Most of the turf in the Village is Kikuyu grass which is native to the highland regions of East Africa, home to the Kikuyu people. It is a warm-season grass that spreads quickly and thrives in areas with moderate temperatures. It is seldom intentionally established as a residential turfgrass and due to its very invasive nature, Kikuyu grass is often referred to as a “super weed.”

Kikuyu grass is a warm-weather grass and goes dormant in cooler weather, often appearing dead in its dormant state. Once the seasons change and the weather starts to warm up, it emerges from its dormancy and gains an extremely vigorous growth habit. Kikuyu grass spreads quickly by its extensive underground root structure, referred to as rhizomes, and vigorous horizontal surface stems, known as stolons. Under ideal growing conditions, it can grow up to 1 inch a day in warmer weather.

Due to the seasonal nature of the Kikuyu grass and all the rains we received, the broadleaf weeds have overtaken much of the turf areas in the Village. Since broadleaf treatments are ineffective in wet weather, staff has not been able to get out and maintain the turf. Now that the weather has cleared, staff will attack the weeds in the shrub beds and turf areas with vigor.

Staff traditionally treated weeds in shrub beds Monday through Wednesday so the flags would not be out over the weekends. For the foreseeable future, staff will treat weeds five days a week and leave the flags out over the weekends. We apologize for any inconvenience but this is the only way to get the weeds under control.

Additionally, following mowing, pest control staff will treat broadleaf weeds in the turf on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Maintenance crews will then follow and prepare and reseed large areas as they come through the Village on their regular rounds. Irrigation times will be increased to assist the germination of the seed and white flags will be placed around reseeded areas to alert mowers of areas to avoid. Once the seed has sufficiently germinated, the irrigation will be reduced and white flags removed.

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Village Management Services Inc. (VMS), the self-owned professional management company for Laguna Woods Village, seeks part-time employees to fill various positions throughout the community, including gate ambassadors, fitness assistants, recreation leaders and more. 

To view open positions, visit lagunawoodsvillage.com and click Careers at the bottom of the home page. From there, under Search Our Current Job Openings, click Residents. Click on the job(s) of interest for details and to apply. Be sure to check back periodically for updates.

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The regularly scheduled cleaning of the Garden Villa garages will begin on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. All vehicles must be removed from the garage area. 

The schedule below identifies the under-building garages to be cleaned with their respective dates and times. Work scheduled in the morning will occur from 7 a.rn. to 11:30 a.m. and in the afternoon from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Residents may call 949-597-4609 with any questions about this program.

The Transportation Division is pleased to announce that it has acquired two new ADA low-floor buses. 

The Ram Promaster 3500 buses sit 48 inches shorter, are 15 inches narrower and cost an estimated $35,000 less than the 18- to 22-passenger buses that are used on some routes. In addition, the Promaster gets 19 miles per gallon (MPG) in the city, compared to 10 MPG (city) for the current 18- to 22-passenger buses. Staff estimates that this increased fuel efficiency will generate $6,000 to $7,000 in annual fuel savings, or $42,000 to $49,000 for the seven-year life of each vehicle.

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The Third Laguna Hills Mutual Board of Directors invites Third members and residents to its next town hall on Wednesday, April 26, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in the Sequoia Ballroom at Clubhouse 2. Town hall events are open meetings designed for members and residents to share comments, suggestions, questions and concerns with Third board members. 

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California Mosquito Awareness Week is April 14-20, and National Mosquito Awareness Week is June 24-30. In the fight against mosquito breeding, bites and more, the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District (OCMVCD) strives to educate and protect OC residents against vectors and prevent vector-borne diseases in an environmentally responsible manner.

For information and resources regarding mosquito control, the invasive Aedes mosquito, how you can become a neighborhood advocate, West Nile virus updates and more, visit ocvector.org.

Follow these tips to prevent mosquito bites:

• Apply mosquito repellent to exposed skin before going outdoors; reapply as recommended
• Wear repellent clothing containing DEET, Picaridin, IR3535 or lemon eucalyptus oil
• Wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants, and opt for lighter-colored clothing
• Dump and drain outdoor containers filled with water at least weekly
• Close all unscreened doors and windows to prevent mosquitoes from entering your home or space; repair broken or damaged screens

Around the home, eliminating breeding sources for mosquitoes is critical:

• Dump water from potted plant saucers as often as possible
• Dump and drain other containers filled with water as often as possible
• Clean and scrub bird baths and pet water bowls weekly 

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Resident Services will be closing for one hour the third Wednesday of every month for training. The first training session is scheduled for Wednesday, April 19, from 8 to 9 a.m.

Some of the training initiatives the department will undertake include telephone etiquette, technical skills, shadowing, goal setting and managing escalations.

Normal operations will resume immediately after the training event. The Resident Services team thanks residents for their patience and understanding as the department works toward enhancing all aspects of the customer service experience.

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Within the boundaries of Laguna Woods Village, there are 651 irrigated acres of landscaping, excluding golf courses. Irrigation is controlled by a computerized central control system that is the responsibility of GRF. All downstream piping, valves, sprinklers, etc., belong to the individual housing mutuals. The irrigation system consists of 407 remote irrigation controllers and more than 500,000 sprinkler heads.

As you may have heard, GRF is installing a new irrigation master control system. The old system was outdated and relied on an obsolete computer with only local data storage. It did not have any functional remote access; a technician had to be at the monitor in the office to see or resolve issues. As the irrigation system runs mostly at night and on weekends, this had been an extreme limiting factor in the response time to main line breaks and other irrigation issues. 

Additionally, system communication was a weak link; the old hardwire system had been unreliable and in need of frequent repair. The radio portion of the system required line of sight, and any plant material that grew in front of the receivers disrupted connections and required manual troubleshooting.

The new cloud-based system, Hydropoint WeatherTRAK System, uses reliable cellular communication, as do all modern control systems. This system can be completely controlled by tablets and enabled smartphones. Technicians can adjust irrigation cycles on the spot, making system fine tuning much more efficient and instantaneous. Another helpful feature is that technicians can get alerts on their phones during off hours, greatly reducing the time to fix serious issues, saving money and water lost. 

The entire new control system is eligible for rebates from Metropolitan Water District (MWD), equal to $35 per station, with well over 10,000 stations in the system. Staff has been working with MWD and EL Toro Water District to obtain these rebates.

MWD has shown particular interest in the new system installation, as it is the largest system upgrade that they have experienced in their entire area, which encompasses most of Southern California. When the project is complete, GRF will receive more than $350,000 in rebates.

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