AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL RESIDENTS OF FARMINGTON WOODS

I'll be honest. For sometime now I've had a theory that there's been a plan in place since the Ad-Hoc Select Committee to Study Golf announced in 2009 that despite the fact that the Farmington Woods Golf Club had lost money five out of the previous six years, residents would have to make up any shortages incurred by the golf/clubhouse operation when membership could not sustain it. They put forth the rationale that the course, like the pools, tennis courts and sidewalks for that matter, was an amenity that benefited all residents. 

That logic falls short with me, since we pay for pools, tennis courts and sidewalks with district taxes and condo fees. The Golf Club is not an amenity given the fact that residents have to shell out thousands to be members. The only "benefit" we get from these operations as "members" is that we get the privilege of paying $360. per year in what I call "Taximums" to a restaurant that still can't make a profit.

Anyway, this letter from Kay Olsen is the missing piece of my theory. The next step in the aforementioned plan was to hold focus groups, put a few golfers in here and there and voila: Instead of results being reported as "Residents overwhelmingly want golf to be self-supporting" we get an investment offer in January, with plans to rush through a vote in March so that you and I could start to receive the benefits of a state of the art irrigation system and horse shoe bar for the clubhouse by summer I guess. All for the low, low price of a what I like to call a "20 year debt sentence" in the form of a $4M bonding proposal. You spoke, they listened. Or so they like to say. Here's what Kay has to say:

Dear Residents of Farmington Woods:

Irene Loretto wrote a letter this weekend that residents received regarding the two bonds. She used my name throughout the letter and indicated that she had asked me to moderate the focus groups, the results of which culminated in the plan to replace the course irrigation system and enhance the clubhouse with an elevator and horse shoe bar.

Technically she is right. These items were in the results... Along with a ton of other items that have been ignored for the most part. 

The 300 residents that attended the focus groups asked that items be investigated and evaluated. They understood that all items could not be accomplished and that an analysis needed to be done to determine feasibility.  We got lost somewhere. 

See you at Monday's District and Board meetings!

Kay Olsen


Comments? You're welcome to email me at 2chewman@gmail.com.