When I first moved here, this was The Premiere Apartment Community in all of Huntsville, Alabama. Over the past decade, this place has gone down hill. When Colonial Properties ran and managed this place, it was awesome. There was some idiocy involved with a multitude of water mains breaking, and similar stuff (like a custom water valve needing to be built from scratch by a company in Birmingham, Alabama, and when the office manager went to get the valve, she did not pick up the seals required to install it - she didn't care about urgency, she didn't live on the premesis and didn't have to put up with the lack of water, which was out for several days mind you), however over all this place was the best apartment community of Huntsville, hands down.

Then, some Secion 8 housing (ever hear of Lakeshore') was built at the very end of Rime Village Drive. The unsavory element down there has began to do their early and late christmas shopping here at The Reserve at Research Park, an easily forseeable occurance - one which upsets me, as a long-term resident. The worst part is, the Section 8 housing is 20 years newer, and those residents don't have to pay anywhere near the high prices the residents of The Reserve at Research Park have to pay, yet they have the same benefits of the residents of The Reserve at Research Park - close proximity to all the amenities which The Reserve at Research Park residents pay a lot more for.

The maintenance crew has been cut severely back, not that they were ever competant to begin with. It seems as though every time ownership changes hands, a new maintenance crew is brought in and they are clueless as to know how to do anything. My ceiling exhaust fan in my bathroom needed lubricating once, and I could tell the idiot came in and shot white lithium grease at the fan blades - as if that was going to help the high pitch squealing sound the motor was making. I ended up having to disassemble the fan myself and apply some CLP (a lubricant anyone familiar with firearms might have heard of - and trust me, living here, you will need a firearm) to squelch the squeal of the fan. And heaven help you if your building has a leaking roof - these roofs are at least 15 years old! The real kicker about the roofs is that, it does not matter if you live on the bottom floor or the top floor, a leaky roof affects both!

So far there are two burned out buildings on the property. These two buildings are only suitable for stray animals. Surely the owners of the property have received payments from their insurance companies to rebuild, however nary a thing has been done to either rebuild or tear down either of these buildings. The first was burned down due to some guy tossing a cigarette into a cardboard box on his patio, in mid 2008. The second was set ablaze by faulty wiring in the attic, in early 2009. **UPDATE** There has been some progress made. The worse off of the two buildings, 6245, has had some work done to gut the building for restoration. As for 6202, the building damaged by the attic fire, still has not had anything done to restore it. **END OF UPDATE**

Suffice to say, between the fires, the crime, and the ever increasing rent and utility bills, I do not see myself remaining a resident here much longer. We used to not be billed for water usage, however now we are slammed with outrageous water bills (upwards of $50 a month, for 1 person in a 1 bedroom pad). I'm certain this works out well for the families who use water like there's no tomorrow, however the burden of these people who take advantage of the water situation are shoveling the result of their abuse onto those of us who actually conserve water.

The complex's utility management company takes the total water usage by all the residents, and divides it up equally amongst all the units, thus if you only take one shower a day, you end up paying for the shower water used by families of 5 or more people. This is an unfair state of affairs. When this debacle began, I offered to pay out of my own pocket to have my own water meter installed, so as to avoid being nailed with these outrageous water fees, but I was told by the office staff that they would not permit me to do so, and that I would have to deal with their new (and quite unfair) method of figuring out who needs to pay how much for water usage. They told me if I didn't like it, I could move out. The electricity bills have always been rather high, due to ancient air conditioning units and a severe lack of insulation in the walls and ceilings of the 2nd floor units.

Ground Fault Circuit Interrupt breakers are supposed to be installed for receptacles within 6 feet of a tub (i.e. sink, tub, water source), yet the only GFCI to be found in any of these apartments is in the bathroom. This leaves the kitchen, and anyone using electrical appliances in there, totally unprotected should an appliance fall into water.

To top it all off, these buildings are literally constructed of rotting wood - and the only reason why the wood is rotting is due to the lack of competant maintenance, roofs which have never been replaced, and pipe leaks galore. Mold issues have become a big concern, as many children with asthma have suffered major respiratory issues in many of these buildings. Other healthy children and adults living here have also developed respiratory issues as well.

Lately there have been $400 referral bonus notices posted all over the property. Refer a friend to live here, and you'll get $400. I would never, never, never recommend anyone live here. The safety of the residents is substandard, and there is now much better apartment housing elsewhere in Huntsville. **UPDATE** These referral notices have been pulled, as of August 18th, 2009. **END OF UPDATE**

Also of note, the owners like to spread out pine needle mulch. For the past two summers now, all this has done is bring roaches. The pine needles are not treated or anything, and bring in roach eggs and live roaches as well. Disgusting stuff. They put the mulch around the buildings, not just around the shrubs - what the heck are they thinking'!' Not once have I EVER seen a bug exterminator come around in over 10 years I have lived here.

To odubhain, I know the area in which you live. There is at least one police officer who lives in one of the buildings there, as is evidenced by his patrol car parked there when he is off duty. If there were one bedroom apartments down there, I would move into one in less than a heart beat. What gets me is, the apartment staff can organize a pool party, but they can't organize a neighborhood watch. Furthermore, if police officers make under $30,000 a year, what makes you believe that a security force here would cost $100,000 a year' One patrol officer making rounds all night, and another patrol officer making rounds all day (not necessarily police, but dedicated individuals), paid at a police officer's salary, would only cost $60,000 a year in man power.

User Responses
From: odubhain	Date: 08/15/2009
I would have agreed with most of these remarks about a year ago. I think that things have improved a bit under new management. I live on the Enterprise Way end of the Reserve so I don't get as much bleed over from the area you are calling "Section 8 housing." In fact, I haven't ever been down that way. One thing that Rime Village used to do was encourage police officers and deputies to live here. I know that I used to have two such folks in my area. That really cut down on any problems. The officers used to voluntarily patrol through here at night. Of course, in the golden days of Rime Vilage they actually had their own security officers to patrol and on call to the residents. Maybe it's time for that? It'd cost about $100,000 a year to do properly but that cost could be spread over all the renters. Of course, that might cost us all another $50 a month rent. It'd be worth it if the problems with crime are as bad as have been described by other. We've had few problems where we are but did have a stereo stolen (5 years ago) from one of our vehicles. It'd be nice to see a patrol car a few times a night but so far hasn't been necessary on this end of the complex.

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