Listening to Montgomery Village Residents MVF Style

Listening to the Village Residents MVF Style

In the May 10th issue of the MV News Dave Humpton in his Executive Vice President’s Message, How do we make a great community better? Discusses the results of the 2013 Resident Survey. According to Dave “The results included many suggestions are being carefully reviewed by the Board, staff, HOA leaders and, yes residents. I am pleased to report that over 60 percent of those surveyed rate quality of life in the Village as a good or excellent place to live.”

That is true. What Dave failed to mention that this was one of three opening opinion questions of the survey. The second was “How do you rate the Village as “a place to raise children” 49.3 % unfavorable rating and 69.3 % unfavorable rating as “a place to retire”.

The questionnaire was very comprehensive and sent to 1,027 residential property owners of which 170 or 16.5 percent returned their completed questionnaire. The survey contained 109 multiple choice questions divided into eight groupings, Characteristics, Problems, Recreation, Communications, Landscaping and Public Works, Community Management, Architectural Standards, Finance & Administration, Opinion, Safety and Activities Participation.  The choice options were Excellent, Good, Fair and Poor. The Excellent and Good were tabulated as Favorable responses and Fair and Poor as Unfavorable.

Characteristics The notable Favorable responses were “Acceptance of Diversity” 71.8%, “Overall Appearance” 61.3 %, “Recreation Opportunity” 65.0 %, and “Ease of Walking” 70.0%. The significant Unfavorable responses were “Sense of Community” 57.0%, Shopping Opportunity 60.0%, Quality of Schools 66.7%, and Overall Reputation by Others 61.2 %”.

Problems Leading the list of problems with Unfavorable response rates were crime 74.8%; unsupervised youth 66.7% and Poorly maintained properties 50.9%.

Recreation, Communications, and Landscaping & Public Works showed down the board range of three to one Favorable over Unfavorable rating percentages, while Community Management, Architectural Standards, and Finance & Administration showed a below acceptable standards of Unfavorable rating ranging from 39.8 % to 59.8 %.

Safety 37.2 % of respondents did not feel safe in their neighborhood after dark and 65.7 % did not feel safe after dark in shopping areas.

Activity Participation of note only 5.6% of the response have ever attended a Lawn theater concert, and only 3.0% a Community Band Concert and only 4.3 % of the respondents have ever “interacted with MVF social media”. For a homeowner to interacting with MVF is an oxymoron.

These MVF Stats* are particularly significant due to the fact that the MVF Board of Directors has authorized several hundred thousand dollars to construct a restroom and concession facility so hundreds of children playing baseball on the ball fields, and seniors enjoying the band concern at the Lawn Theater can snack, poop and pee at South Valley Park.

*In the MVP 2012 EVP’s Annual Message Dave Humpton referenced MVF Stats as “Another way of measuring progress is via performance measurements, what I call “MVP ‘stats.’ It is helpful to compare results from year to year and recognize trends, where possible, and also identify improvement areas where the Board and staff can focus their attention; other notable accomplishments are listed as well.”  

The Board Retreats for a Feel Good Working Week End

In Bob Hydorn’s President’s Message Annual Board Retreat in the May 10th Village News (May 4-5 week-end) he reminisces  “Over a working breakfast and lunch, the Board spent two hours reviewing the results of the recent residents survey. We read and discussed the comments and suggestions and took them to heart.  We are listening to your concerns and thank you for your compliments. Your feedback is important to us. It is how we can make a great place to live better.”

Bob, It took the 170 Montgomery Village citizens who completed the survey questionnaire and especially the 76 who provided comments and suggestions a lot longer than two hours to complete and there were no compliments. Although many felt Montgomery Village at one time was a great place to live not many of them do now. Unless you only read Mike Conroy’s cover page 2013 Survey Stats you might have missed that message.

To refresh your memory following are a sampling of the 76 individual comments from pages 16 to 26 of the MVF Board Retreat 2013 download www.montgomeryvillage.com/meetings/ MVF Board Retreat.

3. When I moved into the Village over thirty years ago, the Village was a prime location. At present, I do not believe the Village is a desirable location. I read weekly about all the crime and mugging occurring in the Village, I am afraid to walk out at night, but these incidents occur even during the day time hours. In the last election, no one running on the Village Board addressed these problems.

6. Overall, I enjoy living in Montgomery Village. It is a relatively safe community that is convenient and close to many shopping areas. However, I think that MV desperately needs higher quality shopping for its residents. The Village shopping center is in desperate need of an update.

8. Certain properties receive the lion share of attention and maintain. I called in 2006 for a repair; it was partially completed in 2012. Board members act as a “click” and are not responding to owners. I moved thankfully! This survey should have been done yearly.

13. Very concerned about the increase in crime.

14. If I had known all of the problems in Montgomery Village I probably would not have bought a house here.

Montgomery Village is declining in reputation, safety, life style etc. It is too much waste going on at the foundation too many people for the amount of work, exaggerated heating and cooling, way too much bureaucracy. For the money paid the owners are not getting enough. The bureaucracy and impact in people’s business and life coming from the association is overwhelming and it makes you ask if you as an owner have any rights at all. You pay money and have to live supervised by the association.

23. We live in the Stedwick homes community. When we moved to MV 34 years ago, it was a bastion of middle class American. Now, at least in the area where I live, it seems to have become a Mecca for 208 Section Housing and welfare. As a result my wife refuses to go near the small mall at any time after dark.

30. Please stop allowing so many people to rent their home to HOC. I plan to sell and move because the huge number of HOC youth and negligent parents that make the community an unsafe place to raise my daughter.

37. MVF is the worst management company I have seen. Nothing is ever maintained or cleaned and does nothing for the value of my home. Montgomery Village should be renamed “Trashiest Place on Earth.” It is a terrible place to live and I tell everyone all the time. What a lousy environment, a murder down the street, etc. Terrible management that waste my money, embezzlement; you name it- Montgomery Village has it – All bad!

40. I should have purchased a home in Kentland; Montgomery Village has been very disappointing.

45. Quality of life has decreased-too many section 8 housing and run down townhomes.

49. Montgomery Village needs to respond in a timely manner to customer inquire and not single out one resident, when another resident is doing the same thing. MVF needs to stay on top of poorly maintained properties.

51. The Village and its Board is stuck in the past. Hello it is 2013, not 1973. 20886 median home prices are consistently either low than or second lowest in Montgomery County. Why? The image of MV as unyielding, full of stifling rules and living in a 40 year old vision of a precious little utopia that no long exist. My home would be worth more if were located anywhere else in the county. Please look inward! We can’t even a much-needed supermarket to open here? Why is the Board opposed to any improvement, widening and changes to our local roads, especially dangerous Goshen and the bottleneck at MVS/355 that won’t improve unless Mid-County extends. Again, it’s not 1973 anymore.

57. I’ve written several letters regarding how greatly Montgomery Village has declined in the past 28 years. Nothing has been done nor do I have expectation anymore.

61. I am tired on Montgomery Village trying to claim what it is not. It is not a “town”. It is at best an expensive and crowded place to live.

62. The application fee for exterior modification hinders residents from improving their properties. The denial of our request to improve our entrance ignited a strong desire to leave MV as soon as we are able. Our home has dropped 30% in value since when we bought it, despite many improvements. Clearly the architectural standards are not helping to maintain property value. The Board’s leadership feels very heavy-handed.