to keep on hand if you could not get to a store (roads out) and the water lines were broken.  Many kits are available online as well as at COSTCO.

A big need identified is communication. Our team is working to identify community sections where a neighborhood resident could help to be a source of information and keep you in touch if a disaster should occur.  If you might be able to help with communications for your neighbors, please see the SBOA website for a job description our committee has developed and let us know if you want to help.  

If you have any questions, please contact a committee member or Sue Gibson at 3609695975 or stop by 3484 E. Harbor Rd.

Dear SBOA member/owner:

We hope that this letter finds you and your family well.

Your Board of Trustees has been working on a number of projects this year.  One of these is double-checking that all of our records are correct.   To that end, we are reviewing our databases regarding property ownership, water shares allocated, vacant lots owned, whether the local addresses match the county records, and things of this nature.  Another project is the establishment of a good neighborhood emergency contact process.

As part of our review, we are asking you two things. 

First, we would like you to contact us (by snail mail, address above, or at this email address:  sarbeach@whidbey.com)  if you think you have a water share for a vacant property that you own within the SBOA boundaries.  All shareholders, on vacant or improved properties, pay a quarterly water fee and also a quarterly amount for the water system upgrade loan.  If you have been making this payment, we are already aware of your water share and there is no need to contact us about it.  If you thought you had a water share on a property but have not been paying these fees, please contact us by March 20, 2018.  Please note that you should be prepared to show documentation and that all outstanding fees would be owed on any viable water share.  If we do not hear from you by March 20, 2018, we will assume that our records, and invoices, are correct.  Thanks, in advance, for your help with this review process.

Second, the Health & Safety Committee has been putting in some hours to develop a system for quickly and effectively notifying all people living in our community about any emergency that arises. One stumbling block regarding this is that some homes are rented and we do not have contact information for the renters.  While the committee will be figuring out how to connect with actual occupants of residences at a later date, currently we just need to know if your property is a rental.  Please help with this by sending an email (or snail mail) to: sarbeach@whidbey.com that states that you have a rental property in the SBOA community and what the address of that property is.

Wishing you all the best for the holiday season,

Saratoga Beach Owners Association, Board of Trustees