Truth or fiction?
It is necessary that we pass the proposed assessment in August. It means that many of you will have to give up one glass of wine per month, one hamburger and fries at McDonald's or some other minimum sacrifice to afford the $6 monthly increase on your house and $2 on a lot.
You can come up with all kinds of excuses not to support the Property Owners Association -- which is yourself. Home values are being protected in Hot Springs Village, where the proposed assessment on a home is being raised to $60 per month and lots to $35 per month.
What does the future hold if we vote no additional assessments?
There will be a substantial increase in fees for use of the amenities, which by history will result in further reduction of use and corresponding reduction in income. This will cause reduction of maintenance of buildings, parks, recreation and golf and other amenities.
Eventually parks, trails, dog parks, children parks, slides, swings, etc. will be closed. Recreation centers will cut hours of operation, pools will either close or times will be reduced.
Some golf courses may close and some lakes may be drained and returned to their natural state, as no money will be available to maintain dams, water quality and recreational uses for swimming and fishing. The golf courses' and parks' grasses will be brown and the lakes that are not drained will be green.
There will be no reason to move here as the amenities deteriorate and the value of your life investment, your home, will diminish greatly and values will drop like they did in 2007 or worse. We will be like Detroit -- in bankruptcy.
Think about your vote carefully. Don't just listen to the "vote no" people. They have no viable plan other than to place "vote no" signs. They provide no intelligent options to our financial future, and hopefully you will ignore them. You should. They are obviously misinformed as to the facts and the dire need for this assessment increase.
Harry "Butch"
and Jill Newby
Bella Vista
Editorial on 08/27/2014