What a long way the village has come in a few short years.

Just a little more than two years ago, the Property Owners Association general manager at the time was trying to deal with massive yearly deficits. At the end of 2002, the deficit was roughly $1.7 million, and it wasn't the first time the POA had reported a negative balance.

In April 2003, then-treasurer Tommy Bailey said that during the last three years, the POA had lost more than $2.5 million. A month later, Bailey said that since 1997, the POA had spent $3.6 million more than had been taken in, and the food and beverage division had cost $6.7 million more than it had brought in.

By the end of 2003, the POA reported a positive balance of $2.6 million, the first time since 1999 the POA had ended the year in the black. But that wasn't all because of improved management. That year's good news was due to the inclusion of two-tier funds, collected and held in escrow since the spring of 2001.

The legality of the two-tier system, which charges owners of improved properties $24 a month and owners of unimproved properties $16 a month, was challenged in court. An Arkansas Court of Appeals decision, handed down in the spring of 2003, freed up the funds for use by the POA.

That meant an injection of $3.715 million in two-tier money to the POA coffers, which turned a potential deficit of $1.086 million into a positive total of $2.628 million, said POA Treasurer Dwain Mitchell.

Those are all positive numbers, and most of the credit for such good news should go to POA General Manager Tommy Bailey.

I remember in the fall of 2003, when then-GM Jim Smith resigned and it was soon announced that Bailey would take his place, I had my doubts, as did a few other people I talked to. Of course, we only knew Bailey as a treasurer, and he was very good at his job. But he was so quiet and soft-spoken, and I just wasn't sure he was tough enough to take all that a GM in Bella Vista has to put up with. He was just too nice.

But since then, he has demonstrated that his intelligence and vision don't need to be accompanied by a loud voice or a blustery attitude. He has steered the village to the much safer and firmer financial ground it is now on, with some help from the POA Board of Directors, of course. After all, he couldn't implement his plans without their approval.

And even though we still are nowhere near where we need to be financially to take care of everything that needs to be taken care of, there is enough money to pay for the renovation of the Country Club, which will be used both as a gathering place and as much-needed office space for the POA.

The renovation will be financed by the sale of lots formerly held by the POA and now being sold and auctioned off at ever-increasing prices. Instead of the POA paying property taxes and missing out on assessment fees, that property is now being sold at a profit, and the profit is being used to meet some of the village's needs.

There is also enough money to move ahead with some $7.1 million in water system expansions, improvements and repairs in 2006. The total project is expected to cost $10.3 million when finished, and it will bring much-needed water pressure to the Metfield area and a new supply line to the rapidly growing west side of the village.

With repairs made to the old and crumbling concrete water lines, the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year due to leakage should begin to slow.

This is good news, indeed. The fact the POA is accomplishing goals and getting to work on projects that will benefit all of us is a breath of fresh air in this village. Enough committees and task forces have been established and gone through the process of examining what needs to be done, sometimes over and over again. Now, the POA is going to move ahead and actually do something.

It's a great start to a new year.

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Linda Caldwell, Weekly Vista Managing Editor, has lived in the village since January 2003 and is an 18-year veteran journalist.