Vindication! Thy name is Seven Bays!

Dear homeowners:

Last week I received a mysterious email from Linda requesting my presence at a meeting on Friday, January 4 at 10:00 a.m. The request arrived on Thursday, less than 24 hours before the event. In addition, George Cordier called me that evening and asked me to attend the Friday Meeting.

Aghast at why I would ever receive a call from Linda or George, I figured something must have gone terribly wrong and now the blame would attempt to be spread far and wide. When I arrived at the maintenance office, I found the Lincoln County Fire Commissioner and our Engineer from E&H present.

I asked George what was going and what was wrong and he replied, "Nothing, we're meeting to discuss doing Phase III after Phase II is finished." Of course! I smelled a set up and that this meeting was intended to clear the path for Phase III immediately.

So the meeting commenced with four members present. Margot was stuck in Spokane at work. George started off asking the fire commissioner when we were going to get a 500 gpm pumper truck. Dean politely acknowledge they knew the area would eventually need one and said it wouldn't happen for a few years.

There was some more discussion about fire protection until finally, the fire commissioner asked "Why are you in a rush to do Phase III? Is it to lower your insurance?" Well, you and I both know that the insurance won't go down until we have a fulltime dedicated fire departent, so that clearly wasn't the answer.

As the fire commissioner stated - there isn't any reason to do Phase III. Lincoln County doesn't particularly care. As the fire commissioner said, "If there is a fire, we'll get four or five trucks up here and then you'll have over a thousand gallons per minute."

George continued to push on for reasons why Phase III should be done, but our own engineer was shaking his head!

"I think there has been some misunderstanding," he said, "This water project was never designed for you to do all at once. It was set up so you could do it in pieces when money and time was available."

He went on to further state "The State has no mandate at this time that the water system be upgrade."

Now, here I am, listening to this discussion. I had been expecting a complete push for Phase III and here are our two experts telling us it simply wasn't necessary. While I didn't come out and ask, I got the impression that Phase II wasn't necessary either.

Now, I think that George had been expecting the conversation to go towards his position as well, because he kept on asking questions and trying to get the fire commissioner and engineer to admit and state that Phase III was absolutely necessary. And yet it didn't happen.

Then what to my amazed ear should I hear, but Linda Schindler state "I see no justification for Phase III." Oh my gosh, I just about fell off my chair. Could it be, did I hear correctly? Thank God she was recording the conversation so I could go back and verify it later. But oddly enough, I did not have to verify it as she sent an email thirty minutes later advising Margot that Phase III was not necessary!

Now George did continue to push for Phase III or for some reason to justify Phase III but he just wasn't getting it. Finally, he did concede that he saw the point, but didn't know how he was going to explain it to the community. Since I know that there is really only one homeowner close to George pushing for Phase III, it didn't take me long to realize that George was trying to figure out how he was going to explain this to his handlers. George concluded by saying essentially "He saw the point, but I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion."

Now, I do mean to gloat here, because our board is in a terrible state what with all the assertions that the three members have been making about necessary water systems. I've been saying all along it wasn't necessary, it could be done over time. The community has said the same thing. But then you have George with his agenda and Roy pushing him right along. In fact, it was Roy who told our community that he had the WAC code that mandated it. Of course, it has never been produced. . . and I've never found it.

Now folks, I want to get this out to you. Because I think it says two things. One, we were right. Two, the board now has to face the fact that we were right. This community has been ramrodded into doing unnecessary projects that cost an enormous amount of money while jeopardizing our own financial situation and disregarding other projects that had already been started.

I hope that you will speak up at the next public meeting and all the public meetings that occur between here and July. I also hope that you voice coalesces into an action to deal with the ENTIRE board, myself included, and get some quality leadership into position.

Yes, these are my own opinions. But since the board has unilaterally decided that they don't like this website and have created an official one, I can assert my own opinions on here.

I should note that these are your opnions as well. I want to thank all of you who have emailed, called, or dropped by to voice your support. I appreciate it and look forward to carrying on the battle for you.

As an aside, you should take a moment to thank Nancy Wolfrum. Nancy is a pillar of our community and she has watched from the sidelines for the past year what has been going on in the board. She took the time at her own expense to send you copies of the minutes from the last two meetings. Minutes which the three member board has refused to accept. She did this on her own accord and her own time. She paid all the expenses. While you might disagree with her putting the message out to everyone, take comfort in the fact that she feels strongly enough about something to let you know. Imagine what would happen if we had people who just didn't care and were apathetic to the condition of Seven Bays. Take pride in the fact that there are people in this community who care enough to take the time to let you know what is going on. Those are the people who should be applauded.

So to summarize, Phase III is not necessary at this time according to the following:

(1) ME
(2) Lincoln County Fire Commissioner
(3) E&H Engineering (the guys who designed the water systems upgrades)
(4) Linda Schindler

I think Rick also doesn't support Phase III because saw him nodding his head in agreement with Linda when she made her bold statement, but I won't put words in his mouth.

People who are still in support of Phase III?

(1) The uninformed.

Jay S. Jump
Seven Bays Board Member and Homeowner