[Update (2/14/11) — The Seven Lakes West Landowners Association has posted a map and further details about the recommended changes to the Lake Auman ski area on the community's website. Click here to download a copy.]

[This article has been corrected to reflect the fact that the proposed distance between shoreline and ski area is 125 yards, not 125 feet, as we originally reported. The correction is highlighted in the story below. The Times regrets the error.]

The ski area at Lake Auman may be expanded by as much as fifteen percent -- mainly at the north end of the lake and along the dam -- if a recommendation from the Proposed Buoy and Boating Rules Revisions Committee is approved by the Seven Lakes West Landowners Association [SLWLA] Board of Directors.

The twelve-member volunteer committee is recommending five changes to the current buoy and boating regulations; Paul Kirst presented the panel's report during the Board's Tuesday, February 8 work session.

The first recommendation is to enlarge the ski area by fifteen percent, placing buoys a minimum of 125 feet yards from all residential shoreline properties.

The second change would widen the no-wake zone to include the entire area from the shore to the ski area. Kirst explained that this would create a larger area that would be safe for swimmers. The committee defined the no-wake zone as "producing no appreciable wake, with a maximum speed of five miles per hour."

The third proposed change would move the buoys guarding Johnson Point closer to the docks -- from the current 239 yards to 150 yards -- which would decrease the time it takes for boaters to get out to the large cove. The committee predicts that the increase in boat speed closer to the docks will not increase the size of wakes in this area.

The area between Johnson Point and the new ski area will be known as a “transitional speed area” in which boats that are within 125 feet of the shoreline would be limited to no wake and a speed of 5 mph max. Since the new buoy location is narrower, it could be marked with two buoys rather than the three that are currently in place. The committee also suggested adding two additional buoys near Johnson Point to protect an area where land juts out into the transitional area.

The final recommendation is for novice skiers to be allowed to start their runs at the bulkhead of the northeast side of the island before merging with traffic in the ski area. A sign on the bulkhead would mark the start location.

Responding to Kirst's presentation, Board members asked for clarification about whether the boat or the skier needs to remain within the designated buoys. Infrastructure Director John Goodman said he feared that placing buoys so close to the shore may not allow enough room for boats to safely make some turns. Kirst said he would take those concerns back to the committee to be reviewed.

Vice President John Hoffman, who presided at the meeting in the absence of President Ron Shepard, asked that the committee finalize its report and present it at the Board's February 22 meeting, with a possible Board vote on the recommendations at the March 8 Work Session. Information about the proposal and a map showing changes to the ski area will be posted for review on the Seven Lakes West website.

Foxfire Village may well wind up with 156 acres of undeveloped land, rather than $1.4 million it needs to pay for the recently completed Woodland Circle Extension project.

Quietly reading from a letter addressed to the Village Council during a Tuesday, February 1 public hearing on the project assesment, Mayor George Erickson reported that John McKeon’s legal trust has offered to give the Village its 156 acres rather than pay its $1.4 milion share of the cost.

In January, McKeon notified the Council, through his attorney, that it was not economically appropriate for him to pay the assessment using the methodology the Council had selected for allocating the cost of the project among affected property owners.

The Council’s plan called for assessing owners based on the total acreage they owned, rather than on a their proprtionate share of actual road frontage.

McKeon asked the Council to reconsider the methodology; however, the Council expressed concern that reversing course on the already approved preliminary assessment could completely negate the original petition that allowed the project to move forward.

Foxfire Village attorney Michael Brough explained that McKeon’s offer to donate the land would, in effect, provide a shorter and quicker process to reach where the Council would eventually end up if the landowner failed to pay his share: foreclosure.

“Education is crucial to keeping waterways safe,” Sgt. Mark Dutton of NC Wildlife Resources Commission told residents during a special presentation at the North Clubhouse on Wednesday, January 26.

Dutton and fellow Wildlife Officer Gary Caulk attended this hour long ‘meet and greet’ at the invitation of Seven Lakes Landowners Association [SLLA] Directors Bruce Keyser, Jr. and Chuck Mims, who are spearheading efforts to increase safe boating through education, improved rules and possible enforcement by the state agency.

“Our primary objective is to assist you and make your lakes a safe place for recreation,” explained Dutton. “Does that come with a price? Yes. Let’s not sugarcoat it, but you need to ask yourself some hard questions.”

“Do you want to maintain the quality of life of the place you invested in? Do you want to maintain a safe recreation atmosphere? You need to ask yourself what you’re tying to accomplish,” he said.

Of particular concern in the last year has been an uptick in reports of impaired and reckless boating on Lake Sequoia, the community’s largest lake and, arguably, most important asset.

“We have not taken these concerns lightly and we are looking at ways to curb past problems and prevent future ones,” said Director Keyser. “We want whatever we do to be a positive for the community.”

A first step towards that goal is a Boating Education Course for children and adults scheduled for Sunday, April 10, starting at 1:30 pm in the North Clubhouse. There is no fee to attend, but space is limited to thirty participants.

To register, please contact the SLLA office or visit the NCWRC website for more information on other available classes.

Seven Lakes could be rolled into the moribund Northwest Moore Water District if all the stars align in a creative approach to providing both Seven Lakes and Robbins ratepayers with more, less expensive water.

Public Utilities Director Dennis Brobst sketched out the concept for the Board of Commissioners during their Tuesday, February 1 regular meeting. The Northwest Moore District was created in 2004, on the heels of the county’s successful use of the independent East Moore Water District to extend its water system to residents in the eastern end of the county. Northwest Moore residents voted to borrow up to $16 million to pay to extend water lines and other infrastructure needed to bring county water to the area surrounding water.

But, in the end, not enough homes signed up for county water to make the project viable. That leaves the county with $16 million of borrowing authority that is set to expire in May.

Brobst suggested extending the Northwest Moore Water District to include both Robbins, assuming the town council approves, and Seven Lakes, which has a large enough installed base of water customers to make the District viable. The enlarged District could then borrow the $16 million already approved and use that to build a new water treatment plant in Robbins and pay for a water line to carry water from Robbins to Seven Lakes, where it would join the county system.

The estimated cost of the water line is $3.6 million, Brobst told the Commissioners; a 1.5 million gallon per day treatment plant would likely cost $6-10 million. Brobst noted that the existing Robbins water plant had been out of service for long enough that any attempt to bring it back online would have to meet the same state standards as building a new plant. In either case, the water plant would be fed by the existing reservoir and water intake owned by the Town of Robbins.

[This report has been updated since its first posting on February 1. The updated paragraphs appear in boldface type.]

The developer of the Dormie Club — and would-be developer of Pine Forest — has failed to meet the job-creation goals called for in a $500,000 grant that helped bring Moore County water to the upscale golf course development under construction off NC Highway 73. But the state agency that provided the funds is more interested in seeing the promised jobs created than in recouping the cash.

The North Carolina Rural Center grant that paid more than one-quarter of the cost of bringing water down NC Highway 73 from Eastwood was predicated on a simple formula: $10,000 per job. Dormie Club developer MHK Ventures, Inc. pledged to create 50 full-time jobs within a year after the project was complete. The deadline was December 31, and the job count stood at 15, not 50, according to Walter J. MacKey, Jr., a principal in MHK.

Responding to a Rural Center request for information on the number of jobs created, MacKey, in a letter to engineering firm Hobbs-Upchurch and Associates, said the development of Dormie Club had “been slowed down by construction delays, the recession, and bad weather.”

While the Dormie Club golf course is substantially complete, the club is operating out of a temporary clubhouse, and no residential properties have been developed. MacKey’s letter indicated another seven employees would be added in March, bringing the job total to twenty-two.

The 13,000 square-foot permanent clubhouse is expected to be finished by mid-2013, and the club will be fully operational by year-end 2013, Mackey writes, at which time it will be able to meet its commitment to provide 50 full-time jobs. The developer notes that his Thistle Golf Club project in Sunset Beach was completed in 2010 and now employs more than 50.