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The
Sounds of the Grapevine is a meant to be a fun, information
and gossip column that should not be taken too seriously,
but may give the readers some insight into happenings in
Lake Forest. The webmaster makes no promises of
accuracy, but does promise not to print out and out
lies. Vulgarity will not be allowed. Nothing
that could be considered libelous will be printed.
Anyone who is interested in Lake Forest is welcome to
contribute. Unless the contributor specifically
indicates that we do so, we will not print his or her
name. However, we will not accept anything that is
anonymous. The most recent contributions are listed
first, so if you would like to read the story in the order
that it was presented, you might want to jump to the bottom
of the page and work your way back up. The text that
is seen in bold and italicized print is usually a cut &
paste of someone's contribution. Anything submitted
may be filtered to avoid the above mentioned no-nos.
Determining what content is inappropriate for the Sounds of
the Grapevine column is at the sole discretion of the
webmaster. Statements proceeded by a  are comments made by the
webmaster. A submission to the Grapevine may be
made by Email to the webmaster or selecting the Suggestion
Box graphics ( ) from one of its many locations
on this site.
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11/18/2017
I just
received an email from the LFPOA board of directors
informing us of a vote to change the covenants. I
never ceased to be amazed at the way a group like this
can act as if they can make up their own rules anytime
they want. There are, in fact, very specific rules for
how covenants can be changed. And, I can promise you,
it takes more than 307 votes of 3000 property owners.
It makes me wonder if they know what the word covenants
mean. Can you imagine the Lord telling the Chosen people
"Oh, I've changed my mind'. The board was told several
years ago that they needed to start figuring out how
to operate the amenities with a lot less members. Because
it is the covenants that require us all to pay the
maintenance fees for the association. When those
covenants expire, I'm sure the membership will drop.
I'm also sure that when that time comes, all of these
gimmicks they've been pulling will be successfully challenged.
Although, I would like to see the covenants continue,
I can't help being offended by the measures they are
using. First, they agreed to let the developer take a
large part of his property out of the association and
covenants, in return for his votes. They didn't have
the right to do that. They suggested that they did
that in order to assume the developer's right to
change the covenants. The developer doesn't have the
right to change the covenants, other by the same means
provided to any member. Secondly, I know that the real
reason is to keep those maintenance fees coming in.
I'm afraid its going to get ugly around here in 2021.
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10/16/2017
Perhaps you saw
that we've received a notice from the board for a
special meeting. A couple of points to consider, first,
I challenge anyone to find anything at all in the
covenants that says the developer retains the right to
change them whenever he wants. A statement like that
certainly does not sound like a covenant. Secondly, with
the regular annual meeting coming up in just a few
months, why was it necessary to call a special meeting
for something that according to the notice was not
scheduled for change anyway?
The board
was cautioned several years ago by yours truly that
the covenants were expiring very soon and that they
should start planning to make the amenities
self-sustaining. It's the covenants that require
homeowners to be in the association and pay
maintenance fees (or dues). I told them that without
those maintenance fees, the association would see an
almost immediate decrease in revenue of around a
million and a half dollars a year. Well, they have
continued maintaining the amenities reasonably well,
but they've done little to make them self-sustaining.
Instead, they have looked for ways to prevent the
amenities from expiring. First, they said that the
requirement to be a member was documented in the deed,
so the homeowners would have to continue paying dues
whether the covenants expired or not. I checked my own
deed and did find a statement stating that the owners
had to comply with a certain section of a document
recorded at the county courthouse. So, I went to the
courthouse and looked up that document. The document
being referenced was the covenants. The covenants are
still expiring. I wish them luck trying to convince
the court that a section of a document does not expire
at the same time as the document itself.
I agree with
you that the statement would seem to suggest that the
document is not a covenant. I don't know why the
decision couldn't wait until the annual meeting.
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OK,Readers, by popular demand we're bringing this
unofficial Lake Forest website back to life. It's
going to take a while to complete the process, so
please be patient. There is some old material
here. Some of the kids you see in these images are
probably in college now or even starting their own
families. It's really kind of nice to see them, so
there will be no hurry in updating these pictures.
The webmaster will be updating the Grapevine soon.
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04/14/2017
My
goodness! It's been a long time since I've done
this! You oldtimers out there may remember that
the little lf graphic indicates a comment from the
old webmaster. I'm planning to change this to a
more traditional blog format, so keep checking
back. I don't think I'm getting emails with your
contributions right now, so you probably won't be
seeing each others comments until I get the new
system installed. In the meantime, I'll be posting
comments that some of you who actually know me
contribute and be throwing in a few of my own from
time to time. I think you'll find it
interesting. The LFPOA board has been real
creative over the last few years, sometimes in a
good way and, unfortunately in the opinion of the
old webmaster, sometimes in a way that has been
disappointing. We're going to learn a lot
together. Join in!
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04/15/2017
Wow!
I've been browsing through the pages of this
website and really enjoyed seeing some of those
old pages. If you have some time, wander through
the website and see Lake Forest. Some of the club
is still as beautiful as it ever was and some of
it no longer even exists. At one point a few years
ago one of our brilliant boards decided the the
country club cost too much to maintain, so they
bulldozed at least a half a million dollars of
association asset. The marina is mostly empty now,
but hopefully the city will soon be dredging the
channel and bringing new life to the Yacht Club.
You can also check the About the LFPOA
link that is found on the About Us page.
You'll find more interesting information there,
including the Covenants. Of course, the current
board has decided that they can change the
covenants, so these are not the same as the
current reproduction. Read the ones you find here
and see if you agree that anyone could have
changed those covenants. We'll talk more
about this later. Don't pay any attention to the
fees and other user information. The numbers
you see there are old and do not apply to today.
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04/16/2017
I just tested one of the Suggestion Box links to
see if you could send in your contributions and it
appears to be working. If you're interested in
Lake Forest, join the discussion. Don't be too
disappointed if you don't immediately see a great
many contributions posted. We've been
offline for a good while, so it's going to take
some time to see the blog traffic come back.
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