IMPORTANT NOTICE about TRASH & RECYCLING

You may have noticed a packet of information under your door recently concerning the new trash and recycling program recently instituted by the City of Salem. Read it carefully.
The skinny is that the new program is mandatory, so we have no choice but to comply.
The city has established an 8-week "grace" period during the implementation of this program to allow people to adjust to the new requirements. After that 8 week period, fines will be levied for violations of the recycling rules . These fines can add up quickly. That is a bad thing because eventually those fines will come out of your pocket, so.... please help avoid additional and unnecessary costs by only recycling those materials allowed and by not putting items that are eligible for recycling in the dumpster. Take a look at the sheet. Familiarize yourself with the allowed and disallowed items. PAY ATTENTION to what you are throwing away.
We encourage you to visit www.salem.com for further information.

IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT PETS

There are still some tenants who are unclear on the rules about pets in the building. I recently encountered a woman from the building walking her dog by the dumpsters. When I told her that dogs are not allowed in the building, she replied "Yes they are, lot's of people in the building have dogs."
Besides being disingenuous, she was also completely wrong. As a trustee I would know who has approval for a dog, and she most definitely did not. In fact only one person in the entire building has permission to have a dog, and that is a small (service) dog in the building by special permission of the management company and the board.  This is the only exception and was the result of a long process of medical documentation, review and approval by the board.

Let me clearly restate the official policy here so there is no longer any confusion.

From the original Condo by-laws:
 (b) No animals shall be permitted in any unit without approval of the Managing Board.

 From the 2013 amended rules and regs:
No animals shall be permitted in any unit or on the common areas without written approval of the managing board

If you are contemplating getting a pet of any kind, you need to contact Markwood Management and submit an application for permission to have that pet. If you somehow overlooked or ignored the condo bylaws and already have a dog, contact Markwood Management immediately, because if you do not, and there is any complaint about that animal, (barking, poop, etc.) the unit owner will be fined until either the animal or you, are removed from the building.

In a building this small, where smells and sounds are a real quality-of-life issue, we cannot afford to have people assuming that rules about pets do not apply to them.

SMOKING: A Reminder

As we start closing up our windows for the cold weather, interior smells become more noticeable, especially that of cigarette smoke. This is a reminder that this is officially a Smoke Free building. There is NO SMOKING allowed anywhere in the building, that includes all individual units, and all common areas.

We know that people who live in the building, smoke, because we them smoking around the front door or in the side lot and we see their cigarette butts on the ground outside.
Many of those who smoke are at least considerate enough to go outside to do so, but as happens every year when the cold weather starts, people start fudging it: smoking in the back stairway, just outside the front and back doors, or in their units.
This is unfair to the majority who do not smoke. Besides smelling bad, causing eye, throat and nose irritations, and increasing the risk of fire, it also exposes everyone to carcinogens.

According to this article, smoking in the home can reduce the value of the property on resale by up to 29 per cent. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/04/16/smoking-house-prices_n_3093543.html
I'm sure your landlord and neighbors are going to love that.

So what to do? One might consider quitting smoking, however if the overwhelming certainty that smoking causes cancer has not been enough to deter you, that's probably not going to happen.
You could  try switching to an e-cigarette, or move to a building that allows smoking.
But be dead sure that smoking in the building will not be tolerated.
You might be able to get away with it for a while, but you can't hide the fact that you are smoking in a building this small. Interior doors are not that tight, and neither are the floors between units. It doesn't take a bloodhound to sniff out where the smoke is coming from. Sooner or later someone is going to complain to Markwood about the smell of smoke coming from your end of the hallway, or your unit, or if you will be seen smoking in the building. If that happens, you will be fined, $100 for each offense until you stop. Is that worth it? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

So once again... DO NOT SMOKE IN THE BUILDING.

IMPORTANT Recycling/Trash Changes

You may have noticed some new recycling bins in the side driveway.
A new and improved trash and recycling collection program will begin November 2, 2015.
Please read the following carefully. 

Remember — recycling is mandatory in Salem. 

New Recycling Collection Program
Beginning in November, recycling carts will be collected by an automated process in most neighborhoods. Special trucks with ‘arms’ will pick up your carts and deposit their contents into the truck.
NOTE: Recycling will be collected every other week in the blue 96-gallon cart instead of every week. The old bins will be going away DO NOT USE THE OLD BINS after November 2. Only supplied carts will be collected - trash barrels, blue recycling bins, or any other
receptacles will no longer be acceptable or collected.

Trash & Single Stream Recycling Collection
Salem is now offering ‘single stream’ recycling, which means that paper, plastic, glass bottles and cans may all be mixed together in your recycling cart. That is the good news. The bad news is that they will a lot pickier about what is in the bins. Pay careful attention to what items are allowed and what are not. There is a handy guide on the lid of each bin. If you are in doubt, put it in the dumpster. If you place disallowed items in the bins we run a strong risk of not having our recycling picked up, which besides being a pain in the neck, will be an additional expense for Markwood, and therefore for you.

So to RECAP
• Use the 96-gallon blue cart with the green lid.
• Recycling will be collected every-other-week.
• No sorting is needed.
• DO NOT put recyclables in plastic bags.
• Containers that held food should be rinsed and FREE of FOOD DEBRIS.
 For example: no pizza boxes with grease of cheese on them.
Acceptable materials for curbside recycling include:

A more detailed list of materials that can be recycled will be distributed later this week to all 24 Norman Street residents. You can also obtain more information by visiting  www.Salem.com.
Thank you for your cooperation.

HALLOWEEN PARKING NOTICE for 24 Norman Street

The side parking lot at 24 Norman Street will be chained and locked starting noon Friday 10/30/15 until Sunday 11/1/15. This means the side lot will be unavailable for parking for the pretty much the entire weekend. Be aware, and plan ahead. If your car is found parked there when Markwood closes the lot, your car will be towed, or will be locked in for the weekend. This is in anticipation of record crowds in Salem. In past years we have had issues with non-residents parking in the side lot during the Halloween festivities, and because of road closings and heavy traffic, were unable to have them towed.
If you have any questions about this or other issues, please contact Markwood Management at 781-639-4080.

Halloween Parking Reminder

This is a warning for for new tenants and a reminder for long term residents of 24 Norman Street.
If you are not already aware, October is a very difficult month for traffic and parking in Salem. This is true for much of Salem but for the downtown area especially.
Haunted Happenings, the month-long program of events and activities brings in a huge daily influx of tourists, especially on the weekends, meaning your usual parking spots (including Riley Plaza) are frequently filled with the cars of day-trippers, out-of-town gawkers, evening revelers and and other Halloween visitors. Parking enforcement is generally very stringent.
Markwood wants to remind everyone that parking restrictions for the side parking lot are in full effect. 

Parking restrictions for the side parking lot are somewhat more relaxed during the rest of the year.
Although it is a temporary drop/off, pick-up area and Markwood prefers that you park there a maximum of 20 minutes, they are aware that many people exceed this time limit, sometimes by several hours, (which you always do at your own risk).

There are however, several instances where the parking restriction is ruthlessly enforced. (1) When a vehicle is blocking access to the driveway. (2) When a vehicle is blocking access to the dumpster on a trash day (3) When a vehicle is interfering with snow removal (4) The entire month of October. 

Case in point: This last weekend this blue Hyundai was parked in middle of the side lot from Saturday evening until Monday morning , (when it was towed away). 

Markwood has no easy way of confirming if a car belongs to a resident of 24 Norman Street, a visitor, or friend of a tenant, or is just some random tourist. Markwood also has no way of contacting the owner of any particular vehicle. (We do not have the ability to look up and cross-reference registration and the police will not get involved with parking violations on private property)
Markwood has no choice but to call the tow company.
If your car is broken down and you are unable to move it, it is your responsibility to call Markwood and let them know the circumstances.

If your car has been towed, it will have been towed by Bill's Towing Service, located at  2 Commercial St, Salem (978).  It is an expensive and inconvenient experience to retrieve it,
so please avoid parking in the side lot for longer than 20 minutes. Also warn any visiting friends or relatives about this restriction. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.

Recycling Etiquette

There are a number of recycling bins available for the use of residents at 24 Norman Street, but after finding loose cardboard blowing around the side parking lot and a pile of boxes next to the bins, we thought it might be helpful to go over some basic rules of recycling and trash "etiquette".

1. Put the appropriate item into the appropriate bin.
People are generally in a hurry to dispose of their trash and recycling as quickly as possible, but taking a few seconds to read the labels on the recycling bins and/or check what is already in them before placing your items would be helpful. The recycling is sorted by item, both by where they put it in  the truck and where it is processed at the plant, so mixing different items in the bins just makes it a slower and more difficult process.

2. Make sure the materials to be recycled are relatively clean.
That means rinsing out bottles and cans and food containers so that there is no visible food residue in them. If you have something with food really stuck in it, say some cardboard food container such as a pizza box, if it is permeated with grease or has cheese stuck to it, please throw it in the trash, not the recycling bins. It's hard enough to keep the dumpster from smelling and being infested with flies, let alone the recycling bins.

3. Break down those cardboard boxes.
Too often people do not take the time to break down their cardboard items (such as large boxes) and leave them in a pile next to the bins.
This is a problem in several instances; when it is raining, when it is windy, when there is mixed packing material (such as styrofoam) in the box. These are all circumstances that either make an unsightly mess, make it almost difficult to recycle the material, or both.
Even if anitem is small enough to fit into the bin without breaking it down, you should break it down as much as possible, or you make it difficult for other tenants to use the bin, leading back to the unsightly piles of stuff outside the bins.

4. Leave the caps on those bottles
Rather than removing the caps from bottles, or throwing them into the bins by themselves, please put the caps back on. We have been told that when they sort the materials, the smaller items often fall into the machinery, and gum up the works.

If everyone could make an effort to follow these 4 guidelines, it would make for a much cleaner, more efficient and less ghetto-looking recycling area. Thank you!