Name:	Lifer -	Reply
Subject:	Gotta love Russell Lands
Date:	10/17/2020 6:50:09 PM

I read an article in the print edition of the Outlook today while visiting with the MIL.  Above the fold story is all about ammendment 1 on the ballet in November.  If approved iw will allow the formation of a "road district" where the homeowners will be assesed a special tax to be held till repairs are needed and then the "board" of this road district decides how to spend it.

Just wow!  So RL is tired of doing the maintenence on the raods in a gated community so they want to do some cost shifting to the homeowners.  It appears there was some oversight on the part of RL when WP was developed and the roads were left for RL to deal with.  This ammendment has been voted down once already some years back.  I coulnd't care less about a dispute between RL and the homewoners within the gates.  But I do care about what the good Mr. Lamberth said in his interview.  He says if the voters vote down the ammendment again, then RL will just 'give the roads to the county".  Well isn't that nice of him.

So the mighty RL screwed up in drafitng the original HOA and now the taxpayers are supposed to just jump up and say yes please, can we please pay to maintain the roads BEHIND your gates.  What a slimey, sleazy comment to make, but I assure you he is serious.  I don't know the legallity of it all, but you can't give the roads to the county to maintain and still expect to keep the gates up.  We pay for them, WE RIDE THEM.  I will by a $500 smoking clunker just to drive through there as often as possible if that were to happen.

The sad thing is they will probably get away with it, which is exactly why Woody Won.  They simply don't want the expense any longer and just thnk they can shift it off onto the taxpayers.  Even if they get the ammendment passed and manage to shift the cost to the homeowners within the gates only the county still gets saddled with the expense of collecting and administering the "special assessment" to be used by the PRIVATE BOARD to maintian private roads within their gates.

Is it just me or is this all kinds of wrong?

Name:	Talullahhound -	Reply
Subject:	Gotta love Russell Lands
Date:	10/17/2020 7:35:02 PM

I believe what is happening is that WP will not be able to continue as a gated community if the county takes over their roads.  I don't know if this is the case here, but there is usually a period when there is a HOA, when the maintenance has to be turned from the developer to the homeowners. Usually it is expressed in terms of a percentage of the property has been sold.  In VA, it was a law, and we not only had to take over the road maint., we had to take over snow removal and insurance on any common areas.  I don't know if it is a law in Alabama.  The homeowners are lucky that this hasn't been enforced until now.  I suspect all of their communities have either faced this or will face this in the future.  I don't know how many roads are involved, but it can get expensive as roads need repaving.  

Name:	Lifer -	Reply
Subject:	Gotta love Russell Lands
Date:	10/17/2020 8:09:11 PM

There are over 10 miles of raods in Willow Point alone.  but just because RL wants to "give" them to the county, that doesn't mean the county has to accept them.  They can simply say no.  Your roads your problem.  I would love to see the folks in the other RL SD if the gated come down at Willow Point.  How will they manage to sell overpriced lots in gated SD if they see in time, the gates come down.

Name:	GoneFishin -	Reply
Subject:	Gotta love Russell Lands
Date:	10/18/2020 11:33:57 AM (updated 10/18/2020 11:39:20 AM)

Too bad, you did not post this under Lake Martin Topics where it belongs. First, there are just 2 1/2 miles of roadway not 10 miles.

Alabama has a strange law that to transfer the roads from Russell to the Willow owners, the voters in the entire county have to approve it.

You mentioned this was on the ballot years ago...actually it was on the ballot March  2020 and was defeated 4542 YES 4909 NO. The same amendment is on the November ballot seeking approval.

Here is a release from March which seems to indicate the property owners are requesting the change. Why the rest of the county opposes it is a mystery. Looks like  you either allow the change by voting YES or vote NO and the county will take over the roads and you will pay for the  repairs and the roads will be public.

Looks like a no brainer...VOTE YES.

Name:	Lifer -	Reply
Subject:	Gotta love Russell Lands
Date:	10/18/2020 12:02:20 PM

The first line in my post was I read it in the print edition of The OUtlook, so therefore it's veracity is suspect, especially since it involves RL, their true masters.  I am almost certain it cited 10 miles of roads but I could be wrong.  That is an awfull nice gate complex that will have to come down. One can't help but wonder how that will affect property values.

But in your post while advocating a yes vote, you make the case for my NO vote.  I have for years now voted no on any and all ammendments as personal protest against our state constitution from 1901 that contains blatent racism and maitians all control, even of local events like this, in Montgomery.  It is rediculous.  We need home rule and a new constitution to ensure it happens.

I did NOT advocate anyone else vote in any way.  Just presented some info and gave my opinion.  Its only you libs that HAVE toi tell others how to act and what to do.

Name:	GoneFishin -	Reply
Subject:	Gotta love Russell Lands
Date:	10/18/2020 12:49:35 PM

It takes balls to offer more than an opinion. 

Name:	Lifer -	Reply
Subject:	Gotta love Russell Lands
Date:	10/18/2020 1:01:22 PM

Thats gall, not balls.  It takes a lot of gall to think you are so superior as to tell folks who didnt ask how to do something they should do solely in their own self interest.

Maybe they go public.  Like i said I will drive through in my old smoking clunker just to look at all the pretty houses.  If all the "rich and powerful" folks in WP arent happy with how things are happening they can buy the politicians they need to get us Home Rule.

Name:	GoneFishin -	Reply
Subject:	Gotta love Russell Lands
Date:	10/18/2020 2:00:31 PM

You have class envy just like the looters.

Name:	Talullahhound -	Reply
Subject:	Gotta love Russell Lands
Date:	10/18/2020 2:31:51 PM

The real problem is how the roads were put down to start with.  Poor surface prepartion will leave you with roads allagatoring no matter how many times they are resurfaced.  To dig it up and do it right is $$$$$, and even the resurfacing is not cheap.  We had about a half mile of roads in our 11 house subdivision in VA and we paid $300 dollars a year to the HOA.  That was more than enough to keep our little bit of roads and insurance on the common area.  The biggest problem was that we had poor surface prep when the developer originally put down the roads, so allagatoring was a problem every other year or so.  

Clearly the WP resisident are not going to want to have their gates taken down.  But the dangers of an HOA is that the board will soon want to start enacting other rules that have nothing to do with the roads, and I can tell you from experience that people can be incredibly petty when it comes to their neighbors.  I see this as leaving the Willow Point homeowners between a rock and a hard place - if Russell refuses to continue maintaining the roads and the county votes "no", I don't see that they have much choice.  RL has a lot of new areas to develop and sell and the other gated communities should be taking note of how this plays out.  

Name:	Lifer -	Reply
Subject:	Gotta love Russell Lands
Date:	10/18/2020 4:07:04 PM

LMAO.  

Name:	Lifer -	Reply
Subject:	Gotta love Russell Lands
Date:	10/18/2020 4:18:09 PM

My take away form the article is that there is an HOA but road maintanence was not adressed in it.  It has just gotten expensive and now they want to shift the cost to anybody but them.  There poor planning does not a taxpayer crises make.  Let RL continue to eat that cost.  WP was the first and I am certain they have not made that mistake again.  Like I have stated the Outlook always leaves out signifacant details IMO, especially since they seem so beholding to the powers of RL.  I wouldn't be surprised if RL doesn't account for a very signifacant portoin of his ad revenue, across all their platforms.  But they want to be a respected local paper.  HAHA.  Their left wing bias is obviuos  in every opinion, and sadly, every news article.

Name:	GoneFishin -	Reply
Subject:	Stick To The Facts
Date:	10/18/2020 6:53:15 PM

The homeowners in WP are the ones pushing for the change.

TALLAPOOSA COUNTY, Ala. (WSFA) - John Thompson has called the Willow Point neighborhood on Lake Martin home for the last seven years and is more than willing to do something that gives homeowners like him greater control of their roads.

“Time for us to take that responsibility," said Thompson.

Willow Point is a gated community off Highway 63 North with well over 200 households and around 600 residents. Some of the roads, which total two-and-a-half miles, could use some work.

That’s why March 3 is an all-important date for Willow Point residents. A quirk in the state law requires that ALL Tallapoosa County voters go to the polls and vote “yea” or “nay” against a road tax. If it passes, the road maintenance tax would ONLY affect those living in Willow Point. A Willow Point board will be set up to collect yearly funds.

“What the Willow Point residents will be doing is creating a HOA and they would begin the road maintenance,” said Tallapoosa County Commission Chairman TC Coley Jr.

Right now Russell Lands handles the road work, but will soon hand off those responsibilities to the neighborhood once it completes all road repairs. “It’s time for us to step up,” said Thompson.

Name:	Talullahhound -	Reply
Subject:	Stick To The Facts
Date:	10/18/2020 9:19:29 PM

I don't think so.  I was under the impression that RL was pushing for this.  

Name:	Lifer -	Reply
Subject:	Stick To The Facts
Date:	10/19/2020 10:41:38 AM

Once again, my uinderstanding from the article is there is an HOA (of course there is) but that it falied to address the road maintenece issue and now RL is tired of having to do the repairs at their expense with no way to recoup those expenses.  Pure cost shifting from RL to anybody else they can force to pay for their boodogle.  

If I am wrong there are plenty of RL folks who read this forum.  I know this because I was told from very high authority that they do and that I have ruffled some very highly placed feathers with forer threads and issues.  Needless to say they don't like me very much.  I loose sleep over it every night, err I mean ABOLUTELY NEVER.

Also the article is still not up on the digital side, but they want us to subscribe and PAY not to get timely news from our "local paper".  

IMO Kenneth Boone is nothing more that an RL puppet and he proves it with every magazine, newspaper and story he publishes.  LML used to be a neat publication with articles about the lake and lake life.  Now it is nothing more than fluffer ro RL.  Every house reatured is in an RL development built by RL approved folks.  I haven't read anything of interest in either LML or LM in years.  Most of the publication is now devoted to pictures sent in by others.