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Stop This Runaway Train....

EHFJR

Updated: Sep 27, 2024

Our Board is a Runaway Train and We Need to Apply the Emergency Brake.

From their inception and for over three decades, the golf courses were operated as an independently owned club. It relied solely upon its private membership to fund the ongoing expenses associated with operating the courses.

 

For the past four years, however, the homeowners of this community have been asked to increasingly support the golf courses through several special assessments that former Boards had no authority to pass. Now, the current Board wants to ramp things up another notch and compensate for the golf courses' continued flow of red ink by treating them just like the community's pools, sports courts, and gathering places.


This would result in assessing us, the homeowners, amounts the Board’s majority alone determines appropriate, to cover the courses’ ongoing maintenance, repairs, and capital replacement costs––without obtaining our continued consent or providing us with any benefits in return. No oversight. No enforcement. No penalties. The Board's majority alone determines spending.

 

Does that sound like a good deal to you?

So why is our Board seeking to make this drastic change to our Declaration now? That’s an easy one to answer. The golf courses have proven themselves to be proverbial “money pits,” and the Board realizes that unless they wrestle financial decision-making control away from us, the community's willingness to absorb more and more financial pain will sooner than later come to a screeching halt. Think about it for a moment: if the courses weren't such money pits, surely the Board would have been able to locate at least one interested buyer for the courses over the past 4 years.

 

Simply put, the HOA has no business running golf courses. 

1) To begin with, the Board has no professional background or expertise in golf course operations.

2)  The Board has never supplied us with any professional assessment of the courses' current condition or the costs that will be required to render them a viable ongoing enterprise.

3)  None of the Board's (and prior Boards') rosy forecasts concerning the courses have proven to be remotely accurate.

4) The courses cater to only a slim minority of our homeowners (all of whom have

access to the many other Lake County golf courses for recreational purposes).

5) Under this Board's leadership, the courses have degenerated into the worst condition they have ever been in––this despite our repeated injections of cash. The fairways are riddled with ruts, portions of the courses flood on a regular basis, and the bridges are in serious disrepair.

 

Many previously loyal golfers refuse to play on the courses today. Yes, there is a reason why our golf courses charge the lowest rates for playing 18 holes, than any other Lake County course, and still––despite sharply discounted prices––fail to attract sufficient numbers of golfers to even come close to a breakeven point.

 

Additionally, ask yourselves whether this Board has earned your trust when they have been paying golf course expenses––for example, landscaping, maintenance, and insurance costs––out of HOA funds, when they lack authority under our documents to do that... When they have failed to put in place the shared use agreements promised years ago...and more.

 

You may ask: how do they get away with these improprieties?

Because, at least up to now, the community has either remained ignorant of them or has tolerated them. And, of course, because homeowners were told then––just like we are falsely being told today––that community property values would plummet if one or both courses were to be discontinued and (Heaven forbid!) converted into nature trails.

 

The truth, however, is that Lake County “subdivisions that have closed their golf courses have not seen a reduction of sale prices.”  This comes straight from the horse's mouth. You are encouraged to verify this information for yourselves by contacting the:

 

Lake County Property Appraiser's Office

320 W. Main St., Suite A

Tavares, FL 32778-3831

Voice 352.253.2165

Fax 352.253.2164

 

The upcoming vote is our last chance to stop the runaway train that is our Board of Directors. We strongly encourage you to educate yourself regarding the facts before casting your vote.


Thank you for reading this. If interested in obtaining additional information or joining our effort to defeat the proposed Declaration amendment, please reach out to us at:  Admin@TownCrier.Biz

 

Save our community. VOTE NO.

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The blog demonstrates that $15 monthly per household is far short of what will be needed to keep the courses' operating.

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