Date: May 4, 2021 at 12:19 PM
Hola Friends and Neighbors,
The season is coming to a close and I thought now was a good time to reflect and explain why there is an APCAT and what we do. There are many new faces (or at least names) in town these days and it’s important to know what your dues have accomplished over the years and what the board does/has done.
One of the main reasons for starting APCAT relates to community projects. When a villager wanted to collect money to fill a big pothole or help with something at one of the schools, etc., that person would go around to all the houses asking for money. No one ever knew who contributed, how much was collected or how much was spent on the project. This was prior to APCAT.
With the formation of APCAT, members paid yearly dues. From these dues, APCAT is able to contribute to worthy causes on behalf of all our members, hence relieving each homeowner member of multiple requests without accountability. There are rules as to the types of projects APCAT can contribute to. We require written estimates, we ask how much has already been raised, then we decide what percentage to contribute, it’s easier for everyone.
For many many years, one of APCAT’s biggest jobs was to keep our dirt roads passable during and after rainy seasons.
Historically speaking, APCAT members helped bring in:
- telephone service,
- twice weekly garbage pick up,
- our original dial up internet,
- our move to Wi Fi and
- when Troncones outgrew the system, it was the APCAT Board that petitioned all levels of TelMex to get our system updated and new hook- ups added. (There was a day when people building new homes could not get internet or telephone service. There wasn’t the capacity to add more lines.)
APCAT paid, or helped pay, for:
- the road to the medical clinic
- the road to the fairgrounds
- to put the telephone poles/lines up to the medical clinic
- pays the clinic’s landline telephone bill
- built the bathrooms at the fairgrounds.
- fixed the entry and drainage situation at the elementary school.
- took out a chunk of hill that blocked visibility near the south entry to HWY 200
- helped make a wide walking area between Troncones and Nuevo Troncones
- helped put in drainage channels in places badly needing it
- helped with improvements to the church, clinic, kindergarten, elementary and tele-secundaria schools.
- financially supporting Troncones Limpia for its 6 years of being.
The APCAT Board is responsible for our street signs and the Rip Tide signs that are placed on the beach during Semana Santa.
APCAT members were on the Board of Directors for the Troncones Water Project in 2006/2007. The Board collected money from lot owners, administered the drilling of a deep well, the storage, delivery system, and eventually the billing system when the project went online and we turned the project over to the Ejido. APCAT also contributed to the next deep well that followed. Many villages rely solely on water trucks. We’re quite fortunate to have water!
The 2014 APCAT Board hired our first Public Works Employee and in 2017, added a second employee.
The employees:
- pick up the litter and keep the jungle cut back on 23 km of roadsides.
- remove the build up of sand in the road’s low spots after the rainy season.
- cut out the asphalt around potholes when APCAT hires machines to fill holes.
- help clean the fairgrounds, before and after events
- help put up the papel picado and other decorations for holidays.
- build and/or repair topes when needed.
- tidy up the roadsides around the cemetery each year
- help weed whack the school grounds
- help with community projects, like hauling the tables/chairs for big community events.
- In the last few years they’ve done a lot of work on the mountain bike trails.
Before APCAT hired the Public Works Employees, APCAT would hire groups of workers once or twice a year to pick up the litter on the sides of the ingress/egress road. The litter would start to collect again the very next day after those temporary workers were done. With our public works employees, it is an ongoing year-round thing.
Every single home and business owner in Troncones and Majahua benefits from the fact our village is “cared for.” And it’s paid for by APCAT members’ dues.
Although Covid has interfered recently, APCAT volunteers have published our La Conexion Directory and Guide for nearly 20 years. For many years the proceeds from the sales of the directory have gone to help fund the annual Spay/Neuter clinics in Troncones. These clinics have had a very obvious impact on the animal population here.
Our Troncones Ejido values APCAT, and APCAT members, because they know that we contribute to the well being of our shared community. After over two decades of working together on innumerable projects, APCAT has built a remarkably good relationship with our Troncones Ejido. If you are familiar with Playa Saladita, you will see many of Troncones’ surfer residents surf in Saladita but live in Troncones because of the community. That feeling comes from having had a Property Owners Association for 22 years.
And we’re not done! We’re continuing to work on Troncones Trails maintenance, we’re working on a “good neighbor” program to help people understand what they need to do when they build (parking, septic, setbacks, height and respecting your neighbors), bypass roads to the north and south to relieve the congestion through town, a new water source, and even, possibly, securing land for more green space – a park!
When people ask me why we chose to buy, build, invest, and live in Troncones, my first response is that there is a true community that helps each other. Villagers and expats work together to keep Troncones safe, clean, and a place that many want to visit and live. Thanks for reading to the end!!!! The board and I appreciate everyone’s commitment in creating and participating in this community and hope that new community members see the value and join in. Hopefully things are back to normal next season and we can have a great annual meeting and perhaps some sort of blowout to celebrate being together again.
Emmet