The Wall

Our homeowners association, of which I am now secretary (or "scribe" as some would call it), held its annual meeting the other night. Generally, these meetings are fairly laid-back affairs where a few neighbors gather to share information and insights and commit to work to make our little community more liveable.

But this meeting was a little contentious because the board asked for input from the 38 homeowners there (out of 264 in the subdivision) about how to deal with a concrete wall on both sides of a large boulevard that bisects the subdivision. The wall is leaning badly in certain areas, thanks to the fact that the developers of the area 30 years ago did not put in footings. The association spent about $15,000 a few years ago (much of it from voluntary assessments) to repair a portion of the wall that was in the worst shape. Now, the remainder is in need of attention. And we most definitely do not have the $25,000 or more that would be required to repair the wall (we have roughly $7,000 in the bank, thanks to the fact that dues are voluntary and only $50 per year and, each year, only about half the residents choose to pay).

When the topic of "the wall" came up, one resident, who has lived in the subdivision since its inception, turned into a screeching lunatic. Rather than allow any discussion, she launched into a diatribe that I can describe only as an almost violent attack on the board, throwing accusations that the board had spent almost one hundred thousand dollars in the past five years on patching a part of a wall, despite having promised that the entire wall could have been repaired for $30,000. Where she got the numbers, no one knows, but she was literally screaming at the top of her lungs that the board was absolutely incompetent and was guilty, at minimum, of mismanagement.

Having seen the financial records of the subdivision and knowing full-well that nothing like that much money was ever collected, much less spent, I immediately concluded the woman was suffering from some kind of mental illness. Still, she needed to be silenced to permit the meeting to continue. After one particularly lengthy rant during which she howled, accusatorily, "you people need to look at what the options are and then take the right steps instead of throwing our money at the problem," I jumped in. I said "have you ever volunteered to be a part of the solution instead of interrupting a meeting by screeching out your complaints?" She looked at me as if I had thrust a knife in her heart, but then comments from others drew her attention.

It wasn't long before everyone knew the problem would not find a solution, nor even a direction, at the meeting, so discussion was delayed so we could go on to other things.

After that little episode, I'm not quite certain my willingness to "serve my community" will be as rewarding as I had hoped. However, never one to be stopped by impossible odds, I've committed to looking into the options myself. I'm planning on looking at options that others may have overlooked, including tearing down the offending wall and replacing it with fast-growing plants. The wall truly is, in my opinion, an eyesore. Even it were not leaning and even it were painted, it would be ugly. Severely ugly. Ugly enough to make me dislike looking at it. So, tearing it down should be a good option. Except some people don't want it to come down. They see it as an important barrier between the alleys that run behind their homes and gives them access to their garages and the broad street beyond. I can see their point, but I think there are better options. The question, ultimately, is whether any options are affordable without a voluntary assessment, which simply won't collect enough money to truly correct the problem.

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