Thinking about this whole mess that we now have I wondered how we ever got here in the first place and the answer comes down to the fact that the current UCO administration and the previous one simply lied and lied and lied yet again. I cannot believe that they were so naïve as to not see the truth but just denied it in the way that foolish people do in the vain hope that no one will notice their hand in the cookie jar. No, this was done on purpose.
The first complaints about the poor job that was being done on the roads began the very first minute the job began. The drainage and the swale areas, which should have been done first - were not. Period.
Next we had the paving, such as it was. The material was sub standard, the technique used was substandard, the machines were the wrong ones, especially in the second phase after we were "blackmailed" into paying up more money, and the roads were uneven, unbalanced and ill suited to the torrential rains we get here in Florida and instead we became the southern version of 1,000 lakes. The paint for the striping was laid on almost immediately, before the material on the roads dried and thus sank into the dampness and faded almost immediately. Two months after the striping we looked as if we needed a striping job. The road itself, uneven and poorly done, almost immediately began to break down, crumble into pebbles and sand and soon enough we had what we had before the supposed new job.
A punch list was supposedly amassed, a long, long, one but basically nothing was done and the administration, in the form particularly of David Israel and his head honcho, Ed Black, the non elected "official" maintained that we were all dumb, malcontents, know nothings and on and on. His paranoia grew and as it grew so did his desperate attempts to shut down any protest and to ridicule those who opposed him. When a suit was attempted, too many of the residents bought into David Israel's lies and now we have the sad results and the horrific consequences to come, ranging from roads that are in desperate conditions in many areas and a financial bill that will break all our backs.
From screeching that the road will last thirty years, to downgrading to 20 years and then 15, we began to see the truth coming out no matter how much they tried to hide it. The cost of replacement and repair increased exponentially as the years shortened. Now suddenly we are down to 8 1/2 years and the financial cost is just too heavy to even contemplate. And yet we must.
Howie O' Brien suddenly woke up at the meeting the other day, - don't know why, nor where he suddenly got his "published" information - but at least he woke up and is warning us all about the truth, too late, but at last. Now he is warning us about Eva coming in with her wish list for the Village and how much more that will cost us. I agree with him that we need to attend the meeting and shut down these extravagant projects and wish lists and David Israel, that includes your broadband project. Quite frankly we are going to be very lucky if we get through this mess financially intact. I have serious doubts, but we sure need to face reality and try and that means an austerity budget and no pie in the sky projects and wastes of money. No more courts that sink into the ground or break via cracks in the foundation. No more quarter of a million dollars on a pool no matter how pretty it looks. We simply cannot afford that at this point.
First and foremost we need to have a meeting at which we force David Israel to answer for his sins. He needs to resign or be impeached, and he and Ed Black need to be banned from UCO unless they are coming in as residents with questions. We need to hold emergency Town Halls in order to explain to the residents the harsh truth and the harsh ways in which we will have to overcome this. We need an advisor to help us avoid bankruptcy and how to arrange for a phased repaving that will keep us going without breaking the banks of all the residents. And we need to get working on the post Millennium Agreement era, what we will change - for our benefit and the hard truth that Mark Levy et al needs to hear - that we cannot subsidize the expenses of others and while all are entitled to profits, it must be fair and not on the broken backs of a captive audience.
People, we have no choice. We must act. We must demand answers. NOW. Attend the meetings. I will not be here most of the month due to happy family business, but I will be there in spirit and via my friends. Before this place turns into a ghost town by default, let us act. I love it here and have no wish to leave. We are not at the point of no return and if we tighten the purse strings, spend only what must, and work on ways to fix this mess, we will survive and recover. But first - get rid of those who have brought us to this place in time. And jerk, infant, and you know who you are, sending me disgusting potty comments not even worthy of a sharp seven year old, will not stop me nor will it gain you any attention or success. Just crawl back into your hole along with other denizens of your ilk. Do us all a favor.
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