That is hardly what is being offered. What is really being offered is a payment of zero.
How may one calculate that?
Well, roughly $50,000 is for repairs to a roadway, which is a public thoroughfare and therefore not part of the Special District set up to include the two affected ponds; $150,000 or more is for interest on the total cost of the dam construction project accrued over 15 years.
Fact: There’s no interest to be saved, because the village is not borrowing a nickel to pay for the construction; it is instead paying for repairs out of its capital fund reserve.
Thus, the affected owners are being badly treated by mayor and council. The district was set up without pond residents’ acquiescence or agreement.
At the time, the two dams were described to the residents and officials as sound, but we now know that at least one wasn’t, and the village was very likely negligent in inspecting and maintaining the dams in the years since.
The Special District should be eliminated and the residents treated with respect.
The two ponds do serve public purposes and should be open to public use for fishing in the future as they have in the past.
Paul Dunn
Pinehurst
