Our Mission....To communicate critical village news in a fair, clear, truthful and concise manner of key issues that impact our village.

Publisher: Mark Werner

Contributors: John Villa, Chris Hoffer, Lowell Russell
 

Hello neighbors, well there is a lot to share with you all in this Newsletter. As always, we aim to provide just the facts and NO opinion.
 

Just the Facts

1. John Orr the new board president in his opening yesterday and speaking to the Waste Water tank said, (paraphrasing) “We heard the feedback from last 2 months on the waste water tank and if we ever need the tank he said, if we can mitigate the I&I enough not to need the tank. DOES MEAN THE TANK IS DEAD!
 

2. He also said, the tank was Jacob’s effort to find the least cost solution. THE LEAST COST SOLUTION it is about $8M in the TAP cost certainly mitigating rain water from getting into our backyard tanks won’t take $8M.
 

3. After a meeting about 2 weeks ago with Jacob’s, Chet, PESAC rep and Mike Lackey’s team, Jacobs was to reevaluate their 2021 Report that said if we reduce our I&I (water infiltration) we don’t need a tank? Did they report back? Reducing our I&I (water infiltration) was always in the Lackey team’s solutions.
 

4. So, if we don’t need the tank, we don’t need the TDEC grant. So who pays for the estimated $500K and $800K we already spent on this tank? Is this just lost money? Gone? POOF!
 

5. HERES A BIG ONE…Speaking on the RESERVE FUND John said, and I’m paraphrasing again, “the board has received hundreds of emails regarding the RESERVE FUND, as did Lowell Russell. These emails were somewhere between 3 or 4 to 1 in support of the bill…AND LOWELL RUSSELL REPORTS A SIMILAR RESULT” …wrong!!!! WE spoke with Lowell Russell; his survey is NOT trending 3 or 4 to 1 in favor. So where did John get this information? Did CHET provide it? Did they actually call Rep Russell’s office and ask? 
 

6. Then CHET speaking at the Townhall said all votes in the Covenant process to amend our Covenants MUST BE NOTARIZED this is completely false.
 

7. Interesting statement by Mr. Grollemond of the board, again I’m paraphrasing, “We have known since 2018 that we would need a “Buy in” fee in fact I ran on that and got elected” …that was 5 years ago! If you had started the process using our Declaration and Covenants back then, we would have a “Buy In” Fee in place…

8. In fact, if the board had started our process in 2023 instead of circumventing the residents we would most likely have it in place…

THE RESERVE FUND FUN FACTS….
 

1. No one and I repeat No one knows how much money we need in reserve. WHY? Because the RESERVE STUDY used to determine how much we need is FALSE! WRONG! INCORRECT! WHY? Its incorrect because the assumptions used in it are WRONG! These assumptions are OVERSTATED and that overstates our RESERVE NEEDS. The board has publicly acknowledged that it is wrong on a number of occasions. The latest at the Conservative Club meeting where Mike Braddock acknowledged it. This RESERVE STUDY says we need $10m in reserve. We believe it’s more like $5m or less. AND HERE IS THE “KICKER” AS WE SAY, WE ALREADY HAVE $5M in the account….in fact we have over $25M and growing. 
 

2. So why not FIX this RESERVE STUDY?  We can and we can do it in less than one day. The big drivers and their assumptions are known. Reduce these assumptions to more realistic numbers and recalculate.
 

3. SO WHY DON’T THEY? This writer doesn’t know. At the very least you can do a cursory view and establish a target. Then use that target to establish our financial strategy. THAT would go a long way to resolving this issue until you do an official study.
 

4. Our Covenants do not allow us to establish this a Reserve FEE. BUT our Declaration does allow us to change our Covenants giving us “permission” to establish this fund. YES…it requires a 2/3’s yes vote by the POA in good standing. That’s a tough hurdle to jump…BUT it’s supposed to be hard it was designed to be hard!
 

Opinion…



When I started this Newsletter, I intended to only provide the facts. That seemed like the fairest way to do it. But it’s impossible to do that. Facts are not subjective yet many of the causes, complaints and solutions that are shared are! They are opinions and emotions and they are legitimate to the owner. The most constant complaint I hear is WE DON’T TRUST YOU. I don’t care who you are if you are labeled with that statement, you have done something to lose trust. 
 

If we look back, we can probably identify where trust in the holdover board (Mr. Braddock, Mr. Inkrott, Mr. Grollemond and Mr. Schneider) began. I point to July, 2024 POA meeting. At this meeting the board (with those 4 present) voted to charge every resident an $80 fee to pay for the TAP…in fact, it was called a TAP Fee. They made sure they “legally” could use a FEE instead of a Special Assessment by getting a second opinion. Well now we know why they did that. The process of a Special Assessment takes time, it’s supposed to. It’s designed to get resident input. They didn’t do that. So over the past 6 months the board has been getting resident feedback, at POA board Meetings, Townhalls, NextDoor, wherever residents could find an outlet for their voice. As Chet and the board have now admitted didn’t believe the TAP fee would be supported by the residents, and they were right! A single sole source $37m solution is contrary to any business decision.YET despite numerous residents speaking out against that fee…the board voted 6 to 1 to pass it.
 

The landscape has changed dramatically since then. Despite that board’s reluctance to get an alternative to a sole source (Jacob’s Engineering) solution, the recent election has forced them to look at an alternative solution to a $37M program. An alternative that has been estimated at about $8m. Now Jacob’s seems to agree, lower the I&I and no tank is needed. We will finally focus on the root cause of our problem water infiltration into residential tanks. If we reduce the water infiltration by 38% the problem disappears ...AND SO SHOULD THE TAP PROGRAM. In fact, the TAP program should never have been accepted without a SECOND opinion…that board didn’t want one! Now they have no choice. In the end the residents have spoken through our election. Voting for Mike Lackey and Joel Reed the residents have made it very clear. Change is needed and needed NOW!
 

In the meantime, the board can earn some GOODWILL from the residents. It’s simple to do, suspend the $80 Water and Sewer Infrastructure Fee and do it NOW!! Folks if you feel the same you need to make your feelings known to the board. Send them a letter an email, voice mail...let them know.