May 2021

Dear Owners and Residents of Bukit Gita Bayu (GB),

Hope you and your families are keeping well and staying safe !

The Covid-19 pandemic situation in the country continues to be on high alert since our last update in September 2020.  Things had eased a bit during December 2020/January 2021 but several states, including Selangor, had entered into MCO and then CMCO since mid January. Considering the safety of the owners and residents, it was best to postpone our AGM which normally would have been scheduled in February/March.

We had written to ROS with regards to this situation and received an acknowledgement from ROS to allow GBRA to postpone the AGM to a later date when the situation becomes safer, and a reminder to ensure that we follow all the SOP when conducting the AGM.

The GBRA Committee met on 17^th April 2021 and proposed the AGM to be held on 26^th June 2021. At the time of this update however and given the recent rise in cases and the latest MCO, the proposed AGM may be postponed to a later date. This will be subject to the situation at that time. Further details will be provided nearing the date. For now please reserve this date in your calendar.

Other Updates

Although there were no social events this past year due to the pandemic situation, we continued to address some maintenance issues within GB.

Further to our last circular to the Residents in September 2020, please find below updates regarding Tree cutting/pruning and replacement of Khaya trees around GB.

All the residents would agree that the trees and landscaping contribute to what makes Bukit Gita Bayu a beautiful and unique development. Last year, some of the residents expressed concern about the manner in which trees were pruned as well as apparent damage caused to the trees and surrounding landscape during each pruning exercise. There was also a noticeable lack of supervision by GBPS at the time of pruning.

In response to this, a preliminary meeting was held in early September 2020 with Mr. Danny Ting, led by the GBRA Tree & Landscape Subcommittee Mr. Francis Tian, Ms. Lalitha, Pn. Mazita and Ms. Jacqueline Cheong.

A follow-up meeting was conducted on 29th September 2020 between the GBRA Tree & Landscape Subcommittee with Mr. Edwin Gomes, Mr. Danny Ting, and the GBPS tree management supervisor and a certified arborist. It was a fruitful dialogue. Below are some of the key takeaways from the dialogue.

1. GBPS agreed to engage a tree management supervisor to oversee all tree-related activities. This person reports directly to Mr. Danny Ting.
2. GBPS and GBRA agreed to jointly create and publish a Tree Management SOP, which covers short and long term processes. The SOP requires that any tree cutting activity plan must first be approved by all appointed stakeholders before it can be executed. The stakeholders will comprise GBPS and a representative from the GBRA Tree & Landscape Subcommittee.
3. GBPS agreed that there will be no topping of trees or heavy pruning, except for emergency/critical/urgent cases only where the advice/recommendation of the arborist and tree consultant will be sought first.
4. GBPS agreed that an arborist should be invited to conduct a tree pruning training course on Oct 14 for Danny’s team. Pn. Mazita, Ms. Jacqueline and Mr. Francis Tian to attend as well.
5. GBPS agreed to include an adequate budget for tree management in 2021.

Photos below were taken during the tree pruning training, conducted by a certified arborist, attended by Mr. Danny Ting, GBPS workers and GBRA Tree & Landscape Subcommittee.

The diagram below describes the new Tree Management Process implemented at GB

Another key update was the review of 2021 Budget with GBPS/YSH. The residents would have received the letter in January from GBPS explaining the outcome following a number of meetings between GBRA and GBPS in November and  December 2020. Below are a few key points.

1. Lower expenditures expected in 2021 as a result of the cost control for day to day running maintenance.
2. YSH will continue to contribute RM250k to the budget.
3. Relocated the maintenance yard to common common area and saved the cost of rental in future.
4. Shelved the garden waste natural composting system to later date because the investment cost of RM30k may not be prudent at this point in time compared to the values it may potentially bring.
5. Introduced a small top up of sinking fund for future capital projects (@5.9% of the service charge). The sinking fund was utilized on capital projects such as Electric Fencing upgrade, Repainting tennis court, Resurface road, Playground in 2020.

It is important that all residents within GB are able to highlight areas of concern and feel they have a say and representation over all aspects of living within GB including issues of service, maintenance and security.

Every development in GB is represented by their members of the MC’s. Please refer to this website for a list of names of the GBRA representatives from the various developments in GB.

We also invite the chairpersons of the various MC’s who are not current members of GBRA to our meetings.

Please do not hesitate to contact any of the GBRA Committee Members or email us at gitabayura@hotmail.com if you have any question or comment.

From The Secretary, on behalf of 2020/21 GBRA Committee