First let me congratulate you for stepping forward and attempting to help make our community better. Best of luck in your campaign.

Your concerns regarding our capital expenditures are dead on. Just recently, at the last Board meeting, a debate ensued regarding the purchase of 3 lawn mowers and a sprayer for our golf course. The GM "bundled" these items to approve as a "package". This debate resulted from discussion during the Budget meetings in which a representative from Landscapes Unlimited (the company a prior board approved to manage our golf course due to their experience and success in the golf course management field) advised the board not to purchase the items at this time. The 3 present fairway mowers were recently refurbished to extend the life of the mowers for years. Repairs were first made to the axle housing in mid season 2015 and, in the most recent off-season, additional repairs to the tune of $25,000 to $27,000 of OPA money was just spent on a refurbishment to extend the life of these mowers for years. These mowers are currently being operated safely with the new parts and helping to create excellent golfing conditions.

As for the sprayer, OPA currently has two sprayers and in case one breaks down the other would be used.  LU did not recommend the purchase of a new sprayer because it is not needed. The new proposed sprayer includes state of the art GPS technology that not only is not required but could always be added in the future if determined to be necessary. 

The bottom line is, the recommendations being made by the experienced company we employ to make the decisions for our golf course, are being ignored by our current management. I, personally, cannot spend nearly a quarter of a million dollars of our association's funds without justification. It seems easy for others to do so, especially when the money is pre-collected and sitting in a reserve fund. I wonder if we asked each association member to pay for this so called "needed" purchase  out of their own pocket right now, would they be so inclined to do so without question?

You have made mention of the food truck proposal. Enough said.

Hopefully this next election will provide new Board members that will tend to exhibit better scrutiny and oversight to all future capital purchases, which will in turn, better protect the interests of our association members.

Best of Luck,

Tom Herrick