"It's a rich man's world."
"If I were a rich man...."
"Seven and a half cents isn't such a heck of a lot...."
The music and songs of Broadway and even the world are rife with the wishes and dreams, to have the funds, the wherewithal to fulfill those dreams and the dreams of loved ones, to send kids to college, to repair a home, to simply pay the bills. We here in CVWPB are no different and unless someone has a money tree hidden amongst the palm trees, we, too, need to plan carefully and accumulate funds in as painless and wise a manner as is possible or face the consequences.
Well, actually, we are facing the consequences of a poor fiscal planning situation here in the Village. Prior to the David Israel harmful era here in the Village, we were accumulating funds at a godo pace for needed and anticipated repairs and infrastructure projects. We actually were amassing a half million dollars a year for the roads project and would have had enough money to do it properly if we had violated term limits and kept the administration in office. Instead we got what we have now and the money was blown up and out and the roads are cracking beneath our very feet and we have all sorts of money and financial needs now, pressing ones and our reserves? Pathetic! And why? Because we have not collected the proper infusions of cash that we should have been doing and have also been expending unnecessarily huge amounts on pretty but unnecessary projects such as a constant changing of the shrubbery and flora around the Clubhouse, again and again, all to make Levy's Clubhouse oh so pretty. And why? So he can sell it out from under us as he did with the golf course?
Our Treasurer told us before we adopted the current budget that we were not collecting proper funds for the reserves and it would bite us in the future. Well, people, the future is upon us. For the funds to fill the hole in the reserves and keep it going properly, the raises in fees alone just for that purpose would be over $13 and that is his figure, published in his column. Now add to that the rise in fees necessary for your condo association to function properly, the rise in fees for UCO needs and the infernal and constant demands of WPRF. Easy to make demands and fulfill wish lists when it comes from someone else's pocket!
Since we bought back in 1998 our fees have steadily risen in all areas and that is acceptable if the increases were reasonable and justified AND went to good purposes with solid planning for the future and our needs. The raises were able to be swallowed without great difficulty. Our condo association has been blessed with great people on the board and we have our reserves and our future needs anticipated. However, what we have now in the Village is a mess. Future planning is nigh unto non existent. Oh yes, we hear talk but that talk never goes into action until the moment of desperation is upon us and then we act foolishly. For example. It is now half into the year 2016, less than six years before the Millennium Agreement is null and void. For years already we have been urging planning, meetings with the residents for advice and comments as to what they would like to see in a new agreement, with attorneys who know what the hell they are doing, and yet all we have gotten are statements of "oh, we are looking...". Well guess what, The Levy's are not looking ; they are deep into planning - and all on our backs and it will all come from our pockets!
And the money just keeps a flowin' out. And what do we see for it? Don't ask me. We are told that the waterways took ten years to get this way - at least they are finally admitting that there is a problem here - but that is not an excuse. Rather it is an indictment for during those ten years they stood there with their thumbs up their proverbial rears and did nothing worth anything. Did no one stop to think that pouring in water inundated with minerals would cause harm to our waters and no, please do not tell me that having alligators in our lakes is a good thing! Chomp! Chomp! Would the Nile alligators be an even better omen?
We have been foolishly negligent in the area of the Somerset courts and what is underground. Thousands upon thousands of dollars have literally been poured into the area and it is still a mess. Along comes the Tennis Cub, mainly Canadians who are here a maximum of six months a year, who are demanding Har -Tru courts - that will run to half a million dollars! Yup, you read it correctly . They had a professional looking presentation but that does not change the fact that it is an impossible request. Yes, we should finally fix the courts right, but if they want Har - Tru - let them raise half the funds for it. Only fair, just as other people have raised funds for what they want. This is what advocacy groups do and this is what is needed in our financial state.
We have thrown good money after bad with the chiller in the Clubhouse. Never done properly from the beginning, we have fixed and fixed and now it really must be replaced. If we had done the right thing in the first place..... And what about this refurbishing of the UCO building. Instead of giving us a figure , a total sum of all the costs, we got piecemeal info, all under the number that needs to be voted upon so we, the residents, had no input, no sayso over the budget for this project and that is just the way things have been happening here. We should have stated a budget for the whole entirety of it and then forced them to keep within it. But again, things are simply not done properly here at all.
Piecemeal fixing of roads, of walkways, of pavers that were foolishly and ineptly laid down and ugly retarring of those areas, striking in their appearance, blatantly not part of a soothing appearance - all this costs money, lots of it. And the irrigation system? A constant in the help column. Piece here, piece there and ongoing forever and a day.
So what will be the final number for the fees next year? We need to pay that $13 and make up the gap and keep it low the following year or perhaps we can split the need in two and do it in two years, but done it must be. And what about everything else? What about Eva's wish list? And will the Operations committee just fall down in front of her as they most often do and perhaps we will look at some more expensive trees and bushes, perhaps by Hastings as that is another property we do not own.
Money money money. We have enough problems to look forward to in these United States. G-d forbid we get that dangerous fool, Trump, in office for then we will be heading down the road to ruin, to authoritarianism and do not think I am alone in these feelings and thoughts for all segments of the media are finally waking up to this fact but is it too late? I hope not, I surely do. This is not a "protest" candidate, but rather one that encourages violence with his hate messages. Whenever did we have riots and violence at other campaign presentations in modern times? Whenever did we have such hate, blatant prejudice and a man who is promising to turn back the clock to Neanderthal times! So, people, we need to look at the facts hard and close, here and in the outside world. Yes, we are in Act III, but I prefer not to spend mine in a reeducation camp nor watch the future of my kids and grandchildren go down the toilet. I certainly prefer to sit out on my lanai and look at the lake without the green scuzz floating around, without paying huge fees that eat into my funds for other necessities. And no. To tell people that if they cannot afford it they need to get the hell out will simply not do. Perhaps we need to raise the financial level needed for entry for the future but we have no right to tell people who are now living on $700 in Social Security that to hell with them, let them eat once a day or fast a day or so. After all, fasting is good for the soul!
Heart and head. Both are needed. Let us find them and use them. Quickly.
Gracie, boooooorrrrrriiiiinnnnnggggg! Please eat some fish.
Hey, Gracie, I took my own advice, had a piece of lox and look what I remembered. I left out the whole issue of the Broadband, that obsession of David. Talk about a waste of money - to sink millions or even hundreds of thousands into a technology that would be outdated before it began, let alone when it was finished and for what? For a system we already turned down, for something people do not want to pay for nor feel needed, for associations who already wired up by themselves at a much lower fee, for those of us who pay premium dollar for the best service and do not wish to get poorer service even while paying more money for it and for those people who do not have email as even David admitted in the DA. So what and why this project. Let it die a clean death and will resurrect when the time has come. That time is not now.
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