Evil in the Ranches… that will affect your pocketbook!

Just an emergency head’s up for all of our neighbors… The HOA is trying again to build a recreation center, BUT here is the bigger problem. The city is currently planning a recreation center also. When the city does build a rec center, we will have to be paying for both. We’ll take a little tax increase from the city to build theirs… but if we don’t stop the HOA we’ll have to pay 25 MORE DOLLARS PER MONTH to fund the additional HOA recreation center! These center would be about 2 miles from each other and in direct competition with each others. This is an unneeded, foolish, and ill-conceived plan. I recommend reading Paul Jerome's editorial in the crossroads journal. (He is the city's accountant!)

In a time when many of our neighbors are struggling with increasing costs this would be damaging to their fiscal health. Furthermore, it does not fall into the HOA’s responsibilities nor meet a need!

To assume that the HOA has our best interests in mind is naive and demonstrates a lack of understanding of the motivations of those governors of the HOA. They are a business! If this were pure motivation, then they would move the HOA to public ownership, lower costs and move to volunteer elected officials instead of keeping the organization private and continuing to feed salaries.

They already gave Nolan park to the city because of the “costs” for upkeep… since 30 bucks a month from hundreds of houses isn’t enough to get someone to mow the lawn… how long until this rec center is given up or falls into disrepair as they keep their fees and salaries high?

In order to fight this we must contact both the HOA directors AND our local representative in addition to letting all of your neighbors know and join the fight. Feel free to post links to this post if you so feel. Here is the contact information…

"Quality Management Services" (perhaps one of the most misleading names out there...) 789-5500

To email all of them post the following into your mail program:

celayajon@gmail.com; brian@thesagegrouputah.com; mikec@ext.usu.edu, ideal_fab_and_cut@yahoo.com; jonbarclay@gmail.com; ryan@sagecommunities.com;
trezspritzs@hotmail.com; jeff.topham@era.com; joshs@sisna.com; mckelley02@hotmail.com;
rob.healey@ucn.net; brittanylong426@gmail.com; jcoldsprings@yahoo.com; sparkyt9@hotmail.com; pitchfam@msn.com;

To find your individual HOA delegate please visit

http://www.rancheshoa.com/



Here is what I wrote to the HOA and City Council:

To those with the power to make the best decisions,

As a concerned home owner in the Ranches, I am very disturbed by the idea of a Home Owner's Organization taking on the responsibilities of a city. Building a large-scale recreation center for our area is not the purpose of function of the HOA in protecting our property value.

Furthermore, as you are probably well aware, the city is in the process of approving their own recreation center, eliminating any perceived need for such a building.

The increase the HOA is planning to fund this is not appropriate, particularly in a time of depression. This would be fiscally damaging to many families in our area. The area we live in is not Beverly Hills. We have a good family environment, but the HOA should avoid a slip into the philosophical flaw of entitlement; we are still a young city and not growing as fast as some projected.

Paul Jerome's (the city's accountant) editorial in the crossroads journal points out many of the flaws with this decision. Please read that editorial.

If the HOA is so confident in the importance and need of this building, then have those who use it pay for it. Have dues and memberships like the other not-government organizations to fund it. Do not force my family and our neighbors to pay for something we do not want and do not plan to use. That very frustration of having to pay for things without any personal benefit is a corporate version of "taxation without representation".

Additionally, please understand that many of us have work, business, and service organizations we belong to and cannot make it to your scheduled meetings, but that does not mean that we do not have an opinion. I hope that you, as the elected or decision-making officials will do all in your power to prevent the project from continuing.

Regards,

The Hoffman Family