Undoubtedly you will be hearing a variation on this comment from the normal naysayers after we voted to finally refurbish the tennis courts that haven't been re-done since the seventies. We also just voted a couple meeting ago to spend around the same amount on a mower. Yep, we sure did.
Consider these points. The mower will last probably twenty years. That comes to about three thousand per year. This replacement has been planned in the reserve budget for years and the time has come when repairs are no longer feasible on such an old machine. You may notice the ditches are not looking good this year. The broken mower is the one used for that purpose as well as mowing many other areas including the dam. It takes a specialized piece of equipment to mow the dam and we must keep it mowed to avoid possible undermining by burrowing animals as well as aesthetics.
Now to the tennis courts. Divide the sixty thousand by the thirty or more years we have had them. Two thousand per year and it also has been provided for in the reserves. The tennis courts are an eyesore and they have deteriorated to the point of being dangerous. We have stalled this for four years but the time has come. These expenditures will not mean a dues increase. As I said, these are reserve expenditures and are covered.
As long as we are talking about dues, something is coming up that may involve an increase and that is boat piers for rentals. Lake management has been asking for more piers for years and we keep saying we can't afford them. Piers will not come from the reserves part of our budget, but the operating side. Operating is the area we are skin tight. The piers will eventually pay for themselves through rentals but we have to come up with the cost of installing them next year since we have a waiting list for rentals and we are going to use some of the pier space by the Dockside Grill for rentals this year to help out.
I know this is a crazy system but as I have mentioned here before, anything new must be paid for from operating funds and anything we have and needs fixing or replacement comes from reserves. The reserves are fine but we can't use them for things we would like to have. The way we are handling the road project has saved the reserves fund so we are in fine shape hopefully for many years to come.
Ken Dillenburg