The Spirit of Pine Valley

A Unique Community Living with Nature

Introduction Letter from Incoming PVN President, Diana Judson

by Editorial Team

1/22/2025

Thank you so much to our previous President and Vice President, Randy Barbour and Vic Lukas, for their tireless work supporting the community of Pine Valley!

As Randy Barbour said in his November 2023 letter:

“Pine Valley is a wonderful place to live. We’re surrounded by nature and the incredible beauty of the Red Rocks of the Munds Mountain Wilderness. We’re also blessed to live among some amazing people. Our Pine Valley neighbors are kind, cheerful, respectful, considerate people.”     No one could have said it any better!

“Pine Valley Neighbors” is simply a group of caring neighbors who meet about 4-5 times per year for the express purpose of helping our Pine Valley friends and neighbors connect with each other, and help each other in any way we can.

As Randy pointed out, there are a few things that “Pine Valley Neighbors” does:

  • Maintenance of the cattle fences surrounding Pine Valley;
  • Provide yard waste dumpsters in the fall to help remove fuel for wildfires in the neighborhood. With increased funds (ie more members!), we’d like to provide more dumpsters.
  • Maintenance of the Pine Valley entrance sign and distribution of warning signs throughout the neighborhood when the county issued fire bans;
  • Communicates with the US Forest Service on fire safety, hiking trails and preservation of the Munds Mountain Wilderness;
  • Coordinates with the Pine Valley Water Company and the Sedona Fire District to regularly test water pressure at our fire hydrants;
  • Holds a fun Fall Picnic where neighbors meet and socialize;
  • Disseminates monthly email updates to our members, on community news that impacts our neighbors, including updates from the Big Park Council;
  • Pine Valley Neighbors is also a member in the Big Park Council.  This is probably one of the most important aspects of our group.  By being a member with the other residential developments in the Big Park area, we have a voice in what is decided, we are first to find out about plans in this beautiful area that we call home.

As of this writing, we have just elected new officers for the 2025 Board.
Diana Judson – President.
Bill Morgan – Vice President
Ray Geissel – Secretary
Chris Kay – Treasurer
Lenore Hemingway – Communications Secretary
Dennis Bauman – Big Park Council representative.
Backup #1:  Steve Fiedler
Backup #2:  Zach Hilgemann

Additionally, we have the following committees and their respective team leaders:
Welcome Committee:  Joe Verebelyi (meet/greet new residents)
Community Support:  Steve Fiedler (entrance maintenance/fence repair & the like)
Trails Committee:  Mark Carlson

We hold meetings 4 times per year, and EVERYONE who lives in Pine Valley is welcome to attend!  We will post meeting dates and times on the front page of the website.  OUR NEXT MEETING is March 29th at 10AM, at my home: 15 Bobcat Ct.

As some of you may know I was president some years back during our too much “Arsenic in the Drinking Water” situation.  Because of the caring group of neighbors back then, known as the Pine Valley Property Owner’s Association, AND Lance Wischmeier’s incredible skills with water filtration, we were able to jointly mesh the funds with the skills, to rectify this situation, and now we enjoy crystal clear mountain spring water coming directly into our homes!  This was a clear example of WHY our little group is SO important!  We banded together and solved this problem.

I have returned, because I have been concerned about our fire situation out here in Pine Valley (long before the LA Fires), and also to see what now can be done (if anything) to address the multiple garbage companies serving our community, now that there is only two (instead of three) companies involved.

  1. Consolidation of Garbage services here in Pine Valley.  It just never made any sense to me, that this small community had THREE, now TWO garbage services for essentially around 180 homes!  I lived in Las Vegas, and we had ONE service for  over 1.5 million people!  This is not a new subject, but hopefully we can provide concrete and positive financial reasons to allow residents to determine if this is something that would motivate them change to one service, thereby saving upkeep on our already tenuous roads, and certainly cutting down on the roaring noise that these huge trucks necessarily cause each week.  Instead of 10-12 trucks per month rumbling into Pine Valley, (2 per company per week, and another on alternate weeks to collect recyclables), we could be down to 6!  More to follow on this subject as we come up with ideas that may work for everyone!
  2. Wildfire (or Man-made/Arson fire) Prevention Measures:  Pine Valley is an amazing community completely surrounded by National Forest Land.  When you drive to our little slice of country living, that last mile or so along Jack’s Canyon Road, slices through national forest land.  Last fall, I was “encouraged” to take up the President position again!!  I agreed to do it, because this Wildfire/man-made fire problem is something that has concerned me a great deal since the 2006 Jack’s Canyon Fire, and it’s not going away.

We all moved here because we LOVE living in Pine Valley.  It’s so hard to beat it anywhere else!   BUT, we have ONE major problem, with such beauty and privacy, comes the threat of wildfire (or man-made fires, as it was in the Jacks Canyon Blaze in 2006).  We live at the end of the road, in what John Wayne would have called, a “box canyon”!  As a result, with the prevailing winds, coming from west/southwest to east, we are at the MOST risk for fires in our community, due to any fire that may be started ANYWHERE else up the road on Jack’s Canyon Road.  While we may not cause the fire, we stand to pay the heaviest price if there is one.  We can’t STOP an out of control fire, but we can be PRO-ACTIVE and be prepared to mitigate the effects of one where we can.

At our board meeting in Jan 2025, we have started discussions to see about becoming members of Firewise.org.  This will be a tough one for us, as it will require ALL Pine Valley residents to get onboard with fire prevention tips on each property, BUT the payoffs could be HUGE!  We could qualify for Grants and funding to help with routine maintenance of firebreaks on USFS land on the south and west sides of Pine Valley, where we are at most risk, or perhaps to assist with weed maintenance right here in our own community.  I honestly don’t know what this all covers, but I will find out more, and have more information at our March meeting.  (PS:  this is an EXCELLENT reason to come to the meeting!)

Pine Valley is currently rated a 7 out of 10 fire risk by the insurance companies.  With the advent of the recent fires in California, it will just be a matter of time, before our insurance rates raise BOTH on property and automotive coverages. Don’t be surprised.  In my opinion, then, making routine improvements to help mitigate the effects of a wildfire, can ONLY be considered a positive thing, whether we get approved for Firewise or not.

Our La Barranca neighbors are a Firewise community, and they have received $30,000.00 in grant funds that they are using for fire prevention for their neighborhood!  They are an HOA community, and as such, they have a great deal of jurisdiction over the appearance/maintenance of all properties within the La Barranca subdivision. So, qualifying for Firewise for them, was relatively easy.  The Fire Marshall paid them a visit, inspected the subdivision, suggested a few tweaks, and then the Fire Marshall signed off & recommended them as a Firewise member, and La Barranca was in!

Since Pine Valley is NOT an HOA community, it will be a bit more difficult for us, as we have no jurisdiction over anyone else’s property.  All we can do, is come up with ways to encourage residents to help not only themselves, but the entire residential community of Pine Valley, qualify for Firewise membership.

You’ll find our website, pinevalleysedona.com to be informative and useful. Inside you’ll find information on local emergency services, the Code Red emergency alert system and information on how to join Pine Valley Neighbors.

Our annual dues are still only $35 annually, but certainly, IF you can afford it, please FEEL FREE to donate a bit more!  We have not raised the dues in many years, but if you can afford it, send in a little more!

You can pay your annual dues by check mailed to:
Pine Valley Neighbors, PO Box 20194 Sedona, AZ, 86341

You can send a Zelle payment – reference the organization by the email address info@pinevalleysedona.com.

“Pine Valley Neighbors” does not send out invoices, so sometimes, with all that we are doing in our lives, particularly with the holidays at the end of the year, we forget to get those dues paid by the 1st of the year.  I know, I was a culprit for years!  But I finally figured out a way to get those dues paid, without me even thinking about it!

I set up my dues payment, to happen automatically on the 1st of each year in my bank bill pay system  So, all I had to do, was choose an amount I wanted to pay, and set it to autopay indefinitely, every year around the first, and I never have to worry about trying to remember it again!  It was incredibly easy to do!   You might be able to do the same thing with Zelle as well.  So folks, if you have not sent in your annual dues, there is no time like the present, could you take a moment to drop us a check?

If you know neighbors who are new, or have not joined yet, please pass this information onto them or otherwise extend an invitation for them to join.  OR, send me an email: sedonadiana@gmail.com, with their name and address, and I will be sure to give it to our membership committee for them to reach out with an invitation to join us.

Thanks to you all and there will be more information coming!

Regards,
Diana Judson
President
Pine Valley Neighbors