[Correction - A reader has informed us that comments posted on Facebook about opening the Northside stables to paid use by non-residents was made not on a Facebook page devoted to the Seven Lakes Stables, as we reported, but on a page that attracts equestrians from all over the Sandhills. We have corrected the relevant sentence below.]
Swayed by strong public sentiment against downsizing the herd of horses and ponies at the Northside stables, the Seven Lakes Landowners Association Board of Directors, on Wednesday night, May 30, tabled a motion that would have eliminated three horses, dropping the herd from eight horses to five, while leaving the pony count at three.
Though the Board decided to maintain the herd at its current size, that does not mean all is stable at the stables. Longtime Stables Manager Karen Reeder has been replaced by an interim manager -- news that had filtered through the grapevine to most of the members in attendance at the Open Meeting.
Though the Board did not address that issue directly, President Bob Darr told The Times that the plan is to find a full-time replacement for Reeder before Horse Camp starts up this Summer.
Nor does the decision to leave the herd as is indicate the stables issue has been resolved once and for all.
"We are going to continue to study this," President Bob Darr said, "to look at numbers and look at finances and look at usage and look at programs and look at whatever. We will before long be coming back with some proposals as relates to that."
Darr suggested that the Board would like to assemble an ad hoc committee of residents "to talk about marketing" and other issues "as it relates to stabilizing the stables to the point where we are providing everything we can within the limits of our funds."
Director Bob Racine pleaded with members concerned about the stables -- or other recreation issues -- to attend the monthly Recreation Committee meetings, at 9:30 am on the first Wednesday of each month. He pledged to provide the office with an agenda for the committee's meeting that could be emailed to members. He encouraged those with concerns or suggestions about recreation to email him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Plenty of public support
Eleven members spoke during the public comment segment of the Open Meeting, most expressing strong support for protecting the stables and maintaining the size of the herd. And those members were joined by an equal number of supporters who chose not to speak.
Phil Thingstad said his grandson, who visits during the Summer and rides everyday, "told me with tearful eyes, 'If you let them get rid of Mindy, I will never forgive you.'" Mindy is one of the ponies at the stables. Sympathetic to the need for "austerity," Thingstad asked the Board, if downsizing the herd were necessary, to handle it through attrition.
Greg Lishawa ran through some stable costs and income streams to argue that the $8,700 in savings expected from thinning the herd had already been achieved without reducing the number of horses. Recounting a conversation with a native Seven Laker, who fondly remembered riding horses in his childhood, Lishawa asked, "Do we want to deprive other children of those memories?"
Kathy Lishawa asked the Board to "keep your minds open before you make a vote tonight."
"We wouldn't be here if it wasn't something that we were very passionate about," she said, noting that her family had selected Seven Lakes because of the stables."I'm sure that other young families chose Seven Lakes because of the stables."
"Those horses are very important to my family," Amy Blondin said, adding that "My daughter spends a lot of time there grooming horses."
Laura Douglass, a member of the Recreation Committee, opposed the idea of trying to turn the stables into a profit center, by selling rides and lessons to non-residents -- an idea that had been floated earlier in the stables debate.
The stables were designed to attract homebuyers to Seven Lakes, she argued, not to be an income producer for the Association. Drawing a comparison to other amenities, she asked whether the board would sell day passes to the lakes to outsiders. "You would not do that," she said. Douglass also noted that Seven Lakes North and South are alone among the residential developments in Western Moore County in offering free trail rides to residents.
"This is the one unique thing that we have," she said.
Girl Scout Kaitlyn York told the Board that she has a little brother who, at five years of age, hasn't yet had a chance to ride the horses -- and even younger cousins. "I would like for them have the chance to ride at the stables," she said. "People move here because of the stables . . . . I hope you take your time and think about this decision."
Emma Wolf, another Girl Scout, said her family moved to Seven Lakes because of the amenities, adding that she would like her young niece to have the opportunity to ride at the stables when she is old enough.
Teenager Kayleigh Wachter asked the Board "If more people would come to the barn, will you leave it alone?"
After Director Bob Racine answered "The more it is used, then the more valuable it is," Wachter provided several ideas about increasing utilization of the stables, including staying open an hour later, so that students have a chance to ride after school.
Saying she had been involved with horses for more than forty years, Sandy Corr told the Board: "I don't think enough research has been done to find out how to cut costs effectively." Noting that a Facebook page for Sandhills equestrians had a question about allowing outside use of the facility, Corr said she felt the associated expenses would swamp any additional revenue.
The stables are "a cost center," she said. "It was designed as a cost center. I don't use the pool, but it is a huge amenity that draws people here. I would never suggest getting rid of the pool."
Director Racine told Corr that the Board had nothing to do with the posting on the equestrian Facebook page. "It's not there with the permission of any member of the Board," he said.
"The stables need to be left alone," Linda Cristie said. "We definitely need an independent study on how we can run it effectively."
"Seven Lakes is so unique because of the amenities -- including the horses," Dale Nussman told the Board. "The reduction would save only one percent of the annual budget. So it doesn't make sense. I recommend we go the other way . . . . We aren't getting the word out. We have a wonderful resource that folks aren't making use of."
At the conclusion of public comment, former SLLA Director Donna Stephan complimented the crowd on having maintained a civil tone.
Charging for amenities?
Based on comments that President Darr made at the very end of Wednesday night's meeting, the stables debate may be just an appetizer for tough decisions facing the Board and the SLLA community in the coming months.
Darr suggested that at least he, among the Directors, was actively considering the possibility of attaching fees to the use of individual amenities.
"We have been talking about cost of the stables, we have been talking about cost of the pool, we have been talking about cost of lakes -- we have been talking . . . about the cost of everything," he said.
Darr then said that he had just heard about a nearby lake community in which "the users of the lakes in that community pay a $1,000 fee per year to use the lake. We are sitting and wrestling with the costs of the stables, the costs of this and the cost of that . . . in some communities, I do know, that they do fee structures for stuff."
Darr mentioned other communities in which association members must purchase $500 pool memberships each swimming season.
"I don't want to shock anybody if we come back one of these days and say we think that we are going to need to charge fees for stuff," Darr said. "There shouldn't be any illusion that everything is going to be just like it is right now, because it can't be."
"We will be coming up with stuff that, I'm sure, is not going to be very palatable to lots of folks. But we have got to get enough money to run this organization, we've got to keep it going, we've got to maintain what we've got."
