"I'm hoping that someone in the Castle Pointe homes in the Forest Park community can tell me what these red bugs are that are invading my home. They look like specs of paprika and they're in more places than I can handle. Do I need an exterminator or does everyone in this area have them? Who do I contact for help?"

Update: OK, I believe I, maybe we all have Clover mites, which are a type of spider mite. they breed outdoors on turfgrass, clover & other plants. They very likely will invade homes from February thru May. The warmer and drier the weather in the winter the more apt they are to become active and move into homes. Colorado has been dry over I think the past 4 years and not alot of cold winter days. They pose no health risk, don't bite, but a big nuisance if not controlled. Crawling everywhere, walls, curtains, furniture, carpeting. The south and west sides are most effected, and 99% of my doors and windows are on those 2 sides. When smashed they leave a brown rusty stain and you might not get the stain out. Can there be a spray applied with a chemical barrier? I know that the gardening service sprays during the warm months - these mites are everywhere.

There is a Castle Pines North Garden and Flower Club, which is a non-profit organization who serve the community through education, conservation, horticulture, and landscape design.

The group meets monthly on the Third Thursday of each Month at 6:30. Call the President Sandra Tillman-Daniels @ 720-733-1561 for more information. Maybe they could do a monthly garden update as one of their community projects. (3-6-02)

Castle Pines North has over 40 neighborhoods or subdivisions, some of which have joined together into an HOA that serves multiple subdivisions.

Here's another stab at answering:

We all belong to the Master:
Residents throughout CPN belong to the Master Homeowners Association, the "community association" for our area.

For some of us that is it - we belong to no other:
Residents of the Claremont Estates and Huntington Ridge subdivisions do not have a neighborhood HOA, and should contact the Master Association for any questions related to homeowner association requirements.

Everyone else, it gets complicated:
All other CPN residents belong to the Master Homeowners Association and one or more neighborhood Homeowner Associations, which handle the traditional HOA roles such as enforcing covenants and approval of exterior home improvements, and maintaining the HOA's open space. They often offer some neighborhood social activities. Many of CPN's neighborhood HOA's also maintain neighborhood facilities such as a pool or clubhouse, and/or include services such as trash removal in their dues.

In some areas, the neighborhood HOA structure is simple - there is a single HOA which covers just that subdivision. Examples are Glen Oaks, Hidden Pointe, Tapestry Hills, The Hamlet, and The Retreat.

In other areas, multiple subdivisions are part of a larger HOA. Most often, this occurs when the HOA offers a pool or clubhouse. Examples are HOA#1, HOA#2, Forest Park HOA, and the Village Homes neighborhoods' CPN II HOA.

Patio homes, townhomes, and gated neighborhoods have a special HOA with dues that fund services specific to those properties, such as lawn mowing, snow removal, and exterior maintenance for the homeowners' individual home, and/or covering the costs associated with the gated communities. Some of these HOA's may also include extra services, such as cable TV fees, in their dues.

In most CPN areas, these "maintenance" HOA's are a Sub-Association of a larger neighborhood HOA which provides these residents with the same services that are available to the rest of the residents of these HOA's, such as pool/clubhouse, trash removal, etc. Examples of this HOA arrangement include the Canterbury Park and Broadwick areas, which have an HOA for their properties and also belong to HOA#2. The Castle Pointe HOA manages that property and is a sub-association of the Forest Park HOA. BristleCone Patio Homes HOA is a sub-association of the Village Homes CPNII HOA.

Daniels Gate residents have the Daniels Gate Association, formed when multiple neighborhood HOA's joined together to build a neighborhood pool and clubhouse, and they will also have several neighborhood HOA's.

Many residents ask: does it make sense to have so many homeowners associations? These HOA's were originally set up by the developers of the area, with the thought that any area that had different services to manage, and therefore required different levels of HOA dues, should have a separate HOA Board of Directors to be accountable for managing those services.

If this structure doesn't make sense to the residents, the HOA Boards could conceivably investigate consolidating administration of some associations, or even explore making changes to the legal structure, such as abolishing a sub-association and then having different "duesclasses" within a larger association. It would not be a simple effort to pursue this - there would be many legal issues to consider, and homeowner in the HOA would need to vote to approve any change.

(This article response is courtesy of CPN Connections editor, Kathleen Nash)

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