Welcome to Lake Fairways Homeowners Association - HOA

Greetings from the LFHOA Board of Directors,

April is here. 

The clocks have been changed.

The golf tournament has been played. (With Lake Fairways maintaining the golf trophy – congratulations Lake Fairways golfers.)

Easter is here.

Lake Fairways has a new Board of Directors. Changes are being made as to how your Board of Directors can be more effective. 

One of those changes: The Lake Fairways community has been divided into districts.  Each district will have a director responsible for that area.

The purpose of this change is that the Directors want to have a more hands on approach with residents. Now when a new resident moves into a district, the Director covering that area and the Court Captain will be calling on them to welcome them and give them the information about our community. The Director will also make it a point to walk his/her area, get to know the residents in their district and be available to help, inform and answer questions. 

As many of you have read, many ELS communities are having major issues with the management. Lack of services, rules and regulations ignored, unsafe areas in the community, rent increases, etc.  Lake Fairways has joined with 8 other ELS communities in the area to see what we can collectively do to improve our situations. As we go forward with meetings, we will keep the residents informed as to what actions we will be taking. There is far more strength in numbers, and as we have met with representatives of other communities, we have learned how they have dealt with issues.

One of the major complaints we hear is that management has not responded to the comment forms we have been asked to write. Please be sure that one copy of the complaint form comes to the Board. The LFHOA has an office in the copy room. When you make a copy, just put the extra copy under the door of the office. That way the board can follow up and monitor if there is a response. (A new three-part concern/complaint form will be available soon. Then one copy to ELS, one to the Board, one for you. No copy work.)

Many of our residents will be leaving our community to return to their northern home. We wish them safe journey and the wonderful summer. 

IAN changed the course of history for Lake Fairways. Our community has survived many storms and several hurricanes, but nothing has ever caused the changes in Lake Fairways as IAN.

Leaving just prior to the storm, packing the car with what we considered to be the most valuable and necessary items, we thought of everything we had left behind. We saw neighbors packing their cars, making their last-minute preparations to protect their homes, exchanging hugs with neighbors, and looking back for that one last look. We left the gate and drove north. Not a word was said. I think we were each trying to deal with “what if?”

As we returned to Lake Fairways a few days later, you had that terrible feeling of what was left, was everyone okay, would our homes be there, “what if?” 

80% of the homes in Lake Fairways suffered damage. Some homes down to just the frame of a home. Carports, lanais gone, walls torn apart, roofs caved in, aluminum everywhere, fences down, trees crushing homes, it was like something out of a Steven Spielberg movie. Yet these were our friends’ homes. This was our home. This was our community.

Immediately our community was in action. Neighbors checking neighbors, CERT checking neighborhoods, friends helping each other emotionally and physically. Within days ELS had equipment in here, picking up aluminum and clearing trees. Teams of people were brought in to help restore and make safe what they could. Our maintenance teams were here, working to help our community even though they had their own damage at home to deal with. 

We had supplies being brought in to help with the physical damages, we had meals brought from a local church, we had good neighbors that we did not even know bringing in cleaning supplies, water, food. We had a local medical office bring in supplies, food, and offer to assist people that needed medical attention. Strangers helping strangers. People reaching from one community to another to see if they could help. 

It was a time of caring, sharing, helping, do what we could for each other. Many families have had to make decisions about their homes, whether they could rebuild, whether they should stay, where should they go. Financial decisions had to be made. Futures had to be decided. For a period there were not the negative comments on Facebook, the drama, the tearing down of the community and others. We had survived. We were alive, and we were grateful.

Our community is moving forward, we still have a long way to go. We have a new manager who is dedicated to our communities. Bryan Baskin is here to help restore, rebuild, and help correct many issues we have had for a long time.  We will have days the hot tub is not hot, the trees need trimming, the gate isn’t down, someone is driving too fast on the perimeter road, and Facebook will still have comments that do nothing but find fault with ELS, with people. But WE SURVIVED, lets move forward with positive actions, with helpful suggestions, with kindness towards each other. 

Alone we can do so little, yet together we can do so much.

Karen Pratt Beals

HOALF Board of Directors President