April 2026 News

Desert Ridge News and Updates
April – 2026
Greetings Neighbors:
We hope this April finds you all doing well! The weather has been spectacular as we near summer. Speaking of summer, there has been a considerable lessening of traffic and activity as many folks in Desert Ridge and throughout Green Valley are leaving for northernmost places for the summer. Speaking of summer and less people, this is also the time when many homes are vacant in Desert Ridge and throughout Green Valley. As our entrance signs say, report suspicious activity in the neighborhoods. Summer presents opportunity for break-ins and burglaries.
From the Board
Board Schedule – The April Board meeting will be the last meeting until October. Several Board members will be gone for the summer but can be easily reached. There are also Board members who remain here and can be contacted with any issues or concerns. They are: 
-      Michael Cochran – Maintenance - 360-751-2832 or email at [email protected]
-      John Morgan (other concerns) – 507-226-1420 or email at [email protected]
Bill Keim, ourArchitectural Chair resides in Michigan in summer but can be reached at 269-720-3185 or email at [email protected]. Please remember to contact Bill for any outside remodeling or construction you will be doing this summer. All projects need to be approved by the Architectural committee.
Other Board member contacts:
-      Mike Hubbard – 520-312-1101 or email at [email protected].
-      Cindy Hubbard – 701-205-7726 or email at [email protected].
Email Communication – Many of you have likely noticed a new email look to our communication blasts. Our IT volunteer, Karen Rainford has set us up with a new email server called “Mail Chimp”. It is a simpler system to use and ensures complete mailing to all neighbors. You will notice that many emails will be viewable (like this newsletter) without opening a separate attachment to read it. I mention this because your computer may initially receive these emails into “spam” because it does not know it yet. Karen has assured us that as the computer learns it, it will go to your “In-box”. You can also tell your computer by clicking on “this is not spam” and that will also rectify it. If you haven’t received emails lately, please check your spam folder.
New Homeowners – Four homes sold this month on the Ridge, and we welcome these new neighbors:
-      Donn McAfee – 736 W Desert Hills Drive – (Formerly Jim and Doreen Cubie)
-      Craig Lavrick and JoAnne Miller – 948 W Desert Hills Dr. – (Formerly Ed and Patrice Zubillaga.)
-      Terrance Hucke – 781 W Desert Ridge Dr. (Formerly Van and Sandy Briggs)
-      Marianne McNelley – 812 W Desert Hills Drive – (Formerly Patrick and Susan Anderson)
 Please welcome these new folks to our community!
Maintenance – Spraying for pre-emergent weed control will be completed the first week of June. This needs to be done before the summer monsoon rain begins. There will be more communications concerning this as we are near this time frame. We hope our monsoon season will be ample this year and bring rain amounts back up.
If you haven’t noticed, look at the spillway area at our east entrance. Our Maintenance crew and volunteers Doug and Cindy Hanson have cleared this area of overgrowth, brush and debris. It has been an eyesore for many years but now looks as good as any other area of our HOA.
Related to cleaning up areas like the east entrance and other areas, generally behind homes, the maintenance crews have eliminated a lot of debris and brush that in turn eliminates packrat nests and other rodents. The Maintenance crews have noticed fewer snakes this year within our HOA and could likely be a result of fewer rodents.
In the fall, we’ll be doing some minor rocking in common areas between homes where replenishment is needed. Fall will also bring some continued tree trimming. Removal of a large mesquite near lot 17 that is dying will occur in 2027.
Streets – Our road re-surfacing project is complete, and the work performed by Sunland Asphalt was superb. We should be in good shape for several years now. On behalf of the Board, we want to thank everyone for their cooperation and understanding during the process. Also, a Thank-you to Dave Ward for coordinating and having the block captains distribute the map showing which days/sections would be completed.
On another note, Dave Ward has been serving as Street committee street co-chair for several years and has now passed that torch on to Doug Hanson, who has volunteered to take that lead! This will allow Dave to devote all his volunteer time to Maintenance. Thanks Dave and Doug! - we know Doug will do a great job going forward.
Social – Our April 9th Block Party was a great success with over 50 people attending. Many positive comments for the National Eats food truck and the background music they provided making for good conversation with neighbors. Thanks to Lorna Bachman and our Social committee volunteers who make these events happen!
October will bring us another block party with an Octoberfest theme complete with the German food truck and music. Stay tuned for details as we near that time.
Firewise – You may have noticed “Firewise” mentioned in newsletters or on the board agenda. Firewise is a national program administered locally through the Santa Rita Fire District. The program assesses wildfire risk within a community working primarily through HOA’s helping them eliminate wildfire risk in common areas and around individual homes. Our neighbor, Doug Hanson, has served as our HOA coordinator for Firewise setting up and having the fire district do an initial assessment of our HOA. The results were very good but not surprising based on a couple of factors.
1.   We have completed a very thorough landscaping rejuvenation that has eliminated much wildfire risk.
2.   We are surrounded by the golf course on all sides.
Any assessment score under 50 is very good and the Desert Ridge score was in the mid 30’s – excellent! Further investigation, to become fully certified in the Firewise program entails 100 hours of documented on-site improvement, a separate Firewise volunteer committee within our HOA and a lot of paperwork – too much work for the little benefits gained so the Board voted to stop any further involvement. It was beneficial, however, to have the assessment done to determine our standing.
Miscellaneous – Our neighbor, Jeff Gilligan recently informed me that he discovered problems within his electrical panel to his house. Further inspection by an electrician uncovered some arcing going on which potentially could have caused a fire. His electrician reminded him that all these electrical panels are 40 plus years old (unless they were replaced) and “in his opinion” weren’t of the highest quality when installed. I pass this on from Jeff to make other folks in our HOA aware of potential issues - you may want to have yours inspected.
 That’s all for now
See you on the Ridge!
​For the Board – Mike Hubbard