Residential Customer Daphne, AL 36526
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The Lake Forester • April 2016 • 1
The Lake Forester
Your Community...Experience it!
April 2016
Volume 26, No. 4 NEIGHBORHOOD tidbits
MGA Master Tournament Saturday, April 9th
LFPOA Stated Board Meeting Saturday, April 21st
LF Marina Free Vessel Safety Inspection Thursday, April 23rd • 7pm
Boys 6-A High School Secional Golf Tournament Monday, April 25th
The Old Farmer’s Almanac April 2016 Temperature 64° (1° above avg.) Precipitation 3.5” (1" below avg.) Apr 1-5: Sunny, nice Apr 6-14: Scattered t-storms, turning warm Apr 15-20: T-storms, then sunny, nice Apr 21-30: Scattered t-storms; cool, then warm. PRESRT STD ECRWSS U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 5 Foley, ALA 36535
Presidents Comments
Looking d Ahea Submitted by: Steve Sasser President
the extensive damage. On the bright side, the golf cart garage in the basement is constructed with steel reinforced concrete, and other than some maintenance issues, is in pretty good shape. HMR recommends that we salvage the cart garage, but demolish the building, and build a new building.
As I am writing this article, we are preparing for our Annual Meeting of the membership. Due to a lack of participation, there will be no election for the four open seats The Yacht Club on the board. We have is in better shape. only four candidates that There doesn’t showed interest in serving appear to be any on the board. Ed KirbySteve Sasser serious structural and Richard Kersey, who problems. HMR have just completed five year did caution us on investing a terms, will serve another five year great deal of money here though term. Dave Sumner and David for a couple of reasons. First, the Dueitt are our new members and building is on wooden pilings. will also serve five year terms. The expected life spans of these Congratulations to all of you pilings are forty to fifty years. gentlemen! They’ve been in the ground We have been consulting holding this building up for forty with HMR and associates since years already. Secondly, the cost December on the possibilities of making all the improvements and our options for renovations that need to be made can easily and improvements at the 19th match the cost of building a new Hole and at the Yacht Club. building. HMR recommends that These facilities are over forty we make minor improvements years old and are in dire need of for the time being and plan on an overhaul inside and out. HMR demolishing the building and did land surveys and building building a new one in the next ten assessments for both of these to fifteen years. properties and have presented us reports of their findings. In summary, the 19th Hole is not worth renovating. While the building is not about to collapse in the near future, it does have serious structural problems. There is water damage and rot on wooden beams that run from outside the building to inside. The deck overlooking the putting green and driving range is collapsing from rotten wood. Nearly all of the siding and architectural features are rotting. It is just not cost effective to repair
With this information, we’re working on plans for our future. We have already spent many hours discussing the needs and expectations of our membership. We want to have amenities that we can all enjoy and be proud of, amenities we’ll want to use. This neighborhood was designed for our amenities to be places where we gather, where we connect. We’ve lost that over the years. This Board of Directors is working very hard to get that back. Case in point, check out the Montclair Pool. Wow! It looks
like a different property, and we’re not done yet. This pool is used extensively from the day pools open May 1st, until they close in September. We’re updating the bathrooms, making them handicap accessible. We’ve expanded the pool deck and applied spray deck to make it easier on your bare feet. We’re getting new lounge chairs at all of the pools. The pool looks brand new with new plaster, tile and coping. A new fence and new play set are on their way and we’re working on improvements to the landscape of the whole property, including removing some trees, installing drainage and new sod. We’re doing all we can with the funds we have to make improvements to our amenities. That’s only a portion of what makes our neighborhood what it is. What really makes us is our members. Each one of us makes a difference. Thankfully, we have a neighborhood loaded with gracious, generous and responsible members who contribute to all of our quality of life. I thoroughly enjoy just riding down Ridgewood and Bayview and seeing some of the beautiful landscaping in some of the front yards. We’ve got some green thumbs in the garden club. We are home to business owners, council members, law enforcement, military, TV personalities, teachers, attorneys, medical professionals and nearly everything else. We have a lot of folks who generally do the right thing. Unfortunately, we have to face the fact that we are home to some thugs as well. Our office doesn't get many calls about properties that are maintained and in good shape, though most of them are. However, our ARC department is flooded with complaints of
Inside Lake Forester
Quarterly Landscape Awards, Page 5
General Managers Report, Page 6
Lake Forest Garden Club, Page 7
Lake Forest Golf Page 9
See Looking On, Page 5
The Fishing Hole Page 10