BY ROBIN KNEPPER
As the budget season draws to a close at Lake of the Woods, argument is heated about expanding the bar in the gated community’s clubhouse.
Both sides of the issue voiced opinions at Saturday’s board of directors meeting, and when the conversation was over board member and Treasurer Olive Kelly told the overflow audience that she would try to postpone the project.
“I don’t see the numbers on this,” she said, “or see how we’re going to pay for it.”
The $194,000 price tag for the bar expansion would add about $45 to the annual assessment on each lot at the massive Orange County subdivision, according to LOW General Manager Phil Rodenberg. Taking it out would keep the assessment at this year’s level.
Rodenberg presented his $6.8 million operating budget to the community Jan. 21. To fund this spending plan, each of the 4,257 lot owners would be assessed $1,221, a $46, or 3.9 percent, increase over the current fiscal year’s rate.
LOW President Pat Rowland said he would move to amend the budget by removing all pool fees. That would add about $5 to the assessment, according to Rodenberg.
Resident Rosalind Gantz commented that the pool would “become a great big bathtub if that happens.”
Board member Jim Walsh said he will move to amend the budget by increasing daily golf fees by $1, a change that would be revenue-neutral, according to Assistant General Manager Rob Martin.
The seven-member board of directors will vote on the budget at its meeting Feb. 15. The fiscal year begins May 1.
Disagreements at Lake of the Woods often revolve around spending money on an amenity used by only a fraction of the estimated 8,000 residents.
Speaking against the bar expansion at Saturday’s board meeting, former LOW Association President Bruce Kay said that fewer than 400 households support the clubhouse, it’s open only 20 hours a week and it’s closed on important holidays.
“This is not a country club,” he said. “We should plan to replace the clubhouse with a single-story building with convenient parking in 10 years.”
Nigel Goodwin, chairman of the Orange County Planning Commission and an active LOW resident, also opposed the bar expansion.
“This is a private agenda by a few people who want a bar,” he said.
“Just thinking this will work is not the proper way to spend our money.”
The majority of speakers supported the bar expansion, however, citing the attractiveness of the community’s amenities to future home buyers and the money it would make for the clubhouse, thus possibly lowering the subsidy LOW members have to pay to keep it open.
In other business, members questioned the directors before they voted unanimously to require the registered owner of a watercraft
to carry watercraft liability insurance of at least $500,000.
The registrant of a watercraft with less than 10 horsepower may instead show proof of homeowner liability insurance of no less than $300,000 per accident.
The new regulation follows the wrongful-death suit against LOW filed in November by the estate of a man who died as a result of being hit by a boat on LOW’s main lake on July 3, 2010.
The estate of Jason Goodman is suing LOW for $6 million and co-defendant Chuck Schulle, the boat’s operator, for $500,000. Schulle was convicted in Orange County Circuit Court of operating a boat in a reckless manner.
No trial date has been set.
Goodman’s representative originally tried to file a claim against Orange County, which denied the claim because of its sovereign-immunity protection. The estate has filed an appeal.
Robin Knepper: 540/972-5701
rknepper@earthlink.net
