Ron Sawyer (seated on right) with some of his landscaping crew
Susan Knox Wilson
For those of you who do your own lawn and garden maintenance, you know how much work it is to keep your place picture perfect. You’d have to have the right tools and knowledge to help you make sure that your garden was perfect. Not to mention knowing some good On-site Shed Builders who could give you a space to store all of your equipment. It would be a very big task. Now consider that PebbleCreek has 135 acres of common areas and 450 acres of golf course turf/desert and driving ranges (that’s 585 acres of open and green spaces) and on that 585 acres are some 63,000 trees, shrubs and plants – all needing love and attention – and you get a picture of what a big, big job it is to keep PebbleCreek beautiful. And, everyone agrees, it is a beautiful community. It would not be a beautiful community without the organisation and cooperation that the team has, using landscaping software is a part of this as it is incredibly useful in managing the business, and turned it into the business it is today. If you have a landscaping business then you should try landscaping software as it is recommended to make the business flow and run smoothly…
Because the job of keeping PebbleCreek beautiful has grown so much, we added the new position of Landscape Superintendent at the end of 2015 and named Ron Sawyer to oversee all elements of landscaping. Reporting to Ron are our two outside vendors – AAA for the main HOA and Allscape for the Villas HOA. We also have two in-house crews that we call the “Hot Shot” crew and the “Desert” crew.
AAA has the most responsibility for landscaping at PebbleCreek and was awarded our contract through a bidding process in 2015. AAA has an Operations Manager that oversees our property, a foreman that runs the crew daily, irrigation technician on site and laborers. They also have a spray tech and lighting tech that come in when needed. The contract calls for AAA to get through all of our common areas on a six week rotation to include regular maintenance – trimming, weed control and general clean up (just as your landscaper would do in your yard). Turf is mowed on a weekly basis. They also have a person designated to help around the clubhouses and main trail.
Allscape handles the Villas and is under separate contract paid for by the Villas HOA; they come in weekly to take care of all of the common areas and will eventually be under the control of the Villas board.
The Hot Shot crew was created in 2014 to take over landscaping and cleaning of our clubhouse areas and sports courts and to help with work orders (green cards) to get them done in a timely manner to better service our homeowners. Currently we employ six Hot Shot crew members.
The Desert crew was created at the end of 2015 to ensure that the desert areas on the golf courses get better attention. The three Desert crew members start each day and are supplemented by golf staff after their first run of morning duties. The deserts on the golf course are now on a six week rotation in which they get trimmed, weeded and regular maintenance. The Desert crew also handles work orders specifically for the desert areas on the courses.
Ron says his biggest challenge is managing homeowner expectations – especially when there are storms which can cause a lot of damage to our 10,000 plus trees. But Ron says he and his crew are up for any challenge –- just keep those green cards coming his way. (Green card forms available at the Guest Services desks or online at www.pebblecreekhoa.org – in PC Info/forms).