LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bvwv/Editorial/6311/
Neighbor helping neighbor !
In need of help filing my income tax report, I called on my daughter, Martha Tillman and AARP, who set up my tax filing with Barbara Kattell and Barbara Barrett and their team at the Boys and Girls Club.
Tillman acted as a go between, delivering the tax information and returning them to me.
All went well until my insurance company wrote saying they had made a mistake; I needed to fill out a corrected form.
Kattell came to my house, helped with additional paperwork and then mailed the tax report in by April 15 !
Good neighbor ? Yes ! Roberta Stock
Bella Vista Let’s make a change Too long have we stood by and allowed ourselves to be bullied into submission by the various regulations of the Bella Vista Village Property Owner's Association. Their strict adherence to policy is, at most times totalitarian. Recently my family experienced an unpleasant experience related to these policies. Their fees are exorbitant, and they seem in excess of normal punitive charges municipalities impose.
First, residents, please pay attention to the due dates of your water bill, regardless of your community stature or payment history. It would be interesting to see if they would disconnect a Board Member or their general manager's water, were they to have an oversight.
Also, did you know your water service can be disconnected for noncompliance with the regulations of the POA's Architectural Control Committee, in other words keep your lawns mowed (for example ), or for non-payment of membership dues.
Second, I write this letter as a call to arms for the residents of our lovely and somewhat exclusive city. The POA’s financial goal seems to be recreational maintenance, and not the improvement of the services they provide or in reducing the costs of utilities to POA members. You may go to their Web site, www. bellavistapoa. com, click on Membership, Board / Administration, then POA Reports. Their budgets and reports are open for inspection.
The monthly fees we pay to the POA give us the right to request they change the way they do business. Just think, if even half of us ceded into Benton County and drilled wells to obtain water, put in a septic tank and contracted with Allied Waste, the loss the POA would experience in revenue would be staggering. Perhaps that is what it will take to get their attention.
Please petition the mayor of Bella Vista, Frank Anderson, to seek control of water, trash and sewer utilities from the POA and place it into the hands of our city governance. His email address is mayorfrank @ sbcglobal. net and his mailing address is P. O. Box 5655, Bella Vista, Ark. 72714.
Correspondence should also be copied to Tommy Bailey, General Manager, Bella Vista Village Property Owner's Association, 98 Country Club Drive, Bella Vista, Ark. 72714, and all of the board members; their information is posted on the above mentioned Web site.
I encourage every resident to submit such a request in writing. The POA requires a majority vote of 51 percent or greater to change over utility control into the hands of the city, due to the covenant they set up with Cooper Communities in 1965. Unfortunately, the downside is that vote would encompass all POA members, resident or not. So if you have friends, family or acquaintances that own lots, please encourage them to vote in our favor. In fact, if the POA were to relinquish control of utilities and other such functions, they would likely save money in labor and expenditures, so they may focus more on recreational maintenance. Jason Frederick
Bella Vista