Board to vote on future of Berksdale

When the POA’s regular work session opened on Thursday, the chairman was wearing a pair of red, pointed ears, scotch-taped to his head. He introduced himself as “Ron El Diablo Stratton.”

Stratton said he has been answering emails from people who seem to believe he is planning to destroy Bella Vista. There are two sides to the controversy, he said. One side is made up of people who will do anything to save Berksdale — half the golf course was closed a year ago because of flooding. The other side is made up of people who are against golf. Neither side looks at all the facts.

Meanwhile, he said, the board has been working for a year to find the best answer to the problem of flooding.

“Nobody is trying to push anything,” he said.

During the open forum, a regular feature of every work session, the former chairman of the board, Bob Brooks, called for a board member’s resignation.

Brooks cited Policy 6.02, titled

“Official POA Publication and Release of Information” which names the chairman or the chief operating officer as the only ones authorized to distribute press releases. Also, the policy says emails received by all directors should be coordinated with the chairman so only one reply is given.

Brooks said John Nuttall had violated the policy when he sent an email to a member warning that the board might close both Berksdale and Kingswood.

Although traditionally, open forum comments are limited to three minutes, Brooks spoke for

more than 13 minutes.

After the meeting, Nuttall said he had no comment to make about Brooks’ charges.

Bill Beverage said he has been polling his 110-member golf group and the most of the responses were in favor of keeping both Berksdale and Kingswood open as 18-hole courses. He asked how the board was getting input from golfers about the options.