City or village?
Editor,
Are we a city or village? Why pay POA fees to make everything available for public use?
If Cooper could sell the buildable land on the courses that may be closed, then the city could collect sales tax and real estate tax from a business. Or, just give the property back to Cooper. But, from what I’m told, Cooper doesn’t want the property back from the valley courses if we close them and neither does the city. What do they know that we don’t? With the new By-Pass, most of the main traffic won’t see the green land along 71. So why make us, the POA, absorb the expense to maintain the swamp?
We need more tax base for the city. I’m told, if we close the courses, we need 2/3 vote to sell the property. So if we retain the property, then we, the members and POA could sell the buildable land to increase our tax base for the city. Why not?
If we don’t keep the golf courses, then why do we want this property to maintain and have that expense for us members. We have plenty of parks and walking trails without having this as an expense to us members. The POA has said, “How much more of our members’ money do we continue to spend without a thoughtful, stepwise plan of action towards a sustainable solution in the face of [what] an independent hydrology study says to be the inevitable outcome of future floods.” Then why do we want this or need this expense for future floods? We don’t.
Will this new AR/MO Golf Course be a highround course? Will our golf fees go up again to pay for a public course? Will this new golf course be included in our golf fees? Or will this course have higher rates for us? Why raise our assessment to make everything open to public use? Why?
There are many, many questions to be answered. I have heard from members that we should take our time to make this decision when there is this much of an expense. Also when any project costs millions of dollars, it should be voted on by our members with improved lots, not the POA board or chief operating officer/ president.
Bill Dietman Bella Vista