Even though you might not believe from reading the various “horror” stories the media love to relate about HOA’s, more often than not, people figure out a way to get along.  Here’s a good example from the “The Reporter” inVacaville, CA:

 ‘Regular guy’ from Vacaville honored for small solar installation

He knew the letter, an e-mail, was coming, but, still, to open it and read the letterhead, “The White House, Washington,” startled him.

“When you open it, it’s surrealistic — you want to share it with your friends,” said Bruce Rasmussen of Vacaville, a third-grade teacher at Laurel Creek Elementary School in Fairfield. “They look at you and look at you and say, ‘I didn’t know you did anything like that.’ ”

What he did was replace an aging, propane-fired water pump with a solar-powered one that provides water to his mountain home and 19 others near Yosemite National Park.

For his efforts to upgrade and modernize the pumping system, Rasmussen was nominated — by whom, he doesn’t know — for an award through the White House’s Champion of Change program. He will be recognized for his work on Thursday at the White House Conference Center.

“Your remarkable and innovative achievements have not gone unnoticed,” Kyle Lierman, of the White House’s Office of Public Engagement, began the award notification letter.

“I think it’s a pretty big honor, I’m blown away by the whole thing,” said Rasmussen, 59, his school’s teacher of the year in 2010 and its technology learning coordinator.

He made the conversion two years ago “because there was a need,” he explained. “I didn’t do it to receive an award. I’m just a small guy, a regular person who lives in the United States. It’s kind of like a shock. It’s almost overwhelming. I’m flabbergasted.”

He said the White House program leaders “were looking for small things that make our country a better place to live.”

In a matter-of-fact way, Rasmussen, for 12 years president of the Peach Growers Tract Improvement Association, his homeowners association, recounted what led to the solar-power conversion.

In the Stanislaus National Forest, about five miles from the national park entrance, his and other summer homes have no electricity. The original water system was built in the 1920s for a lumber mill. In 1978, association members replaced it by drilling a well and lowered a pump into it. Initially, the water pump was fired by gasoline, then diesel and, for the last 20 years, propane.

Rasmussen approached the homeowners association members with the idea of using a solar-powered pump as a replacement and they gave him the green light. As water operator for the association, he planned the conversion, raised the money for the association and installed it alongside the propane-powered pump, which is still used in emergencies, he noted. The new water pump is powered by four solar panels. Stored in a 100,000-gallon holding tank, the water is used for drinking, household uses and fire suppression by U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service and Cal Fire.

Modest and not one to describe himself as highly skilled in the building and mechanical trades, Rasmussen, by all accounts, clearly is. The pump conversion does not surprise those who know him. In 1994, he tore down and rebuilt his home, formerly a summer cabin owned by the Peach and Fig Growers Association of Modesto.

“I guess I’m kind of handy at times,” he admitted.

Again saying he was surprised by the honor, Rasmussen, who has taught for 31 years in the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District, figures the Obama administration “is looking for less dependency on fossil fuels” to power our homes, workplaces and cities in the future.

“They’re looking at large projects and small projects,” he said, adding that California is at the center of solar technology not only because of its abundant, mostly year-round sunshine but also its many Bay Area-based technology firms.

While at the White House Conference Center, Rasmussen also will participate in the Make it in America White House Roundtable, with guest speakers Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Its purpose is “to share best practices and connect Champions of Change with more of the federal resources they need to succeed,” Lierman wrote in the notification letter.

While U.S. governments may change, political leaders of all stripes are “looking for ways to continue to promote” alternative energy, to become less oil dependent, said Rasmussen, who also will tour the White House.

“Instead of buying a gas heater or dryer, if you have solar panels, you could run them on solar power instead of electricity,” he said. “I really wanted to push our association toward solar.”

His road to the White House began about two months ago, when a homeowners association member received a telephone call about his nomination.

“It’s kind of interesting,” said Rasmussen. “I’m just a common person. This is all about regular people making a difference.”