Update – Thanks for a great sale everyone!

Annual HV Garage Sale — Saturday, May 1th

It’s that time of year once again! The Hidden Valley Garage Sale will take place from Thursday, April 29th – May 1st. This timeframe aligns with the all-city Cottage Grove garage sale.

The advertised hours will 8 am – 4 pm, but as most of you know – there will be early shoppers. This is a great opportunity to clean out the closets, basement, and garage. Residents run their own sales, but no need to advertise individually. We get great traffic through the neighborhood because of the history of the quantity and quality of the sales. Happy selling!

See the garage sale link for more details on items for sale and to add your own!

When: Jan 19, 2021 06:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Topic: Hidden Valley Home Owners Annual Meeting

Please click this link to join the webinar.
Passcode: 407613

Or iPhone one-tap :    US: +16465588656,,99651992797#  

Or Telephone:   
Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): 
+1 646 558 8656  
Webinar ID: 996 5199 2797

Due to the Corona Virus lock downs we are postponing this until a later date TBD.

We are starting to plan for a Hidden Valley Homeowner Easter egg hunt for 2020. This will be held in the Hidden Valley Park on March 28th at 10am. It is open to Hidden Valley residents, children, grand children, nephews, and nieces aged 0-14.

We plan on having 3 groups of children hunt in different parts of the park for eggs hidden by our volunteers. We will have candy and age appropriate toys inside of the eggs.

Punch/Cider will be provided and possibly cookies as well after the event. Please vote in our poll with the number of “egg hunters” you plan on bringing to the event. You should get an email shortly with the password for this poll. Go here to vote once you have the password.

Please contact us if you do not see the email by February 17, 2020 and would like to vote.

Meeting Minutes have been added

HIDDEN VALLEY ANNUAL HOMEOWNERS MEETING

Tuesday, January 21^st  2020 – 6:30pm

Park Grove Library (7900 Hemingway Ave S )

Agenda

• “State of the Hood” open discussion
• Election
• Landscaping, Lawncare, Islands
• Mailboxes and 72nd St Monument
• ACC Report
• Violations
• Financial Report – Budget review/preview
• Events – we need organizers

Please plan on attending.

It’s your neighborhood!

https://www.hvha.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Letter-to-Hidden-Valley.pdf

Dear Hidden Valley Resident,

Yesterday was a difficult day for our entire community and we realize it was extremely difficult for you as well. I want to acknowledge and thank you for your patience as investigators worked to piece together a number of incidents that occurred in your neighborhood. I’d also like to apologize to those of you who could not gain access to your homes as detectives investigated throughout the afternoon and evening hours. By nature, these investigations must be both comprehensive and thorough. We, as a department, realize how the investigation impacted and inconvenienced you and your families following a traumatic morning. Thank you again for your patience and understanding, the CGPD truly appreciates it. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at 651-458-2850 if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Chief Pete Koerner Cottage Grove Public Safety Director

The latest meeting minutes have been posted to the meeting minutes page.

High level details:

• Mail box replacement quotes received
• Landscaping contractor talks
• Violations

Annual HV Garage Sale — Saturday, May 4th

It was a another great year of selling! Thank you everyone that had a sale this year!

It’s that time of year once again! The Hidden Valley Garage Sale will take place on Saturday, May 4th. The advertised hours will 8 am – 4 pm, but as most of you know – there will be early shoppers. This is a great opportunity to clean out the closets, basement, and garage. Residents run their own sales, but no need to advertise individually. We get great traffic through the neighborhood because of the history of the quantity and quality of the sales. Happy selling!

See the garage sale link for more details on items for sale and to add your own!

HIDDEN VALLEY HOME OWNERS ASSOCIATION September 24, 2018 

MEETING MINUTES

Call to Order:

• Meeting called to order at 7:00 pm by President Brian Bluhm  
• Attendance:
  • Board members; Brian Bluhm, Dave Thiede, Rick Fryar, Chris Corporaal and Administrator – Carissa Erie.

Dues (Dave Thiede)

• The meeting started with Dave informing the board about how many overdue association dues there currently are.
  • There are 25 overdue association dues currently.
• The association plans to send out emails to the houses who are overdue first, then will follow up with letters in the mail if they fail to send in their dues.

72nd Street Monument (Brian Bluhm)

• Brian gave the attendees an update on the 72nd St. Monument.  
• Dave informed the board of a design from SDDI for a monument with a cost of $6407.45.
• Brian suggested contacting the company Timberline for a design and quote.
• The board then discussed options and preferences on how the monument should look; possibly one with a faux boulder to look similar to the one on 73rd street.
• The board members concluded that the new monument should be constructed in a way that it blends in with the other monuments, so that the neighborhood has a cohesive design.
• Brian informed the board that they still need to obtain a vector and has a contact to reach out to.

Mailboxes (Brian Bluhm)

• Brian discussed the process of getting the mailboxes done with the board members.
• The mailboxes need their slabs replaced.
• The board is considering getting mailboxes that look similar to the new ones in the Villas of Hidden Valley neighborhood.
• Brian informed the board about the resident responses from the mailbox survey:
  • Most liked the mailboxes with stone at the base.
    • A problem with that is that there seems to be a lot of wear on the stone in a very short amount of time based on the condition of similar mailboxes after only one year (getting ruined by snow plows).
  • Brian would like to contact the companyTimberline for a quote.
  • Brian tasked Carissa with contacting the Postmaster to find out the timeline and process for them to install temporary mailboxes and distribution of keys.
  • There are 20 locations that need to be replaced; the board would like to have 6 locations done a year.

Landscaping (Brian Bluhm

• Brian told the board members the cost of two islands:
  • Island 9 cost $6600
  • Island 10 cost $5800
• Brian informed the board that there are 10 islands that still need to be redone.
• The finished ones are islands 3, 4, 5, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 18.
• Brian told the board that they still need to get a quote for island 12.
• 2-3 islands will be done each year.
• Brian updated the board on the status of the removal of an unauthorized bonfire pit in the island on Hidden Valley Ridge South.
  • He received a quote on the cost to fixing that from Elegant Landscaping; which will then be sent to the residents of Hidden Valley Ridge South if they do not remove the fireplace themselves.

HVHA Homeowner Violations (Brian Bluhm and Carissa Erie)

• There have been 10 violation notices sent since the last board meeting (Carissa Erie).
• All of the violation notices have been resolved.
• Brian informed the board that there is a RV on the street at Hidden Valley Lane South and that it will be dealt with by the city since it is on the street.
• There is a home for sale that has a shed on its property, the board discussed if this is a HVHA issue or a city issue due to where it is.
  • Brian said he will check to see if it is on private property or city land.
• Brian informed the board that there may need to be an additional meeting to discuss a requested fence on Hidden Valley Lane South.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:45pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Carissa Erie

Administrator

What a great selling weekend we had this year! I hope everyone got their garages cleaned and a bit of green in their wallets!

===
Annual HV Garage Sale — Saturday, May 5th

It’s that time of year once again! The Hidden Valley Garage Sale will take place on Saturday, May 5th. The advertised hours will 8 am – 4 pm, but as most of you know – there will be early shoppers. This is a great opportunity to clean out the closets, basement, and garage. Residents run their own sales, but no need to advertise individually. We get great traffic through the neighborhood because of the history of the quantity and quality of the sales. Happy selling!

See the garage sale link for more details on items for sale and to add your own!

The City of Cottage Grove intends to burn prairie sites at Oakwood, Hardwood and Hamlet Parks this spring. Once established, prairies are relatively carefree. Prairies are primarily managed through periodic prescribed burns to remove undesirable woody and weed species, provide rich nutrients to the soil, enhance native habitat and boost the ecological environment for plants, animals and birds.

The prescribed burn will be performed by the company of Minnesota Native Landscapes and/or Stantec. They are both professional native landscape management companies and have performed many burns throughout the Midwest for many years. All applicable licensing and permits are applied for by the contractor and authorized by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

The city understands that fires of any type can be scary for homeowners. However, prescribed burns are a common method of management throughout municipals county, state and federal park systems. The safety precautions taken are time tested and minimize any risk to the adjacent neighborhoods. Such things as choosing ideal weather conditions, establishing burn breaks, keeping thousands of gallons of water at the site and having professionals of the industry perform the work make this method of management the most efficient and effective for the city.

The type of fire used is quite often not what people may envision. The fire is kept very low to the ground and rarely rises above 18 inches in height. The fire crew works in stages and does not move more than 10 feet ahead without assuring the fire is completely extinguished behind them. The crew works very fast and most sites in Cottage Grove will be completed in two to six hours. If you wish to further educate yourself on the type of work being performed you can find some good generalized information on prescribed burns on the MN DNR website at the following address:
http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/assistance/backyard/privatelandsprogram/benefits_prescribed_burning.pdf

The end result is a durable and complex grassland that displays beautiful color throughout the seasons, adds character to the landscape, protects against soil erosion, improves water quality and enhances ecological habitat.

If you have any questions or concerns with this work, please contact Zac Dockter (Contact information on the attached PDF)