Our mountain community has a phone tree

[ColbyBruce]

set up to notify homeowners who are not full time residents of emergency issues which may arise. I have a list of thirty homeowners to contact if the need arises. We had some weather last night that dropped a few trees and branches around our home but nothing on a major scale. A few homes have blocked drives and two with limbs in their roofs of their porches. Another home had a tree take the roof off the porch and crush it, bust a stone wall, crack a patio, knock a gas grill loose and release all the gas.

I texted a few pictures to the homeowners and a brief message to them, reminding them of the list of local repairmen in our neighborhood directory. That is the extent of what the emergency contact committee does. I headed home.

The owner of the house with no porch roof sent me multiple replies, and instructions for securing his home, getting repairmen out there to provide estimates, cleaning up all debris, etc. Each message got the same response from me, “It is not the responsibility of full time residents or those who reside close by to serve the whims of non-resident home owners.”

Granted, that person lives in Ft. Myers, FL but he has owned a vacation home there for nearly thirty years. His problems could of been avoided by having that dead tree removed when it was damaged by Irma three years ago. It was leaning towards his neighbor’s lot so did not concern him.

I am going to copy and paste his rude messages on our neighborhood web page so the other homeowners who may not know him can get to know him.

 

[Onomea]

I’m a volunteer board member for our small HOA. Have a neighbor who seems to think I am an employee or personal servant. Last summer, had ten complaining emails from her in one day. I blocked her email, telling her I was doing so, and cc’ing all other owners. Life has been a lot better since....

 

[BillBond]

We have a weekend home in the mountains.
I never expect anyone to do something for free.
So I asked some of the permanent neighbors if they would keep an eye on it
and that I would gladly pay them for their time.
Only one guy was willing to do it so we made a deal for him to walk the property twice a week.
He was so pleased with what I paid him, he said he would walk it daily.

In the mean time I put up some cameras that he did not know about.
Come to find out he was checking it at the most once a week.

 

[SweetMK]

I was hoping to see the pic of a guy using a phone
like Oliver Wendell Douglas used to do in "Green Acres",,,

 

[ColbyBruce]

Here you go! Our internet service isn’t as good as the phone service.

 

[yaktamer]

I thought this was going to be about one of those cell towers disguised as a pine or a palm.

 

[ColbyBruce]

I also do not understand someone owning a home in this type of community and not owning a chainsaw. I have had three inquiries from full time residents about clearing driveways.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I also do not understand someone owning a home in this type of community and not owning a chainsaw. I have had three inquiries from full time residents about clearing driveways.

For all but 15 of my 64 years I lived in the same community. When we moved here in 1965 it was all farmers. Some of them had jobs in town too. Now it is city people stealing the peace and quiet with their dirt bikes, and complaining about farm animal smells! AFTER A BIG BLOW: The farmers, have trees blocking their drives and access roads cleared in a few hours, the city transplants "Call Jake from State Farm" and wait a week for help to arrive!

Ivan