Shared Thoughts on the Culling (And this is my last post on this topic)

First, I would like to say thank you to everyone that has recently commented or e-mailed me regarding my posts.  The most popular posts at the moment seem to be:  Mulling the Culling, Mulling the Culling II and Coosawattee Campground (almost 800 page views since posting!).

Needless to say I have had a TON of traffic and lots of feedback and I APPRECIATE it.  Communication is the universal solvent and when done efficiently and respectfully can really accomplish a lot. 

Now, back to the 'culling'.  The debate seems to continue on.  Why some things get perpetuated to nausea is beyond me, but hey, whatever floats your boat.  I'm going to begin compiling the feedback I've gotten along with my own knowledge and research about the topic and begin posting some conclusions in this post - but please be warned - some of you may not like what I have to say.  So, in those instances, let's agree to disagree until we get this thing figured out. 

First, I'd like to share some thoughts that have been expressed to me.  I'll put them into brief bullet points as I don't want to quote the sources.  I'm sharing these thoughts as a reference of people's feelings.  The human mind will react in a survival instinct, and that instinct is based on initial, instantaneous feelings - feelings that will persist out of defiance even if the mind knows better.  To get anything done, people have to understand this, accept it and proceed with negotiations understanding it.  Now, for some thoughts/comments that have been sent to me and I'll add my opinion later on:

1.    People are disrespectful on the pro-cull side often resorting to name calling

2.    Most scientific facts that have been used by the pro-cull side could be disputed and are/were for the most part up for interpretation or twisted to serve a point

3.    Good information was peppered with falsehoods to suit personal beliefs and not complete fact

4.    Deer eat corn in nature and it does not hurt them.  (I must add, while it isn't the healthiest choice for them, it won't be the death of them either.  I know there are numerous articles with conflicting discussion.  The fact is that corn is to deer as energy drinks are to humans, and its actually heavy in starch and fattening, but not that most Americans have room to point fingers at any critters eating habits!!)

5.    I'm tired of hearing about the natural fauna being destroyed

6.    There aren't many deer in my neighborhood - is this problem only in certain areas?

7.    People are driving the cull notion for self serving desires

8.    If there is no food as people say wouldn't the deer move on?

9.    Are entire ecology is suffering because we have reduced natural predators so what difference does it make if we reduce the herd when the real problem has not been corrected (I agree whole heartedly with this comment.  A deer cull is only a bandage over the real ecological issues Man has created). 

That is only a sampling of the many comments that have been e-mailed to me, but no need to post all of them as many of them say virtually the same thing.  Now for my view.  I've thought long and hard about this and realistically, I think I have summed up my thoughts in previous posts.  But, here goes:

1.   The nastiness of both sides, though the most nasty has come from the 'pro' side, has got to stop.  Grown adults should not be acting this way and NOTHING will come of this continued behavior other than both sides entrenching themselves further to their ideal side of the issue.

2.   If anyone wants to truly set the eco system back to where it is supposed to be then you have to reintroduce natural predators back into the wild.  Anyone that says that the deer need to be thinned, but we should not inconvenience Man with predators, is preaching from a very personal soapbox and is not looking at a cull as a sustainable solution - only one that fixes the probably right now.  They are not a solution to the problem, rather an extension of it.

3.   The problem as described by a few people may truly not exist in all areas of Coosawattee.  We are, after all, a huge area.  I can say that in my neck of the woods I see some deer, but not to the extent that others report.  There may only be particular areas with higher population of deer and I am quite certain that the deer population is commensurate with the human population.  More people destroying the environment by deforestation to build houses (just being sarcastic) and planting non-indigenous species of plants will draw more deer.  Feeding doesn't help, either.

4.   The CRR Board needs to work with the property owners to reduce building by consolidating vacant lots either through designation of green space or re-platting. 

In summary:  Man has created this issue.  I won't beat the dead equine because I have a post that discusses this.  That said - Man will never be the solution.  Four things need to happen to fix this problem, if it is in fact a problem:

1.    Quit being stubborn and acting like spoiled children.  Communicate like grown adults and have civil, productive discussion to come to a consensus.  This may sound harsh, but we have all seen the actions of folks fighting over this issue and it isn't good.  Just stop!

2.    Reduce future human population/growth through vacant property consolidation and production of green space.

3.    Don't feed the deer.  No matter what you think  - and your intentions are probably good - they aren't starving.  Observe from afar, but leave them alone!  If there is nothing in CRR for them to eat they will move on.  Nature made it long before Man came along with our ill placed sympathies and will most likely make it long after we have destroyed ourselves.

4.    Talk with Forestry and Natural Resources about developing a plan to stabilize the eco system through reintroduction of natural species such as wolves.  Mass elimination of one species will not help long term.  Man has tried that approach many times in our past and it was never good. 

Hopefully this hasn't taken an authoritarian tone, but simply my thoughts and beliefs.  I would like to hear yours - but please keep it clean:)

Thanks again to everyone for reading my [sometimes] rambling thoughts.  As always, I love to hear from my readers and appreciate your communication.

That's it for now because the weather is absolutely stunning along the Coosawattee River.

Till next time,

 

Chris

Thoughts on the Strategic Plan

By a show of hands, how many of you have read the association’s Strategic Plan?  What?  No?  Why not?  Well, I’m guessing if you haven’t read the plan it’s because, like me, most people groan at the thought of reading a strategic document and quickly find something else to do.  However, this plan is very straight forward, illustrated in bullet points and doesn’t spend too much time with history of the association, etc. that we, as owners, probably already know for the most part.  As of this morning the document had only been viewed 26 times on the website.  And two of those 26 are me!  Now, many owners bemoan the lack of communication to property owners, but don’t take time to review the materials that are broadcasted.  To view the document; log into the www.coosawattee.net property owner’s site, click on ‘Documents’ and then click on ‘Strategic Plan’.  It’s only 29 pages and a quick read.  Today I’m going to discuss some of the finer points of the plan and give my opinion and recommendations on the action items.

First, let’s take a look at the name of the association.  The plan recommends changing the name to Coosawattee River Community Association.  I don’t think I’m against this.  The term ‘resort’ has long been begging for a definition and means something different to everyone.  I also feel that the new name is more formal and not as ‘elitist’ in nature.

The second topic I would like to address is that of vacant land consolidation and green space production.  The weekly e-mail updates sent by Jeff are marketing the recent acquisition of vacant lots by the association.  While I think this is great for the association I feel we must act now in terms of long range population planning.  As most know, CRR is made up of approximately 7000 individual lots.  Now, think if there was even anywhere near that number of homes?  Yikes!  I believe the last census of developed properties in CRR was somewhere in the number of 2200-2500, and that number seems to suit as far as I’m concerned.  I would like to see management actively contacting owners whose properties are contiguous to the CRR owned properties and negotiating sales.  I also feel the association should be willing to transfer deed of these properties for nominal fees under the conditions that they will be replatted with existing lots – thus inhibiting future growth in the community.  This is the best way to ‘right size’ our community.  Perhaps set two prices on lots.  One price is the retail price and the other is the homeowner discounted price under terms of replatting.  It’s a win-win for the association as well for owners that want a little more elbow room.  This should pertain to the campground section as well.  These lots have not been generating revenue for the association, so we need to move them quickly off the books into the hands of the owners where they will. 

As I previously recommended in my post titled Coosawattee Campground: Why It Is Important To CRR, we should have a buy-back program to acquire some of the distressed properties, improve them, and resell them.  By ‘improve’ I mean stripping the lot, updating the power and electrical, re-graveling, and getting on the market.  We should also be encouraging owners to purchase contiguous lots for replatting.  This will relieve stress on the water and septic systems as well as provide additional parking and storage capacity for campground owners.  Many of the lots are quite small making construction of storage buildings difficult.  Storage = tidy properties.  These improvements will further increase the real estate value of campground lots, drive sales to higher bidding owners and reintroduce a high level of investors into the area.  All these things will continue the trend of improvement in the area and will improve the lives of the current owners. 

As for lots that don’t sell or are undesirable/unbuildable they should be offered at fire sale prices to the public and deed restricted from construction and sold as ‘amenity’ lots.  These deed restricted lots could have slightly lower dues rate.  I’m not sure how all that would work out – but some food for thought.

One of the recommendations in the plan was to eliminate the structure of the rec center pool and eliminate the miniature golf course.  First – yes, eliminate the current golf course, but replace it with something that would appear to have been built in the last century.  Better yet, move it to the general store so it could be an ‘upsell’ for folks coming for tubing, Pickin’ on the Porch, etc.  There really aren’t a lot of options for quality mini-golf in this area.  Quite frankly, I really enjoy playing.  While I don’t think we’ll ever have a course comparable to some of the mega courses you would see along the tourist areas in South Carolina, we could certainly have something that would be a real draw to the center.  Second – leave the structure over the pool.  The plan states that it is reaching the end of its useful life.  I disagree.  This is an aluminum structure.  Its useful life is just beginning.  The clear panels on the structure can be easily replaced if need be.  The expense of tearing down a perfectly good structure only to build another one simply does not make sound, financial sense.

I do agree with some of the plan in regards to the general store.  While the ‘trailers’ don’t offend me, I have long thought that this facility could be a bigger revenue generator for the community.  Pickin’ On the Porch seems pretty popular.  This could be a lot better, however, if a designated audience area was created with a proper stage, sound and light riggings.  This should be a covered area that could be used for other events.  It should also be made available for rental to the general public.  It should be designed as a multi-use facility for meetings, parties, receptions, etc..  Expanded food and drink options would also generate more revenue (along with quality miniature golf).

I also believe that it would be wise to have an area (possibly behind the shops near the POA office) to offer homeowners storage facilities.  I would love to get a boat to tour Carter’s Lake, Lake Blue Ridge, Chatuge, Nottely, etc……but I simply would not be able to navigate and store a boat and trailer with the configuration of my driveway.  Let’s just say I would be able to get it UP to the house, but would never be able to turn around and come back DOWN!  A covered and secured area for boats, utility trailers, RV’s, motorhomes and anything else that needs stored would generate revenue and, in my opinion, a self-funded amenity for homeowners.

I also agree with the reduction of the number of BOD members.  We need clear policy in place as to the role of the BOD and the role of paid management.  The BOD should be providing support and guidance to management, not managing them.  The Board is not the supreme being.  The property owners as a whole run the show.  Board meetings sometimes take the appearance of a legislative session on Capitol Hill.  Management and homeowners should be providing the content of the board meetings with the board members facilitating official voting to solidify new policy, generate public discussion of issues and most importantly – represent their constituents.  Boards are developed to hold management accountable, not influence topics for personal desires.  I could go on for days about structure and content of boards, but it really isn’t very interesting.

Lastly, and most important:  communication, communication, communication.  By large, the majority of issues that persist in CRR are due to lack of, or poorly executed communication.  Lack of transparency creates hysteria, rumors and conspiracy theories that run rampant on several known message boards….including our own, and create a horrible image of our community and owners.  Communication is never easy and I can certainly give new management a bit of a pass on this until they get fully acclimated to our community.  However, December was the last month a newsletter was published.  The newsletter, in my opinion, should be first and foremost in regards to communications.  The effort and creativity it takes to produce shows goodwill toward to the stakeholders of the community.  The weekly e-mails are great, but they simply don’t have the personal touch or ‘feel’ that the newsletter does.  Furthermore, the newsletter creates a sense of community.  Another focus should be on timely posting of board AND committee  (yes, I said committee) minutes on our website.  Several months can pass before minutes are posted (committees seem to feel they are exempt from this) and by that time new agendas and issues have come up that need to be dealt with.  It sometimes feels like we’re living in the past!  Open note to committee chairs – you are doing work on behalf of the full board.  Your actions influence the board.  You must post your minutes in a timely fashion.  Again, full policy should be created that all board and committee members will be required to adhere to.

Whew…..I’m tired.  So I’ve given you a few things to think about.  What are your thoughts?  Let me know in the comments section or you can e-mail me directly at chrisgoodson37@gmail.com if you don’t wish to publicly post here – though you can post under ‘anonymous’. 

Well, that’s it for now.  Lots to think about for us that live along the Coosawattee River.

Til next time,

Chris

Mulling the Culling II

First, I would like to say hello and welcome to CRR to Sally Baldwin who gave a shout-out to my blog on one of those ‘other’ websitesJ  Nonetheless, I’m happy you enjoy my blog and hope you continue to check back periodically for updates.

I think I need to start by saying I am terribly disappointed by the actions of some in our great community as of late.  It seems that multiple message boards are overrun by people that believe they can bully or influence other’s thinking by being rude, obnoxious, disrespectful, repetitive and lacking of substance, and that is all I’m going to say on that topic.  As I’ve said in ‘Mulling the Culling’ no minds will be swayed or changed by the institution of childish and borderline manic/psychotic behavior.

Now, being that the ‘for’ group seems to hold the most visceral stance on the topic I counter with this:  One of the common arguments I hear from the ‘for’ culling group is that the ecosystem is being destroyed.  I would be interested to hear from those that keep repeating this line to explain what they mean by ‘ecosystem is being destroyed’.  Not just repeating the existing format, but really explaining what is being destroyed and how.  It was once vaguely described as underbrush being eaten to the point of non-existence.  Hmmm.  Not sure I buy that considering that forestry was just recently doing controlled burns to eliminate underbrush that could cause widespread and sweeping firestorms during drought.  If this underbrush is so important to the ecosystem why would we decimate it through government programs?  Is it’s decimation a benefit to our community and homes to stave off raging wildfires in years of dry weather?  Is the deer population promulgating safety in our community, or does it go back to Man feeling He knows best when dealing with nature?

Now, something for the ‘against’ group.  Understanding you don’t wish to see the wildlife harmed because it is a joy to watch and is truly the splendor of Mother Nature in action; would you consider a thinning of the herd if it meant longevity and strengthening for the many should the herd be faced with a disease outbreak?

I would like to hear your thoughts, comments, etc.  Be warned that any ranting or maniacal comments will be immediately removed.  My blog, my rulesJ  You are free, however, to lament these thoughts and topics on other boards such as…….(sorry, they aren’t worth naming).

That’s it for now, time to spend a beautiful day along the Coosawattee River.

Til next time,

Chris