Westsiders who wanted more time to debate the permanent closure of Longleaf Drive over Lake Auman Dam won a reprieve Tuesday night, when the Seven Lakes West Landowners Association [SLWLA] Board of Directors voted to deem the decision a matter of significant interest to the community, postponing a final vote on road closure until October 26.
A concerted effort to pressure the Board to make that decision began a little more than a week earlier, when local attorney and longtime Westsider Mike Gorenflo used email and postings on Facebook to organize a meeting of concerned Westsiders at his Seven Lakes office on Tuesday, September 21.
The nearly fifty members who turned out decided their first order of business should be to ask the Board to designate the closure a "material matter" allowing additional time for public input. Phil Castaldi was designated the group's spokesman; he, Gorenflo, and Dick Osborne drafted a statement stating the group's request for Castaldi to deliver during the Tuesday, September 28 Board Work Session.
Word of the group's intentions was communicated through group emails that included Board members among the recipients, as well as articles published on The Seven Lakes Times website and emailed NewsFlashes.
As a result, a crowd of approximately 150 Westsiders turned out for Tuesday night's Work Session, and the first order of business was a motion from Lake & Dam Director Mick Herdrich that the Board deem the road closure a "matter of significant interest to the community," delaying for a month the Board's final vote on the issue. That motion passed with the support of all eight Board members present (Treasurer Joe Sikes was unable to attending the meeting.)
Speakers both for and against closure
After the Board's vote, members spoke both for and against permanent closure of the roadway across the dam.
Phil Castaldi, who had been appointed spokesman for the group asking for more time to comment on the closure, cut short his prepared remarks, but pointed out several negative impacts of closing the dam road, including the "undesirable separation" of the community into two disconnected parts and a negative impact on property values. He said closing the road was, in effect, permanently removing one of the community's amenities, something that should not be done without a significant opportunity for public input.
Noting that she had moved to Seven Lakes West before the dam was completed, Grace Kirkpatrick told the Directors that "the most important thing we have in Seven Lakes West is Lake Auman" and urged them to "take care of the dam in the best way you know how."
Jennifer Forsman empath-ized with the plight of Directors, forced to make decisions that are inevitably unpopular with some segment of the membership, thanked them for "the time you put in serving on this Board."
Dale Erickson, summarizing the recommendations of dam engineer Dan Marks, urged the Board to keep the road closed because of the potentially disastrous consequences of a dam failure.
Phil Bare asked the Board to recognize that the road closure could leave residents of some areas around Beacon Ridge stranded in case of emergency or even road construction that blocks Longleaf Drive. He asked the directors to investigate alternatives, for example, building a road below the dam that would connect the Beacon Ridge and Morgan Wood areas.
During the meeting's second public comment segment, a young mother of four told the Board that she was one of those personally affected by the road closure. Though her husband has been transferred to South Carolina, the family has been unable to sell their home on the western side of the dam — two buyers cited the road closure as among their reasons for passing on the property.
Maureen Mead thanked the Board for extending the comment period on the road closure, but suggested sixty days would be more appropriate. "It is a huge, huge, decision," Mead said. "If everything you are saying convinced you, maybe you could spend a little time helping some of the rest of us understand."
Noting that news stories had spoken of the "permanent" closure of the roadway over the dam, Mike Gorenflo said "Neither this Board nor any Board has the authority to permanently close anything." He suggested that the Board put the decision about road closure to a vote of the membership.
"If the community wants the road open, the community should have the right to state that," Gorenflo added. Reminding the Directors that they serve at the pleasure of the membership, he said, "If enough folks think they have been disenfranchised, then ultimately there will be other people on the Board who will listen to what the community has to say."
The Board will hear additional comment on the proposed road closure during its October 12 and 26 Work Sessions.
