By Tom Blakeman, November 18, 2019
“One, if by land, two, if by sea. . . .”
No, the British are not coming to Hot Springs Village. And no, we don’t have a guy on horseback riding through the night to warn us. But there is an attack brewing – an assault on our pocketbooks. The big push for more money for the POA is coming and coming soon. Of course, there will be a ‘vote’ but you might as well call it “taxation without representation”. The monarchy is hungry, ravenous even.
Anybody want to bet on which general will lead the charge for the soon upcoming war to raise assessments? I’d put my money on Mr. Keith Keck who just resigned his role as chairman of the CMP Advisory Committee. After all, it was he who led the successful campaign for the Two-Tier. And, he just re-demonstrated his formidable political skills by getting the broadband grant exclusion issue favorably resolved.
The general will be sponsored in this new campaign by our queen (CEO), naturally. Can you remember back to her tutorial just two months ago about “inadequate funding models”? Along for the battle will be a clear majority of our current Board Members (probably even 100% of them). The cheerleading squad (troops) will include most of those residents formerly known as ‘Friends of the Village’.
How much will the new increase be you ask? Well, the Two-Tier brought in something like $2.5 million per year. So, it is likely they will go for another double, say $5.0 million this time with dues for residents with water meters going to about $120 per month. After all, we have millions needed for Balboa and the other golf courses soon. Plus we’ll need a big raise in 2021 for all the POA executive staff who won’t get one in 2020.
It is time for those of us opposed to begin digging in for a ‘Kill the Vote’ war. This will be a fight like you’ve never seen. To have any chance for success this new battle will need to far surpass the previous ‘Vote No’ campaign. You remember, the one we won against the Declarations and Articles changes.
Don’t be fooled. Presently, a vast majority of those opposing our present POA/BOD are sitting by idly dreaming about how the next year’s BOD election will solve all our problems. Wrong! I’m here to tell you that we won’t even get close to that Board election before this next attack on our pocketbooks kicks off.
Anybody want to bet that our new POA marketing staffer has already been tasked to create the new Assessment Vote PR campaign? What do you suppose they will call it? ‘Two-Tier II’ ? ‘Tier Three’ ? How about ‘Plenty in 2020’ ?
Forewarned is forearmed. You’ve been warned!
By Tom Blakeman, November 18, 2019
Maurice
11/18/2019 — 8:12 pm
Way finding is something necessary for any organization to be successful. I applaud the board for including it as a budget item. If we can’t find our way, how will we know where we are headed? This is much more important than, say, fixing a culvert. Or paving a road.
Wayfinding will help us all know that we are headed in the right direction. We need pocket neighborhoods, a lodge, apartments on the lake, a vibrant town center, shops, new restaurants, the new pool, golf cart lanes, more pickle ball courts, a new marina, and a more openness to visitors to HSV so that all will discover the beauty that is ours.
All the naysayers on this site will scare away people who might be considering moving here. But wayfinding will help overcome this negative bias. We will be able to show the way to those who are ready to buy here.
However, I do agree that golf is important and we should fix up our courses and the crummy clubhouses and restaurants. That is doable and will help. A simple surcharge on each round will insure that those who benefit most pay the most.
We can be part of the new urbanism and can be more like The Villages if we just find our way. They are very successful. We should copy them. Which the CMP is trying to do. Thus, we all need to support the CMP. And our hard-working board and strong CEO.
I called them at The Villages to see if they have a paid position of wayfinder. They pretended not to know what I was talking about, but I am pretty sure they just were holding tight to secrets that have made them the success they are.
Every two years The Villages sells as many homes as our entire HSV has. So, I ask you, what could be wrong in trying to copy their success?
Sure, it will cost a lot, but What worthwhile thing doesn’t??
Ok. There you have it. I support the CMP without reservation. And I support paying more each month to help. We will all benefit once the CMP is implemented fully and completely as stated in the plan. Our dues should be like the ones in The Villages. They are 145 dollars a month. If we can be like them for that much I say it will be a good deal. So yes, double our dues. At the very least. We need the money for the CMP.
Joseph Vlasek
11/18/2019 — 8:53 pm
There’s a revolution coming! If this happens!
Anonymous
11/18/2019 — 9:24 pm
How can you not support something that has beautiful pictures to show us our way 30 years out? It’s the corny master piece!!
Jim
11/19/2019 — 8:11 am
If I wanted to live in a rat race I would live in the villages. You like it move there.
Anonymous
11/19/2019 — 9:35 am
I left Florida 43 years ago and have never regretted it and will vote against any effort to bring Florida here.
NittyGritty
11/19/2019 — 1:03 pm
Maurice,
Wayfinding is finding your way from one geographical location to another, such as with a map.
A lodge is a commercial venture, and according to federal definitions, NOT to be undertaken by a Home Owners Association.
Hot Springs Village is enforceable as a PRIVATE community, not “open” to trespassers.
The majority of retirees favor Florida because of its winter temperatures. They throw caution into the winds (literally) of hurricanes. No amount of Hot Springs Village marketing or amenities will ever compensate those who want to risk retirement in Florida.
Another BIG factor in retiree relocation is proximity to family. There are well-to-do retirees in Arkansas who have never heard of Hot Springs “Village”! We should concentrate marketing efforts on those who are already fond of south/central living.
Cheri Nelson
11/24/2019 — 7:45 pm
Maurice, I have no idea how old you are or how long you have lived here but what you are describing won’t work here for many reasons
First most of us retired here to get away from the very rat race you want to bring here. We will fight it with everything we can. We may not win but we will fight it
Secondly, what you describe works in a geographically flat area. The hills here will prevent all the walking needed again because we are older and not necessarily able to walk the grades here.
Thirdly, in order for that yo work the gates will have to go away, the traffic will have to quadruple to provide enough shoppers to support all the amenities you are asking for. There goes the security that draws folks now.
But besides all of that, Arkansas is an economically depressed state, pay is low and even with the federal mandates for raising minimum wage, the main attraction for coming here was low cost of living and low taxes. With your plan and the CMP you can kiss the low taxes good bye.
Gary Puffer
11/26/2019 — 5:18 pm
How much were you paid to express this opinion, Maurice? New Urbanism will work where it is needed and wanted, but it isn’t needed or desired here. Perhaps you haven’t noticed, there aren’t many employment opportunities hereabouts, so what is your proposal for that, pray tell?
Anonymous
12/01/2019 — 7:43 pm
New Urbanism has failed in each case it has been imposed on local governments.
NittyGritty
11/18/2019 — 11:10 pm
At The Villages, you automatically become a member of The Villages Golf and Country Club and either The Villages Association or The Homeowners’ Corporation when you purchase a condominium or single-family home. For one reasonable monthly fee (which includes both the Club and Association operating and reserve assessments), the Club and the Association provide a number of very important services you would pay for separately if you did not live at The Villages.
Your VGCC and Association (Condos) fees include:
• Golf/Country Club membership (18 hole and 9 hole courses, driving range)
• 4 swimming and hydro-massage pools
• Tennis courts (6)
• Bocce courts (2)
• Weekly community newspaper
• Comcast Cable TV (expanded package)
• Dedicated community information television channels
• Post office
• Library
• Maintenance of 4 community centers
• Maintenance of private roads
• 24-hour Public Safety service
• 550 acres of open space with hiking trails
• Community Activities Director
• Taxes for recreational centers, golf, etc.
• Common area gardening/landscape service
• Exterior and street lighting
• Building maintenance—roof repair, building maintenance and exterior painting (Association only)
• Trash collection
• Water
• Property, commercial general liability insurance, and earthquake coverage
• Full-time property management
• Pest control
source: https://www.thevillagesgcc.com/home-sales/hoa-fees/
Sam Taylor
11/25/2019 — 6:01 pm
Just casually glancing through the stats about The Villages, the low number of tennis courts and the omission of pickleball courts caught my eye so I looked The Villages up. There are over 100 tennis courts and over 100 dedicated pickleball courts as well, and the availability of those pickleball courts as well as the climate and being an adult community are BIG draws!
NittyGritty
11/25/2019 — 9:20 pm
Sam,
I stand corrected! Because of your comment, I rechecked the source I gave, which I got from someone else’s post on the subject. When I found it the first time, I just ass-(out of)-u-m-e’d it was correct. When I checked it, I found the source specifies Silicone Valley as its location. Well, it’s fairly all-inclusive, but it ain’t Florida!
Cheryl, if you would like to erase my erroneous post about that Villages’ inclusive amenities, please do.
(But I still think we should get some “representation for our taxation”!)
NittyGritty
11/26/2019 — 4:26 pm
The Villages FL monthly assessments –
(source: https://www.thevillages.com/cost-of-living-in-the-villages/
$191 Development District Assessment
$159 Contractual Amenities Fee includes “facilities” (?), sports pools, swimming, tennis, pickleball, bocce, golf on all courses, BUT CART FEES NOT INCLUDED
$350 monthly assessments subtotal …PLUS…
COSTS EXTRA to use your cart on course trails
PLUS property taxes are TWICE AS HIGH as HSV (to make up for lack of FL income tax!)
PLUS all the other costs of living, such as insurance, electric, cable, water, sewer, trash…
Anonymous
12/01/2019 — 7:48 pm
So then $350 per month is what HSV should be paying for assessments.
NittyGritty
12/02/2019 — 12:59 am
If HSV raises assessments too high, it will lose even more of its potential population to Florida!
Anonymous
12/02/2019 — 9:17 pm
Lost 11,000 already, 3,000 in the last 5 years that are never coming back and are not being replaced.
Maurice
11/19/2019 — 5:12 am
We need the manufactured home idea as stated in today’s Voice. This will help fill our empty lots. These homes have a bad reputation but it is how The Villages began.
We can learn a lot from The Villages. And this is one example.
Part of the CMP should include manufactured homes if it does not already.
Pocket neighborhoods could pop up in months rather than decades. Get these lots productive.
Why wouldn’t we do this????
Just make sure they are tied down for strong winds.
Anonymous
11/19/2019 — 8:04 am
Yes! Why wouldn’t we do this! We’ve got to raise some more money to meet payrolls in the future. Sounds good to me. It’s the way our country is headed. Dense housing pays for politicians lifestyle. Genius.
Anonymous
11/19/2019 — 9:44 am
Yea! all who have an empty lot next to them will be ecstatic to see their new neighbors in a trailer next to them. Why not? The Marina approved by the ACC is a mobile home, it is the New Age wave of the CMP.
anonymous
11/19/2019 — 7:31 am
The Villages in Florida have the highest STD rate in the country. They are of a different mindset than those who live here. If you want to party move to Florida.
If you want peace and serenity move to Arkansas.
If you want to live in a near treeless side by side home that looks like the house next door move to Florida.
If you want to live in a state with no income taxes move to Florida.
I encourage all of you who are so unhappy with HSV please move to Florida.
Minn Daly
11/19/2019 — 9:27 am
Unbelievable that someone would suggest manufactured homes in HSV. Compare it to THE VILLAGES in Florida. We are a wooded community sitting on over 26,000 acres! THE VILLAGES sits on about 8,000 acres with lots of sink holes! A beautiful place with lots of traffic, shopping & DIsney World & other theme parks near by, a great place but for those of us who love trees, mountains & lakes, natural habitat HSV is for us. The CMP plan will not work here. Again COOPER is the developer, he owns easements, common propert & lots of land. If people want development for business, go outside the gates. Minn Daly
Julie
11/19/2019 — 10:35 am
The Villages is 20,000 acres.
Jacob
11/19/2019 — 10:32 am
Listen up Lesley! Listen up legacy BOD member and TURNCOAT Tormey!
Listen closely!
NOT ONE DIME!
Not one dime will we grant to you as long as you are all still in power.
NOT ONE DIME!
TAKE THAT TO THE BANK!
NOT ONE DIME!
NittyGritty
11/19/2019 — 1:40 pm
The two-tier system, recently voted into existence by Cooper, will raise resident rate regardless of your opposition.
Anonymous
11/19/2019 — 11:16 pm
Voted into existence also by the majority of members.
NittyGritty
11/20/2019 — 6:22 pm
Two-tier system was voted into existence by land owners, of which Cooper was a major factor, NOT by residents.
Anonymous
11/20/2019 — 9:23 pm
Search results of two-tier HSV. Get information from the source, not gossip from deplorables.
NittyGritty
11/22/2019 — 12:06 am
2014 lawsuit had the facts correct at landowners two-to-one, thus the two-tier tyrannical system.
Sam Taylor
11/25/2019 — 6:11 pm
I believe you to be in error Nitty. I think basically CCI allowed the property owners to make the choice by voting his class votes to be for the two-tier assessments. Yes a lot of homeowners voted against it, but the homeowners voting for it along with people who owned unimproved lots car the majority of votes for the proposition. If the people had voted against it, it would have failed.
NittyGritty
11/25/2019 — 8:55 pm
Sam,
You say I’m in error, but then you confirmed everything I said. You refer to “the people” as one, but we have been divided against ourselves. That vote put the improved ones under the two-tiered tyranny of the unimproved ones.
Law 101:
1. There is no right or wrong.
2. There is only a winning and a losing argument.
Anonymous
12/01/2019 — 7:56 pm
Look at the judge’s ruling: “The POA needed more money and decided the best way to get it”
NittyGritty
12/02/2019 — 12:44 am
I realize what the judge did. That is why I replied to Jacob that, under the current circumstances, it is self-defeating to keep repeating all over the place “not one more dime”.
Do you believe OJ is innocent because blood shrank his leather gloves until they didn’t fit?
Anonymous
12/02/2019 — 9:26 pm
The majority of HSV property owners voted for the Two-tier assessment.
NittyGritty
12/03/2019 — 9:25 pm
The “majority” of owned “property” is JUST LOTS, NOT HOMES, as in “HOME Owners Association”. Hot Springs Village should function as a HOME Owners Association, NOT a “Lords of the Undeveloped Lands Association”.
Anonymous
12/05/2019 — 7:49 pm
HSV HOA is non-existant, HSV POA has been in existence for fifty years. Try accepting reality.
NittyGritty
12/05/2019 — 10:42 pm
Then the reality to accept is that Hot Springs Village has been erroneously filing Federal Tax Return form 1120-H… The “H” in 1120-H stands for HOME Owners Association. As a “POA”, as you say, HSV is instead REQUIRED to file Federal Tax Return Form 1120, in which MUCH more corporate information is REQUIRED to be divulged to the IRS as well as to its OWNERS.
Anonymous
12/07/2019 — 7:41 pm
HSV POA is a mutual benefit corporation IRC 523. Thank you for accepting the fact that the 2-tier was voted into existence by all of the “Lords” of the Village and not just one.
NittyGritty
12/07/2019 — 9:57 pm
IRC Section 523 is bankruptcy, silly. If you, per chance, meant IRC Section 528, that would be HOME Owners Associations… Read IRS Section 528 to see what the qualifications are to file Federal Tax Return Form 1120-H. Hot Springs Village does NOT qualify, especially now that you insist that HSV is not, and never has been, an HOA. HSV is REQUIRED to file Federal Corporate Tax Return Form 1120, in which MUCH MORE INFORMATION IS REQUIRED BY FEDERAL LAW TO BE DIVULGED TO THE CORPORATE SHAREHOLDERS AND TO THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE.
Anonymous
12/08/2019 — 8:39 am
HOA has never been in the name of HSV POA. It is substantially made up of homeowners although not all property owners are homeowners. It obviously has qualified for 49 years and except for this rouge, Board has divulged all information to its members. I am not sure how disqualifying it would benefit us but thank you for your research on the subject.
NittyGritty
12/08/2019 — 11:31 pm
You are so confused and ill-informed. You wrongly say that HSV is under Internal Revenue Code Section 523. You should know IRC Section 528, but you do not know it at all. Half of your tongue says the voting majority of HSV is its homeowners while the other half of your tongue says HSV is only 25% developed…(That means roughly 75% are UNdeveloped land voters…that is NOT a minority.) You ignorantly claim that HSV has qualified to file IRS Federal Tax Return Form 1120-H for 49 years. IRS Federal Tax Return Form 1120-H has not even been in existence for 49 years! (Of course, you did not know that either, but that does not stop you from wrongly winging it out there anyway!) Why don’t you just go take a bubble bath?!
Anonymous
12/13/2019 — 9:23 pm
As before, you assumed much and learned little.
Kilroy
11/19/2019 — 10:34 am
Stay in your lane folks. You are being led to a great prize. Trust us. We have to put up guardrails when we want to have our plan work. Pictures are in the CMP for the illiterate. You are not getting a passing grade on the written part. We are trying to educate you and you are failing. Get back on the guinea pig treadmill and try to stay busy. Taking a break only to write a check to my team of visionaries and scholarly geniuses. My rod and my staff will comfort you. Now go in peace.
Vicki Husted
11/19/2019 — 11:42 am
…and you shall dwell in the land of Urbanism forever….
The meek won’t inherit HSV. Anyone who cares about HSV will have to stand up and fight to keep it’s character intact.
Minn Daly
11/19/2019 — 11:19 am
Julie, thank you for correcting acres in VILLAGES. Still not as large as HSV land is flat with lots of sink holes, lots of traffic. 😀Minn
Sheri Smith
11/20/2019 — 1:14 am
https://www.insidethebubble.net/82-cool-facts-the-villages/
Read all about The Villages and then tell me that’s what you want to turn our Village into?! 1500+ people per square mile?! OMG! Luckily most of us already living here wouldn’t live long to see that tragedy happen.
HSVP J
11/25/2019 — 7:48 am
Tom was right! The assault on our pocketbooks has begun.
Man from audience: “When you say, ‘need an assessment increase,’ are you saying, need to make our payments on our bills or you mean to get us where we need to be?”
Erickson: “To get us where we need to be. We have NO concerns about operational expenses, currently. None at all.”
https://hotspringsvillagepeople.com/hsvpoa-bod-final-lets-talk-turkey/
Tom M
12/06/2019 — 8:45 am
Dear Posters to this website:
I am a person nearing retirement. I have been researching places that might be pleasant and enjoyable in which to retire. I wish to spend my final years of life in peace with love and tranquility. As I read these posts I am thankful for one thing: I am thankful I have seen the mean streaks and anger harbored by many in Hot Springs Village. You have made it easy for me to strike Hot Springs Village from my perspective list of potential retirement locations.
We live in a world where it has become acceptable to be rude and brash. I am sorry to discover that these elderly souls in central Arkansas have so quickly adopted this hateful spirit. There is a way to disagree, and to do so with class and respect. Generally speaking, this technique is not taught, but written on your heart by the hand of God.
I am praying for you to read the writing on your heart.
HSVP C
12/06/2019 — 1:01 pm
Dear Tom M,
The majority of the posters on this website are very nice people who are totally fed up with what has transpired in our Village. I do not believe you are not moving here because of this. I believe you are saying that because you are trying to shut people down and discourage them from venting. I believe you are most likely someone from our opposition. We see right through you and are praying for you to see the light.
You are the pot calling the kettle black and your manipulation is quite obvious.
Anonymous
12/06/2019 — 11:35 pm
The writing by God on my heart instructs me to not give the Devil a place to stay.
NittyGritty
12/06/2019 — 11:35 pm
Tom M,
Just go to the Bee Hive & try their burgers flambé… That might be just the life-changing experience you need!