Month: October 2020

But first, here is a glimpse of fall in Western Pennsylvania to encourage you for cooler weather coming.

The Board cabal continues with its manipulation of the Aquarina Residents. As this Blog has commented, a group of self-minded folks, i.e. the core Board and its acolytes and disciples, or the cabal, have hijacked Aquarina from its body of Residents to foist their own agenda on the community, with no whole community participation. Rather than first acting in a fiduciary and responsible manner, the Board makes its own determinations on what is best for it and their followers rather than what may be best for the whole community. The examples of this behavior are plentiful, e.g. the changing of the gym location, the renovation of the Administration Building to accommodate this change, the upgrading and re-building of the Golf Maintenance Yard, the refusal to be transparent with the finances of the AGI businesses, and now using the Residents’ funds for attorneys to defend not releasing the AGI data per State Statute, the renovation of the Community Club House, the re-building of the golf greens and the golf bunkers, the creation of a well and well irrigation system for the golf course, which has resulted in the Residents’ potable water rates to increase; the list goes on. How much input did the Residents have on these expenditures? Was there a democratic process put in place to discuss these projects and expenditures as a whole community, or did they just happen before our eyes without any disclosures to the Residents?

About a month ago, the Residents were emailed a survey to complete, which allegedly would provide the sense of the community on specific scenarios, as decided by the cabal Board. How nice of the Board to now include the Residents in what’s best for Aquarina, the appeasement. Interestingly, the survey was assembled in a manner where it had to be completed to be viewed, and then it was sent off at its completion to the Sender, the Board. Why so kept and secretive? No word yet has occurred on the results of this survey after over a month. Would the Board release the results to the Residents if these results were not in agreement with the Board’s agenda. With past Board behavior, can these results, if released, be counted on to be true? Hmm. Proper community surveys, especially with the current Board’s prejudiced politics in Aquarina, should be handled and tallied by an outside entity, e.g. an accounting firm, to ensure its accuracy and for it to be unbiased. Even better, and more democratically, the survey results from each Aquarina neighborhood could be sent directly to their respective Boards , and then counted up by each Board. A representative with the survey votes from each of these neighborhoods could then attend a Aquarina General Meeting of all representatives, where a final tally would be determine. That would be full transparency with no possible collusion.

. . . and then there is the community pool. Years ago, a nefarious developer, which could be argued, the present Board has virtually replaced as exemplified by the Board’s actions, took away a very nice Beach Clubhouse, including a restaurant, a pool, and a cabana area to sell off the lots where the Beach Clubhouse stood. The Residents were outraged, at the time, the developer controlled Aquarina. Ironically, today the whole of the Residents are supposed to control Aquarina. Do they? As you may know, the Aquarina Community, after a near decade legal imbroglio, supposedly acquired about $300,000 from the net sale of an ocean lot it had owned. Have those new found funds been disclosed? A past Board president, at the time of Aquarina’s ownership of this lot, asked me to do a market analysis as to the lot’s value. We, again, supposedly received the funds from this sale, and a discussion resurrected about a community pool being built as a result of the sale. Enthusiasm from the Residents began bubbling, and the Board participated by forming a pool committee to explore pool construction, yet another appeasement.

As would be expected, the Board cabal directed the committee what it wanted, i.e. basically a wading pool for partying, with a snack bar, expansive decking, a fire pit, restrooms, etc. The estimated price came to about $750,000. What about the Residents that may want a pool for recreation and exercise for a far lesser cost? The pool committee and any discussion from the Board has now gone dark. Hmm.

BTW – the heartily announced Halloween Party has been cancelled with no explanation. Maybe there is hearsay on the street why it was cancelled, but nothing official to the Residents. Hmm.

Again, Aquarina has a Board that does what it wants, since they know that any recourse from the Aquarina community will be silent.