The group began holding weekly meetings, open to the public, in May. Action was delayed by problems getting maps showing property lines and rights of way.

The path is a requirement of development on the South and mandated to be in place by the time the 601st unit is built. That number will be reached in the next phase of development by South developer Reynen & Bardis.

The South developer is responsible for funding the path across the South Course to the Yellow Bridge. North developer Murieta Holdings will fund the north leg of the path.

The Yellow Bridge crossing is viewed by community officials as the only time- and cost-effective option for a river crossing now available. A second bridge would require a lengthy and expensive approval process, in addition to the actual cost of a bridge structure. No funding mechanism was ever set in place to fund a second bridge as a cost of development.

The main feature of the design that will soon be presented to the Country Club board is a new path dedicated to golfers that would run along the back of homes on the 18th hole of the South Course. The present cart path, located next to Highway 16, would become part of the North-South connector path for pedestrians and bicycle and golf cart use.

Sevier, a golfer, told Country Club representatives at the June 17 ad hoc committee meeting that he believed the proposed path would complement play at the 18th hole. He also mentioned homeowner opposition to a path proposed last year that placed the public path near residents’ homes. The current proposal limits the new route to golf traffic, which would be consistent with having a home located on the course, Sevier and other members of the committee pointed out.

At the RMA meeting, Sevier asked Marie Beckstaiger, a South resident who's an activist for the path, to discuss the location of the proposed path with the homeowners who would be affected.

The Country Club leases its property from the Pension Trust Fund of the Operating Engineers. The club has expressed concerns about the path affecting the playability of the course as well as safety, trespassing and liability issues.

The ad hoc committee expects to address these concerns in the presentation to the Country Club board. That meeting had not been scheduled at the time of the RMA meeting.

In speaking of the river crossing, Director Mike Schieberl alluded to the drowning of teenager Dennis Flores days before.

"This incident that occurred here recently," he said, "I think we’re all part of that. … The CSD, being a good neighbor to us, has allowed in an unofficial fashion for the Granlees Dam to be used as a crossing. … Kids use it. It’s a fact.

"So the time has come for us as a community to pull together for the children of this community as well as the adults of this community to find a solution to this problem. And we need to find it in the very, very near future.”

The Community Services District says it has never condoned use of the dam by the public or any public trespass at its facilities. Fire and sheriff's officials at the drowning scene said the boy and his friends were swimming in the area. There was no mention of them crossing the dam.

The accident is under investigation by the sheriff's department.

$285,000 in street repairs approved

Director Elliot Sevier took it as a good sign that this year’s road maintenance costs came in below the $300,000 budgeted for the work, but Director Mike Schieberl, chairman of the Maintenance Committee, had a different perspective.

“In the real world, the amount of the actual construction contract that would need to be let in order to take all of our roads currently in need of repair and actually repairing them … it’s probably more like a million and a half dollar contract. I know that’s a frightening thing to say to the community, because that’s all eventually going to come out of our pockets.”

Schieberl did agree with Sevier that the problem was years of deferred maintenance, something that’s been addressed in recent years.

“This has been deferred for so long and we’re now catching up on it. The $300,000 is a number that’s allowing us to gain on it,” Schieberl said. “But it’s going to have to be incrementally increased over the next three or four or five years in order to get us back to a place where we should be.”

The board unanimously approved a contract with Delta Construction Co. for $285,735 in road repairs.

Broadband update

With 115 customers signed up for broadband Internet access, “We’re moving ahead a lot faster than we thought,” said Director June Koefelda, chair of the Communications Committee. RMA General Manager Greg Vorster said 30 to 40 of the subscribers are business-level customers, who pay a higher price for greater bandwidth. Two customers have opted out since the service became available May 1.

Director Elliot Sevier said sign-ups are more than double the association’s original expectation and with success have come problems. “It’s causing us a lot of difficulty in management and the like that we have to adjust to because it’s a new business,” he said.

He stressed that the broadband cable operation is on its own budget and will be “required to stand on its own two feet.”

The board approved spending $64,805 for cable replacement work as part of the ongoing project to upgrade the community’s cable system. The cable work is done on streets that are scheduled for road maintenance. Sevier characterized it as “a major improvement for our cable TV system and for the future of our broadband system.”

Gate access policy

The board is accepting comments for the next 30 days on the gate access policy developed by RMA and CSD representatives. If adopted, it becomes an RMA policy that is enforced by the CSD. (You can see the policy here.)

Blue house petition

A blue house on Medella Circle prompted a petition from neighbors protesting the color. They contend the color is not an earth tone and it should not have been approved by the association’s Architectural Review Committee.

“Sure you guys aren’t colorblind?” asked Josette Beck, a resident presenting the petition to the board.

General Manager Greg Vorster said the color had already been toned down at the association’s request. “I think the ARC’s going to have to review those as they come in and approve them on a case-by-case basis,” he concluded.

Parks Committee changes

The board voted to have Mike Schieberl take Tom Landwehr’s place on the Parks Committee. Landwehr resigned from the board in May. RMA President Jack Copeland succeeds Schieberl as the alternate.

Change in use policy for RMA Building

Criteria for commercial workshops and seminars conducted at the RMA Building have been clarified and the rental fee for commercial users has been doubled to $150 under new provisions in the building use policy. The board approved the changes.