To All Homeowners on Upper Rockyford Lake,
Greetings from your Lake Board-
This letter concerns Upper Rockyford Lake and its care, and includes plans that your Lake Board has to improve the long term health, beauty, and value of our commonly-owned lake. We encourage you to take the time to read through this letter thoroughly.
The Lake Board is announcing a meeting of all lake homeowners on the evening of April 14th from 7:00 until 8:30 P.M. at the Cooper Branch of the Richland County Public Library. Please reserve the date on your calendars. We hope that you can attend.
There are three important resolutions that the board will bring to the homeowners for a vote that evening:
1. The Lake Board has made the determination to have our outflow gate overhauled. The metal on our current gate has been deteriorating significantly over the last few years. The refitting of the gate will require a significant capital expenditure, which requires a vote by lake residents. This operation will require a complete draw-down of our lake during the month of September or October of this year. The cost for this repair is estimated to be approximately $20,000.
As a part of the same resolution, and in response to concerns about the draw-down's impact on recreational fishing, we propose to put into place a long term fish and wildlife management plan for our lake. Specific details regarding this plan will be outlined and mailed to homeowners prior to the April meeting. A large part of the long-term plan includes measures for stocking the lake with game fish. We believe that having a continuing wildlife management plan will add significant value to every home on our lake.
2. The Lake Board has reviewed our bylaws and sees a need to purchase insurance to cover the lake and its homeowners against any liability or potential litigation that may be present because of the risks associated with water and the structure of the outflow gate and dam. Requirements to purchase insurance coverage (for homeowners and the board) is included in the bylaws, and is also seen as a part of good stewardship of the lake, though it will require an annual expenditure as well.
3. Board members have reviewed information in the lake bylaws and feel a need to re-broadcast the bylaws to all current lake residents, so that all homeowners have a clear understanding of the language contained in it. Please take time to review the document prior to our April 14th meeting by visiting the blog at the link below, or let me know of you would prefer a copy of them e-mailed to you.
These are big plans that will benefit all homeowners. Each part has support of the board. Now here is some good news: The implementation of these resolutions will not require any additional extra fee or assessments. Our careful stewardship of funds over the last few years has allowed us to have on hand the needed funds to make these improvements without any need for asking for extra funding from homeowners, and while allowing emergency reserves to remain in place. We have built up a war-chest to make these improvements, and now need the lake resident's approval to move forward. At no additional cost.
The Lake Board feels that we all have a vested interest in maintaining the health and beauty of our commonly owned property, Upper Rockyford Lake. Each homeowner benefits from his or her joint ownership of this property, and from the way that living on a lake benefits them. All I need to do to be reminded of this is to look out of my back door each day. I will also take a moment to be quite direct: no one else owns this lake but the homeowners on it; if we do not take steps to take plan for its care and upkeep, no one else will.
Please take a moment to mark your calendar for the night of April 14, when we meet at the Library. If you have a significant scheduling conflict, a proxy form will be mailed to you for your use.
On another, closer note:
As part of our involvement as an official group in the Keep the Midlands Beautiful Adopt a Waterway program, our lake association agreed to conduct 3 lake cleanups throughout the year. On Saturday, March 6th we will conduct an Upper Rockyford Lake clean up to coincide with the Midlands Makeover, which starts March 1st and goes through May. In 2008 our lake association won an award from Keep the Midlands Beautiful because of our successful lake cleanup on March 1, 2008. I hope we have a similar success on March 6th. Meet on the dam on Overcreek Road between 9-9:30 a.m. to get your supply of trash bags, gloves, litter pick-up-sticks, and to sign in. We need plenty of folks to clean up the lake by canoe, by foot along the shoreline, and also to target the litter-strewn stretch of Percival Road that borders the lake. The city will come by and haul off all the trash we collect the following Monday, so I hope to have a big pile for them.
Again, take a moment right now to mark your calendars. We look forward to seeing you on March 6, and again on April 14.
Feel free to e-mail questions or concerns to us at my e-mail : tteuber@sc.rr.com
We hope that you are ready to enjoy the coming springtime on Upper Rockyford Lake.
All the Best,
Tom Teuber,
For the Upper Rockyford Lake Board
Thom Bristol,
Geri Fields,
Ken Grant,
Wesley Graybill,
John Lindsey,
Amy Maxwell,
Greg Maxwell,
Tom Teuber,
Buford Goff, (ex-officio)
No comments:
Post a Comment