Dear Tenants,

All of you are aware of the unprecedented weather we have had. I don’t remember a snow this bad since the blizzard of 1993, and much like that storm, cold temperatures exacerbated the problem, preventing roads and drives from melting. The city and county have worked with the few resources they have to keep primary and some secondary roads cleared, but most roads are still icy and treacherous.

I want to thank a number of people that helped get us through last week. First, our maintenance staff, who were chomping at the bit to get out and start clearing sidewalks. TDOT asked all non-emergency vehicles to stay off the roads through Wednesday of last week, forcing the staff to remain grounded for much of the time. Once the ban on non-emergency vehicles was lifted, they were out salting and scraping the sidewalks, a herculean task with the limited equipment they had. They also dealt with a few frozen pipes and other emergencies in sub- freezing temperatures. I also want to thank LaShawn, Susan and Michelle, who worked hard to communicate with you and keep you in the loop, working from home almost every day last week.

Most importantly, I would like to thank you for your patience through this rare weather event. By dripping your faucets at night and (when possible) staying indoors, you made the situation that much better. Because you were so diligent in dripping the faucets, we had only three burst pipes during the freeze.

This week will be another challenging week. The weather isn’t over yet, the roads are far from clear, and our maintenance staff lost a week of service orders. I’m confident, however, that with your help, we can safely put the “Storm of 2024” behind us. While we are overall happy with the way things turned out, we will spend some time this week debriefing and discussing if there are any changes we can implement to make our reaction to the next weather event even better.

Thank you again for your patience.

Chris Osborn
Chief Operating Officer
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