BY SHERRY GROS
FREELANCE WRITER FOR HIGHLAND PARK MOBILE AL
Good Thursday Morning. Here are a few other things we can add to the growing list of ideas of what to do to recover the dam.
1. Class Action Suit: The “HOA” has liability insurance for their board of directors in the event they make a decision that results in damages to HPca property. Some of us have paid for a sort of a Board of Directors malpractice insurance called “lake Insurance”. I know this because I spoke with the Underwriter of the Insurance group and the HOA attorney as to what is covered and I am quite sure I am clear on this issue. I wrote everything they said down and have it in a file for reference just to be sure I didn’t “misremember” or “confuse” or “mis-hear” as I am often accused of doing to you by the “HOA BOD.” Insurance companies have money for this kind of thing so focus on it and unpack this idea to its logical conclusion. If you would like their contact information I will gladly send it to you. Ask at highlandparkcommunityassoc@gmail.com
2. Sue the County and City for diverting their torrential stormwater runoff into the lake tearing down the dam and creating years of calamity in Highland Park Subdivision. They are up for licensing this October for their stormwater runoff issues at the EPA level so it might be a really good time to approach them on the issue. Over the years the City and County took new build areas and instead of diverting much of that stormwater runoff down Cody Rd to a Gabion, they knowingly dumped it into our 100 year old lake across the dam that could barely hold it’s own. The County/City callousley disregarded years of pleas for help correct their actions regarding Optimist stormewater runoff. Expect them to beat you back when you question and to have their friends and other interest discourage you on this issue. Expect them to delay you, ignore you, and all other tactics to turn you away. Think about getting legal outside the Gulf Coast area if possible. If you know an ethical attorney ask them to get involved.
3. Get out of the “attack” and “hate” Sherry Gros Group. That group is too large to be effective, has been and continues to be counterproductive to rebuilding the dam. The “HOA” group is easily led into hate speak by the leadership and taken off the task at hand to rebuild the dam instead focusing how to “stand up” to SG and continue to berate and discredit Sherry Gros. This group also, in the past, has shot down ideas from other people who opposed the HOA ideas by either attacking the individual or dismissing them entirely. I am not referring to myself alone. Others report my experience with this group but unlike me, a scrapper, they retreated and withdrew at the first or second attack. How to solve that problem, instead of one large group form small focus groups of 4 or 5 people, that focus on one of each solution presented. Then report your findings back to the landowner. It is time we take “forming an HOA to collect mandated dues “vice optional” off the table forever and start viewing the area as stakeholders. In today’s modern world stakeholders, their meetings, and their findings, hold clout with companies and governances. Whereas individual HOAs can be ignored.
4. Start rethinking the idea of a dam system and think of other solutions. We may be looking at a new normal in this neighborhood if all else fails. Be resilient. Adjust.
5. Get used to the idea that this may be the new normal and adjust to it by accepting what is and working with it in the most constructive way possible. For example instead of blaming others take responsibility for your part in the play. Ask yourselves what part did I play in the tragedy of the loss of HPca lands and lake and what part do I want to play going forward as we look to restoration?
6. Declare the land condemned, sell it, and dissolve the corporation. Or donate the land to Audubon or National Estuary Program for an environmental easement/trust. Optimist lake at MIlkhouse Creek is a regular migratory bird path with contiguous Federally recognized wetlands below us. A nature conservancy or the State of Alabama may be interested in taking it on for green space. This could be the a topic of research of one of the assigned small focus groups.
Hopefully I’ll be able to speak with someone from FEMA today regarding the collapse of the dam and loss of lake but, don’t expect too much right now because of the hurricane. We are in a very long line as many people have lost everything they own in this hurricane across the country. Pray for our country, for the suffering people, for recovery, for resilience. It looks like there’s another weather system brewing that could be heading our way.
Comment for any helpful ideas here.