December 2003 – Issue 2.2
MISSION - FORUM - ARCHIVE

* * * Happy Holidays!* * *

In this Issue: Invention Saves $$$... Snow Removal Improved...The Right Direction...A Busy Year...Unofficial Summit Jingle ...Why Are We Paying Twice? ... The Other Side...

Invention saves $18,000

Safety cones (A) are placed on styrofoam blocks (B) by side of road (C) fastened with rope (D) to pin (E). When Yeider's Run (F) overflows, cones float accross Lakeview Drive warning approaching cars of the hazzard. The arrangement eliminates the need for the roving patrol allowing removal of the $18,000. line item from the 2004 budget.

A later version of the invention employs bungee cords to return the cones to the roadside after the water has receded. This eliminates the need for the Maintenence Crew.

Snow Removal Improved

The Maintenance crew is better prepared this year per a letter from Karen Northrup, our General Manager (currently at http://www.lake-holiday.org/Alerts.html ). Saturday morning found our roads quite passible, although there were some delays reported last night. (Ya can't please everybody...) Sunshine brought out winter's splendor, which is difficult to capture in these small photos.

The Right Direction

The December President's report indicates we are headed in the right direction. Please be sure to read it at the Lake Holiday website www.lake-holiday.org . The new board has been quite active in reshaping it's values, communications, responsibilities and procedures. We applaud the effort to keep residents informed of community activity in a timely manner in the form of monthly town hall meetings, reassignment of the newsletter oversight, and web-published key meeting actions and minutes. Done properly, there should be little need for The Summit Advisor. Well...maybe quarterly...

A Busy Year

The lifting of the moratorium coupled with low mortgage rates has stimulated a host of housing activity in The Summit this year. From December 2002 to November 2003 the Architectural Committee approved 55 new construction requests. Five completions were approved and seven deferred and later approved. Resident additions and changes totaled 140, tree removal requests 58 and resale inspections 54. In all 329 requests were handled at monthly meetings, and most required site visits. In addition to the reviews, the committee has been drafting a number of guidelines which will appear when approved on the Lake Holiday website.

Statistically these numbers represents about 11% housing growth and 11% turnover, so that about 22% will be new residents when the in-progress construction is completed. Some anticipate that economic growth will eventually increase interest rates and slow the housing growth rate somewhat.

Unofficial Summit Jingle

Oh we're living in the Summit, the prices here don't plummet, and we love it here dad gum it -
in the top left corner of Virginia
We've got an association, and good participation, the place is a sensation -
in the top left corner of Virginia
(repeat ad nauseam)

Why Are We Paying Twice?

I thought the wasteful roving patrols were discontinued. But I noticed our Summit patrol car late Sunday night with lights off and motor running parked in an area that affords very little observation. The occupant was a county officer watching for speeders and stop sign violators. I looked around and saw no stop signs or traffic. I thought they were hired to catch vandals. So why are we paying $17.50 per hour to an off duty deputy to sit around on a cold winter night? And why are we paying them for a service included in our taxes? They should be patrolling the Summit, in uniform, just like any other part of the county, on county time and at county expense. Somebody show me where it says that private communities are lawless.

The Other Side

The heroics of the roving patrol are somewhat overstated in a recent letter from our General Manager. I thought you might like to hear the other side of the story from the "contfrontational resident" referenced in the letter.

I arrived with from work about 11:30 PM followed by my wife also returning from work. Yeiders run had flooded the road making access to sections 4 and 8 impassible. Ofc. Prangle had apparently just arrived, and after brief discussion about opening the back gate, ordered me to stand guard at the flood site. I did so, and after a half hour with no activity, I proceeded to the gatehouse to find Ofc. Prangle uncertain what to do and unable to contact anyone about the back gate. I insisted that access to back sections was a priority and asked him what he was going to do. He said with true police authority, "we're going to set up safety cones". I called Frank Heisey and attempted to hand the cell phone to Prangle, who repeatedly pushed me out of the guardhouse into the rain. He even closed the door once on my hand causing bruising.

Mr. Heisey appeared shortly thereafter, and requested the back gate key, but was refused. We later found the guardhouse had the wrong key anyway. God forbid we have an emergency. Eventually Norris showed up with the key and opened the back gate. We were able to get home just before 1 AM after about 1 1/2 hours of delay.

Confrontational? You bet! And you would be too if you were denied access to your home in the middle of the night by the police. I only became insistant when Ofc. Prangle's incompetence became apparent. No doubt opening the back gate would admit speeders and other lawbreakers despite the pouring rain. And setting up safety cones is a politically safe police activity. As far as I am concerned, this is just one more reasons to stop wasting money on this fruitless service.