The reason for HOPE!

How much poorer start to one’s life could there be than to be born in what today would be termed a barn? His parents had just taken a long journey for the sole purpose of paying taxes and His mother to be had taken the trek while near childbirth. I am sure there had been talk among their friends, family, and detractors about the shame of an unmarried couple conceiving a child. They didn’t realize the significance of this virgin birth.

Jesus was born on this Christmas Day and went on to become the savior of mankind. His birth was recognized by the star that guided the three wise men bearing gifts to the manger. It may not have been on December 25^th but that doesn’t change the message of peace, salvation, and love Jesus spread throughout his time on earth. He was here in body over two thousand years ago but his influence has never diminished.

Let us all strive in this Christmas season as well in the new year to redouble our efforts to be more like his example. It would be a much better life for all of us if this were to happen. May you all have peace, love, health, and happiness in your lives.

Ken Dillenburg

A Christmas Poem (apologies to Clement Clarke Moore)

Twas the night before Christmas, when all round the lake
Not a creature was stirring, not even a drake;
The presents were bought, cards in the mail,
Lights had been strung and turkey’s on sale.
The children and I were all snug in our beds,
While visions of ipods danced in their heads;
And mamma in her snuggie with cat on her lap,
Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
”I don’t believe it!” I actually gasped,
When I saw a large man with a dog in his grasp.
He was riding a snowmobile (it was really slick)
“No, it can’t be”, I said, but it must be Saint Nick.
The dog it was big, maybe a Great Dane,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called it by name;
”To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away Paul!"
As dry leaves that before the leafblower fly,
When it’s windy mount to the sky,
So up to the roof the snowmobile flew,
With the toys, the dog and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the shingles
The stamping and pawing of old Kris Kringle.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney he came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, (how politically incorrect),
But I didn’t want to make him feel bad so I didn’t object;
A bundle of presents he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
I had to remind him no smoking was allowed,
so he put out the pipe although a comment he swallowed.
I thought about calling the Neighborhood Watch
picked up the cell but afraid I would botch.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but opened his pack,
And I saw from the presents we nothing would lack,
And laying his finger aside of his nose
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his snowmobile, to his dog gave a whistle,
And away they went like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to Candlewick, and to all a good-night."

CWL Dues Reduction Raffle

It will begin February 1, 2011. For a $5.00 per ticket investment you have a chance to reduce your 2011-12 dues by a minimum of $500.00!! Tickets will be available thru April 18th at the Administration Office and the Recreation Center during normal business hours. The raffle is open to all property owners! Monies will be automatically credited to your dues. Check the CWL newspaper for further information.

Submitted by Bonnie Marron

Board meeting of Tuesday 12/21

I am happy to report again our reserves and operating cash are in good shape with total cash on hand of over $3,360,000. This will give us a nice jump on our roads program. We discussed the road program a few days ago here so I will not go into detail again but it was discussed at the meeting indicating we will be saving around five million over the original plan of a year ago through much investigation of methods. There will be open meetings to discuss the plans before anything starts to get property owner input. It is looking very good.

The dredging is of course completed with final negotiation being completed to pay off the smaller amount still due. The late penalty appears to be about $10,000.00 since some of the delay was due to our changing the plan during the work. Just as a side note, Summerset is now getting bids for their dredging and the company we used is bidding about $2.00 higher per cubic yard than we paid so we got quite a deal and came in well under original projections. Nice work by our manager saving us big bucks.

Don Parisi stated the final revisions of the CC&Rs are simply too complex for him to understand even though he has been heavily involved in developing the documents. They are going to be trashed and the old CC&Rs will be used and modified as necessary. We have been promoting that idea for months so we all would know what the changes are rather than having to wade through the massive new documents. Thanks go to Don for his honesty. He spent a lot of time on these and it had to be a heartbreaking decision but he put our association ahead of his own ego.

The bylaws will still be mailed for approval of the P.O.s along with that disastrous incorporation survey. The Pride hasn’t waded deeply into the bylaws re-write so we will post here the the final version looks and how we intend to vote. Obviously the incorporation question needs to be a solid NO to stop any additional spending on this issue in its tracks once and for all. It will involve expensive legal work and opinions. The mailing should be hitting your mailbox in January. It is important to get your vote in right away to save future mailings that will add to the cost. There will be three attempts to get your vote. 30% of the P.O.’s will need to vote yes to pass the bylaws.

To avoid about $16,000 in property taxes all guest golfers must be signed in directly at the course by a resident. Tightening up access is necessary if we are to stop the taxation. Again, it is a savings to our P.O.s even though it will be less convenient.

B&B’s has sent a letter of interest to lease the Dockside Grill. Others have also expressed interest so negotiations continue. I would anticipate a re-opening in the spring by a new lessee.

The vacant lot at 109 Spinnacre has been offered as a donation to the association and it is being accepted after checking the documentation on the property.

Boat Races…There was some fairly heated discussion against the noise and closing the lake but in the end the motion passed with only one no vote by one board member. After the obvious aversion to this I would not be surprised if this will be the last race. I don’t recall any attendee giving support from the audience. The vote was surprising to many.

Disclaimer…..as always this report is from my notes and is not official minutes from the meeting. Be sure to read the Candlewick newsletter for the finalized minutes.

Ken Dillenburg

State Budgets: The Day of Reckoning

For those of you who missed it, may I recommend the 60 Minutes story "State Budgets: The Day of Reckoning".
The transcripts as well as video may be found at the CBS site:
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml?tag=hdr


60 Minutes investigated the alarming and persistent economic crisis confronting a handful of states including Illinois. While there are many important and enlightening aspects to this report, the implication that Illinois must constrict spending seems particularly relevant to the incorporation question. I believe this report argues strongly against trusting projections of future state payments to local governments.

The report describes Illinois as the worst financial basket case of all the states:

And nowhere has the reckoning been as bad as it is in Illinois, a state that spends twice much as it collects in taxes and is unable to pay its bills.

"This is the state of affairs in Illinois. Is not pretty," Illinois state Comptroller Dan Hynes told Kroft...
"It's fair to say that there are tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people waiting to be paid by the state," Hynes said...
"And who do you owe that money to?" Kroft asked.
"Pretty much anybody who has any interaction with state government, we owe money to," Hynes said...

It's not just the social safety net that Hynes has to worry about: there have been Illinois legislators that have been evicted from their offices because the state didn't pay their rent, and stories about state troopers being turned away from gas stations because the owners refused to take their state credit cards...

"Yeah. I mean, the state of Illinois is known as a deadbeat state. This is a reputation that has taken us years to earn and we've reached, you know, the heights of, I think, becoming the worst in the country," Hynes said.

The report indicates that Illinois may be forced to pursue severe measures to resist sliding further towards bankruptcy. It seems unlikely cutting state payouts to local governments would be beyond consideration.

State payments to municipalities have been running at least 4 months late. Last spring Governor Quinn proposed cutting state income tax payments to local governments by 30%. That proposal was shelved but reduced payments can be revisited anytime the legislature is in session.

The austerity measures New Jersey employed:

In some ways, Christie is the political canary in the coal mine of the state fiscal crisis. He slashed New Jersey's budget by 26 percent, including a billion dollars in cuts to education, forcing the layoffs of thousands of teachers. He got rid of 1,300 state workers and drastically reduced funding to New Jersey cities, counties and villages which have their own financial problems.

The whole 60 Minutes report is worth a read IMO.
Randy Budreau

HERE’S HOPING FOR CLEAR SKIES…

In the wee hours of Tuesday morning (December 21st), 1:41 a.m. to be exact, an once-in-a-lifetime event will occur in the southwestern skies - a full lunar eclipse coinciding with the longest night of the year. Beginning at 12:32 a.m. and ending at 4:01 a.m., this type of eclipse will not happen again until December 21, 2094. So set your alarm clocks and hope for clear skies to witness this rare occurrence.

Submitted by Bonnie Marron

not "Happy Holidays"

We must remember why it is........CHRISTMAS

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

posted by Ken Dillenburg

Board meeting Tuesday

It is that time again for the monthly board of directors meeting. The Tuesday meeting will be at the rec. center starting at 6:30 p.m. As usual we will post the high points of the meeting here for you from general notes.

The agenda is not yet published but I understand one of the hot buttons at the meeting will be the boat races scheduled for next summer as they were a couple years ago. There are some strong feelings on this subject so if you have an opinion or simply want to hear the debate points it would be a good meeting to attend. I would also expect an update on the timing of the CC&R’s mailings and final revisions.

Since this is going to be Christmas week I will be posting the meeting notes mentioned above but other than that I intend to post tomorrow then sign off for the week unless something significant develops. I wish each of you the most blessed and merry Christmas. Thank you for your interest in the Pride Group site.

Ken Dillenburg

A meeting regarding roads

Thursday I attended a presentation made by Dave Weber of Wendler Engineering with several board members, staff, and interested parties regarding a proposal for road repairs and rebuilding. Since the final decision has not been made by our board of directors I cannot report the finalized numbers so I will generalize.

The proposal is a program to be implemented over a period of four years and at first reading the numbers seems workable with our reserves and continuing yearly contributions we have been making for some time. Our reserves are still in good shape even after the dredging costs are paid so we will be on good footing when the project finally starts. It could begin in 2011 or possibly as late as 2012 depending on getting all the ducks in a row.

The discussion seemed to revolve around the necessity to make this a continuing project after the initial work is completed so we don’t find ourselves in a crisis with all roads deteriorating at once. As things progress I am sure much more detailed information will be available in our Candlewick newsletter as well as future meetings with the residents prior to a final decision.

Ken Dillenburg

A follow-up to the lay-off of deputies post

I reported a couple days ago regarding the layoffs affecting the Boone County Sheriffs department. I am sad to report one full time deputy was laid off December 3 and two part time deputies have also been dropped due to budget shortfalls. As I indicated before, we all hate to see cuts especially in police but there is no alternative for the county. Sad for the deputies as well just before Christmas.

Ken Dillenburg

What did Santa bring last year?

We have a lot of gifts for which to be thankful. Who could not like a beautiful lake for all our enjoyment, a free golf course for our use, free swimming, and all in our secure, gated, well run association. Life is good!

That is not to mention all of our personal blessings of family, friends, and caring neighbors who enrich all our lives. Wishing each of you a wonderful, blessed Christmas while remembering it’s true meaning.

Ken Dillenburg (no, that’s not me in the picture!)

Share your blessings

We are now less than 10 days out from Christmas and there are many people, some residents of our own community, who are still in need of food, clothes, shelter and/or gifts for their children. If circumstances allow please consider donating food, new or gently used clothing, new toys and/or money at your church, to the Belvidere/Boone County Food Pantry, Salvation Army or the charity of your choice. Many groups that are organizing holiday drives can be found in the local newspapers. Your generosity will be greatly appreciated both by the charity and the recipients.

Submitted by a Pride member

Neighborhood Watch information

Bev Gaddis, the head of neighborhood watch, has sent out the following incident report. She indicated this is for the last few weeks. To me this looks like a very good report for our size community.

November 22 there was trespass to a vacant home at 502 Lamplighter Loop. Three individuals were arrested, one adult and two juveniles.

December 3 overnight there was damage to a vehicle in the driveway of 203 Constitution consisting of outside mirror, hood, and doors damage. Currently they are attempting to locate a suspect.

Thank you to Bev for the continued reporting of incidents to the members and her involvement in neighborhood watch, a fine program helping protect our community. Every community has crime but it is nice to see ours at such a low level.

Ken Dillenburg

Some good….some not so good

I heard today Poplar Grove has approved the request for construction of a fire department training facility. The tower was approved by a vote of four to two for the project, which is scheduled to start as soon as next spring on fire department owned land near highway 173. The North Boone fire protection district is pleased with the approval for the facility to help train and improve their department.

I also understand the Boone County sheriff will be in the unenviable position of cutting some deputies due to the continuing county budget woes. These are tough times but all of us dislike the idea of cuts in essential services. I have no details at this time regarding the severity of the cuts but any decrease in the force is not a good thing. I expect we will continue with our extra Sheriff’s deputy coverage during the summer months as we enjoyed last year as well as our usual public safety force and gates. We should be fine.

Ken Dillenburg

Judge rules government overstepped

This will almost certainly go to the Supreme Court but it is an interesting development in the government health care plan. There is and must be a limit to government power. Ken

The Obama administration’s requirement that most citizens maintain minimum health coverage as part of a broad overhaul of the industry is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled, striking down the linchpin of the plan.

U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson in Richmond, Virginia, said today that the requirement in President Barack Obama’s health-care legislation goes beyond Congress’s powers to regulate interstate commerce. While severing the coverage mandate, which was to become effective in 2014, Hudson didn’t address other provisions such as expanding Medicaid.

Hudson, appointed by President George W. Bush, found the minimum essential coverage provision of the act “exceeds the constitutional boundaries of congressional power.”