In an effort to improve safety around Lake Auman docks, the Architectural Review Committee [ARC] has won initial approval from the Seven Lakes West Landowners Association [SLWLA] Board of Directors for a change to the rules and regulations that would increase the maximum length of a dock to 23 feet. The motion carried 8-to-1 during the Board's Tuesday, July 12 Work Session, with Infrastructure Director John Goodman in opposition.

A second and final reading and vote on the proposed change will take place at the Tuesday, July 26 Work Session.

Presenting the proposed increase in permitted dock length, ARC Director John Hoffmann said President Mick Herdrich had asked the ARC committee to look into the matter, since the largest boats legally allowed on Lake Auman are 22.8 feet long.

Safety was cited as the primary reason for the change. Hoffmann explained that, for example, a 22-foot pontoon boat, with a rear gas tank, moored at a too-short dock, can be both inconvenient and potentially dangerous -- and could create a potential gasoline spill into the lake.

With only a few months left in his current term of office, Foxfire Village Councilman Vic Koos reluctantly announced his resignation during the Council's Tuesday, July 12 meeting, citing health reasons and changing demands on his family that made the decision necessary.

“It is impossible for me to find the time to do the job to the standard that it has been done in the past four years," read Mayor George Erickson from a statement issued by Koos, who was too choked up to make the announcement on his own behalf. "To say this has been a difficult decision is an understatement.”

Elected in November 2007, Koos has been an active and engaged leader, overseeing streets and parks for three years, and public safety concerns through the past year.

He thanked his fellow councilmen for their support and said he hoped that by resigning now, another candidate for the Foxfire Village Council would step forward.

Both Mayor George Erickson and Councilman John Eltschlager have filed with the Moore County Board of Elections as candidates in November's municipal elections, but, as of Noon on Thursday, no one had yet filed to run for Koos' seat. The filing deadline is this Friday, July 15, at Noon.

A state-required update to the Emergency Action Plans [EAP] for the five Seven Lakes North dams designated as "high hazard" will cost $7,500 to $10,000 or even more -- an unanticipated expenditure that left Board members feeling frustrated and powerless.

“This is not mandated yet, but I expect it will be soon,” Lakes & Dams Director Don Fentzlaff reported during the Seven Lakes Landowners Association [SLLA] Work Session held on Monday, July 11.

Each EAP identifies conditions at the dam that would constitute an emergency, specifies preplanned actions to be followed should those conditions occur, and lays out procedures for warning to downstream emergency management authorities. The North Carolina Dam Safety Program has implemented a new format for the emergency documents, aimed at making them more user-friendly and consistent for use on a dam of any size. The updated version will include any changes to the existing EAPs, as well as updated inundation flood zone maps.

The five SLLA EAPs, originally drafted in 2008 by dam contractor S&ME as part of several state-mandated improvements to the community’s dams, cost approximately $65,000.

SLLA President Bob Darr expressed concern about signing a contract with S&ME for the updates without first soliciting bids from other firms. However, in discussion the Board seemed to agree that looking elsewhere could cost more in the long run, if the dam contractor was starting from scratch rather than updating existing information.

“We’ve hired S&ME to be our mainstay in looking after our dams. It may not be sensible to question their bids for every little project,” warned Director Bud Shaver.

Fentzlaff agreed and said the EAPs will require a good deal of updating to be in compliance with the new format.

“If we call in someone else to look at the other problems we’re dealing with right now, on top of the EAP, we would be throwing away a lot of money,” he said.

A formal vote on the proposed S&ME contract will be called during the July 27 Open Meeting.

The Wednesday, June 29 Open Meeting of the Seven Lakes Landowners Association [SLLA] began with an impassioned plea from a mother that the Association develop better options for dealing with security issues raised by domestic violence. The woman recounted how she, her adult daughter, and a grandchild were unable to secure assurances from Talis Management or Security Forces Inc. that the daughter's husband would not be allowed to enter the community, even after obtaining a restraining order and an eviction notice regarding the husband.

Having the husband's barcode deactivated required a call to Talis headquarters in Raleigh, the woman said. Obtaining cooperation from front gate personnel required dealing with the Landowners Office -- and even then, the woman said, the gate guard seemed not to appreciate the seriousness of the situation.

"They did not seem to understand that they should call the Sheriff -- and try to reach us, if he tried to enter the community," she explained. " The gate guard was very flippant with me. She said she couldn't guarantee, if it got busy, that he wouldn't get through."

"As landowners, we should not have to fight the homeowners staff and security to protect our safety, especially when there is a judge's order," she said, asking that the Board develop a "clear, step-by-step policy" for handling such situations, and that the security staff receive training in domestic violence issues.

Community Manager Alina Cochran told the Board that Talis had deactivated the husband's barcode even before receiving a copy of the restraining order, and that she, once that order was in hand, had instructed gate personnel on how to handle the situation.

Security Director Andy Lowe explained that gate security personnel cannot take orders from residents -- or even directly from Board members -- but must, under the SFI contract, receive written instruction from the Community Manager.

President Bob Darr said he had witnessed some of the interaction between the distraught mother and Landowners Office staff and assured the woman: "I know of the concern and the frustration. We will address these issues. Certainly we will do all that we can do. We will be discussing this and addressing it."

[After receiving a copy of the Long Range Planning Committee's recommendations on the mailhouse, we changed our description of their design suggestions. We originally called these "criteria." More accurately, they were the LRP Committee's assessment of the more important recommendations about the facility gathered from the community.

In addition, we originally reported that the "Lake Patrol" had been extended to weekdays. In fact, the Board voted to extend ID checks at Johnson Point to weekdays; the on-lake patrols are still confined to weekends and holidays.

The revised text appears below in italics and boldface.]

Westsiders will continue to be able to collect their mail at a facility within the gates, rather than renting a Post Office box in WestEnd, the Seven Lakes West Landowners Association [SLWLA] Board of Directors decided Tuesday evening, June 28.

The Board, during a regular work session, unanimously approved a recommendation by the Long Range Planning [LRP] Committee to move forward with constructing a new mailhouse or mailhouses in Seven Lakes West, and also approved an expenditure of up to $25,000 for study and design to determine the appropriate number and size of mail facilities.

After the Board made the issue of mail delivery "a matter of significant interest," the LRP Committee held a town hall meeting on the matter, as well as collecting additional feedback from members that suggested about 85 percent of the community is in favor of onsite mail delivery, according to LRP member Ron Shepard.

The LRP’s report delivered during Tuesday’s meeting said the group had received “many excellent comments from the Community concerning the type, number and locations for the potential new mail house(s),” including suggestions that the design should:

• Be cost effective in design and placement.

• Focus on convenience and safety.

• Recognize that the maihouse serves as a community meeting place.

• Simplify the current box numbering system by using street addresses.

• Increase box size and enhance parcel handling.

• Incorporate a flexible design to accommodate future changes at the Postal Service.

Before the motion was approved, Westsider Bill Price encouraged the Board to move forward with the project, saying the “community has expressed itself . . . Move ahead with it and not let it get buried in a committee some place.”