Letters, letters, letters

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To the Editor:

Ms. Fahrenholz is wrong about the Holders not being "invited" to a meeting of the Crossroads Property Owners Association at the Sisters Fire Hall (The Nugget, Letters to the Editor, p. 2, May 26).

She is also mistaken in writing that the meeting was canceled because of a temper fit by the chairman of the board.

The Holders, even as absentee owners (they live at Black Butte Ranch), have every right to be present at a meeting of owners and they were there.

Their attorney did not, but he wouldn't leave.

The chairman, as a retired attorney, was unwilling to give first-hand information to an opposing lawyer, so the meeting was reconvened at a private home. The Holders could also have been present there, but they were not.

Of a group of some 40 to 50 people, three dissented when the rest of us decided to go on with an appeal of a court decision that wiped out all the amendments to the original CC&Rs presented to the owners by Brooks Resources, who developed Crossroads, Tollgate, and Black Butte Ranch.

In 1996 the Holders began construction of an addition to a Crossroads house they had recently purchased.

The builder, a family member, was informed by at least two members of the Crossroads Board of Directors that the addition encroached 15 feet into his 25-foot side setback, but the advice was ignored and building was continued to completion.

When counseling failed, a suit to force compliance with the setback was filed and was tried in May, 1999.

The court ruled that, even though the vote count was certified and filed with the county clerk, all amendments to the original CC&Rs are nullified because every ballot could not now be verified as having been signed by each property owner.

So look to your CC&Rs, owners' associations. If this court ruling is upheld on appeal, you could be next if your CC&Rs and amendments aren't bulletproof.

Respectfully,

Barney Howard

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To the Editor:

This letter is in response to Barbara Fahrenholz' letter last week.

Ours was the home to which the Crossroads Property Owners meeting was moved after the Holders' attorney, Mr. Brinich, (a non-property owner) refused to leave our meeting at the fire hall in Sisters. My husband and I could not stand by and let a posturing attorney prevent our friends from receiving important information.

Barbara states that the Holders were not invited. This is just not so! My husband made it clear that Mr. Brinich was not welcome, but the Holders are property owners and could have come to our home. They chose not to come.

Forty-six people came and we held a discussion for more than an hour and a half before Barbara Fahrenholz came to the gathering and started objecting to points of discussion that had been thoroughly gone over from every angle.

Bud Cunningham has given a great deal to this association. His passion for our way of life in this "trashy, lower middle class development" (Brinich's and Holder's words in court) has kept him going through an ordeal not many could endure.

If he was a little cynical and used language that people did not appreciate in his letter to the owners announcing the meeting, perhaps those people should have been beside Bud in the courtroom for the trial. He was the first to recognize the devastation the Holders have wrought by this whole comedy of errors. He knew that our C C & R (covenants, codes and restrictions) amendments had been stripped away by the action taken by the court and that our very existence in Crossroads was threatened.

In short, we, at Crossroads, have been put in a "survival mode" by the decision of the court. And the sad part about this whole situation is that the Holders have admitted since the beginning that their garage addition was in violation of the C. C. & R.'s and even offered to "donate" $4,000 to Crossroads to look the other way and allow the violation.

Now they have spent $50,000 and we have spent $40,000 in attorneys' fees over this dispute. As usual, the attorneys are the only winners!

Linda Clemans, Crossroads Property Owner

Editor's note:

Bud Cunningham has resigned from the board of directors of the Crosroads Property Owners Association. He told The Nugget that he "was becoming a controversial figure" and wanted "the discussion to be about the issues, not personalities."

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To the Editor:

Sharon Hrdlicka's splendid photograph in last week's Nugget of the bullfrog ("Having a friend over for dinner...") caught in the act of devouring a red-legged Frog is graphic evidence of how serious introduced species can impact our natives.

There are thousands of ponds throughout Oregon where red-legged frogs were once plentiful, but bullfrogs have taken over. (Bullfrogs were introduced over 50 years ago as a "game animal" and now have a regulated "hunting season.")

Red-legged frogs, Pacific chorus frogs, salamanders, mice - or just about anything they can swallow - are prey for bullfrogs. In the same way that knapweed destroys native plant communities, and starlings and house sparrows take food and shelter from native cavity-nesters, bullfrogs and feral cats are bad news.

Once these lethal competitors have been introduced, the only solution to solving the problems they create seems to be for us to play God. If you have bullfrogs in your pond remove them when they're in "season." I've heard that frog's legs are good eating.

If you have starlings or house sparrows nesting in the box you put up for bluebirds remove the eggs or young. There are no legal restraints on destroying starlings and house sparrows. (I put up a box for small owls in my backyard and the starlings took it over. Out went the young starlings.)

Treat knapweed and feral cats the same way - before it's too late.

Jim Anderson

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To the Editor:

This is not only an area of beautiful scenery, but also of beautiful people. I just had an opportunity to meet one such person to whom I am very thankful.

This afternoon, while riding through town, I lost my wallet when it fell out of my bike bag. Doug Robinson, Sisters resident and Multnomah Publishing employee, found it and promptly called my home to return it.

Meeting Doug and some of the other employees at Multnomah Publishing was a warm feeling that I will never forget. They are all truly wonderful people over there.

Thank you Doug.

Bob Curry

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